Have you ever noticed how much energy we spend just trying to quiet our own mind? We treat peace like a finish line, but in truth, it’s only the beginning.

Even when the mind is quiet, you don’t see life exactly as it is. Your past and your conditioning shape how you interpret every experience. Judgments, opinions, and even the way you interpret a simple conversation, all of these can be distorted.

Think about how two people can read the same email or text message and react completely differently. One feels reassured, the other feels dismissed. Or how two people can scroll past the same social media post – one feels uplifted, another feels envious or judged. The content hasn’t changed, but the filter of the mind makes it look entirely different.

The Tricky Part About Perception

Calming the mind helps reduce the noise – the worry, the doubt, the sudden flashes of anger. Life feels more peaceful when those ripples settle down. But even in that calm, you are still looking through a filter.

That filter is made up of old beliefs, past experiences, and hidden judgments. It shapes how you see the world, even when the surface is quiet. This is why two people can look at the same situation and walk away with completely different feelings.

It’s like wearing tinted glasses. The lenses may be clear enough that you don’t notice them, but they still color everything you see. 

So, calming the mind is a doorway, but the deeper journey begins when you look beyond the filter itself.

Two Ways of Seeing

Relative level (vyāvahārika satya)

Here we resolve fear, anger, and doubt. We learn to live more peacefully, with healthier relationships and clearer perception. It makes life more harmonious. This is valuable, but it is only the beginning.

Absolute level (pāramārthika satya)

Here we realize that everything perceived – the world, emotions, even the sense of self – is maya – a projection, a distortion.

Everything we experience and even our sense of “I” – is like a movie playing on a screen. The movie keeps changing, but the screen itself, which is consciousness, is never touched by it.

And that screen, the consciousness – is not separate from you. It is what you are. You are not the changing story, you are the awareness in which the story unfolds

Why Just Calming the Mind Is Not Enough

A calm mind may still live inside the dream. It may manage stress beautifully, negotiate conflict gracefully, and live harmoniously – but it may still not have pierced the veil of maya.

It is like polishing the walls of a prison. The walls may shine, but the prison still remains.

This is why Patanjali does not stop with yama, niyama, pratyahara, dharana, and dhyana. He leads us further to samadhi and finally kaivalya, the realization of pure consciousness, untouched by the vrittis, untouched by illusion.

The Shift of Identity

To you as consciousness, events and emotions are like waves rising and falling on the ocean. Consciousness is never bound by the wave. It does not need to fix every ripple. It only needs to know itself.

Peace in the outer world is useful, but liberation dawns when we see that the world itself – with all its peace and all its conflict is part of the same dreamlike play.

Calmness is the doorway. Realization is the home.

Realizing You Are Consciousness

So how do you recognize that you are not just the passing story, but the awareness itself? The simplest way is to begin noticing what changes and what does not.

Thoughts come and go. Emotions rise and fall. Even the body is always changing. Yet something in you is constant – the silent presence that knows every thought, every feeling, every experience. That presence is consciousness.

You can sense it right now. As you read these words, instead of focusing only on the content, pause and notice the one who is aware of reading. That quiet awareness is you.

There is also a space between thoughts, a small gap of pure stillness. In that gap, you catch a glimpse of your true nature – vast, open, untouched.

You are not what you observe. You are the one who observes. You are not the passing wave. You are the ocean in which the waves rise and fall.

The next time you are scrolling your phone, notice the feelings that arise – excitement, boredom, comparison. Then gently shift attention from the feelings to the one who is aware of them. That shift is a glimpse of consciousness.

Pause and Reflect

We spend so much energy trying to quiet the mind, but the deeper freedom is in remembering what you truly are. You are not the passing thought, the shifting mood, or the temporary story. You are the open awareness in which all of it comes and goes.

When you rest in that recognition, peace is no longer something you chase. It is what you already are.