Maya

[Guest guest]

I give thanks to be in the presence of all bothers and sisters,

This is a reply to Baba's thoughts on Maya, but first I

would like to applaud him for seeking his own lessons on the path.

Maya can be a hard thing to understand and I myself have been

through the phase of thinking that maya was something that we needed

to turn away from and that nothing was real. This can really make a

person dull and cold. I agree that many seekers have used the idea of

maya to hide from the world. This meaning of maya exists only in a

sense of its constant changing nature and I can never see it as

anything but the manifestation of Self.

In my own understanding I have come to realize that if this

outer manifestation of existence is considered as absolute truth,

then our minds are subject to its changing nature of duality. This

makes us subject to the extreme highs and lows we experience in life

and also, in my opinion, shows how much mind and outermanifestaion

are interdependent or even one.

I think the original idea of maya was to aid the ancient sages

in realizing that there was an "underlying truth or reality" behind

what we see. One does not need to become a monk or renunciate to

realize this. When one sees the self in all then there is no room for

attachment or aversion. As long as the need to renounce is present

then one is still very much absorbed in Maya.

In the end my main point is that we can not seperate any part of

creation from the self, just as we can not seperate our own being

from the one self. Maya is a creation of the mind that can be used to

guide one past the seeming turmoil in outer life and help one remain

fixed in the unchanging truth. In simple terms, creation IS, any

other lables on it come from our own subjective/objective

relationship to it. The "I AM" conciousness includes all, and we are

all one through it.

Blessings to you all

May the fullness of life always guide you

IcapoI (Tyler)