Inquirer: I have such a deep desire to overhaul my mind and its typical patterns, it’s driving me crazy. I want a mind that ‘belongs’ to God. I have been plagued with constant health issues over the past year, and this has been a big obstacle to self-inquiry and putting the teachings into practice.
Sundari: Your mind does ‘belong’ to God, but it does not know what that means. When it does, it will think like God automatically. This means you have nondual vision, you see no separation or difference, anywhere. In other words, the three gunas have no power to obscure your vision. It means that the control the unconscious mind has on your conscious awareness is under the management and control of Self-knowledge.
It’s the Self ‘seeing’ only itself, the ‘I” in the eye that ‘sees’. Vedanta dissolves the identity between the human, God and the Self by negating the non-essential variables, revealing the one and only, non-negatable and common identity between all three, is Consciousness. When we stand firm in Self-knowledge and understand our true and primary identity as undifferentiated Consciousness, Satya, we can safely say ‘I Am Existence’. I am non-different from God as the Self and the human. Then, I think like God thinks, and see only God. Because that is the only option.
Our Secondary Identity Does Not Disappear
But as we all know, this does not mean that the human and the world it experiences disappears, or that as a human I have the same powers as God. Though we may be convinced that our primary identity is the Self, we still exist as a body/mind with its inherent limitations, subject to God, even if we relate to our secondary human identity from the nondual, or God, perspective. This is the tricky, counter-intuitive part of living the teachings, for everyone, and it’s why moksa, nondual vision, is so hard to obtain. It is not easy to overhaul the mind’s natural, inbuilt tendencies when the conscious mind is under the control of the unconscious mind.
As an inquirer, the mind poses the biggest obstacle to Self-knowledge because it is indoctrinated by duality, or beginningless ignorance. A mind under the hypnosis of duality has very limited ability to manage the powerful unconscious mind, as I pointed out in my last email to you. The causal or unconscious mind is in control of most of our seemingly conscious drives until we understand what it is and how it operates
Hence, the necessity for qualifications. Beyond or along with developing the qualifications, we have nididhysana or Self-actualization, the lengthy process of Self-knowledge purifying the mind of the remnants of mental/emotional binding vasanas and doership which ‘survive’ Self-realization. This is no walk in the park for all but the rarest souls.
Isvara Does Not Make it Easy
Isvara, the field of experience, does not make it easy for us. Even though the mind only really feels good when it is progressing and growing, the human ego likes comfort and what’s easy and safe. It resists doing anything that’s hard. Just think how much energy is required to learn anything new, let alone be objective about our mental/emotional projections. And who wants to face up to the less than fabulous part of their personality?
Even those who are seated in Self-knowledge can slip up at times because it is easy to get sucked back into ‘jiva-mode’. We are handicapped from birth because the body cannot be separated from the mind, and the entrenched ego identity makes identification with the body, which is the ultimate symbol of duality, of change and inconstancy, automatic, ‘ natural’ and instinctive. This is a big impediment to the assimilation of nondual knowledge.
The body is the most ‘there’ thing in existence for us humans, who are self-conscious and aware that we ‘have a body’. Though the body/mind can be negated as a non-essential variable with Self-knowledge, which is the absolute key to moksa, it never goes away. Until the body dies, of course. Self-realized or not, the body is still subject to the gunas. It may not be real from the nondual perspective, but ignoring the body/mind is virtually impossible. It is ‘in your face’ at all times, other than in deep sleep. Which is why deep sleep is such a blessed relief and so essential.
The Body is On Loan to Me
The body is on loan to us from Isvara; it does not belong to us. It is part of the field of existence, and never the same from moment to moment. The intricate processes that go on every minute of every day to keep us alive, and at the same time, move us toward the death of the body, are mind-blowing. In the eternal big Maya picture, there are no winners or losers, syntropy and entropy are equal forces because birth and death are one and the same. But in our one finite little picture, entropy or death, always wins in the end.
Our lives take place in a sea of constant, relentless change moving us inexorably to that end. The field of experience is full of things that bite and bless. The gunas are cycling constantly, producing and maintaining our vasanas, especially if they are binding, as they are for most people. It’s a case of respect, adapt and die, because you cannot live or die well if you do not honour, accommodate to and let go of life.
Thus, the body causes so much trouble for most people, either because it is going through inevitable changes that come with entropy and aging, or it is unhealthy through lack of respect and knowledge of how to look after it. Or it is a prisoner of mind that is run by fear and denial, rajas and/or tamas, and deep binding samskaras.
The Only Solution to the Mess is Moksa
The only solution to the body/mind conundrum is to manage the mind with Self-knowledge. But even with Self-knowledge, the body can be such a drain, especially when in pain or deep discomfort, which happens to everyone ‘in a body’, sooner or later. It is not hard to see how things can and do become very difficult for anyone, even dedicated inquirers, to stay focussed on the Self as the witness of the body and the gunas. Sattva is always present, but not always easy to access when the body is ill, in pain or discomfort, for whatever reason.
Discrimination Is Our Saving Grace
When the mind gets duped by Maya, even for a short while, it feels horrible. Especially if you are an true inquirer. But when ignorance momentarily blocks access to Self-knowledge, our saving grace, and what always matters most, is discriminating satya, the Self, from mithya, the body/mind. If the nondual teachings are put into practice, they work instantly. To get to where the secondary identity as the person, the body/mind, is handled, no matter what is going on with the body requires fully understanding mithya, the apparent reality. The apparent reality is not real because it is always changing and not always present.
Life in the apparent reality is extremely complicated because nothing in it ever stays the same, not in the body or the mind. To negate mithya as an object known to me that has no power to manipulate my intellect and emotions, we need to understand how everything is governed by the gunas. That is where self-inquiry matters most. It is impossible to jump straight to satya without first understanding and negating mithya.
Aka, objectifying ‘your’ body/mind and the field of life it exists in. Your story and how you/it relates to every moment of your existence. Not to make a bigger deal of your story, but to determine if your Existence is defined with a capital ‘E’, i.e., that which makes all experience and knowledge of experience/objects possible and objectified. Or is it existence as in ‘I as an ego keep getting sucked into the experiencing entity, and believe that is who I am’, with all the trauma being a body/mind entails?
If we are putting self-inquiry into practice, we know that the body/mind is an object known to me, the Self. From here, you can do a lot to manage the mind, especially if we are dedicated inquirers. We should know the importance of the qualifications for self-inquiry, as well as be impeccable in the application of karma yoga and guna management. But even so, there is nothing to be done about the body’s natural changes, except taking appropriate care of it, and remaining the witness. You are not the body/mind. You are eternal and cannot change, are never born and cannot die. Have deep compassion for anyone who does not know the truth of who they are. Mithya is a cruel master.
An Mind/Intellect Overhaul
Moksa, Self-actualization, requires a complete non-dual mind/intellect overhaul to develop the ability to think like God would think, if God was a person. We need a highly refined intellect and mind that has not only surrendered to the scripture as the boss, but is instantly capable of dissecting what’s going on with the body/mind objectively. Mind-management is the name of the game, which requires understanding of how it works. And where all the trouble it creates originates from – the unconscious mind.
Please note that a nondual overhaul is one step up from meta-cognition, which is the ability to think about and objectify what you are thinking/feeling about, but there is still a doer involved. Non-dual vision negates the thinker/feeler/doer altogether, and is simply the witness who ‘sees’ only itself, because that is all there is. If we are qualified inquirers in whom Self-knowledge has obtained, we know that we share the same identity with God/Isvara, but our intellects and emotions are totally purified of doership and binding vasanas. I.e., the person is there but in abeyance, managed. The gunas are always known and managed, and therefore, no longer cause trouble or get in the way of permanent access to the bliss of the Self.
Much love
Sundari
