REFLECTIONS on ADVAITA: PART 12 – GUEST WRITER: LOUISE STERLING

How the Movement of Desire and Fear in the Mind Creates Duality

Driving back from dropping kids at school, I must make a lane change on a notoriously dangerous bend on a busy freeway. The other day, when the lane change approached, the thought emerged “Please God let this happen safely.” Obviously, as an atheist, there is no belief in a personal God, so this thought “cloud” can simply be observed and interrogated – like an old cassette tape with ancient programming.

What is happening here it seems, is a movement of the mind in response to a natural arising of fear in a threatening situation – a splitting of the mind into self and God. The self experiences fear and creates a God to manage the fear. Closed system. The insight is that the conceptual movement to create a God takes place in the presence of either fear or desire. Fear = Please God protect / save / rescue me. Desire = Please God give to me / get for me / provide help for me. Fundamental egotism. God is the Supernatural Superhero – who zaps the baddies, saves you from earthquakes in the nick of time, protects you from retrenchment in shaky economic climates, and keeps a sharp eye out for True Love or a bargain beach house. In the absence of any extreme fear and desire, there is no need to conjure up a God – this only shows up when the pressure is on. (However, many persons believe that attending regular services and “praying” to a God in periods of relative calm will put them into the inner circle – so they will get speedier attention when “the shit hits the fan”.)

The next obvious observation is this: Is there a more refined splitting of the mind into two – subject and object? For example, to manage any remaining tendrils of desire and fear, does the aspirant not simply create other Gods: the Guru, the Self, even the Absolute? Yes of course. Subject-object duality is still present here. That is why eliminating attachment to desire and fear frees the seeker from this trap of duality. In the absence of desire and fear, the protective splitting of the mind does not occur – this is non-duality.

Maharaj put it this way: “When 'I am' and 'God is' become in your mind indistinguishable, then something will happen and you will know without a trace of doubt that God is because you are, you are because God is. The two are one.”

Can You see how the mind functions to splinter the One Non-dual Reality into fragments that appear separate and discontinuous? Can you see that with the erroneous thought of the self as separate … special … different … under threat … wanting … needing … hurting … caring … ad nauseum … what is Real is splintered – like a mirror shattered on the hard floor. Can you see how the movement into desire and fear creates duality?

Maharaj explains: “The same power that makes the fire burn and the water flow, the seeds sprout and the trees grow, makes me answer your questions. There is nothing personal about me, though the language and the style may appear personal. A person is a set pattern of desires and thoughts and resulting actions; there is no such pattern in my case. There is nothing I desire or fear how can there be a pattern?”

Can You see the pointer offered here? The functioning is natural, spontaneous. The “seeker” appears and asks the question – and so the “teacher” appears and the answer emerges. Can You see that there is no “seeker”; there is no “teacher” – there is simply an appearance of duality. Because the “seeker” is, the “teacher” is. In the absence of desire and fear, there is no movement into the dual-mindedness that conjures up the world. Or, as Floyd says: “You are in a play, playing a role, and believing that the role and the play are both real. Why would you believe such nonsense? Because "your mind" is the playwright, the author of every scene.”

In essence then, the attachments to desires and fear produce the patterning that results in the illusory concept of a separate self. “Awareness is unattached and unshaken. It is lucid, silent, peaceful, alert and unafraid, without desire and fear.” – Nisargadatta Maharaj. Once there is a separate self, the Non-dual Reality is splintered into fragments, since the self is always in relationship to something or someone. The invitation of the Advaitan Teachings is to return to the Non-dual State which is beyond … to eliminate the desires and fears that create the false sense of a separation.

Ask the questions: What are You in the absence of desire? What are You in the absence of fear? What are You beyond the “I am” and “God is”? What are You when the “seeker” and the “teacher” are seen as Not Two? What are You when the patterning dissolves? What are You in the silence that is beyond all conception? And ... finally ... what are You when the questioner and the question drop away?

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

(For extended teaching on these questions see the ebook: From the I to the Absolute.)

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