FROM A SITE VISITOR [Received 23 Feb 2007] Found your blog a few weeks ago and love it! Thank you! Today, when you answered one of Lisa’s question, I finally understood “you’re not in the world—the world is in you.” It’s in my mind, you said. Finally! But now, how to get it out after 38 years of having it “in there?” Please help. Many thanks, Ann
F.: Hello, Ann. Welcome to the site. First, if you were to remove the image of "the world" that is in your “mind,” that would be but a fraction of all that must be purged. That which is to be eliminated includes far more than a worldview. You've undergone thirty-eight years of collecting concepts and ideas, including beliefs about “you,” “others,” “relationships,” “values,” “religion and spirituality,” "them vs. us," "good vs. bad," "right vs. wrong," "punishment vs. reward," ad infinitum. If your approach is to expurgate each concept, one at a time, then Realization will never happen.
Consider: if ten days ago, you served fish for a meal and tossed the leftovers into a garbage bag, your home would be contaminated with the resulting odors by now. If seven days ago, you tossed into the same bag some rotten cabbage, there would be more contaminating odors. If five days ago, you tossed some putrid potatoes into the bag, the level of contamination would be almost unbearable. Soon, you would be overwhelmed and either driven to address the problem or to suffer misery. Weigh the effects of thirty-eight years of such accumulation and then you'll understand how persons (driven by the contaminated consciousness) reach the point where they proclaim, "My life is unbearable! I am being overwhelmed by my problems! I am suffering miserably!"
Would it be a reasonable approach, if your goal is to re-purify the place where you live, to dig through the bag and find all of the pieces of rotten cabbage and dispose of them in the trash bin outside and see if that improved your circumstances? Would it be reasonable, after waiting a few days and deciding that maybe the fish remains should also be tossed, to dig through the trash and gather all of those scraps and throw them away? Or would the logical approach be to toss the bag and all of it contents and then be done with the entire mess, once and for all?
In the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, this pointer is offered on page 164:
Now, if you know that the manifested consciousness lacks that stability, then know that impurities remain. Certain vestiges of conditioning and programming remain. You are not completely out of your mind, which is not your mind at all but is actually theirs. They have co-opted the 'mind' that they created in the first place. The journey does not involve taking back your mind from them. The journey involves seeing there is no mind. There is only a collection of ideas and emotions and beliefs that are all lies. Peace doesn't come when you 'take control of' your thoughts and your mind. Peace doesn't come when you find 'positive' thoughts to replace your 'negative' thoughts. Peace doesn't come when 'right thinking' replaces 'wrong thinking.' All thinking is a lie. Peace comes when you realize that all that you've ever been told is a lie, when you realize that all thoughts and ideas and concepts are lies, and when all the lies are seen to be lies. Then, the 'mind' ends and its influence on your relative existence ends. Peace and stability come when the last belief in their concepts goes."
When does “the search” begin for most persons? Typically, when the level of contamination becomes unbearable. Typically, when they feel overwhelmed and finally driven to address their problems. Yet most only want to give up some portion of their accumulation of ideas or attitudes or beliefs, picking through the garbage and being very selective about what goes and what stays. Maybe you have begun to seek before reaching the unbearable state, but the effects of contamination will continue to multiply if the consciousness is not purged of all bastardizing elements.
F.: Hello, Ann. Welcome to the site. First, if you were to remove the image of "the world" that is in your “mind,” that would be but a fraction of all that must be purged. That which is to be eliminated includes far more than a worldview. You've undergone thirty-eight years of collecting concepts and ideas, including beliefs about “you,” “others,” “relationships,” “values,” “religion and spirituality,” "them vs. us," "good vs. bad," "right vs. wrong," "punishment vs. reward," ad infinitum. If your approach is to expurgate each concept, one at a time, then Realization will never happen.
Consider: if ten days ago, you served fish for a meal and tossed the leftovers into a garbage bag, your home would be contaminated with the resulting odors by now. If seven days ago, you tossed into the same bag some rotten cabbage, there would be more contaminating odors. If five days ago, you tossed some putrid potatoes into the bag, the level of contamination would be almost unbearable. Soon, you would be overwhelmed and either driven to address the problem or to suffer misery. Weigh the effects of thirty-eight years of such accumulation and then you'll understand how persons (driven by the contaminated consciousness) reach the point where they proclaim, "My life is unbearable! I am being overwhelmed by my problems! I am suffering miserably!"
Would it be a reasonable approach, if your goal is to re-purify the place where you live, to dig through the bag and find all of the pieces of rotten cabbage and dispose of them in the trash bin outside and see if that improved your circumstances? Would it be reasonable, after waiting a few days and deciding that maybe the fish remains should also be tossed, to dig through the trash and gather all of those scraps and throw them away? Or would the logical approach be to toss the bag and all of it contents and then be done with the entire mess, once and for all?
In the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, this pointer is offered on page 164:
Now, if you know that the manifested consciousness lacks that stability, then know that impurities remain. Certain vestiges of conditioning and programming remain. You are not completely out of your mind, which is not your mind at all but is actually theirs. They have co-opted the 'mind' that they created in the first place. The journey does not involve taking back your mind from them. The journey involves seeing there is no mind. There is only a collection of ideas and emotions and beliefs that are all lies. Peace doesn't come when you 'take control of' your thoughts and your mind. Peace doesn't come when you find 'positive' thoughts to replace your 'negative' thoughts. Peace doesn't come when 'right thinking' replaces 'wrong thinking.' All thinking is a lie. Peace comes when you realize that all that you've ever been told is a lie, when you realize that all thoughts and ideas and concepts are lies, and when all the lies are seen to be lies. Then, the 'mind' ends and its influence on your relative existence ends. Peace and stability come when the last belief in their concepts goes."
When does “the search” begin for most persons? Typically, when the level of contamination becomes unbearable. Typically, when they feel overwhelmed and finally driven to address their problems. Yet most only want to give up some portion of their accumulation of ideas or attitudes or beliefs, picking through the garbage and being very selective about what goes and what stays. Maybe you have begun to seek before reaching the unbearable state, but the effects of contamination will continue to multiply if the consciousness is not purged of all bastardizing elements.
If your goal is to re-purify the consciousness completely, then the logical approach is to toss that bag of garbage (a.k.a., the “mind”) and all of it contents and be done with the entire mess, once and for all. There is no such thing as "peace of mind." Just as unattended garbage can result in disease, the "mind" (along with body and personality identification) is at the root of all dis-ease. Complete the entire seven-step "journey" to Full Realization and be free of that "world" that is in you, along with everything else that has been collected in that repository of false concepts known as "the mind." Please enter the silence of contemplation.
