Atmananda Menon: Objects, Thoughts, Memory

Read this slowly. Let it dissolve into understandiong.

Objectivity does not pertain to the object. Consciousness objectified is the object. The object is an object on account of you. The world of objects never affects one, except through one’s own thoughts. Therefore the only thing needed, to be free, is to transcend thoughts. This is possible only by examining thoughts and disposing of them, without leaving even a trace behind. The trace is the objectivity attached to the thought. This objectivity can be eliminated only by examining thought subjectively; and finding that it is nothing but awareness, the Self, and that all appearance was illusion.

If the least trace is left behind, it sprouts up in the form of memory, which is but a fresh thought. Memory is the one thing that creates the whole world, and memory is the last link that connects one with the phenomenal world. If memory is understood to be nothing but a thought, which in turn is nothing but pure Consciousness – the Self – then memory, and the whole world with it, is merged into the Self.

From "Notes On Spiritual Discourses" by Atmananda Krishna Menon Note 1306

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Thanks to Susan Kahn for bringing attention to this quote.