Martin: I can only echo Swami A. “take it easy” – which I often visualise to myself with the hand posture. (It has a profound connection for me, more than just “taking it easy” in the common sense). We go slow to go fast :)!
Sundari: Yes indeed, that is a great mantra!
Martin: Your last reply really allowed “me” to make a shift – or rather just shift and face the me that isn’t me, finally. It was never just about mental discrimination (which I got fairly soon) – although it brought a lot already from the knowledge itself – but the dispassion was missing – the mind, my mind is not just mental – it is loaded with anxiety even though difficult to admit: nebulous ghosts which clothe themselves with new mental arguments and portrayed themselves as “me”.
Sundari: The human mind is indeed a strange, nebulous, multilayered, problematic and complex thing. Who can say what it actually is? One thing we can all agree on is that it’s the uncertainty of what anything is, including the mind, and the uncertainty of who we really are (are we spiritual or material?!) along with the ever-changing nature of the field that is the cause of all anxiety, worry, stress.
Many people think that if the world was a better place, they would be better people. So they keep waiting in vain for the world to improve, unless they realize that the world doesn’t have anything to do with them or their issues. Otherwise, they just languish in doubt and confusion till the body stops working and the lights go off. A wasted life is not good.
Sometimes, however, people see that the world is a problem because they have problems. This realization is not necessarily an improvement because it prevents them from asking who or what they are and they remain fixated on “problems.” But this focus is useless because the one that has problems is the problem.
No human mind will ever fully understand the human mind. Even though it seem so personal, it really isn’t, so it’s impossible to fully understand because the mind originates in the Causal body. It seems to be located in the brain, but it isn’t located anywhere. Yet, the mind is our most powerful instrument, both for our redemption and destruction. No other living creature has a mind like ours because only humans have the power of self-reflection. Therein lie all our problems – and our salvation.
All other creatures are programs run completely by Isvara with no possibility of objectivity. Much harder to be born human, but no other way for moksa to obtain. Although we may think the mind is not ‘just mental’, what else could it be? Everything that occurs in it is just a thought, be it an emotion or feeling, a memory, a dream – whatever.
For most, the hardest thing to understand is that you are not the mind or intellect. Since you can see the mind and thoughts ‘in’ the mind, you are not the mind or your thoughts. You are the one who “sees” the mind/thoughts. Self-inquiry is isolating the “seer” as Self/Awareness from the objects, or not-Self. It is futile to try to gain an empty mind or thoughtless state because the mind is Isvara’s creation and is doing what it is supposed to do and we are not in control of it. The mind is not your enemy. There is no problem with the mind except one: it thinks itself to be the doer/experiencer. There is no doer. There is just you, Awareness and thoughts appearing in you.
I know you know this, but for the sake of teaching, it’s not a bad idea to sum up the functions of the mind.
The Four Functions of the Mind
1.) It Receives Stimuli from its Environment, the Field of Existence, of which it is a part, through the five gross sense organs and subtle sense instruments, jnana indriyas. It unifies and integrates the information into one experience. It (Isvara) decides which organ will function consciously or mechanically, which Swami Paramarthananda calls ‘the traffic cop function’.
One sense organ cannot produce five independent experiences. For example, a blind person can still smell, taste, touch and hear. The world is known by the sense organs, but the sense organs are not known by the world. The sense organs are extroverted. They generally operate outside the body. But at certain times the sense instruments perceive within the body because the body is non-separate from the five elements, i.e. the material world. Although the gross organs of perception, the eyes ears etc. are visible, the ability to hear, see, touch etc., are not.
2. Doubting Function – this function allow us to inquirer into the merits and demerits of the objects perceived by the senses. A very important function, which over or under developed is a serious impediment to a happy life and to self-inquiry. There can be no discrimination without a doubting function, but if we fall in love with our doubts, discrimination is lost.
3. Emotes – the mind generates thoughts and feelings (feelings are always preceded by a thought) to activate the organs of action. When the mind is in a state of desire, indecision, dithering or doubt it is called manas. When the mind is controlled by involuntary thoughts and emotions, the intellect cannot function and suffering ensues. Constant observation of the thoughts and feelings appearing in the mind is called mano nigrahah, an essential part of self-inquiry.
4.) Modifies to Or Manages the Gunas: It modifies to the gunas, or manages them, depending on its level of Self-knowledge.
The Intellect or Buddhi: is the cognitive part of the Subtle Body that discriminates, makes judgements, determines. It should be in charge of the mind, not the other way around.
Martin: An elderly plumber told me once that the way they changed leaky water pipes was to pack each side with dry ice, wait for it to freeze the water inside – then they didn’t have to switch off the mains and could swap out the pipe. It’s a bit like that – discrimination and dispassion – the “ice on the pipe” – just hold them frozen temporarily long enough to discriminate as the Self.
What I thought most of “me” then apparently disappears as not me – it’s still there but the knowledge transfers “well this was never me, I just thought it was” and its harder to go back. They appear “tagged”, seen now, marked.
Sundari: Complete freedom at the point when the teaching remnants drop is tricky, which is why nididhysana is usually the longest and most difficult stage of inquiry. While it may be firm knowledge that I am the Self and not the jiva, if there is still some residual part of the jiva program operating, freedom is not that free. Even the smallest bit of ignorance has a big price tag in terms of peace of mind. A tiny bit of ignorance can and does trick the mind into identification with negative thoughts which are always projected onto others whom we see as the problem. And the result? Unhappiness, agitation, dis-ease. But there is never a problem outside of our thoughts. We (as an ego) are the problem if the jiva has sneaked back into the picture.
Martin: If James had written a different book with the title “how to gain freedom” the provocation may have been different. Of course it would be fraught with other provocations (political, social) just like “how to gain enlightenment” was for the spiritual perhaps – but right now the “freedom” title fits.
Sundari: It is a tricky title, and he used it deliberately to provoke debate.
Martin: I never had the affliction of the spiritual; trying to get enlightened – but the journey to freedom is no different. Every desire and fear, every action I see in my past was just that driven by ignorance of who or what I was. What is the obvious conclusion now – awareness and just that.
Sundari: Freedom comes down to one simple decision: Am I the Self or am I the jiva? I cannot be both. If I think I am the jiva I identify with its problems, I think the world and others give me problems, and I am unhappy. As the Self I simply have no problems. To make that choice is always a possibility, and making it always transforms the situation and frees me from suffering. When that choice is no longer a choice but the default position of the mind, you are free. And if the mind still plays a few tricks, you just watch it dispassionately, as a curious but unaffected observer.
Martin: Along with this is (finally) a true appreciation for God, for Isvara in a beginning context I had struggled to reconcile out from duality. As Awareness and nothing else, everything is God.
Sundari: This is a tough one for everyone, especially given the negative connotation of ‘God’ in mithya. But one that must be mastered or moksa is not possible. Well done!
Thank you for your love and good wishes, I hope you make it to one of our seminars here in Italy one day!
Much love
Sundari
