F.: So what did Maharaj share regarding the distinctions being discussed in this series?
In differentiating the consciousness from the "mind," Maharaj said: "Behold, the real experiencer is not the mind, but My Self, the light in which everything appears."
Of the distinction, he said:
"What happens, happens spontaneously, without intentions - like digestion, or the growth of the hair. Realise this, and be free from the limitations of the mind"
and
"I am prior to the world, body and mind. I am the sphere in which they appear and disappear"
and
"As to my mind, there is no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens."
In line with the pointer here that "there is no such thing as peace of mind ... that there is only peace if you are out of your mind," Maharaj said:
"Desire is the memory of pleasure and fear is the memory of pain. Both make the mind restless. Moments of pleasure are merely gaps in the stream of pain. How can the mind be happy?"
He said: "How can an unsteady mind make itself steady? Of course it cannot. It is the nature of the mind to roam about. All you can do is to shift the focus of consciousness beyond the mind"
"... ideas of movement, of restlessness, of pleasure and pain are all in the mind. The Self stands beyond the mind, aware, but unconcerned."
Then there was this exchange:
Questioner: "Are you not afraid of death?"
Maharaj: "I am dead already."
Q: "In what sense?"
M: "I am double dead. Not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind too."
And later, this:
Questioner: "You say you are bodyless and mindless, while I see you very much alive and articulate."
Maharaj: "A tremendously complex work is going on all the time in your brain and body. Are you conscious of it? Not at all. Yet for an outsider, all seems to be going on intelligently and purposefully. Why not admit that one’s entire personal life may sink largely below the threshold of consciousness and yet proceed sanely and smoothly?"
With all that lives naturally - all fauna and fowl and fish, all forms and spaces other than "human ones" - their living happens without a "mind" and they all function "largely below the threshold of consciousness," witnessing only for as long as the consciousness remains manifest.
And witnessing as happens in nature is never accompanied by judgment, evaluation, or critique; never involves forming an opinion, giving an opinion, or pronouncing anything;
never involves thinking anything, saying anything, or "making up one's 'mind' " about anything. If there is disharmony in its area, the deer will naturally and automatically and spontaneously move away from all noise and chaos, but it will happen without triggering any lingering internal discord or discontentment or resentment or offense.
In nature, nothing seeks an audience, a spotlight, narcissism-inspired attention, a meeting where it can be heard, a place to go to complain or rejoice, a place to go to gain power, a place to go to gain more knowledge, a place to go to impose unquestioned authority, or a place to go to unconsciously generate chaos in order to escape boredom.
So it is for the deer; so it can be for You.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
