Stuff, was Good-bye to Tony's illusory ego!

[Guest guest]

Hi Wim,

>Tony can of course keep thinking that "everything is mind or thought stuff",

>until he ultimately finds that "mind, thoughts and thinking" are NOT

>"stuff", and therefore CAN NOT happen.

>

>Only physical "stuff" happens,

 

I'll disagree with you here - though it may be simply a matter of

definition of terms.

 

The trouble with that word "mind" is that people define it in so many ways.

Some define it in such a way that it can be said that everything is mind.

Some define it as the intellectual plane, what Eric Berne calls the

computer mind. This is what you seem to mean when you say, "The mind's job

is to be a database manager, an attentive stock room manager...." And

others use "mind" for more than that, but not everything. The

emotional/astral plane is called kama manas or "desire mind." And levels

higher than the intellect may also be included in "mind."

 

But however you define that, "thinking" and "thought" clearly seems to

refer to the plane of intellect or intellectual mind. Below that you have

emotions and dreams... above that you have intuition, which is different

from ordinary thinking.

 

Where I differ with you probably relates to the meaning of the word

"stuff." A good old word that has degenerated until many people think it

just means junk or things, as in "my stuff" or "that old stuff." My old

Webster's gives these definitions:

>1. Material to be worked up in manufacture or out of which anything is to

>be or may be formed; raw material; hence, any material regarded

>indefinitely; as, lava is curious stuff.

>2. The elemental part; essence; as, he was of good stuff.

>3. Loosely, any kind of matter, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous; matter.

>4. Goods; personal property.

>5. Fabric of any kind; sometimes, specif., woolen or worsted fabric.

>6. A medicine; a potion.

>7. Refuse; hence, nonsense; trash; - often as an interjection; as, stuff

>and nonsense!

 

You are using the word in only the 3rd sense, as physical matter. But as

you see, that is to ignore the wider meaning of the word - as the raw

material of anything, or the elemental part or essence.

 

Emotions are the stuff of the emotional/astral plane, and thoughts are the

stuff of the intellectual/mental plane - and AT LEAST as "real" as the

stuff of the physical plane.

 

That's why thoughts are so important and potentially harmful or beneficial.

We are constantly molding the stuff of the intellectual/mental plane into

thought-forms and releasing them. We are surrounded by thought-forms and

their correspondence on the astral/emotional plane, emotional thought-forms

or kama-manasic forms. If you could see on the intellectual/mental plane,

you would see your head in a cloud of these forms - unless you just cleared

them away.

 

If on occasion you happen to think something awful, something you would

rather not spread around to other people, what you can do is - quick! -

grab that thought-form before it gets clear away and shred it into bits,

and just send the bits upward to be recycled. If you do it thoroughly

enough, you may not even remember what it was you thought of. )

 

Love,

Dharma

[Guest guest]

Just quickly Dharma,

 

Oh well, it took longer :-) and much of the following was written in

general, so Dharma, do not take anything personal if it seems to sound that

way. Thank you for getting me back on my "hobby horse", my first hobby...

the love of words... quite human eh?

One of the first words we speak after being born, "Ma!"

 

Regarding "stuff.." and "mind."

 

Mind first:

I like to use words as close as possible to their original meaning, their

etymological sense.

I have a strong, more than intuitive, ability to get to the root meaning of

a word quickly. I also very often make contact, so to say, with the original

inventor of a word as well as the era and culture from which a word

originates. Call it a gift or siddhi, the way Ramana's defines what siddhis

are. When it is my intent, I get visions that accompany a word... a word can

transport me straight to its first moments of use: I see landscapes, people,

situations, hear sounds. Sure, I am clairvoyant... but clairvoyance develops

only fully, once all normal senses are fully acknowledged and used. After

the mind as the sixth sense (the way the Buddha and Avalokiteshvara see it)

reverts back to its original role and position as an aid to the senses,

helping to extend their use, not to control the reach or to limit human

sensitivity, it has a chance to become part of an additional sense. The word

"extra" in "extrasensory perception" does not mean extra or outside the

senses (as in extra-mural), it means extra in the sense of additional, to

enable the human perception of extra (additional) dimensional reality,

enhanced and extra sensitivity, aided by the mind's tools of analysis and

integration, insight, clarity and lucidity.

 

THERE IS NO MIND WITHOUT MEMORY

THERE IS NO MIND WITHOUT IMAGINATION

THERE IS NO MIND WITHOUT INSPIRATION

THERE IS NO IMAGINATION WITHOUT SENSES

THERE IS NO INSPIRATION WITHOUT SENSES

THERE IS NO MEMORY WITHOUT SENSES

THERE IS NO MIND WITHOUT SENSES

THERE ARE NO SENSES WITHOUT SOMEONE

THERE IS NO MIND WITHOUT SOMEONE

THERE IS NOBODY WITHOUT SENSES

THERE IS NOBODY WHO IS NOT HUMAN

THERE IS NO HUMAN WITHOUT MIND

THERE IS NO HUMAN WITHOUT SENSES

 

You may be surprised by what the human MIND was first used for...

 

"Human, man, woman, mind, memory, meaning, manage, manipulate" all share the

same Aryan root "MAN"... which originally meant... surprise...: "one who

takes stick in hand and throws it...", a projectile thrower !!!!

(Manage, manipulate, etc. derive from the Latin "manus" which comes from the

Aryan root MA, measuring by hand, sizing something up, matter, maya.)

So the human mind, which appears to set the human apart from the non-human,

was originally used to better manipulate "sticks and stones", ("beef and

bones" too :-) to aim better, to be a better marker. Later, the mind, as an

extension of the hands, came in handy to make better projectiles and cutting

tools: stones, 'fire-stones', clubs, axes, arrow heads, bows, etc.

 

Is Hanuman not sometimes depicted with a club, do kings not carry sceptres

(ceremonial clubs), do Hindu gods not carry ceremonial weapons... Well

originally they might not have been so ceremonial...

The ankush (hook), the bana (arrow), the chakra (throwing disk), the pa

(battle axe), the dhanusa (bow), the gada (mace), the kartika (chopper), the

khadka (sword), the khartwanga (bone club), the phurpa (stabber), the

trisula (trident).

 

So, actually, "hand and mind" go "hand in hand", the mental is based on the

tangible. The mental is rooted in and comes forth from the sensorial.

 

Stuff:

The words "stuff" (Latin "stuppa") and "stop" (Sanskrit "stupa")

originate

from the same Sanskrit "stambha", "tree", stem, stump, stub, stick, stock.

To "stand" comes from the Aryan root STA.

The word "stuffing" is additionally related to the Greek "stupe", tree,

shrub or plant material (such as bark, flax, roots) from which rope, string,

yarn and bedding (mattress stuffing) was made.

The word "stop" early on had the same meaning as our current "bus-stop" or

better even "pit-stop."

Stops were (mile) posts, landmarks, usually made from trees, trunks, poles,

posts, booms.

To "stop" did originally not just mean to come to a halt, it also and just

as much meant to stock up, to take in food stuff, gear, provisions, fuel

(brandstof in Dutch). "Let's stop by at the grocer and get some stuff to

eat."

 

Such "stops" were originally either poles stuck at intervals in river banks

(riva, ripa, arrive) to moor boats and take in provisions (food stuff) or

they were poles (posts) along roads to mark off distances .

At certain intervals, especially at crossroads and river crossings, houses,

hostels, hospitals, inns, caravanserais, outfitting posts, postal services,

etc. were set up. Most importantly "signs" were erected, postings... now we

still post messages through internet.

 

Stuff was taken in at stops, stops were invented for that.

"Stocking up", "stuffing up" and "stopping by" all have a similar

meanings

and are all based on the Aryan root STA... to stand, to exist, stand out,

all very realistic, very bodily, very much tangible, all very concrete,

material, it matters.

 

Stuff matters, stuff is matter.

 

In Dutch "stof" (as in "grondstof") also means matter, the same as

"stuff"

in the English "food stuff". "Stof" can also mean very fine matter, dust,

dirt, clay-dust.

According to the book of Genesis, when God made man he took clay, fine stuff

mixed with water, from which he moulded Adam, then he blew breath of life

into him and placed him in a nice space "Eden". (Interesting how the story

covers the five elements clay=earth+water, breath of life=fire+air, space

(akasha) =eden (literally meaning "open plain.")

(Is that too far-fetched?)

 

When the word "stuff" (or for that matter any word) is used, the speaker of

the word consciously or subconsciously refers back to all of the word's

history.

It behoves us to beware and to be aware of what words we speak and how we

speak them. In every word still lives the genius of the human who invented

and designed that word. Up to millions of years of history are contained in

every word.

We better use each word as well as the first human who formed his mouth

around a sound that expressed a special meaning, the human who projected

that sound into this wondrous world... where we may still hear its

vibrations and use them and pass them on.

 

That is how I understand the word "stuff" and "mind."

 

Maybe next time I can talk about "kosha," the English word "house"

originates from that, also cot, cottage, hut.

So when we say "manomaya kosha" a whole world opens up and it is very

concrete and tangible...

I will not get started...

 

We live in such abstracting, mentalizing times, it did not start out that

way... But when we reclaim our original self, reality strikes again.

There is nothing wrong with stuff: energy, matter, space, time, that we have

to escape it and abstract the world into fluff, better be here now and touch

it, touch the miracle and eventually recover your own miraculous existence.

 

Love, Wim

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