After truly understanding what the illusory "mind" is, all of your effort and work and spiritual workaholism to still the racing, variable mind will end because the illusory "mind" will end.
Karen from Oregon, U.S.A.: I read some of your earlier postings saying that meditation should be nothing more than taking the time to sit quietly in order to consider a teacher’s pointers. I disagree. I am excited about the fact that I’m going to an ashram in India in October to attend a workshop on “Meditation Practices That End the Motion of the Mind.” When I return, I’ll be able to calm my mind at will. Why would you teach something that dissuades people from acquiring that skill?
F.: You are going to India, intent upon acquiring more knowledge, when the fact is that it is all the knowledge that you’ve already acquired that is producing the misery that you’re seeking treatment for. As far as your "disagreeing" with me, another site visitor shared this point from Dresden James: “When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker [will seem] a raving lunatic.” To disagree with the Teachings, when they are first heard by any programmed and conditioned person, is the most common response. Most are asleep and reject any invitation to wake up. As far as seeking in India, that region was once a place when the understanding was firmly fixed among a greater percentage of the population than in any other place. Today, just as many sleepwalkers reside in India as anywhere else. Some there are offering to sale you The Secret to a Motionless Mind. In truth, the prerequisite for the stillness you seek lies in understanding what “the mind” is…and is not. After truly understanding what the illusory “mind” is, all of your effort and work and spiritual workaholism to still the racing, variable mind will end because the illusory "mind" will end. That having been said, you are still going to go to India, you are still going to spend thousands of dollars, you will likely return, and then you will experience the temporary nature of the treatment plan that you are going to try to buy in India. The Teaching, conversely, deals only with the permanent.
Consciousness moves as long as it is manifested. Impure consciousness races and zooms and chatters and clatters. What can end now is the “mind” itself...that well of impure consciousness that you are drinking from all day long, every day. It is the product of that well that you are drowning in all day long, every day. You were “born” with a brain, not with a mind. The mind is the repository of all the myths, superstitions, lies, and incorrect beliefs that they gave you and that you now adopt and defend as if the concepts were originally your own. So the proper question is not why I would teach something that would dissuade your going to India. The question is, “Why would you spend money to go to India to try to acquire that which is unattainable? Why would you go to another country to find that which is within?” Yes, a samadhi state can be reached, but how much of a 24/7 relative existence can happen from a samadhi state? "But I feel better during the day after I reach that state before leaving the house each morning," some argue. Again, that is temporary and fleeting. Even post-India you will experience the world as a persona, driven by that impure consciousness called "your variable mind." In India, you will likely strengthen the persona of "the Spiritual Giant." You seek the "no-thought" state, but all persons live 24/7 in a state of being asleep but thinking they are awake. They think-think-think all day without realizing anything at all, and that is the condition you are seeking to treat. In effect, however, you will be treating the symptom rather than the actual sickness, which is the impure consciousness called your "mind." Thus, other questions that could be asked include:
(1) “Who wants to cling to the mind—but stop its motion—rather than abandon 'the mind' after realizing that it is a repository of contaminants?”
(2) “Who is ‘excited,’ and might that be evidence of emotional or spiritual intoxication?"
(3) “Who is willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to buy a plan that puts you out of touch with reality rather than fully in touch with reality?”
(4) “Who wants power...specifically the power to control ‘your mind’ when it’s not even yours anyway?”
(5) “Who does not know that the mind stops when all ideas and beliefs dissolve in the light of awareness of the fact that those ideas and beliefs are all false?”
(6) “Who thinks that she cannot find reality (and therefore peace) where she is but can find it if she alters her geographic location?” [To be continued 1 October 2005] Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: You are going to India, intent upon acquiring more knowledge, when the fact is that it is all the knowledge that you’ve already acquired that is producing the misery that you’re seeking treatment for. As far as your "disagreeing" with me, another site visitor shared this point from Dresden James: “When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker [will seem] a raving lunatic.” To disagree with the Teachings, when they are first heard by any programmed and conditioned person, is the most common response. Most are asleep and reject any invitation to wake up. As far as seeking in India, that region was once a place when the understanding was firmly fixed among a greater percentage of the population than in any other place. Today, just as many sleepwalkers reside in India as anywhere else. Some there are offering to sale you The Secret to a Motionless Mind. In truth, the prerequisite for the stillness you seek lies in understanding what “the mind” is…and is not. After truly understanding what the illusory “mind” is, all of your effort and work and spiritual workaholism to still the racing, variable mind will end because the illusory "mind" will end. That having been said, you are still going to go to India, you are still going to spend thousands of dollars, you will likely return, and then you will experience the temporary nature of the treatment plan that you are going to try to buy in India. The Teaching, conversely, deals only with the permanent.
Consciousness moves as long as it is manifested. Impure consciousness races and zooms and chatters and clatters. What can end now is the “mind” itself...that well of impure consciousness that you are drinking from all day long, every day. It is the product of that well that you are drowning in all day long, every day. You were “born” with a brain, not with a mind. The mind is the repository of all the myths, superstitions, lies, and incorrect beliefs that they gave you and that you now adopt and defend as if the concepts were originally your own. So the proper question is not why I would teach something that would dissuade your going to India. The question is, “Why would you spend money to go to India to try to acquire that which is unattainable? Why would you go to another country to find that which is within?” Yes, a samadhi state can be reached, but how much of a 24/7 relative existence can happen from a samadhi state? "But I feel better during the day after I reach that state before leaving the house each morning," some argue. Again, that is temporary and fleeting. Even post-India you will experience the world as a persona, driven by that impure consciousness called "your variable mind." In India, you will likely strengthen the persona of "the Spiritual Giant." You seek the "no-thought" state, but all persons live 24/7 in a state of being asleep but thinking they are awake. They think-think-think all day without realizing anything at all, and that is the condition you are seeking to treat. In effect, however, you will be treating the symptom rather than the actual sickness, which is the impure consciousness called your "mind." Thus, other questions that could be asked include:
(1) “Who wants to cling to the mind—but stop its motion—rather than abandon 'the mind' after realizing that it is a repository of contaminants?”
(2) “Who is ‘excited,’ and might that be evidence of emotional or spiritual intoxication?"
(3) “Who is willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to buy a plan that puts you out of touch with reality rather than fully in touch with reality?”
(4) “Who wants power...specifically the power to control ‘your mind’ when it’s not even yours anyway?”
(5) “Who does not know that the mind stops when all ideas and beliefs dissolve in the light of awareness of the fact that those ideas and beliefs are all false?”
(6) “Who thinks that she cannot find reality (and therefore peace) where she is but can find it if she alters her geographic location?” [To be continued 1 October 2005] Please enter the silence of contemplation.
