REFLECTIONS on ADVAITA: PART 7– GUEST WRITER: LOUISE STERLING

The Mythology of the Seeker

“I” used to dream of being gently knocked on the head with a pebble by some quirky Zen master and “waking up”. The pebble was always tiny, there was no bruising and the effect was immediate. Instant enlightenment! Such were the romantic strands of personality at play, that turned the search into a Mystical Quest – that of course required a heroine – intense, beautiful, fire blazing in the eyes etc. (Imagine the actual reaction if a teacher hurled a rock at “me”!). And so … the mythology of the seeker is created in the imagination and stabilized as real – the texts that are preferred, the techniques employed; the names, the labels.

Can you see the effects of personality at play here? Perhaps You recognise the single-mindedness and romanticism that influences the Enneagram Type FOUR – with the primary desire to find the authentic self?

When searching from the construct of the separate individual, it will be personality that drives the search. In the case of the FOUR, the personality motivator may point the seeker towards Truth and provide the motivating impetus to search, but of course personality is fundamentally an obscuring cloud, that must be discarded in the early stages of the search for the vision to clear. The sheath of personality must be seen for what it is, and discarded so these flavourings or attributes do not create the illusion of separation from THAT which is without attributes, without flavourings, without additions of any type.

When embarked on the search, the seeker may identify and discard the flavouring of a wide variety of other personas – more easily identified and dissolved: the helper, the rescuer, the compliant employee, etc. However, as “floyd” teaches, the persona of the seeker is one of the last to be eliminated. Eventually the seeker is seen as yet another persona – the selection of memories, thoughts, impressions, and preferences that create an apparent identity.

Ultimately, this is seen even with the Advaitan –when the rigorous questioning of self is applied to this persona too. As stated earlier,… the mythology of the seeker is created in the imagination and stabilized as real – the texts that are preferred, the techniques employed; the names, the labels ... Advaitan is a label. The Ultimate Medicine is a text. Self-enquiry is a technique. Every movement into identification is bondage – and the tools to remove the ties that bind are themselves bondage. Thorns used to remove thorns.

However, this is not really a quandary or a dilemma. At a certain point, the earnest dedication that self-enquiry requires is no real effort at all, but instead is fuelled by a fascination that makes the solitude, contemplation and rigorous questioning effortless. (The view here is that practices commonly described as "sadhana" are really descriptions of effortless action that naturally RESULT FROM understanding along the "path"; for example the natural movement into silence and solitude. Could it be the case that these effortless actions have later been copied or mimicked in the hopes of effecting a similar understanding -- resulting in "practices" repeated endlessly and without effect often when the readiness is not yet present?) Then -- at the same time as the final seeker is seen, the seeking seems to just drop away naturally without any effort at all. For a time, the impetus to read texts or enquire may continue, much like an empty hamster wheel that keeps turning long after the hamster has stopped running on the wheel.

For many seekers, the veil or sheath of personality feels entirely normal and natural – the motivators and drivers are unconscious and therefore unseen. In this way, the basic personality type fuels the search but also obscures the full understanding. There are various methods to uncover the particular “flavouring” of these unconscious personality tendencies. Ask yourself: Are you free from the veil of personality? Have you uncovered the particular personality that drives you? Do understand the primary desires and fears that have prompted your actions, choices and behaviours since early childhood? Are you aware of the drivers that motivate the search?

"Use your mind. Remember. Observe.
You are not different from others.
Most of their experiences are valid for you too.
Think clearly and deeply,
go into the structure of your desires
and their ramifications.
They are a most important part
of your mental and emotional make-up
and powerfully affect your actions.
Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know.
To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself."

-- Nisargadatta Maharaj

(For extended teaching on the elimination of personality, see: Liberation: An Advaita Approach to Being Free of Personality and From the I to the Absolute.)

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Comments / clarifications may be sent to louise.advaita@gmail.com – a temporary email address available for the duration of these guest postings.