Christian: Thank you so much – now I get it, this was a gap “I” as Jiva, my mind, really was not understanding. The vision of non-duality is real and I experience it in the mind reflected almost every day. However, “walking it” is another thing, thank goodness for Vedanta!
Sundari: You are most welcome, as always Christian. You cannot not experience nondual Consciousness every second of every day, or the body/mind would be no more. However, ‘walking it’, which means for the mind/ego to be trained to think from the perspective of nonduality, and to discriminate between reflected consciousness and nondual Consciousness, is where all the ‘work’ of inquiry takes place. And while the inquirer needs to ‘show up’ and ‘do the work’, equally important is the realization that though it is only the ego/mind that must get ‘retrained’, the doer cannot retrain the ego/mind. Only through the assimilation of Self-knowledge does highly resistant ignorance (duality) get scrubbed from the mind.
Christian: The gunas I now understand in this context: the mind is 70% wired to negativity confirmed by scientific evidence – but can also be inferred logically; going back 50 thousand years to our ancestors and well before that into the hundreds of thousands for early humans (as for every other animal on earth now) – “fight or flight” in the non-thinking part of the brain, triggered by overcaution, was crucial to survival.
Sundari: Yes, correct. The blueprint for sentient beings has not changed that much since Isvara evolved sentient life on this planet, and evolution ‘allowed’ for self-reflectivity to develop.
Christian: “Manusha” as the Rishis named humans – “the ones who think” – I take to mean the prefrontal cortex and is costly to run in terms of energy – discrimination and dispassion, empathy, communication, the ability to infer – all require more energy and knowledge; these are not tamasically driven (“it is harder to do the right thing” i.e. not lazy) nor quick fixes rajas chases after.
Sundari: Subjective self-reflectivity affects how the gunas play out, especially before we are guna educated and understand their existence and significance. When we do know, we can learn how to relate to and manage the gunas for peace of mind. It’s appealing to think of God/Isvara in the form of evolution weighing up the pros and cons of bestowing the faculty of self-reflectivity onto an upgraded animal form – thus ‘creating’ thinking/feeling bipedal humans. I can use my imagination to picture God having to take a lot into consideration. On the one hand, this would put humans at the top of the pecking order of sentient beings, seeming the roof and crown of creation. But it also would make them extremely troublesome! Just take a look at the world to see how things worked out, the mess it’s in thanks to this faculty…Oi vey. Maybe Isvara should take this ‘gift’ back…, though it appears that Isvara really likes ignorance because there is so much of it!
So, God went along with the idea, but made it difficult for the poor jiva, maybe even went a bit overboard with ignorance… Though Self-knowledge is built into all sentient life, after all, this is and always been a nondual reality. But humans are subject to mithya, the hypnosis of duality. Which means that Self-knowledge is not easily available. All the same, God was merciful because the upside is that being self-reflective grants humans an eventual out-card from their expanded, but still limited, human programme (assuming certain qualifications have developed), by realizing their true identity as the unlimited Self.
On the downside, self-reflectivity would make jivas capable of thinking and feeling. More accurately, to know that they are thinking and feeling. Hence, thanks to inbuilt ignorance, the feeling of inadequacy, fear and worry would be jiva’s destiny, chasing answers in the world of objects, desperately seeking control. Another downside is that with the gift of self-reflectivity comes relative free will (which humans mistake for complete free will). Thus, humans are capable of going against their program and breaking dharma, causing much injury and suffering to themselves and to the field of life.
We tend to anthropomorphize animals, though they do have rudimentary intellects and can feel, and thus suffer. But because they do not have the gift or curse of self-reflection, they are in total ignorance of the true nature of reality, and have no objectivity about their existence. They do not know what they are thinking and feeling, so they cannot go against their program. Unlike humans, they do not worry or try to control outcome. An animal is bound by its instinctive program, and if it is neurotic, its usually due to it’s contact with humans. Though some animals like elephants and some primates show some self-objectivity, no animal feels, thinks or ‘knows’ in the way human beings compute. Therefore, as much as animal lovers hate to hear this, though all sentient beings suffer, no sentient being other than humans knows they are suffering to the extent that we do. They simply do not have the same program.
Christian: My mind will default to either rajas or tamas unless a conscious counter-attitude is applied, with knowledge of why. The consequences of tamas / rajas will automatically happen if I don’t, as default and reflex. This is not bad, it just is the way it is, it is not a sin nor anything other than not knowing (ignorance, rather than stupidity) and especially for this stage of human development. Without Vedanta and the effort of the teachings, it would likely be the default for all – except a few “enlightened beings” !
Sundari: Well put. As I said in my talk last Sunday, we cannot control the gunas or how they manifest. Very often, we don’t need to ‘do’ anything other than to observe how they are playing out and not identify with them. At the same time, sattva is the guna to aim for if we want peace of mind, so managing the relative proportions of rajas and tamas to sattva is what mind management entails. This may or may not require ‘doing’ something about rajas or tamas, in the karma yoga spirit, of course.
There are definitely appropriate actions we can take to reign in too much rajas, or to give too much tamas a kick in the butt. The mind (ego) will resist all of them of course. But when Self -knowledge has activated dispassion and discrimination as the default, we can manage rajas and tamas before they drag the mind deeper into extroversion/fragmentation in the case of rajas, of dullness and denial in the case of tamas. Too little rajas or tamas and too much sattva can also be a problem as it can turn the mind into a “space cadet”. Or worse, spiritually vain. More on this below.
Christian: More recently studies have shown “humans have no free will” – though the Jiva / Ego believes there is free will – and it appears this temporal belief is useful for practicing Karma Yoga or (apparent) action would never happen. Tamas would then rule, inevitably. While my Jiva is more wired to Rajas, the outcome “back to Maya!” is the same. James sometimes asks in Satsangs about the references for these studies and I can recommend a recent book Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky which summarises the evidence in the scientific terms he asks about, which Vedanta has known for centuries.
Sundari: The science on the topic is pretty well established, though we do have relative free will in that we can (apparently) choose one thing over another. If this were not so, success in anything mithya would be impossible. But the bigger nondual picture makes it clear that those choices are based on built in likes and dislikes that come from and are controlled by the Causal body, or Macrocosmic unconscious (Isvara). To effect a lasting change in the way the mind works requires two views, as usual, with all satya – mithya discrimination. I wrote this for an inquirer this week:
The key to freedom is managing our feelings and the repetitive thought patterns that give rise to them through guna management. From this perspective, even if the mind is not peaceful (sattvic), it does not interfere with our baseline experience as the Self, satya. This is the essence of the guna teaching. The only meaningful way to change the habitual patterns the mind runs on is to make a permanent change on the Causal level, through Self-knowledge. So, here it seems that there are two things going on, which in mithya, there always is (apparently). Let me explain.
1. Mithya: To change things on the mithya, or cause and effect level, we need to have knowledge of and manage the gunas and practice karma yoga. In this way, even though the mind is conditioned by the Causal body, to render binding likes and dislikes non-binding, we must re-educate the ego and subjugate it to the knowledge that it is not in control. One can even put this into practice without approaching discrimination between satya, pure nondual Consciousness, and mithya, reflected consciousness, duality. This greatly improves life for the jiva, but it is not moksa.
2. Satya: For moksa to obtain, Self-knowledge must free the mind of bondage to and identification with the body/mind, entirely. This requires satya – mithya discrimination, which if it assimilates, makes a permanent change in the Causal body – in Isvara. It is possible to effect a change in the Causal body because there is a common identity between Isvara and the jiva, which is non-reflected, or nondual Consciousness. But this is not easy because until ignorance is completely eradicated, there is still identification with the person, and their likes and dislikes. This is why nididhysana is usually the longest part of self-inquiry.
Essentially, these two points elucidate the difference between secular karma yoga, which is for doers, and jnana yoga, which is for inquirers qualified for moksa. At this point, what keeps some inquirers stuck is that they erroneously believe that they must study Vedanta to ‘Self-actualize’. While it is important to memorize all the teachings correctly, this will not produce moksa, Self-actualization. Self-actualization obtains when Self-knowledge has eradicated all duality, and the identification with the person is no more. Here, satya mithya discrimination no longer applies because you are what is actual. Ignorance and knowledge are both objects known to you.
Christian: So I now see baselines in oneself for gratitude, even if just the slimmest but permanent reasons to be “cheerful in the face of adversity” are vital. Not as an empty epithet or a “Hallmark card” but truths which do not fluctuate – for both the darkest not right times and the lucky times; this brings perhaps the surrender you mention (?) allows continuance of the Sattvic mind without claim on either as “being bad or good” or worse a “good or bad person” either way. Tiny outcomes; part of a vast universe in a huge timeline which is beautiful in itself that it exists!
Sundari: Self-knowledge does not give us immunity against what seems like terrible, outrageous karma, or even ‘just’ the daily pin pricks of life that cause death by a thousand cuts for most. But when karma yoga and Self-knowledge become your default approach to everything and dispassion rules (i.e., surrender to Isvara), life becomes light, unencumbered. You can be joyous, despite ‘good or bad’ jiva karma because you no longer have the existential angst of trying to ‘do your life’. Isvara knows much better than the jiva does what is best for you and will give you what you need, one way or the other. And best of all, karma yoga puts the responsibility for any outcome not on you but on Isvara. What a pleasant thought! With that, we can start to understand the meaning of ‘let go and let God’.
The tricky part is that nondual vision nullifies all things mithya – which is anything related to the jiva, the field of experience and the Causal body. Everything is an object known to me, so who cares about ‘cleaning up’ the residual habits? There is no hard and fast rule on this because as the Self, you are free to live as you see fit. With only one real injunction: moksa is for the mind, the jiva; as the Self, you have never been bound. To be happy as a jive means following dharma and non-injury. Your residual habits may only be injurious to you, and if you are too old/too sick/ couldn’t care or it’s too late to change, well, so be it. We know many Self-realized people who just cannot muster the will to change their bad habits, and keep living with the blowback karma from their ‘bad’ choices.
As the Self you are free of karma, but that does not mean you will escape the prarabdha karma in the pipeline for the body/mind. A suffering body/mind is not much fun to experience, as we all know. And if your habits cause injury to others, well, that is not following dharma. You will not feel good about it and it will cause agitation. Again, it’s our call. We are no less the Self either way. Only we will know if the Advaita shuffle is in play.
Christian: This attitude, while apparently hard to remember and practice initially, does get easier with time as you say, like training a muscle. I just was not aware I was doing this somewhat haphazardly and randomly.
Sundari: Retraining the mind/ego from its habitual built in dualistic operational system to permanent nonduality is no mean feat – veritably, it’s like David, jiva or system 2, going up against Goliath, Causal body, system 1. But it can be done because lucky for the beleaguered jiva, as previously stated, a permanent change can be made in the Causal body (only with Self-knowledge) because Isvara and jiva share the same identity as the Self.
Christian: When Sattva is the predominant guna, it allows the Self to be reflected in us. Sattva means the absence of tamas and rajas tested especially under the duress of what life throws at the Jiva as long as we are alive. Sattva is not a state to be attained (e.g. in a cave) going “poof” the moment tamas or rajas rise, in or outside the cave.
Sundari: Sattva is the nature of the mind, and a pure mind is predominantly sattvic, true. But all three gunas are always present. In the creation story, or cause and effect teaching, pure sattva, prior to tamas and rajas appearing, is the pure mirror of Consciousness, called prakriti, or Maya. Sattva provides the knowing function—it is Consciousness appearing as the Knower, Isvara, or God. Sattva is the intelligence part of creation, but alone cannot create. For the creation to manifest, we need tamas for the existence part of the blueprint, and rajas to put all blueprints into action.
Where your statement is incorrect is a mistake many inquirers make. It sounds like sattva can be experienced on its own. Spiritual types love this idea and mistake sattva for moksa. It also gives rise to a lot of spiritual vanity. But sattva, while it is the springboard guna for moksa because a mind run by rajas and tamas would not be qualified for it, it is impossible to separate the gunas. None is better than any other.
Even though the nature of the mind is sattva, when the mind is extremely sattvic, rajas and tamas are also there, but in balance with sattva, so they don’t cause mental/emotional disturbance. Additionally, even though sattva is the subtlest manifestation of Sat, Consciousness, like the other two gunas, it is an object known to Consciousness. It is not in and of itself, conscious, although by virtue of Consciousness, sattva makes conscious awareness and self-reflectivity possible for sentient beings.
Christian: The bliss which then may arrive cannot be owned, experienced or bottled as such and yet, it fundamentally “is” us because that is all that is left when we see it and this memory holds even under the influence of rajas and tamas.
Sundari: The bliss of the Self is always present and definitely experienceable, in fact, that is all you are ever experiencing. It is only thanks to Maya extroverting (rajas) and suppressing (tamas) the mind that makes it so difficult to become aware of our unexamined experience, which is ever-present and unchanging Consciousness. While it is true that everything is known in the mind only in the form of a thought or feeling, the bliss of the Self is neither. The bliss of the Self is not produced by and cannot be removed by any experience, be it a thought or a feeling. It is just the Existence, the non-experiencing witness, the unlimited ever present fullness aware of the apparent ever-changing limited experiencing entity, which is unknown to the mind thanks to the hypnosis of duality.
Much love
Sundari
ShiningWorld.com
