REFLECTIONS on ADVAITA: PART 11 – GUEST WRITER: LOUISE STERLING

Taking Aim and Firing at the Clouds of Untruth until the Mechanism of the Cloud-Generating Mind is Seen

Imagine playing one of those very early computer games: puffs of cloud float across the screen and you take aim and fire. Bam! If your aim is correct, the cloud vanishes. If you miss, the cloud continues floating along until it floats off the screen and reappears again from the other side – an endless loop. Let’s use this as a teaching metaphor. The seeker appears and begins to puff out clouds (conceptual clouds, obscuring clouds, clouds of confusion, clouds of conditioned untruths). The “teacher” takes aim and fires at each passing cloud. Bam! It is an automatic process with the “teacher” – cloud … bam; cloud …bam; cloud …bam. The cloud produces the bullet. (As “floyd” explains in the Advaita Vedanta Retreat DVD, the purified consciousness simply “sees” when the consciousness is corrupted.)

Sometimes the “teacher’s" bullet hits the spot, the cloud evaporates instantly …and the seeker can enjoy the freedom of one concept less; one more rope of bondage removed. At other times, the cloud floats by unscathed. Without investigation or pure witnessing, it will not evaporate or dissolve. Instead, it may disappear temporarily, but sooner or later it will float back onto the computer screen of the seeker’s mind. When the seeker does not resist the target practice, the “teacher” can clear the mind of many of these conceptual clouds, so the seeker can at least see the clear blue sky. With sufficient detachment, the seeker may begin target practice on his or her own conceptual clouds too. Eventually, the witness will appear and observe the whole construct – the seeker with the mind that constantly churns out these obscuring clouds. It is impossible to shoot the clouds one by one endlessly – the only way is to eliminate the root or the generator of the clouds – the mind.

Look at it this way: the mind is a dream and nightmare producing mechanism. The nature of the dreams and nightmares are of no consequence. It is enough to simply observe how they are produced, to witness the functioning of this mechanism and have nothing more to do with them. Don’t bother trying to find meaning in the content. Accept that it is all rubbish – sugar-coated rubbish or bitter-tasting rubbish.

My “teachers” Floyd Henderson and Nisargadatta Maharaj have similar teaching styles – taking aim and firing with precision at the clouds of untruth. Eventually Maharaj focused on seekers in whom the readiness was present; in other words, seekers who were sufficiently detached from the mind to take the pointers into silent consideration and allow them to have their purifying effect. There was no inclination to work with the beginners strongly identified with this cloud-producing mechanism. Floyd has mentioned that his teachings and pointers have become more focused and direct – much like a surgeon focusing in to remove the tumour. The Retreat DVD explains how the attempt is made with each seeker; however, if the consciousness is too corrupted, the “teacher’s” focused pointers will come to naught, as the seeker will simply attempt again and again to engage the “teacher” in the details of the content of those rubbish-filled clouds. As Floyd explains: “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.”

Although some may try to distort the Teaching, is it clear that for the Advaitan “technology” to work it must result in the total elimination of any concepts – including about seeking, and teachers and realization and Advaita. As mentioned yesterday, any concept added to THAT creates the abyss of separation. If the seeker begins to puff out concept clouds about spirituality, the teacher will take aim and fire. Bam! Often, the precision with which the “teacher” dismantles the clouds of false identification is misinterpreted by the seeker as being harsh and “unloving” – not at all the image of the Realized sage. The image or mental concept of the “Enlightened Sage” is usually a chocolate box image however. When the Realized “teacher” speaks, it is the purified consciousness speaking. LOVE IS. If the “seeker” experiences harshness – this is an ego persona taking a knock. (However, beware of teachers where the consciousness is not purified, since the teaching will be emanating from corrupted consciousness via an ego persona and not the pure consciousness … and the destructive relative effects on seekers are documented all over the Net.)

So, become Your own teacher – watch the mind. Observe the constant puffing out of rubbish-filled clouds. Do not identify with the content – pleasurable or painful. Simply observe and see for Yourself how this mechanism works. It is this observation that will break the bonds that bind You.

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

(For extended teaching on the elimination of mind, see: There’s No Such Thing as Peace of Mind and From the I to the Absolute. The Advaita Retreat DVD will be available towards the end of September.)

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