Can the mind face and live with this emptiness and not escape in any direction?
(Krishnamurti - The Urgency of Change)
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To escape from the emptiness is fear. I fear the emptiness. As soon as I begin some 'doing' I have begun to fill the emptiness. What is the emptiness? Is it the sense of everything going on and on forever into all eternity? I see that everything has been going on for billions and billions of years, billions of cycles of the earth around the sun and, of course, even before and beyond that.
Once
in our yoga seminar one of the students asked Rajo, my first teacher,
about something that had happened to her the evening before in her room.
She said that she was just looking at the wall when suddenly it started
to move and she asked what was the reason for that, and if it was
something to be alarmed about. He replied that she had in that moment
had a glimpse of reality because actually nothing is as fixed as it
appears in our perception. After the couple of days in the yoga seminar
breathing deeply and doing the exercises that bring us into a more
tranquil state she was able to relax the programming of the
psycho-somatic system and was able to see through the projected version
of reality to the actuality.
- Artist: Donald Zolan - The Thinker
I
have a meditation coloring book of my own creation. In it I usually
draw some few words that are significant for my morning meditation on
each day. About six weeks ago I had the three words "no thought thought"
which were a connection for me to a sense of the mind in abeyance. It
was the feeling of being poised on the verge of a thought but with a
fine restraint so that the mind energy did not form into an actual
thought.
Something to contemplate:
Ramana Maharshi:
"Shankara was criticized for his views on maya (illusion) without being understood. He said that
(1) Brahman (creative principle which lies realized in the whole world) is real,
(2) the universe is unreal, and
(3) The universe is Brahman.
He
did not stop at the second, because the third explains the other two.
It signifies that the universe is real if perceived as the Self, and
unreal if perceived apart from the Self. Hence maya and reality are one and the same.”
Source: David Godman, “Be As You Are, The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi” p. 180
Recognize
the Self when in the world. Everything shines equally. Nothing can be
less than anything else. As long as anything is treated with disdain or
any lack of respect, then one is perceiving ‘apart from the Self.”
To
be perceiving “apart from the Self” means that I sees myself as not
part of the Self. It means that I am perceiving as though I were not
embedded in Self, as an integral part of the Self. It means that I have
momentarily “forgotten” (again) that “all that is”, actually consists of
the one Universal Being, which Ramana calls “the Self”.
It is
correct to say that when I perceive the universe “as the Self”, that I
perceive everything in the world being literally “the Self”. I also
perceive everything from the viewpoint of my identity “as the Self”. I
then perceive everything as sacred and I perceive everything as the Self
that is perceiving extensions of Itself.
11-X-15 Chefchaouen, Bab Souq
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Questioner: How are we to treat others?
Ramana: There are no others.
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My comment:
In this exchange with a visitor Ramana explains why he doesn’t insist
on only the absolute view of Reality that he sees, but rather varies his
response according to the willingness of the listener to accept what he
says. This I find especially educational for me as one who has had the
strong tendency to always hold to ‘my’ point of view and hold diverging
ones to be at least limited, if not incorrect. I recognize that focusing
only on the ‘correctness’ of a view is very limiting as it leaves out
the most important element of any exchange: the heart connection.
Questioner: “In
the vedanta of Sri Sankaracharya the principle of the creation of the
world has been accepted for the sake of beginners, but for the advanced
the principle of non-creation is put forward. What is your view on this
matter?”
Ramana’s answer: “‘There is no
dissolution or creation, no one in bondage, nor anyone pursuing
spiritual practices. There is no one desiring liberation nor anyone
liberated. This is the absolute truth.’ This sloka appears in the second
chapter of Gaudapada’s karika. One who is established in the Self sees
this by his knowledge of reality.”
Q: “Is not the Self the cause of this world we see around us?"
A: “Self
itself appears as the world of diverse names and forms. However, Self
does not act as the efficient cause [nimitta karana], creating,
sustaining and destroying it. Do not ask ‘Why does the confusion of
Self, not knowing the truth that it itself appears as the world, arise?’
If instead you enquire ‘To whom does this confusion occur?’, it will be
discovered that no such confusion ever existed for Self.”
Q: “You seem to be an exponent of ajata doctrine of advaita vedanta.”
A: “I
do not teach only the ajata doctrine. I approve of all schools. The
same truth has to be expressed in different ways to suit the capacity of
the hearer. The ajata doctrine says, ‘Nothing exists except the one
reality. There is no birth or death, no projection or drawing in, no
seeker, no bondage, no liberation. The one unity alone exists.’ To such
as find it difficult to grasp this truth and who ask, ‘How can we ignore
this solid world we see all around us?’, the dream experience is
pointed out and they are told, ‘All that you see depends on the seer.
Apart from the seer, there is no seen.’ This is called the
drishti-srishti vada or the argument that one first creates out of one’s
mind and then sees what one’s mind itself has created. Some people
cannot grasp even this and they continue to argue in the following
terms:
‘The dream experience is so short, while the world
always exists. The dream experience was limited to me. But the world is
felt and seen not only by me, but by so many others. We cannot call
such a world non-existent.’ When people argue in this way they can be
given a srishti-drishti theory, for example, ‘God first created such and
such a thing, out of such and such an element, and then something else
was created, and so on.’ That alone will satisfy this class. Their minds
are otherwise not satisfied and they ask themselves, ‘How can all
geography, all maps, all sciences, stars, planets and the rules
governing or relating to them and all knowledge be totally untrue?’ To
such it is best to say, ‘Yes, God created all this and so you see it.’”
Q: “But all these cannot be true. Only one doctrine can be true.”
A: “All
these theories are only to suit the capacity of the learner. The
absolute can only be one. The vedanta says that the cosmos springs into
view simultaneously with the seer and that there is no detailed process
of creation. This is said to be yugapat-srishti [instantaneous
creation]. It is quite similar to the creations in dream where the
experiencer springs up simultaneously with the objects of experience.
When this is told, some people are not satisfied for they are deeply
rooted in objective knowledge. They seek to find out how there can be
sudden creation. They argue that an effect must be preceded by a cause.
In short, they desire an explanation for the existence of the world
which they see around them. Then the srutis [scriptures] try to satisfy
their curiosity by theories of creation. This method of dealing with the
subject of creation is called krama-srishti [gradual creation]. But the
true seeker can be content with yugapat-srishti, instantaneous
creation.”
Q: “What is the purpose of creation?”
A: “It
is to give rise to this question. Investigate the answer to this
question, and finally abide in the supreme or rather the primal source
of all, the Self. The investigation will resolve itself into a quest for
the Self and it will cease only after the non-Self is sifted away and
the Self realized in its purity and glory.
“There may be
any number of theories of creation. All of them extend outwardly. There
will be no limit to them because time and space are unlimited. They are
however only in the mind. If you see the mind, time and space are
transcended and the Self is realized.
“Creation is
explained scientifically or logically to one’s own satisfaction. But is
there any finality about it? Such explanations are called krama-srishti
[gradual creation]. On the other hand, drishti-srishti [simultaneous
creation] is yugapat-srishti. Without the seer there are no objects
seen.
“Find the seer and the creation is comprised in him. Why look outward and go on explaining the phenomena which are endless?”
source: David Godman, Be As You Are, The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, p. 177, 178
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http://digitalblasphemy.com/graphics/previews/cosmogony_preview.jpg
Am I in a "special state" after a particularly remarkable shift in perspective?
The
question as to as "special state" is an interesting one - this shift
that I am in shows me more clearly what all the sages mean, especially
Ramana and the Zen masters when they say that there is no enlightenment
and no liberation when one realizes that everything already is the Big
Mind, or the Self, and only our little mind taking a limited perspective
creates a world of separation from Self, Buddha Mind, or God, which are
all the same thing.
To say "only the little mind" is, of course,
an understatement, since it sounds like the "little mind" should not be a
big hindrance to just remaining as "what is", which is the one vast and
mysterious Universal Being showing up as many.
As you can see from my yesterday's post "The ego mind is a slug",
I am starting to look at the mind, to see if I can discover what it
actually is, or if it even really exists. It is quite mysterious. One
could say that all the world is an appearance in the Self, so of course
this includes the mind. The statement that "All, including the mind, is
an appearance in the Self" is first of all a concept. Do I get glimpses
of this as a direct experience? Yes. Is there a certain focus that I can
take to allow this to become a continuous realization? Yes, there does
seem to be, but it is rather difficult. In my experience it means taking
the stance "nothing plus nothing equals nothing" (all is but an
appearance in Self with no lasting substance in and of itself) and at
the same time being fully and passionately engaged in life, not falling
into nihilism etc. Ramana addresses this here: "The investigation
will resolve itself into a quest for the Self and it will cease only
after the non-Self is sifted away and the Self realized in its purity
and glory." source
p. 178 I could therefore say that the formula "nothing plus nothing
equals nothing" reminds me to "sift away the non-Self" and to remember
that everything I see and interact with is actually appearing in the
Self, which means it is all "identical with the beingness of the Self."
David Godman summarizes Ramana's views on this subject here:
"Sri Ramana adopted three different standpoints when he spoke about the nature of the physical world. …
1 Ajata vada
(the theory of non-causality). This is an ancient Hindu doctrine which
states that the creation of the world never happened at all. It is a
complete denial of all causality in the physical world. Sri Ramana
endorsed this view by saying that it is the jnani’s experience
that nothing ever comes into existence or ceases to be because the Self
alone exists as the sole unchanging reality. It is a corollary of this
theory that time, space, cause and effect, essential components of all
creation theories, exist only in the minds of ajnanis and that the experience of the Self reveals their non-existence.
This
theory is not a denial of the reality of the world, only of the
creative process which brought it into existence. Speaking from his own
experience Sri Ramana said that the jnani is aware that the
world is real, not as an assemblage of interacting matter and energy,
but as an uncaused appearance in the Self. He enlarged on this by saying
that because the real nature or substratum of this appearance is
identical with the beingness of the Self, it necessarily partakes of its
reality. That is to say, the world is not real to the jnani simply because it appears, but only because the real nature of the appearance is inseparable from the Self.
The ajnani,
on the other hand, is totally unaware of the unitary nature and source
of the world and, as a consequence, his mind constructs an illusory
world of separate interacting objects by persistently misinterpreting
the sense impressions it receives. Sri Ramana pointed out that this view
of the world has no more reality than a dream since it superimposes a
creation of the mind on the reality of the Self. He summarized the
difference between the jnani’s and the ajnani’s
standpoint by saying that the world is unreal if it is perceived by the
mind as a collection of discrete objects and real when it is directly
experienced as an appearance in the Self." source p. 175
The inquiry is on-going.
http://m.cdn.blog.hu/ko/koreainhungary/image/jackie-kim-korean-folk-art-min-hwa-15.jpg
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