Yoga Life

Leonor Buzaglo

Recently, I found myself reading some old diaries from about eight years ago, filled with conversations I had with my beloved Swamijis and teachers in India. Today, I share one of these profound teachings: “I know that this is a rock. It’s not that I know I have the knowledge that it is a rock—I simply know. In the same way, when you truly know yourself, you are not self-conscious about it; the knowing simply is. Are you ready to see yourself without the prison of memory and thought? To do so, you must release the grip of memories. Only then can you see the self clearly. Think of an album of photographs. Each page contains memories and definitions of yourself: ‘I am a mother,’ ‘I am a graduate,’ ‘I am an athlete.’ But what exists between the pages? In the spaces, what are you? You are there in those gaps, as pure awareness. An undefinable, indescribable awareness resides in those moments of stillness. These gaps are ananda (bliss) and akhanda (wholeness). They are timeless and formless. You do not say, ‘I am prana’ or ‘I am made of atoms,’ yet you know. And that knowing is enough. Same should happen with your mind - there should be no identification. The mind and its thoughts are like a screen and its images. The screen remains unchanged as the images appear and disappear. The images do not alter the screen, and the screen does not influence the images. The images are simply light. Let them come and go, without judgment.