What is the difference between thinking and being conscious?
A seeker on the spiritual path realizes that to be liberated he has to be conscious about his true self. He has to be conscious that he is not the body, the mind, the intellect, the ego. He has to be conscious that he is the energy, the soul,the spirit.
Unfortunately, we don’t reach this state of being conscious because the mind wanders. The mind is like a monkey which jumps from branch to branch,tree to tree. For instance, we are looking at an object. Then that object takes our mind to the creator of that object. We begin to wonder whether we can have that object, if it can belong to us, we begin to seek the object. Our mind moves from one thought to another, from one object to another, then to some person and to some circumstance.
And what happens in all this? We lose consciousness of the true self. Instead of being the consciousness itself, we become the mind, and these mind thoughts create action, the actions create habit and instead of us being habituated to be silent in introspection, being a true seeker and trying to get on the path of finding who we are and why we are here; we become a jumping mind which has random thoughts which mean nothing, but just consume our time in life.
Therefore, stop! Beware! If you are a seeker and you want to get to the goal of self realization, then be conscious. Be conscious of who you truly are. You are not this body, neti neti - you are that - that spirit, that soul. Be conscious and to be conscious you must be thoughtless, keep your mind quiet. The mind should not wander. It is in the silence of the mind or the so called state of meditation that we can be conscious of who we truly are and realize God.
AiR