No mind is everything
No mind, the Zen practice of awareness, shows us soon as the thinking mind stops, true self emerges, and the above statement becomes true. The thinking mind cannot grasp this, and does not want to subject itself to this bigger reality. Should it do so it seizes to exist, and it’s game over for the ego.
No mind is a state of being, and only appears when the thinking mind stops. Then infinite self appears. This aspect of you is whole, it contains all that is, that has ever been, and that will ever be. It is free of fear, or happiness. It just is. As the Bhagavat Gita says, we are everything, and nothing.
Ego-mind doe snot like to be no thing; it tries to convince its owner (the limited you) that that limitlessness is non-sense. An effort to reduce the unfathonable, infinite you/eternal self, to a sizeable, controllable concept. It is a massive, powerful lie. One on which the entire workings of this planet is based on. It wrecks havoc on every level – literally keeps us in the dark.
Buddha meditated until he attained enlightenment – he saw the light of no mind. In this light he understood the power of the limited self over infinite self, and started to teach that all suffering comes identification with limited self. Desire springs from duality, it causes all the “have” and “have-not’s”. That desire does not end when we have the thing or things we covet, and does not go away when we merely stop craving, be it material, spiritual or concepts. Non-desire only happens when limited self realises stop identifying with the thinking self, transcending ego to attain consciousness, embracing infinite self.
This is why certain meditation, breath and self-enquiry practices are generally recommended as a lifetime adventure to penetrate and explore the infinite space that is everything, and nothing – infinite self. The quest for no mind sure is a bit of a rabbit hole exploration. And it may be tempting to just live with a mind filled with thoughts and ordinary breathing, without awareness and self-enquiry into the reality of self, in the ordinary world. Yet freedom, or liberation, of the infinite self, is the only way to end the tyranny of the thinking mind. Extreme dedication to be free from this bondage may lead to the light the Buddha experienced. At the very least you may unmask the flat, fake one dimensionality and illusionary reality we accept as real, to help us over-identifying with conflicting states of the surface veneer of duality.
Whatever the choice, the choice is yours. All human beings are born into into this bondage to ego. Ego rules us, a mental super-power that dominates ordinary dualistic reality. Here we are forever trapped in never ending cycles of ups and downs, of agony and ecstasy, fear and freedom. Apart from the ongoing personal drama such living, embedded in unchecked duality, or ignorance, is outright dangerous. It not only invite trouble, it is trouble. Big trouble.
Duality produces the mental constructs that divide our world. All the opinions and “us and them” and fear and love and agony and ecstasy, desires and judgment and fragmentation, perpetually feeds war and consumerism and religion and illness. In this way, like when we may feel miserable or discontent when we want something and can’t have it, we easily become irritated when we don’t like someone or a situation, we can readily justify that a country should be bombed or condone genocide. Polarity or duality results in constant inner and outer conflict. This imbalance is a accident evermore waiting to happen, guaranteed to manifest as illness, or war. This suffering won’t drop by any means other than entering into no mind. Stillness.
Stillness restores inner peace, and harmony surfaces. No action is required, and there is no doing. It is like a waking sleep. Consciousness. Self becomes aware of its infinite nature. Ordinary reality drops away. This self is everywhere, and resides within us. It does not depend on things, people and events for its existence. Self just is – independent and contains everything all that is. When we connect with it we experience inner peace.
Read more: Yoga and the whole duality.
I wrote this blog on a flight from Varanasi to Delhi, India. A great place to contemplate great things!
11 November 2014
Swami Sivananda: Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize (or know God). This is a process of surrender to God, or receive the Grace of God.
