Jonathan : If our mind generates unpleasant thoughts we are opposing Dharma somewhere in our life. Negative thoughts are generated by negative actions which are motivated by negative emotions which were generated by negative thoughts. A downward spiral (what’s the word again James uses?
Sundari: Because non-injury is a fundamental and inbuilt law for most humans, when we break dharma in any way, whether it is in thought word or deed, directed at ourselves or ‘another’ (unless we are a psychopath who takes pleasure in causing injury or a narcissist with no capacity for empathy), we will suffer guilt and feel bad. And yes, negative thoughts and emotions build on themselves in a negative spiral because that is how the gunas function. It is also called the whirlpool of samsara.
But all thoughts, positive and negative, are part of the fabric of the Causal body, the gunas. They may seem personal when they appear in the mind, but they are not necessarily the result of our conscious thoughts/feelings/actions or lack of them. They can appear without our volition as involuntary thoughts, and are a cause of great agitation for most people who identify with them. I call them the ‘voices of diminishment’, but they also come in the form of free-floating anxiety, or dread. Though they are most often (but not always) linked to buried unconscious content, the microcosmic or personal causal body, all unconscious content comes from the same ‘pool’ – the Macrocosmic Unconscious – another name for Isvara/the gunas. It is the seedbed of what causes us to suffer and enjoy, to succeed or fail.
Research shows that the human mind can take in 40 million pieces of information at any given moment. The most generous estimate is that we can be consciously aware of about forty of these at a given moment. Some researchers have gone so far as to suggest that the (microcosmic) unconscious mind does virtually all the work and that conscious volition is an illusion. The conscious mind merely constructs a narrative in the attempt to make sense of what the unconscious mind is doing of its own accord. These findings concur with the teachings of Vedanta. If free will is not free at all, how do we manage the mind?
Thoughts and feelings are objects known to you, the Self; they only affect the jiva. They are only a problem for the jiva when it has a lot of unconscious conditioning and identifies with them. What most don’t realize is that feelings are created by a guna-generated thought. But the thought is so fleeting that it’s usually covered up immediately by a predictable guna-generated feeling. Unfortunately, without knowledge of the gunas, we are not in control of our feelings because we have no objectivity about them and don’t understand them or where they come from.
Thoughts/feelings recycle automatically and endlessly according to the ever-changing nature of the gunas, and according to the law of karma. It’s not an either or but a both/and. Karma may be the immediate result of what we do/don’t do in the here and now, or it could be prarabdha karma, which comes in two forms: the delayed momentum of actions taken in this lifetime, or the karmic load we are born with.
If a negative state of mind plagues you, it is not your own doing because nobody makes themselves the way they are or makes themselves feel anything. Everything is generated by the gunas. But it is your doing if you are guna-educated and you understand how karma works. Though we are not in control of results of action, nor of the gunas and cannot change either, if we understand how both work to condition the mind, we can disidentify with our karma and with the gunas. We do not have to endlessly pick through what ‘happens’ to us or in us – the vomit of the mind. We can manage the mind by ‘going straight for the guna’. When we gain objectivity of what creates our karma and our thoughts and feelings, we can immediately apply karma yoga – taking the appropriate actions – in light of which guna is playing out to maximize the positive aspects and minimize their negative aspects for peace of mind.
And then, we take stand in Awareness as Awareness, practicing the opposite thought:
“I am not my karma; I am not the gunas; I am not my thoughts/feelings, good or bad. I am never not the Self – ever-full, ever-present, fully satisfied, nondual Awareness’.
In this way, assuming the Field of life is receptive (which it generally is when we understand we are not in charge of it), we can mostly get what we want and be mostly happy most of the time without being concerned with ‘bad’ feelings or getting too attached to ‘good’ feelings. Guna knowledge allows us to avoid the golden cage of sattva, the anxiety driven treadmill of rajas, or the negative abyss of tamas by dis-identifying with our all egoic needs, desires, and fears, making it possible to accept things as they are, good or bad. You can be Ok with being an ordinary Joe as a ‘person’, when you know you are the Self.
Jonathan: But even when my mind is generating predominately pleasant thoughts my mind gets used to them. I believe psychology calls this hedonic adaptation (even though the cause isn’t necessarily hedonism).
Sundari: Everyone wants to feel good all the time. Sadly, it’s not possible if you think you are a jiva. It’s only possible as the Self. The hedonic treadmill is a term that describes a jiva happiness set point, or adaptation. It’s a theory proposing that people return to their level of happiness (or lack of it), regardless of what happens to them, whether it is winning the lottery, finding, or losing a loved one, or anything else. It is another term for ‘zero-sum’.
Jonathan: So my mind needs new experiences to generate a new kind of pleasant thought. Caused by a sense of progress, since expansion is the nature of the universe.
Sundari: The universe is another object known to you, the Self. It is expanding (changing) because that is the nature of objects. But you, the witness of the universe, never change. There is no universe for you, and nowhere to expand to because there is nowhere you are not. The mind under the spell of ignorance, i.e., a samsari – someone identified with the body/mind – constantly chases experience in the vain attempt to alleviate the suffering caused by an innate sense of deficiency, lack or boredom. Everyone identified with their limited identity as a jiva is run by their unconscious fears and desires (likes and dislikes) and is never satisfied for long, because the joy they are after is not in objects (experience). All objects are value neutral, inert. The definition of an object is anything known to you, the Self. Anything known to you cannot BE you. You are what you seek.
To be free of this zero sum treadmill of chasing objects/experience, you need to manage the mind (i.e. the gunas) with Self-knowledge. You do not need another experience. No experience can deliver what you really seek: freedom from limitation and dissatisfaction that comes from dependence on objects for happiness because all experiences are in time, change and end. You do not. See above.
Jonathan: In this context I come to the conclusion that development and progress is dharma and stagnation and decline adharma. I’m aware that we’re talking Jiva Level here, but for me it means that to become ready for inquiry (peace of mind), we have to keep getting better as a person. Not to have better stuff.
Sundari: Entropy – stagnation and decline, is the nature of the apparent reality, the world of experience. Nothing lasts here; thoughts and feelings being the most obviously ephemeral. Everything that is born dies, or appears in form, is destroyed. As the Self you are unborn and undying. Dharma and Adharma are eternal principles necessary to have a Field of Experience for the jiva to work out its karma. But neither are real (always present and unchanging) with reference to you, the Self. So, who are you?
You can’t be the Self and the jiva. You are right that better or more stuff will not make you happy. And yes, you are definitely talking as a jiva in duality. There is no solution to the jiva’s dilemma from that perspective because life is a zero sum. No matter what you do or don’t do, you will lose as much as you gain. No experience (object) is capable of giving you permanent satisfaction and freedom from smallness. The best you can hope for as a samsari is to live as dharmic a life as possible and practice secular karma yoga, which should give you relative happiness and peace of mind. But it will not give you moksa – freedom from and for the jiva.
For freedom from limitation, to make progress with self-inquiry first and foremost, you need to be qualified to hear the nondual teachings and be properly taught, so that they assimilate. If the teachings do not assimilate, it is always because there is something missing on the part of the inquirer. Make sure you understand all the requirements for self-inquiry. I have recently posted a satsang on our website called ‘Ignorance or Knowledge Setpoint’, I think it could help you.
Jonathan: Isn’t it what the Gita teaches us? Arjuna was an elite warrior, always developing his trait, before he met Krishna having proved himself worthy for his teaching? Would be great if you could give me some feedback on my thinking.
Sundari: Yes, it is. Arjuna had to follow his dharma as a warrior when faced with the impossible karmic challenge of going to war against his teachers, family and friends. He was traumatized and could not understand what this meant from the nondual perspective (Self-perspective). So Krishna had to start at the beginning and teach Arjuna karma yoga. He was not ready for jnana yoga; he had to develop the qualifications.
Jonathan: Some time ago of I told you about my non dual Ayahuasca experience, in which I was able to grasp everything (tat twam asi) perfectly without tripping. I really have long periods of perfect calm and peace, no bliss and I really believe that I’ve realized the Self, but not actualized it. I am not established in it.
Sundari: What you are experiencing is a normal part of self-inquiry. It is no easy task negating mithya! A nondual experience of the Self may be powerful and leave a lasting impression on the mind. But unless the knowledge it is meant to impart is fully assimilated – I am always experiencing the Self – it ends, and is lost, like all experiences. You are never not experiencing the Self, it is not possible. It is just a question of what stands in the way of KNOWING that the knower of the experience is your identity and has nothing to do with the discrete experience itself. You are that which makes all experience possible.
Jonathan: I still have a hardwired business and self-improvement vasana. I do know that money will not set me free, but it’s something like “I better go look myself”, and the belief that’s it there for a reason. I mean Ishvara must have put this program into me for a reason. Not acting in out would cause a lot inner turmoil in me. But on the other I spread myself thin. Business, Family, Sadhana…..
Sundari: The jiva has a certain inbuilt nature or svadharma, and we need to follow it for peace of mind. The question is not whether or not a certain tendency is good or bad, but whether it reinforces the doer and strengthens binding vasanas. Everything managed from the perspective of the Self (i.e., cognizant of the zero-sum nature of mithya) is not a problem. It is a problem when we get lost in our desires, or expect an object/experience to deliver what it is incapable of doing – perfect satisfaction born of Self-knowledge alone. Discrimination is the key, as is dispassion.
While the jiva’s life definitely will improve as Self-knowledge assimilates, improving the jiva is not the goal of self-inquiry, even though this is what most spiritual paths teach. Trying to perfect the jiva will not help because the jiva is not real. How can you perfect something that is not real, or something that is real, the Self? You cannot. Freedom from the jiva means freedom from doership and freedom from binding vasanas, likes and dislikes, fears and desires. This requires karma yoga and guna knowledge.
Jonathan: I did read the satsang you recommended – it solves it all! Thank you so much!
Sundari: I am glad you read the satsang, and that it helped. As I said in it, complete assimilation of the teachings, which is Self-actualization, is the hard part, and it takes qualifications, dedication and time. If the teachings are correctly applied to your life, they will work. But it happens in stages. If Self-knowledge is indirect or even direct, you may have relative freedom from the jiva, but if there is still a jiva program or doership issue causing problems, there is still residual ignorance which will obscure access to Self-knowledge. You will ‘feel’ free some of the time, but ‘lose’ the freedom when the emotional jiva program is triggered
But freedom AS the jiva means that nondual vision is permanent, discrimination between satya and mithya is automatic and no longer necessary as a practice. You are the Self, it is permanent knowledge and not a feeling. No thought or feeling has the power to change that. The jiva still lives according to its relative nature, but as a conceptual identity, it is as good as non-existent. The program no longer has the power to trouble you or obscure your true nature as the ever-full, ever-shining, whole and complete, nondual Self.
Much love
Sundari
ShiningWorld.com
