Dear Sundari,
Yes, I see this now thank you. This might be where Shredda (?) is so vital. I know I felt not a blind faith or hope faith that my desires would be fulfilled as commonly associated with “faith” when I met Ramji and the Vedanta teachings but I knew this was it, accompanied by a strong knowing that if it wasn’t there wasn’t anything left, like end of the station, nowhere else to go. That faith.
Sundari: Yes. THAT faith. When the penny drops you realize that it’s not faith really, not the kind we normally relate to. It’s the kind of trust giving rise to the confidence that comes when all existential doubts have been vanquished by irrefutable knowledge. The kind that stands and cannot be negated.
Frank: However it’s taken 15 years to see that all the practice and trying and trying since then felt like a tough intermittent climb mostly (sometimes interspersed with incredible moments which were all momentary) with a ton of grace from Iswara all the way even if I didn’t appreciate it at the time, until the evidence, knowledge, is not “complete” but there’s a point where the original “faith in darkness” is the same faith now, but in light. It’s not different but the context is, in the mind I think. Then surrender is easier, almost like falling into a fireman’s mattress from a tall smoky building.
Sundari: Great Imagery! So true. The out card that Vedanta gives us from the prison of Maya is just like jumping from a burning building onto a magic flying carpet! Except it’s not magic at all, but the true sanity and peace of normality. If there is a heaven, that’s it.
Frank: Although I’ve never really understood the difference between mind and intellect: is the mind the object which knowledge slowly works on while the intellect is the discriminating function “in” the mind?
Sundari: Yes to both. The mind or Subtle body has several functions, and the intellect (buddhi) is one of them, along with emoting, doubting, memory and gathering and directing the information coming in from the five senses. Without a functioning intellect, you are called a ‘vegetable’. The mind and intellect cannot be separated, though the intellect depends on the mind working, but the mind does not depend on the intellect, nor any of its other functions.
The mind can still ‘work’ (as in keep the body alive) without a functioning intellect, memory etc. This is an interesting discussion because it takes us into investigating what sentiency really is. A person with Alzheimer’s or dementia has a functioning mind in that it’s still alive, but none of its functions work properly. So you are in a state of bliss but don’t know it. A person in a coma is sentient, but without a working intellect, doesn’t know it. So are they really sentient?
An animal is sentient and has a rudimentary intellect, it can determine and ‘feel’ certain things it needs to survive, but has no reasoning powers or self-reflectivity. They are just part of a greater field of intelligence, Isvara, who does the thinking and feeling for them. I.e., they cannot deviate from their program. More so for a microbe, which has no brain at all, yet they are the most successful organisms on the planet. We must say they are sentient because they gave rise to, and keep other sentient life, alive.
Without a functioning intellect, we are just basically animals; we would have thoughts and feelings but would not know we do, so they would neither serve nor hinder us. Any powers of determination we possessed would be instinctive, not based on actual discrimination. We would not be able to break dharma, because like animals, we could not deviate from our program.
Safer, but much less interesting. That’s the upside and downside of being human. It’s a great gift and also, a great responsibility having an intellect. Thanks to these powers Isvara bestows upon us, we have an instrument capable of assimilating nonduality, and getting out of mithya – jumping from the burning building. The mind/intellect gives us access to much joy, but it also creates much mischief because we are the only sentient beings upon which Isvara thrusts the full spectrum of dharma and adharma.
Frank: If so, without knowledge, the intellect is only likely employed in adharmic judgement or aversion or desire “discrimination”: employed by the ego, not on the reflection of awareness as a reference.
Sundari: Not necessarily. It depends what you mean by knowledge. If mithya knowledge is dependable (and not just my interpretation or ludicrous notions), it is always good in any situation. But it can be used for both dharma and adharma, as you say. Lots of people don’t have Self-knowledge but they have very good intellects, and good values. But however good, their thinking and discrimination is only between objects. They are more likely to make better choices, but it’s still in mithya.
Anything going on in the intellect, whether it is in a purified dharmic mind and intellect with its likes and dislikes under the management of Self-knowledge, or an adharmic egoic mind/intellect of the worst kind, is a reflection of Consciousness in that nothing would be going on it at all without Consciousness. Without the light of Consciousness shining on the mind/intellect, it’s just a piece of meat, either in deep sleep, in a coma, or 6 ” under.
The reflection of Consciousness is not true to Consciousness because it is not real – it’s mithya. Only Consciousness is real, yet the reflection would not be ‘there’ without Consciousness. In mithya, thanks to the deluding power of Maya, anything is possible. A mind in which Self-knowledge is firm would never break dharma because it knows there is nothing to gain by doing so, there is nothing other than it, and so non-injury is automatic. But a mind without it is under the whip of duality can and often does break dharma even without meaning to.
Frank: There can probably be dumb intellects and shiny intellects?
Sundari: Yes, no doubt about it. Though the true nature of the mind (all minds) is sattva, having access to it depends on how much rajas and tamas condition the mind. Some people are just born with more lights on, so to speak. Though the intellect can be purified, greatly refined, and cultivated in its thinking abilities and capacity, if we are born with a predominantly tamasic intellect, that is not likely to happen.
Highly rajasic minds can be very bright too, but the problem is that too much rajas extroverts the mind and tends to make it neurotic and too emotional. The quality of the intellect also depends on how balanced and well regulated our emotions are. Too much emotion is not good, but too little emotional balance does not bode well for us, either. As much as over-emotionality leads to self-destructive and dangerous behaviour, so does lack of emotion. People who lack emotion don’t lead well-planned logical lives in the manner of the coolly rational.
They tend to lead foolish lives because emotion is a component of thinking. Emotions (mind) help us measure the value of something and unconsciously guide us as we navigate through life—away from things that are likely to lead to pain and toward things that are likely to lead to fulfillment. In extreme cases, people who dissociate from their feelings become sociopaths, untroubled by barbarism, and unable to feel other people’s pain.
As we go about our day, millions of stimuli bombard us every second—a confusion of sounds, sights, smells, and motions. And yet amidst all this pyrotechnic chaos, different parts of the brain and body interact to form what cognitive scientists call an ‘Emotional Positioning System’. Like the Global Positioning System that might be in your car, the EPS senses your current situation and compares it to the vast body of data it has stored in its memory and makes judgment calls about the best course it needs to take to help us navigate our days.
There are many seemingly dull or even rajasic intellects that with exposure to higher thinking and with the correct guidance, would shine far more brightly than they were aware they could. Kind of like having a Ferrari parked in your garage that you never knew was there, and had never driven. You need to learn how to drive it. Though Vedanta does not require that your intellect is of genius status, it does require good thinking. And as the intellect gets exposed to nondual thinking, it will be refined. With a little help from Isvara, you can transform an ordinary sedan into a Ferrari!
The problem with good thinkers is that they tend to be identified with their thinking abilities. It can lead to a blockage, or to enlightenment sickness, when the ego co-opts the teaching. Karma yoga means you understand that you are not the thinker, Isvara is. Humility is required for karma yoga to work, and intellectuals give lip service but cannot surrender to Isvara because they cannot give up being right, so karma yoga is not effective.
Frank: I just caught another Radio 4 Vedanta related program this morning on ancient Hindu symbolism. Iswara is really making a point to 20mio listeners! I’ll share the link.
Sundari: Thanks for the share. I love how Isvara dials up the love when we start paying attention!
Much love
Sundari
