When On the "Journey" Does The "Mind" Finally End? Part Four

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Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, and domesticated to believe so that you can be free, period.

Furthermore, for those who have developed a preference for any non-nisargan yoga or who prefer Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: here you will only find the use of the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, all shared in simple, everyday English.

F.: There should be nothing about a "no-mind" existence that is difficult to accept. Anyone who has gone to see a movie or a play on the stage of a theater has entered into that no-mind state for a least part of the time.

All is merely being witnessed with the witness remaining totally silent. The "mind" goes into neutral, at least for part of the time there, so no thought at all is arising as all of the events are being witnessed.

So what makes the movement along the "path" so challenging when the point is reached where the "mind" must be left behind if the "journey" is to be completed in full? In the just-released book, "The Path to Freedom vs. The Path to Misery," this pointer is offered:

"For most, the search begins when seekers think that they need new concepts to replace their old ones. And there’s the rub. Many versions of the Advaita Vedanta teachings will fill that bill, but here, the nisarga approach affirms that no 'replacement beliefs are necessary.' The direct path method and the nisarga yoga make clear that there is no replacement and that it is senseless to try to make sense of the senseless."

When the doctors removed cancerous polyps, they were not asked, "So what are you going to put in their place?" It would be insane to have the source of misery removed but to want something substituted in place of that source of suffering.

Possibly an understanding of the way the "mind" has shifted from "friend" status to "enemy" status can break the hold. The full explanation is available in the book, "THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind), but here is some additional explanation for now:

Human and human-like forms have walked the planet for 14.5 million years. Minds began to form only at the very end of that period, at least in evolutionary terms.

Yet humans worked together, foraged together, hunted together, survived today, reproduced together, fought together, and played together for millions of years, all without language and, therefore, all without thought.

After the mind formed at the end of the evolutionary progression, if something was stored in the mind and retrieved, it was for the sake of perpetuating the species that was otherwise functioning under the auspices of the brain, the intuition, the sixth sense, the inner resource.

No one ever had to ask anyone else, "Would you please just shut up for a few minutes?! Can you allow me to enjoy just a few minutes in the peace and quiet? Can you please stop talking for just that long?"

No, the peace and quiet was the norm, not the exception. As with all other forms abiding on the planet at that time, it would be insane to be noisy and thereby attract animals that would love to feast on you. The silence and the quiet were tools for preservation. (They still are, but are seldom used among the masses.)

Quite a contrast to the egotistical way that so many persons function nowadays, yes? Now humans move about with a demand to "Look at me!" and the attitude that "You will listen to my loud music or my incessant talking, whether you want to hear any of it or not."

So here's the state now that is quite different from the state of humankind for millions of years: now, all moves in a progression from thought to word to deed. All actions begin with a thought, are expressed orally, and then result in an action.

A trip out-of-state to conduct a seminar this weekend required traveling through the city of Jasper, Texas. Events that shined a national spotlight on that town have been mentioned here before when several white supremacists killed a black man.

The whites first had the thought "I am different from black people and I am better than black people." Then they began organizing meetings in Jasper where whites stood before other whites and expressed orally their hatred for blacks.

Thoughts lead to words, and words led to the deed of three men kidnapping the black man James Byrd, taking him to a remote, country road, placing a chain around his neck and attaching it to the back of their truck, and pulling him along the road until he was decapitated.

Thought ... word ... deed. That is the current modus operandi of humans. They think; then they talk and talk and talk about what they are thinking and believing, showing off their supposed knowledge, showing how wise they are, pushing their beliefs on others; then, they act on those words. Their thoughts drive their words and their words drive their behavior.

And because their thoughts are based in ignorance at best - and insanity at the extreme - then their behaviors can be nothing other than ignorant and insane as well. The mind that served the species well has now turned on its hosts and is devouring them from within.

Where the untapped inner guru could be leading to constructive behavior (relatively speaking) the tapped "mind" is doing the opposite. The brain says from the stupor of a morning hangover, "I'll never do that again!" Wise counsel from the brain indeed.

But by 5 P.M., the "mind" says, "Well, you could have just have one drink. You know you need it before you go home and face what's waiting there." Overriding the constructive messages from the brain, the "mind" is hell-bent on destroying the self.

Now, communication and talking flood the airways, businesses, carpools, homes, everywhere. Because thoughts are racing, then words are racing, and with words racing, endless going and doing and zooming are the behavioral result.

The unconscious drive is to allow the speed of the body to catch up with the speed of the "mind" so some sense of equilibrium might manifest, but it will never happen; thus, going and doing and zooming combine with talk and talk and more talk to become the rule, and it all happens on a "thinking-mind-to-thinking-mind" level. Only if seeking begins, and only if a Realized teacher is found, can other types of communication possibly happen.

If the seeker follows the "path" in a step-wide fashion, only then might "communicating" happen in a consciousness to thinking mind manner; in a consciousness to working mind fashion; in a consciousness to inner guru / inner resource mode;

in a pure consciousness to unblocked consciousness style; in an inner guru / inner resource to inner guru / inner resource mode; and eventually in an awareness to awareness style, after which nothing needs to be said.

Then, in the absence of thoughts and words, the behavior that erupts spontaneously is "The Dance" ... merely "Dancing in Silence," "Dancing in the Quiet," "Dancing in Peace."

That is what the Realized teacher does, in the end. She / He invites you to the dance, but you must leave all thoughts outside the dancehall, all words outside the dancehall, and all personas and beliefs and ideas and concepts outside the dancehall.

In the dancehall of Realization, there is everything and there is nothing; therefore, there is Love and there is Wisdom, and neither of those requires a thought or word to manifest.

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