WHY BE RID OF THE FICTIONAL “MIND”? Part Six

FROM A SITE VISITOR: I finally understand your pointer that even if arms and legs and organs are ‘lost’ I Am still Me. But now, how to be free of my racing mind, once and for all?

F.: (Continued from 14 January 2008) Further, no Realized Advaitin teacher will tell you, “Here is the Truth. Write this down or memorize this.” Instead, that teacher will invite you to do something far less trying with far less effort required. The teacher will merely invite you to question objectively that which you were told subjectively.

Ideas and concepts need not be "worked over" and "pulverized"; no effort need be expended to try to "purify the mind" (which is an impossibility); instead, the belief in all concepts will merely dissolve when the light of awareness is cast upon the darkness and burns those concepts away.

Then, once Full Realization happens, who remains as a do-er to do? Who remains with wants or desires that need something done in order to have desires fulfilled?

Maharaj said that the “path” is a reversal—a movement backwards through the exact steps that led to the most corrupt state of limited identification with body only. That “in-bound” path of consciousness-corruption (or consciousness-blocking) has the same number of steps as the “out-bound” path to Realization and abidance as The Absolute.

For the sake of simplifying the teaching and for the sake of clarity, seven specific steps are discussed in detail in

FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

. It should be clear, though, that the key pointer is not aimed at “the mind” but is attempting to target the pure consciousness.

In fact, how could a pointer be aimed at “the mind” when there are actually multiple “minds”? In “Part One” of this series, the following was offered:

It will be shown, in fact, that humans develop several “minds” and that insanity is not about being out of your mind but is about being very much into one’s mind(s).

First, there is the “subconscious mind.” Nothing has ever been forgotten—it has merely been compartmentalized into an area from which it might be recalled or might not.

Then there is the “conscious mind” or “conceptual mind” which is a storehouse of ideas and beliefs that have been taught and stored and that are regularly recalled.

Then there is talk of “intellect”; talk of “the seven types of Suddha Sattva”; talk of “the six types of Rajasa Sattva”; talk of those minds that are typed according to a tamas influence; talk of “the collective mind or sense” [see, or don’t see, antahkarana], including talk of “intelligence” (buddhi, which itself prevents the knowing of pure consciousness);

talk of “ego” (ahamkara); and talk of “manas” (that is, the thinking faculty); talk of that which is imaginative or fanciful (see, or don’t see, kalpana); talk of the “corrupt mind.” Those trapped in, or influenced by, Personality Type Five (“The Analyst”) can spend a lifetime studying all of those types; mulling over all of those types; addressing all of those types; trying to purify all the types that need purifying; and then seeking to fixate in “the spiritual mind.”

Most who think they have reached that "spiritual mind" stage also think that they have arrived at the place of high noon, of the brightest level of enlightenment; yet they mistake the dawn for the noon, having taken only three of the seven steps required for Full Realization. Maharaj told visitors that they “…must go back, reverse, to the source,” not that they must reverse and go back halfway to the source.

It has been noted in past postings that

Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The “mind” is rooted in programming, conditioning, lies, concepts, ideas, superstitions, myths, falsehoods, enculturation, and domestication.

At the end of a long, expensive journey that took "floyd" to the snow-covered top of a mountain in Santa Fe in order to visit the Cherokee Medicine Man residing thereon, the chief asked, "What have you done so far on this 'spiritual journey' that you speak of?" A long cataloging of work was offered. Then he asked, "And what do you plan next?"

A longer cataloging followed, explaining the strategy that was to be used to address all those minds and to re-purify and cleanse them all. The chief used his two walking canes to struggle to his feet and as he hobbled away he said, "Then you are going to be a very busy boy."

A "fury-filled mind" manifested as it recounted all of the time and effort involved in presenting myself before that man from whom the Great Truth was to be received. Yet those ten words would later strike a cord with the pure consciousness that had been obstructed by those various "minds." A far more simple choice came forth: "Work with it all, or toss it all?"

What is your own relative experience with garbage? Do you work with your garbage to try to improve or purify it, or do you simply throw it away, once and for all? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

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Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT