"The Soul's Journey to its Destiny" Chapter 7 Summary

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Jan 17th

Advaitin List members.

Hari OM.

 

Please find here with the summary of chapter 7 of the

book, as titled in the subject, by Swami Ashokanada. I

apologize for not being able to repeat the format of

the earlier 6 postings as the template was transferred

by me along with all my files on spirituality just 2

days back, to Indiatimes.com and mysteriously the

email part of the site stopped working since then.

Divine play I suppose.

 

PART B: CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY: The Significance and

Importance of the Conscious Mind.

 

It is good to understand the different aspects of the

mind as well as its different states such as waking,

dream and deep sleep or the conscious, unconscious and

super conscious. However what we can call our own, is

that which forms a part of our own conscious life or

mind.

 

Q1) Why does the conscious mind occupy this important

place? After all its contents are of less value than

what we can possess in super conscious state.

A1) = What we gain in the conscious mind is really

ours; until we have brought- all thoughts, or emotions

within the range of our conmscious perception, we

cannot benefit from it.

 

Q2) Is not Unconscious mind more powerful than

conscious- then why not study it?

A2)=A study of unconscious for the purpose of

knowledge is one thing, but undue attention or giving

it superiority over conscious is another (This is

perhaps why Tantric practices are restrcited- my

opinion)

 

Q3) How long long does one need a Guru?

A3)= A spiritual teacher can ruin his disciple by

allowing them to remain with him for too long.

Guidance is not needed from day to day or year after

year as it encourages dependency.

 

Q4) What to choose to focus- Conscious or unconscious?

A4)= In Indian tradition, a great deal of importance

is given to the conscious mind. Even if I am given the

advice of the most wise person, the only thing that

will be of use to me will be the comeptence I have

gained within myself in the conscious mind.

 

All great religious scholars have paid much attention

to their followers to improve their conscious mind by

laying down moral laws and insiting upon moral

observances. You have to lay down the basic laws of

life before your conscious mind and from the beginning

you have to train it to accept those things. Life

should not be too complicated for people. (Perhaps

this de-emphasizes incomprehensible rituals and

prefers understanding the logic of scriptures- my

opinion)

 

Q5) How does the conscious mind works?

A5)= The mind as we have seen earlier has 4 functions.

In the lowest, citta or unconscious all kinds of

impressions are automatically stored. It is here that

sensations from outside first enter the realm of mind.

Your reaction to it may not be exactly as that of

another person. That is a very important point. In the

unconscious part, the ground work is doen. Then the

idea or percept comes to a higher state of mind. Now

it does not matter what you do, all the four four

phases of the mind are active in you. Genrrally the

final decison is made by Buddhi in a conscious

way.(Emotions- resulting from our basic Gunas cloud

our judgement- hence the advice for dispassion in our

scriptures- my opinion)

 

Q6) Why does the mind have to behave this way?

A6)= Why should I, this pure self, have the mind, body

& the external world - all of which constitute the

other the object of the knower. We will never be able

to answer that "why" , but we can attempt to answer

"how". If we analyze the whole process of our

miserable and defective perception and the compulsion

behind it, we can say that there is continual urge to

achieve a unity, to comprehend the total reality,

which we find infinitely differentiated. That is to

say, there is a division observed and also there is a

denial of that division inside our thinking.

These two contrary forces, as it were, are working in

our individual consciousness. One recognizes

differences, the other wants to embrace all the

differences in the unity.

 

Q7) How do I explain my desire for Unity?

A7)= There must be a fundamental unity between me and

what I call, the objective world. My being is not just

here at this point in space; my being is all this

being; that is why I want to be united with the whole

universe in one way or another (founadtions of

advaitin- my opinion)

 

Q8) So why is that our mind, instead of going directly

to the "one", messes around with all these

diversities?

A8)= The mind goes through an infinite variety of

forms to find a basic unity. That is what we call

knowledge. We sometimes find a unifying principle and

call it a law. (this explains- Duality-my opinon)

 

Q9) Why do we not go directly to the "one"?

A9)= For some reason, we ourself want to hold on to

that inability. The mind displays an unwillingness to

go beyond diverisites, beyond the differences and

divisions.

 

Here perhaps, we find a clue to "why" we do not go

directly to the "one" (see Q & A No.6). It is because

there is the mind which itself is there, because of

the senses of otherness. That is not the real answer,

but the trouble starts with this sense of otherness

created by Maya. The moment the "infinite" thinks

there is the other, it restricts itself. Then it

restricts this restriction although this restriction

is self-imposed. This whole contradictory effort

becomes the source of creation. We want to make the

whole world one, yet we want to reatin this diversity.

It is for this dual purpose- on the one hand

elaboration and diversification , on the otherhand

unification, that the mind together with life , the

senses and the body comes into being. (Sounds like the

logic of Nations & Globalization - my opinion)

 

Q10) What role Intelliegnce and Ignorance play?

A10)= Intelligence, which is the highest part of the

mind serves the purpose of unification. At the same

time, one is unwiling to give up that which makes for

diversification. The same intelligence also conceives

desires.

 

The very beginning of this process is ignorance. The

sense of otherness cannot be real. Therefore when a

person is living this dual life, (with the opposing

directions) his life often gets into tangles. A

fundamental frustration and disappointment is

dramatized threoughout our life. This is the

fundamental story of the mind. (This perhaps explains

the affection for other sex, then family, then

community, then nation and finally the whole religion-

my opinion)

 

Q11) How to remedy this state of things? (IMPORTANT)

A11)= The conscious principle is the soul, the

purusha. Everything else, the intelligence, mind, body

and so on is a diversification of the unconscious

principle - prakriti or nature. Consciousness is the

same thing as self consciousness - not in a bodily

sense or in the sense of individuality which stands

for limitations and distinctions. All knowledge, all

findings of truth is of me (a self conscious entity)

has to be accomplished through this self

consciousness. There is not other way about it. (core

conept of advaitin-my opinion)

 

One of the things you have to do is to become self

conscious on a higher and yet higher level. All moral

and spiritual dictates are prescriptions that enable

us to reach towards a higher self consciousness. Most

of our attention and effort should be given to

mediating upon this higher self. If you are a

religious man, you should dwell upon the nature of

God.

 

The moment your conscious mind tastes true unity, it

will send out a message to the unconscious part of the

mind and a revolution will start taking place, all

contrary impressions will be on the defensive. They

don't immediately die out, they put up many fights but

gradually lose strength. The good thoughts stored in

unconscious will also come up & strengthen your

aspirations towards a real unity. Gradually the

contents of the unconscious will be replaced by

impressions of this higher unity. As your thoughts

become free of mistakes, manas will no longer be

different from buddhi. Thus the 4 fold division of the

mind gradually starts disappearing. It dies.

 

Even if you had the most harmful things in your

conscious mind, but if you can control & direct your

conscious mind , it will eventually purify the

unconcious. The art is to learn how to guide and

develop your conscious mind rightly. You should take

care that your conscious mind does not become

identified or infected with what is appearing from the

unconscious. By watching out for it, such thoughts

sink down and disappears. Constant vigil is the price

of liberty. In short the super conscious state has to

be reached through the conscious.

 

End of summary of Chaper No.7

 

Pranams

P.B.V.Rajan

 

 

 

 

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