Today's Considerations
Today, let the focus be on what Maharaj had to say about
distortion.
First, to review: It matters not whether persons are looking at something deemed to
be “phenomenal” or at something deemed to be “Noumenal.” The fact is that most persons will view both with a warped perspective.
Maharaj: “Your personal universe does not exist by itself.
It is merely a limited and distorted view of the real. It is not the universe
that needs improving, but your way of looking.”
He said the same about persons’ “world view” as well: "You are not in the world. The world is in you" (meaning that the world that you have conceptualized is not at all as you perceive it and that it is in you, that is, in your mind.)
A warped perspective can provide nothing more than a warped
view of everything, so the blight of humanity includes humankind's inability to recognize that distortions and illusions
and warped perspectives really are distortions and illusions
and warped perspectives.
The “True Self” is nothing more than one of the two
modes of witnessing:
There is S-O witnessing, that is, dualistic subject-object
witnessing such as expressed in the statement, “I (subject) see you (object).” Then there is Pure Witnessing whereby all is
seen clearly; whereby distortions are suddenly recognized to be distortions; whereby
mirages are seen to be nothing more than mirages; whereby illusions are seen as
the illusions that they are; and whereby an end comes to viewing anything and
everything via warped perspectives.
A warped perspective can come because (A) one is looking out
through a dirty window, meaning through the distorting filter of a mind clogged
with the filth set in place via distorted and filthy programming and conditioning
and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination.
The filth can include beliefs rooted in a “different-from”
and therefore “better-than” mentality and it can include the arrogance that comes
with believing those two concepts.
A warped perspective can
also come because (B) one is looking at anything and everything but seeing nothing clearly and as it truly is because blockages that prevent clear seeing were set into place by warped and distorted
and ignorant and insane programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation
and brainwashing and indoctrination.
Maharaj said that he “talks to you from the perspective of the
universal consciousness.” Consider how this exchange clarifies that point:
Maharaj: “We are not speaking the same language. Yours is a
make-believe talk. [It] all hangs on suppositions and assumptions. You speak
with assurance about things you are not sure of."
Questioner: “Therefore, I am here.”
M.: “You are not yet here. I am here. Come in! But you
don't. You want me to live your life, feel your way, use your language. I
cannot, and it will not help you. You must come to me. Words are of the mind
and the mind obscures and distorts. Hence the absolute need to go beyond words
and move over to my side.”
Q.: “Take me over.”
M.: “I am doing it, but you resist. You give reality to
concepts, while concepts are distortions of reality. Abandon all
conceptualisation and stay silent and attentive. Be earnest about it and all
will be well with you.”
Maharaj advised: “Learn to look without imagination, to
listen without distortion: that is all. Stop attributing names and shapes to
the essentially nameless and formless, realise that every mode of perception is
subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought,
expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will
experience peace and freedom from fear.”
On another occasion, he made clear that humanity’s problem
with misperceiving is indeed centered in the mind:
Q.: “People are killing and getting killed and here you talk
of pictures.”
M.: “By all means go and get killed yourself, if that is
what you think you should do. Or even go and kill, if you take it to be your
duty. But that is not the way to end the evil. Evil is the stench of a mind that
is diseased. Heal your mind and it will cease to project distorted, ugly
pictures.”
He said in that regard: “When the mind takes over, remembers
and anticipates, it exaggerates, it distorts, it overlooks. The past is
projected into future and the future betrays the expectations. The organs of
sensation and action are stimulated beyond capacity and they inevitably break
down. The objects of pleasure cannot yield what is expected of them and get
worn out, or destroyed, by misuse. It results in excess of pain where pleasure
was looked for.”
He also said: “The world seen in consciousness is to be of
the nature of consciousness, when there is harmony (sattva); but when activity and passivity (rajas and tamas)
appear, they obscure and distort and you see the false as real”
and
“A quiet mind, undistorted by desires and fears, free from
ideas and opinions, clear on all the levels, is needed to reflect the reality.”
And what is the prerequisite for desires and fears? The
assumption of ego-states as identities.
Regarding that, Maharaj said: “A man should always revolt against
himself, for the ego - like a crooked mirror - narrows down and distorts. It is
the worst of all the tyrants; it dominates you absolutely.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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