The experience of the Self #6

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>From No Mind I Am The Self.. David Godman

 

Q: Some people claim to have had brief experiences of the Self. Is

this very common?

 

Saradamma: Many people make such claims but I doubt if more than a

few of them have had a genuine experience of the Self. Because most

people have never had a direct experience of the Self they think that

blissful or peaceful states of mind are glimpses of the Self. The

only real experience of the Self occurs when the mind enters the

Heart.

 

Imagine a cave with a fierce demon in it. If you go in to

investigate, one of three things may happen: the demon may kill you,

you may escape through the cave entrance, or you may break your head

on the cave roof while you are trying to escape and die as a result.

Taking the mind into the Heart-cave is a little like this. Either the

Self destroys the mind completely, or the mind enjoys the bliss of

the Self for a while before escaping to the brain again, or the

strain of the experience is too much for the body and death results.

In the last case there will probably be a rebirth in one of the

higher worlds.

 

Most people who claim to have experienced the Self have not even

taken their minds near to the entrance of the Heart-cave. And even

if the mind does go into the Heart, there is still an `I' which is

experiencing the bliss of the Self. The true experience of the Self

only happens when the mind is completely absent, either temporarily,

as in samadhi, or permanently, as in Self-realization. Both of these

experiences are very rare.

 

It is very difficult to make the mind go into the Heart. Mostly it

is too afraid of its own death to even approach the entrance. The

mental experiences of peace, bliss and stillness, which devotees

claim to experience usually, take place outside the Heart. They are

all in the mind. People who think that these experiences are the

reality of the Self are only deluding themselves.

 

 

 

More to follow in the concept of time.