The Zen N! #58 - Are You The Omnidirectional Knower Part II

From the more secular Theravada branch of Buddhism, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach had mentioned meditating on the Knower.

American Theravada Buddhism - Insight Vipassana Teachers - Jack Kornfield[left] and Tara Brach[right].

Tara writes,

“I asked myself, “Who is aware right now?”
I was aware only of awareness: There was no “self” to locate.
There was no entity that was failing, no self that was fearful and distraught, no foothold for self-doubt.
While streams of sensations and emotions were moving through my body and mind, there was no one behind the scenes who possessed them or controlled them.

I could find only the endless space of awareness—formless, open, knowing.”

- Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha

Tara writes of this present experience of vast, endless awareness, all-encompassing, and with it, the sense of knowing.

Jack speaks of this "Knower,"

"Your spacious mind is the natural awareness that knows and accommodates everything.
My meditation teacher in the forests of Thailand, Ajahn Chah, called it the “One Who Knows.”
He said this is the original nature of mind, the silent witness, spacious consciousness.
His instructions were simple: Become witness to it all, the person with perspective, the One Who Knows.

“All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare. Sometimes you get caught in the plot. But remember, you are also the audience. Take a breath. Look around. Become a loving witness to it all, the spacious awareness, the One Who Knows.

..In the midst of your crises, you will begin to sense a witnessing consciousness, a wise presence inside of you, the One Who Knows.. Even in the.. most catastrophic challenges and fears, the One Who Knows in you remains calm and clear. It already accepts whatever is going on.. It sees beyond the immediate situation to something much larger..

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How To Find the One Who Knows, according to Jack?

But how can we find this “One Who Knows” in the midst of our most overwhelming difficulties? Go to the mirror. Look at your body. You will see someone who looks older than you looked several years ago, though inside you don’t feel any older. This is because it is only your body that has aged. The timeless awareness through which you see your body is the One Who Knows. Your body is only a temporary vessel for this awareness. It is a temporary and impermanent container for the undying consciousness of the One Who Knows.

When we rest in the One Who Knows, time drops away, self drops away, the one who suffers is released. We are simply the awareness of it all.

As the One Who Knows, witness it all, let loving awareness make room for everything: boredom and excitement, fear and trust, pleasure and pain, birth and death.

Return again and again to loving awareness, come home to the One Who Knows, the wise and gracious heart that is your true home.

-- Article - Jack Kornfield – Awaken the One Who Knows

In my opinion, Jack is introducing the aspect of oneself that is the Knower. At least, that is how I perceive the information is being presented.

But who is the knower? And isn't there more than this? If you notice, there is nothing deeper than this question, what is that? Who am I?

This is and will always be the fundamental question of my search, and no answer will satisfy this.

I have to know that it is so.

If I am something, then I must experience without doubt that I am that, I must look and see that I am that, and it must be so absolutely.

I cannot know who or what I am unless there is absolutely no possibility of it being otherwise. Until then, who am I is not known.

To misquote and expand upon G.I. Gurdjieff:

To know is not enough. I want to feel that I know. I want to know why I know.

If you tell me that I am God, I should kill you. If I am God, then I should know it fully.

To Know that there is a Knower is not enough. Who is the Knower?

And what about the rest?

END OF PART 2