Satsang is a compound Sanskrit word that means “keeping the company of the Self.” The Self, Awareness, is the true nature of everyone and one keeps company with it by continually meditating on it in many ways. One of the most effective methods involves discussing non-dual teachings with someone who has realized his or her identity as the Self, to get clarity with reference to Self inquiry. The satsangs posted here are the questions of many people around the world who are interested in enlightenment and find that Vedanta is their preferred means of Self knowledge. Since I am a teacher of Vedanta, a time tested means of self inquiry, I am qualified to reply to these questions.Search & Read
ShiningWorld Reader
Simultaneous Knowledge and Ignorance
Ken: Hi, James. Is it possible to clearly know what you are not but equally not know what/who you are? That’s where I seem to find myself.
James: Yes, absolutely. If this is where you are, then you are awareness. Why? Because awareness is that because of which you know what you know and you know what you don’t know.
The self knows itself and the reflected self, Ken, doesn’t.
If you look at this statement from Ken’s point of view it does not make sense, because in duality you cannot know what you don’t know. You either know something or you don’t.
But if you look at knowledge and ignorance from awareness’s point of view they are both objects with the same degree of reality. Knowledge cancels ignorance on Ken’s level, but on the self’s “level” they sit side by side. Both are just objects.
You, awareness, are the knower of both. Awareness contains all contradictions within it, but nothing contradicts it, because there is nothing other than it.
~ James