Today's Considerations
Call it “Liberation” or “Enlightenment” or “Realization” or “Awakening”
or “Awareness” or “Illumination” – or, maybe less “nobly” – call it “freedom,” “release,”
"the restoration to sanity" or “the manifestation of free will and the ability to make conscious choices.” The term used matters not. What matters is to see that all of
those terms are pointing to one end: being free of the ignorance and insanity
which are the result of ignorant and insane programming and conditioning and
acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination.
The end result of following “the path” or completing “the
journey” is to be de-programmed (not "re-programmed" by "a
program"); the end result also includes being unconditioned, un-domesticated,
un-acculturated, de-brainwashed, and un-indoctrinated.
There is no eternal, post-manifestation blissful state to seek for there is no
“one” post-manifestation to know or experience bliss or anything else (including reward or punishment or re-birth). Bliss is only available
now, and to enjoy bliss now involves nothing that is deemed to be noble or lofty or superior or supreme or high or higher or elevated or grand or exalted
or admirable or meaningful. To the contrary, it involves only that which for
billions of years has been the normal and natural and ordinary providence of every living thing - all of which were, and continue to be, mindless
living things – with the exception of humans nowadays.
Additionally, humans or human-like beings for millions
of years were also mindless when the
brains of the earliest humans were only about one cup in size before the human
brain (a) eventually evolved into its present three-and-one-half-cup size and before the human brain (b) eventually developed that part which is
now called “the mind.”
Those few sages that experienced the death of the mind –
thus allowing wisdom to be born – understood first hand that mind and personality
are at the core of humankind’s affliction; that personality assumption leads to
personality disorders (and often to a variety of neuroses and psychoses); that
the mind aggravates mental and emotional instability; and that if there is no
mind (that is, if all beliefs are abandoned) then there will be no place for false,
personal identifications to be stored and no place in which they can fester and
from which they will generate chaos.
To that end, additional excerpts from the book “There’s No Such Thing As Peace of Mind” (There Is Only Peace If You Are Out Of Your Mind) will be shared to explain how it is that the brain – which
was once “mankind’s best friend” – has now become “man’s worst enemy.”
So to continue with excerpts from CHAPTER THREE, entitled “MIND”
and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities.” This is
offered in that chapter (with a reminder that Maharaj said that “science will one day
advance to the point that it confirms the non-dual teachings,” and that will be
shown today to have been spot on):
It is emphasized again that (1) it’s all energy at the core,
that (2) nowadays natural living can only happen under the auspices of the
brain and never while under the influence of the corrupted "mind,"
and that (3) all learned ignorance—stored as a “mind”—must be tossed if peace
is to happen. Note how each step in the following analysis moves from something
wrongly-perceived (such as "a human body") down to the most basic
“ingredient” of the universe that is common to all in the universe. (Call it
"strings," call it "that," call it "sparticles,"
or point toward it with any term you choose, but there is that single, most
basic "whatever" that all is. Differences in appearance are caused by
nothing more than a variance of the vibrational rate at which "that"
moves when manifested.) Here’s how it works:
1. A human’s body mass is mostly water. Carbon, the basic unit
of organic molecules, is the second most common element.
2. A “molecule” is a group of atoms in a definite
arrangement held together by chemical bonds.
3. In August of 2005, this pointer was offered:
At the core of the sun, four hydrogen nuclei fuse together
to form one helium nucleus, and that happens over and over. The part of the
energy that process releases as light travels in particle and wave form. Plant
photosynthesis sets the stage for another cycling of manifested
energy-consciousness.
4. Likewise, the energy drawn into a cycle from the Absolute
pool manifests in plants after it “travels” in a particle or wave form; humans
consume the plants (or consume animals which ate plants), triggering a “transfer”
of energy; multi-part atoms of energy are at the core of organic molecules, and
organic molecules are at the core of the human body. Everything that is
considered “body” can be traced back to its most basic ingredient and that
ingredient can be seen to be a temporary manifestation of energy from that
field of energy called the Absolute.
What does that have to do with clarifying for students the
role of the brain, the “mind,” and the consciousness in the Teachings? Recall
the earlier pointer: “Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is
rooted in the elements. The ‘mind’ is rooted in wrong programming and faulty
conditioning and lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods.”
THE CONSCIOUSNESS: The conscious-energy, temporarily
manifested, is “real” to the degree that it is a form of energy with specific
levels of functioning that can be measured. (Why “real” in quotes? Because even
this manifested consciousness is time-bound, a temporary expression of that
which is truly and eternally real.) Among the triad of
elements-breath-consciousness that sustains “life,” the manifest consciousness
is required. The energy cannot be destroyed. It is and will be.
THE BRAIN: The science above shows that the brain, at its
most basic level, is elemental and that conscious-energy is temporarily
manifested via those elements; therefore, it is “real” to the degree that all
is energy. (This differs not at all from what is revealed about a brick if it
is studied under an electron microscope: what is not real is the brick as it
appears; what is real is that swirling mass of energy which is not visible to
the naked eye. Such is the case with the body and with parts such as the
brain.) Among the triad of elements-breath-consciousness that sustains “life,”
the elemental brain is required, the modern use of resuscitating equipment to
sustain a body notwithstanding. The elements cannot be destroyed. They will be.
THE “MIND”: The “mind” is neither elemental nor energy, so
it was never real, is not real now, and shall not remain post-manifestation. It
will fade away. It is nothing more than a conglomeration of images and memories
that are not real, that are fictional and that are misperceptions. Because it
is false and is not “real,” it can be purged. Pluck out your brain: end of
manifestation. Take steps to end the manifest consciousness: end of
manifestation. Purge the mind: not the end of the manifestation. (Because it is
only temporary, Jesus said after he came to the Advaitin understanding, “Heaven
and earth shall fades away.” Meaning? Just as with all images, when the
consciousness fades away, so shall the misconceived images stored in the brain.
One could as easily say to the ex-husband mourning the loss of his imagined
role, “Your wife and family shall fade away someday.” They are just
misperceived images in the “mind,” and those wrongly-perceived images will not
last. When "he" "dies," "she" "dies.")
Among the triad of elements-breath-consciousness which come together and temporarily sustains “life,” the
“mind” is not included. It has been shown why “the mind” happened: there was
originally a natural part that it was to play in the process of natural living.
That is no longer the case.
Maharaj revealed much about that fictional conglomeration
called "the mind" and about its false character. He pointed out that
awareness is the source of (but different from) the personal, individualized
consciousness which manifests via the nervous system of an elemental body and
which becomes corrupted. The “mind” and memory, he said, are responsible for
association with a particular body; awareness (that pool of energy which has the
ability to be "aware of" only if pulled into a cycle of manifestation) exists prior to
both mind and memory. He said that this world (which is known to be an
illusion) is nothing more than a collection of memories. The collection differs
in the mind of every individual, so there are as many imaginary worlds as there
are persons. "The world" for each is in them, in their
"minds."
He spoke of memories as being time-bound and transient, so
they cannot be real. He made the point that only that which is free of memories
is timeless and therefore real. He said that desires and fears are based in the
memory and that the root of desires and fears are the expectations that are
born of memory. Each assumed persona / personality is just a shadow of the mind, he said,
and the mind he identified as nothing more than “the sum total of memories.”
Imagination based on memories is unreal. He said the understanding of that
would free persons of the trap of memory. The light of consciousness passes
through the film of memory and throws pictures on your brain, he said. Thus,
because of the chaotic and distorted state of that part of the brain where
memories are stored, what you perceive is distorted and colored by feelings of
"like" and "dislike."
If a body has been covered in mud, it cannot be cleansed by adding even greater quantities of mud to it. The same applies to the mind. That which is the source of distortion cannot free one of distortion. To add more to the mind to try to cleanse the mind will only muddy up the problem even more. All mud must go - that is, all of the content of the mind must go - for it is nothing more than one big pile of mental mud anyway.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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