[Continued from yesterday]
F.: Advaita provides a direct (seven-step) route to being in touch with reality, yet you are taking a detour and wandering about through the fictitious “mind” which supports persons’ beliefs in that which is unreal. Dawdling about through “the mind,” you are taking thousands of unnecessary steps rather than following the direct “path.” The “mind” is a conspirator that is posing as your lover, and that deceptive lover is whispering into your ear certain directions that will cause you to stray from the direct path. Those directions will put you on a course that leads only to fellow connivers—to the ego-states that await you in the dark and that wish to imprison you in the darkness forever. The "mind" is the instrument that supports your personality with thoughts, and those thoughts are the instruments that will forever prevent "peace of mind"; in fact, there is no such thing as "peace of mind." There is only peace if freed of the "mind" (as well as body and personality identifications). Deceptions—if taken to be truth—will always lead to misery and destruction, relatively speaking.
Therefore, see “the mind” as a nothing more than an amalgamation of illusions and then be done with it, once and for all. It is nothing more than a multi-faceted mirage. You are traversing a desert called “life” and seeing one mirage after another and taking each to be real. How could a mirage "practice" anything? What should the mind do? you ask. Restate your query accurately and ask, “What should a mirage do?” Then ask, “What could a mirage do?” Your identification with a mirage leaves you believing that a mirage can do something, that a mirage can show you something, and that a mirage can actually guide you out of the desert. You think that if a mirage does certain things, it will improve itself or will help “you.” You also believe that if a mirage improves, it can also help other mirages. That which you seek is beyond body, mind and personality, so how could any of those three possibly facilitate the search? They cannot. You have become lost on an ocean voyage because of a faulty compass, yet you want to continue to use that same compass to guide you to your intended destination. It cannot.
V.: So.. is it something like, the very act of \"looking\" and \"understanding\" that everything is false is tantamount to all the practice needed? This is what makes it difficult. Because the very nature of transactions of the world makes me feel lonely if I am not involved.
F.: What that comment reveals is more of the confusion that results from duality. It shows that (1) you still want to consider yourself a do-er yet on some other level you know that (2) witnessing and seeing clearly is as much “practice” as is required. Next, who told you that Realization eliminates “involvement,” if by “involvement” you refer to AS IF living? These responses could be considered involvement, though all that is actually happening is that questions have been asked and answers have followed AS IF anything in the relative is real. Responses seem to be moving from one party to another, yet all that is happening is that consciousness is speaking AS IF any of this matters. To a prejudiced witness, it might appear as if some involvement is happening, but no attachment to outcome exists. The point is, AS IF living can happen post-Realization and relative-existence “involvement” can happen even as You realize that no “Involver” exists.
A company recently paid “floyd” for a study of the personalities being assumed by its staff and by some of its clients. The study revealed the relative impact that personality was having on interactions and communication and effectiveness. The persona inventory happened, the explanations happened, the payment happened, and now that payment will allow the payment of other bills to happen. Yet in all of those happenings, no “Inventory Taker” was assumed to be real, no “Interpreter of Data” was assumed to be real, no “Payer” or “Payee” was assumed to be real, and no “Money Earner” was assumed to be real.
It all merely happened, and because it was happening from the AS IF stance, no concern was experienced when some were driven by egotism to want to reject the findings that exposed certain negative, relative-existence, personality traits and that exposed widespread Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder among the group. Similarly, should an organization or individual offer to pay “vigneshwar” to become “involved” in a company’s happening, that can happen. If Realized, it will happen without attachment and, therefore, without any “Experiencer of Emotional Intoxication” and without any false perception of “doership.” Understand that and you will understand that the “involvement” you desire is another relative concept that is being desired by an identity that is also nothing more than a concept. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
F.: Advaita provides a direct (seven-step) route to being in touch with reality, yet you are taking a detour and wandering about through the fictitious “mind” which supports persons’ beliefs in that which is unreal. Dawdling about through “the mind,” you are taking thousands of unnecessary steps rather than following the direct “path.” The “mind” is a conspirator that is posing as your lover, and that deceptive lover is whispering into your ear certain directions that will cause you to stray from the direct path. Those directions will put you on a course that leads only to fellow connivers—to the ego-states that await you in the dark and that wish to imprison you in the darkness forever. The "mind" is the instrument that supports your personality with thoughts, and those thoughts are the instruments that will forever prevent "peace of mind"; in fact, there is no such thing as "peace of mind." There is only peace if freed of the "mind" (as well as body and personality identifications). Deceptions—if taken to be truth—will always lead to misery and destruction, relatively speaking.
Therefore, see “the mind” as a nothing more than an amalgamation of illusions and then be done with it, once and for all. It is nothing more than a multi-faceted mirage. You are traversing a desert called “life” and seeing one mirage after another and taking each to be real. How could a mirage "practice" anything? What should the mind do? you ask. Restate your query accurately and ask, “What should a mirage do?” Then ask, “What could a mirage do?” Your identification with a mirage leaves you believing that a mirage can do something, that a mirage can show you something, and that a mirage can actually guide you out of the desert. You think that if a mirage does certain things, it will improve itself or will help “you.” You also believe that if a mirage improves, it can also help other mirages. That which you seek is beyond body, mind and personality, so how could any of those three possibly facilitate the search? They cannot. You have become lost on an ocean voyage because of a faulty compass, yet you want to continue to use that same compass to guide you to your intended destination. It cannot.
V.: So.. is it something like, the very act of \"looking\" and \"understanding\" that everything is false is tantamount to all the practice needed? This is what makes it difficult. Because the very nature of transactions of the world makes me feel lonely if I am not involved.
F.: What that comment reveals is more of the confusion that results from duality. It shows that (1) you still want to consider yourself a do-er yet on some other level you know that (2) witnessing and seeing clearly is as much “practice” as is required. Next, who told you that Realization eliminates “involvement,” if by “involvement” you refer to AS IF living? These responses could be considered involvement, though all that is actually happening is that questions have been asked and answers have followed AS IF anything in the relative is real. Responses seem to be moving from one party to another, yet all that is happening is that consciousness is speaking AS IF any of this matters. To a prejudiced witness, it might appear as if some involvement is happening, but no attachment to outcome exists. The point is, AS IF living can happen post-Realization and relative-existence “involvement” can happen even as You realize that no “Involver” exists.
A company recently paid “floyd” for a study of the personalities being assumed by its staff and by some of its clients. The study revealed the relative impact that personality was having on interactions and communication and effectiveness. The persona inventory happened, the explanations happened, the payment happened, and now that payment will allow the payment of other bills to happen. Yet in all of those happenings, no “Inventory Taker” was assumed to be real, no “Interpreter of Data” was assumed to be real, no “Payer” or “Payee” was assumed to be real, and no “Money Earner” was assumed to be real.
It all merely happened, and because it was happening from the AS IF stance, no concern was experienced when some were driven by egotism to want to reject the findings that exposed certain negative, relative-existence, personality traits and that exposed widespread Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder among the group. Similarly, should an organization or individual offer to pay “vigneshwar” to become “involved” in a company’s happening, that can happen. If Realized, it will happen without attachment and, therefore, without any “Experiencer of Emotional Intoxication” and without any false perception of “doership.” Understand that and you will understand that the “involvement” you desire is another relative concept that is being desired by an identity that is also nothing more than a concept. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
