4. The Mind And The Self, Division And Oneness

The discrimination between what is the true Self and what is the mind self is essential for Self Realization and Enlightenment. At every moment you have to choose whether to live in the waking state mind, emotions, and body only or to live in the state of highest awareness of the true Self which is forever unchanging and blissful. This talk by Shree will guide you into this highest awareness and refocus your attention to live as you are, pure, free, and forever.

Transcript

Podcast by Sri,

The Mind and the Self.

We've been discussing in the last few podcasts the eight steps to self-realization and enlightenment.

This one I would say is a very important one because this point comes up knowing the distinction between what is mind and what is self,

What is division and what is oneness at all stages of your sadhana.

When one begins the practice of meditation in yoga sadhana,

In the initial stages of meditation the instruction is,

As we've all heard it,

To close the eyes and watch that the thoughts they come into the space in front of your closed eyes and then they go.

So we start out now with the vivek or the discrimination as to what is mind and what is self.

And at the beginning stages one becomes aware that there's a knower of the mind and that there are thoughts within the mind and the thoughts are changing and the knower is unchanging.

So the meditation begins right from the start with making this distinction between you as the self unchanging which is oneness which is all and the mind which divides which says I am this person,

You are another person,

I am separate from you,

I have my thoughts,

I have my life,

I have my family,

You have your thoughts,

Your life,

Your family.

And even within the confines of your own mind this division is going on.

There's me,

The knower,

The watcher and every thought creates another division dividing what I call me from the rest of the world.

So when you think in the morning I have to get up and I have to have my breakfast and do my chores that I do in the morning,

You're dividing yourself from the whole.

You're saying I am this individual,

This is my body,

This is my mind,

These are the things I have to do.

So this distinction,

This division happens automatically as soon as you're in the waking state.

So the meditator now begins to examine and to watch the mind,

The thoughts,

The division,

The identification and begins to see how this space which is pure,

Which is free forever begins to divide itself into all the various different changing forms,

Thoughts,

Ideas,

Preferences and how the senses are used to perceive all those divisions.

The eyes see the different forms,

The different shapes,

The different colours,

The mountains,

The river,

The ocean,

Whatever the eyes are looking at,

That sense perceives it all and says all those things are separate.

There's me,

There's my desk,

My computer,

My couch,

The mountain out the window,

The river out the window.

So this mechanism that we call the mind has this functioning of division.

Nothing's wrong because that's how it functions.

So as I was saying before,

In the beginning stages of meditation,

You begin to notice that when you close the eyes to meditate,

You are there watching.

So you are there prior to that division.

This is what we start to come to know now as your meditation progresses in a more intermediate and advanced stages,

You start to experience yourself as free from all the changing divisions that the mind creates.

And as you examine,

As you progress in your sadhana and you keep examining your mind and seeing its functioning,

Your perception,

Your perspective,

I would say begins to change.

So rather than the perspective of the beginning meditator that starts with the premise that I am these thoughts,

I am these feelings,

I am this person,

We start from the perception,

From the perspective that I am the self,

I am pure,

I am free,

I am forever.

And we see how the illusion is that this pure space,

This indivisible undivided consciousness appears to divide itself into all these different forms.

So the ocean becomes the waves,

The bubbles,

The foams,

The iceberg,

But we know it's all water,

It's all H2O.

The same way that pure consciousness,

That oneness that we are,

Has all these modifications that appear to be separate,

It divides itself into all these different forms,

Thoughts,

And so on and so forth.

So this power that comes from the very source,

From the very pure being,

Now operates through the mind and the mind,

The intellect,

Is a dividing faculty.

The senses are dividing faculties,

They're used to see division.

They go outward towards all the experiences,

The forms,

The situations of your life.

And you acquire all the qualifications that you put on this form and say,

I am a this,

I am a that,

I am a mother,

I am a tennis player,

I am a lawyer,

I am a psychologist,

I am a doctor,

I am a librarian,

I am a sanitation worker,

Whatever it is,

You put those qualifications on yourself.

I am an MA,

A PhD,

I am not a graduate,

I am a graduate,

They're all placed on you,

They're all those divisions of the mind.

Now this practice in the more advanced stages of meditation becomes more and more subtle,

Because as I said before,

The mind keeps operating,

That's its functioning,

To divide.

But now your perspective has changed.

Rather than coming from the perspective of this individual person sitting to meditate,

Watching the mind and the thoughts,

Seeing the space from where the thoughts come from and go to,

Knowing that space is you and the thoughts are changing,

From that beginning perspective now we're starting from the perspective of I am pure,

Free forever.

I am the whole.

So the thoughts are me,

The feelings are me,

The divisions are me,

Just like the waves and the bubbles and the foam and the iceberg,

They're all me,

They're all water.

So we're starting now from that perspective,

But the same discrimination is going on because the mind is very tricky.

When you sit to examine the mind,

It goes here,

It goes there.

The power of the very self operating through the mind makes the mind very,

Very powerful in believing itself.

So the mind will believe that contentment will come completely when I have this or when I don't have that.

And it's very subtle because the experience is that when the mind thinks that it needs to have this situation go this way or this person behave that way or this amount of money or this type of job and then when you get what you want,

When you get your desire fulfilled,

There's a momentary sense of bliss.

Can last a moment,

Can last a day,

A week,

A year.

So the programming is set up that I have to have this in order to be fulfilled,

In order to be content,

In order to be blissful.

If it's a health issue,

Same thing.

I have to have this health issue resolved and then I'll be okay.

So the more advanced stages of meditation,

You know this mechanism very thoroughly.

You know that it works like that.

So even while it's playing its game,

You see through it.

You know it.

You know that yes,

You still will try to get your desires fulfilled.

You still will try to get the things the mind is wanting but you'll know that that will not be your liberation.

That will not be your realization because the truth is that you are already that realized being.

These eight steps are just to take away all the covering that you've superimposed on you,

The pure being,

Because right now,

Right here,

If there's no future in your head thinking it needs to be that way or this way,

If there's no past that somehow you have to make up for,

If you can just be in the bliss of the moment when you are in the bliss of the moment,

Whether in meditation or some spontaneous realization and maybe possibly from an altered state due to something else,

Some medicine or drug or just some company that triggered that state.

In that moment,

Everything is fine just like in deep sleep when everything is fine but yet you're awake.

So we come to see in the more advanced stages without having to use any substances,

Without having to be around any company to bring that about,

We become aware of that space which is pure,

Free and forever.

That is the self.

That is oneness and there's this distinction because when the mind comes and if the mind is dividing as it does,

We know that that division is not the truth.

That's the mind and that's how it functions and you are forever pure,

Forever free,

Forever uninvolved.

So to be free is to be uninvolved meaning you're not in division.

You're not believing the mind and this is a key point in this,

How not to believe the mind because for so long throughout the whole life,

You've been believing the mind.

The mind needs this.

You're thirsty,

You need water,

You drink water and your thirst is removed.

This is necessary to sustain the body but because the mind functions this way,

Now this will be transposed onto other things that are not necessary to sustain the body.

I have to have a new car because my car isn't working properly or somebody else has a nicer car than me and I'll be more comfortable.

Nothing wrong with getting a new car but the mind sets it up that this is necessary just like the water is necessary to quench your thirst.

So the struggle goes on inside to try to create that which the mind wants.

This is the way the mechanism functions.

So now as this step,

This fourth step to self-realization is be aware of this distinction.

Be aware of the mind and its division and its divisive faculty and how it functions.

Just know that that's mind and that's okay but mind is nothing other than you.

So we say allow the mind then as we do in meditation to become absorbed or dissolved in the very space and that's why we practice meditation because that intellect,

The mind which functions to a certain degree needs to become absorbed in the very space,

The very source of its power.

The space,

The source gives the mind,

Gives the intellect the power.

So it's said that we need a higher intellect,

A shuddha buddhi,

A pure intellect because the mind can't really know the space but the pure intellect knows the distinction between the mind and the space.

This may seem like an obvious point but this continues throughout the sadhana at various different levels even going up to the point where one has various different experiences,

Psychic or spiritual experiences that seem very real and yet that discrimination still has to go on,

That that's on the level of the changing mind,

That's on the level of the changing forms and not to stop there.

And it's said that when the results of your sadhana come and you're showered with a sense of bliss,

Call it ananda anugatsamadhi where there's just blissfulness,

Not to stop there,

That you have to even be disinterested in those results of your practice to take it higher to know directly the pure space,

The shuddha buddhi,

The atma jnan,

The highest knowledge which is undifferentiated,

Which is one without a second,

Which is everything as it is,

Which is pure,

Which is free,

Which is forever.

So this distinction between the mind and the self or the knower continues until one becomes aware that it's all self,

It's all knower,

It's all pure,

Free forever.

And what I thought to be a bubble or a wave or an iceberg or foam was the same ocean water.

What I thought to be a thought,

A division,

A mountain,

A sofa,

A table,

A cloud was all just formations of the same sky,

Of all the elements together,

But it's all from one source,

Which is me,

Which is you.

And when that attention goes to the very attention itself,

The very knower itself,

Then that realized state is uncovered because all of the superimposed conditions have been lifted and you're left with you as you are,

Amaram and madhuram,

Immortal and blissful you are.

Amaramham madhuramham,

Pure,

Free and forever.