Rhyme and Reflection

Have you ever paused to ask yourself: If you are not your thoughts, and you have no memory, then who are you? It’s a deep question, and exploring it can shift how you experience life, work, and relationships. Let’s break it down in simple language and connect it to timeless wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita.

---

Q1. If I’m not my thoughts, who am I?
If you strip away thoughts and memory, what remains is awareness itself — the silent witness of experience.

• Not thoughts → because thoughts arise and dissolve like clouds.
• Not memory → because memory is just stored impressions of past experiences.
• What remains → direct presence, the ability to notice what is right now.

Different traditions describe this differently: Vedanta calls it the Self (Ātman), Buddhism calls it emptiness, and modern philosophy calls it consciousness.

You are not the contents of the mind, but the space in which they arise.

---

Q2. If I’m without memory, what am I?
Ordinary experience is a blend of raw sensation and memory. Without memory:

• You still perceive sensations — sight, sound, breath, heartbeat.
• But they are not tied to a personal story.

It is like hearing music without recognizing the tune. The sound is vivid and whole, but without context.

• With memory → life feels continuous and meaningful.
• Without memory → life is only this moment, whole in itself, but stripped of narrative depth.

Some traditions say this “pure now” is completeness itself. Others say memory adds richness but also attachment and suffering.

---

Q3. How do you approach growth if there is no desire?
Growth does not always need desire.

• A plant grows toward the sun not from ambition, but by its nature.
• Awareness expands in the same way, naturally, when we stop grasping.

From the Gita’s view:
- Your role is to act (growth through effort).
- But do not cling to results (freedom from desire).

Growth without desire is like unfolding rather than striving.

---

Q4. Why do people say “don’t think negative thoughts or they’ll become real”?
At first this sounds like a contradiction, but two levels are at play:

1. Ultimate level (awareness): You are not your thoughts. They have no inherent power.
2. Relative level (everyday life): Thoughts shape mood, perception, and action. Repeated negative thinking reinforces fear and can influence outcomes.

So when teachings warn against negative thinking, it is not magical manifestation. It is about how thought patterns shape lived experience.

At the awareness level, thoughts are clouds in the sky.
At the human level, they color the weather you walk through.

---

Q5. Doesn’t the Bhagavad Gita take a different stance?
Yes. The Gita bridges awareness and action.

• Awareness of the Self → Ātman is eternal, unchanging, beyond thought and memory.
• Detached Action (Karma Yoga) → “You have the right to action, but not to its fruits.”
• Integration → Meditation strengthens awareness, but life is still to be lived through action.

Awareness without memory = knowing the Self.
Detached action = living from that awareness, without clinging.

The Gita does not ask us to withdraw. It asks us to live fully, but free within.

---

Q6. What’s the paradox here?
- With memory → life has story and meaning, but also attachment.
- Without memory → life is pure, but stripped of narrative.
- With thoughts → growth and creativity arise, but so do conflict and worry.
- Without thoughts → silence and clarity remain, but less story-making.

The Gita’s wisdom is to hold both:
- Know yourself as awareness beyond thoughts and memory.
- Live in the world with thoughts and memory, but without clinging.

---

In Simple Words
- You are not your thoughts, but thoughts shape your experience.
- You are not your memory, but memory gives life its story.
- Growth does not require craving; it unfolds naturally.
- The Gita’s bridge is this: realize awareness, then act fully — unattached, free.

© 2025 Subu Sangameswar. All original content. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse or reproduce any part of this work, please contact the author.