Mind vs. Consciousness - what is the difference?

In everyday experience, the mind rarely gives us peace.
Instead of silence – thoughts.
Instead of presence – analysis.
And yet, beneath all of this, there is something that never changes.
Something that doesn’t try to understand or reach anything.
Something that simply is. jest.

In this fragment of Satsang, Nitya points to the most fundamental – and yet most often overlooked – quality: Consciousness. Not as a concept or a goal, but as that which is already seeing everything that is happening.

What is Consciousness, if it’s not what you think about it?

The word “Consciousness” can appear as a concept. Someone speaks about it, someone writes it down, someone tries to understand it. But none of these attempts is the thing itself. Just like the word “lemon water” doesn’t quench thirst – the word “Consciousness” doesn’t express what it points to.

What truly matters cannot be framed. The moment the mind tries to grasp Consciousness with thought, its simplicity is lost. The mind creates an image, a concept, and with it – a subtle sense of separation. And that’s when the illusion can arise: that something has to be done, achieved or understood in order to “be in Consciousness.”

In that illusion, Consciousness starts to appear as something distant, a goal in the future. The mind constructs a path, conditions, and preparations. And yet, in direct experience, there is nothing to do. No effort, no goal. Nothing to achieve. There is only that which is already looking – quietly, unchangingly, close.

Highlights of Satsang:

• Are you aware? [3:53]

  At some point, a question arises that might seem obvious at first glance: „Are you aware?”. But this question doesn’t ask for an answer. It opens something deeper.

  Because what happens when everything stops – thinking, interpretation, expectation – and only this simple presence remains? No matter what is being felt or thought, something is already seeing. There’s no need to reach for a special state. The very possibility of asking “Am I conscious?” already contains the answer.

  “This is truly the simplest thing in the world.”
  says Nitya, emphasizing that what is being pointed to requires nothing – no knowledge, no effort, no achievement.
  “In this moment, you will be conscious regardless of what you feel.”

  Even if a thought appears – “I don’t know if I’m conscious” – that very experience is already happening within Consciousness. The fact that you see the thought – that alone is enough.

• What happens when we believe our thoughts? [10:01]

  Nitya brings attention to the world of thought. What happens when we believe what appears in the mind? When we identify with the interpretation, the inner narrative? Suddenly, everything begins to tighten – the body, the emotions, the reactions.

  “It creates tension. Closes. Separates.” - say some of the people present in the room.

  It’s enough to notice how the mind works – how it constantly comments, judges, plans, remembers. Thoughts appear without invitation, and yet we often live as if they were true. As if we had to follow them.

  “Do you know what your next thought is going to be?" – asks Nitya.
  And immediately answers: “We don’t, do we?”

  This shows that thoughts are not under control. They’re not chosen. And yet they shape the entire experience – emotional, physical, energetical. When the mind takes over all our attention, there’s a sense of heaviness, separation, tension in the body. Life stops being open space – it becomes a project to be fixed.

• Shifting attention into pure presence [18:00]

  When involvement in the world of thought fades, something else begins to reveal itself. Not a new state, but something that has always been here – simply unnoticed. A quiet awareness that doesn’t comment, compare, or demand anything.

  “As if you could take the mind right now and place it on a shelf.”

  No effort, no attempt to be someone specific. Just the flavor of presence – unspoken, unexamined. For some, it feels like lightness in the body, a smile for no reason, a sense of bliss in the chest. For others – just a simple moment of stillness, where nothing is needed.

  This experience doesn’t say: “now everything will be fine.” It promises nothing. But it shows that even without change, without improvement, there is already something whole. Something that doesn’t judge, doesn’t compare, doesn’t divide. Consciousness that simply is.

Why do we rarely "choose" Consciousness?

That which is quietest doesn’t call for attention. It doesn’t offer a sense of achievement, it doesn’t give an advantage. It doesn’t move, it doesn’t change. Maybe that’s why we rarely stay there. Even if something within us relaxes for a moment – we quickly return to the familiar. To thinking, to analyzing, to “what’s next?”

Consciousness is not a result or a reward. It doesn’t bring pleasure – even if a sense of ease may sometimes arise in its presence. But that’s not the point. Bliss is not the goal. Peace is not the goal. There is no goal. There is only that which is – always, regardless of where attention goes.

“We don’t usually choose this” – says Nitya.
“Because the world says it’s not attractive.”

Maybe that’s why we so rarely pause where everything is already at peace.
Not because it’s difficult.
But because the mind has nothing to do there.