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emc
2072 Posts |
 Posted - Dec 07 2015 : 04:58:23 AM
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The mind is mithya …
From time to time, I encounter statements like these, from a recent post by my friend, Francis Bennett:
“ … If you could really understand right now that your thoughts aren't real, you could give up all seeking and you would find yourself living in perfect being, pure consciousness and unconditional bliss/happiness in this very moment. You would find yourself effortlessly and beautifully living in God.
YOUR THOUGHTS AREN'T REAL ...They are real as thoughts, but they are not the same thing as concrete reality HERE AND NOW. They are a filter placed over reality … . The first step in ‘practicing’ unhappiness is believing your thoughts. … ”
There is truth in these statements, and they can be valuable pointers. However, there is more to the story, and it is important that we investigate, that we understand, the WHOLE story about thoughts and our relation to them.
Thoughts are MITYA, which means thoughts are simultaneously real AND unreal. Just as the mind is mithya, the body also is mithya, which means the body is simultaneously real and unreal. Just as the mind and body are mithya, the world is mithya, which means the world is simultaneously real and unreal.
The mind, the body and the world operate in the realm of Maya. Maya is the great illusory power. Maya runs the entire universe. Maya gives birth to all the myriad individualities that populate creation.
Maya must not be dismissed as “mere” illusion. Maya is tremendously powerful, and not merely because we have been entangled in its dream-spinning net.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says Maya is “difficult to overcome” even as he refers to it as “My divine Maya.” Without Maya, we could not live as awakened individuals. Without the mind, without the body, without the world, we could not live at all. Without the mind, without the body, without the world, we could not awaken, and without them we could not LIVE our awakening.
It is true that thoughts are unreal. However, it’s important not to fixate only on the unreality of thoughts. Thoughts are simultaneously real AND unreal.
Not IDENTIFYING with thoughts is the key. For that, we need to see, thoughts are not who we are. “Don’t believe your thoughts” and “thoughts are unreal” are pointers that can help with this. Accomplishing that freedom from identification changes forever our relationship with thoughts.
But then, there continue to be thoughts. There continue to be feelings, attitudes, personal history, stories, ISSUES – even when we have released our identification with them, even after their power over us has been greatly diminished.
Often, those feelings, attitudes and issues remain far in the background, and freedom is the predominant experience. Perhaps at times they are so far in the background, we may even believe they have disappeared completely and forever.
But sometimes, even after we have released our identification with thoughts, those remaining feelings, attitudes and issues can be powerful enough, uncomfortable enough, even painful enough, they call us to do something. At least, they may limit how fully we can enjoy our freedom.
We may attach to the idea, “Thoughts are unreal; don’t believe your thoughts,” even after it has served its purpose. Out of habit, we may persist in pushing away parts of ourselves that are not yet included in our freedom. Even after we’ve let go of our identification with thoughts, we may persist, confining part of ourselves in darkness by not letting go of an attitude and a practice that has outlived its usefulness, that we ourselves have outgrown.
What happens when we then shift our attitude TOWARD thoughts? What happens when we say, “Let me look at these thoughts, these attitudes, this personal history, these stories, these issues. Let me gently see into them. Let me feel them. Let me try to understand what they are, where they came from, how they have shaped what I am feeling now.”?
Often, we need do no more than this, simply turning toward the darkness and allowing the light of our own unbounded awareness to shine there.
Sometimes, it feels the other way around. Sometimes it feels like we don’t send our light anywhere; we let whatever was hidden in shadow come into the light. We release our resistance. We let whatever was hidden or held at a distance, come into our daylight, and we see it was only part of a greater perfection. It was only part of the process that led to our liberation.
This is alchemy. The shadows transmute. They cease to be negative, they cease to hold us. They become part of our power. Somehow, magically, they turn from poison to nectar, from the pain of injury to the pangs of creative birth.
“A person should not strive to eliminate one’s complexes but to get into accord with them; they are legitimately what directs one’s conduct in the world.” ~ Sigmund Freud
They never were shadows, really. They only seemed so at an earlier stage, before we could see so clearly.
When we do this, each time we see into part of ourselves that had been held in darkness, there can be a tremendous release, a huge opening, a soaring expansion. This can happen even in the midst of a long established awareness that we are already unbounded, we already contain the entire universe within ourselves.
But to see this perfection, we have to eventually LOOK. We have to take seriously, from a new perspective, what we had previously dismissed. We have to open ourselves to everything.
“Brahman accepts everything and rejects nothing.”
“Brahman is the eater of everything.”
“The enlightened knower of Brahman drinks nectar from every particle of the universe.”
EVERYTHING becomes food. Everything becomes nectar for the unbounded, all-inclusive freedom that is our own awakened Self.
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” ~ T. S. Eliot |
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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1537 Posts |
Posted - Dec 07 2015 : 08:57:43 AM
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Brilliant!
Thank you.
Sey 
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sunyata
USA
1508 Posts |
Posted - Dec 07 2015 : 09:41:00 AM
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Nice emc. I'm a big fan of Francis Bennet as well |
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Charliedog
1625 Posts |
Posted - Dec 07 2015 : 10:08:57 AM
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| Thank you emc. Very clear |
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Blanche
USA
861 Posts |
Posted - Dec 08 2015 : 06:48:08 AM
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Thank you, emc! As Rumi says:
"Become nothing, and He'll turn you into everything." |
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parvati9
USA
587 Posts |
Posted - Dec 22 2015 : 11:27:57 AM
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These quoted parts really stood out:
"...we already contain the entire universe within ourselves...
But to see this..
We have to take seriously, from a new perspective,
what we had previously dismissed...
WE HAVE TO OPEN OURSELVES TO EVERYTHING...
Brahman accepts everything...rejects nothing...
The...knower of Brahman
DRINKS NECTAR FROM EVERY PARTICLE OF THE UNIVERSE."
Thank you emc. So true.. well said.. beautiful..
love
parvati |
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mr_anderson
USA
734 Posts |
Posted - Dec 22 2015 : 12:38:54 PM
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| Nice! Thanks EMC. Really enjoyed this. |
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Jerry Freeman on The mind is Mithya
