Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-81

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Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-81

 

COMING TO OUR SENSES

 

Human beings are programmed for curiosity with the corollary of

yearning for something better. Our intelligence constantly strives

to push back and enlarge our boundaries, be they mental, emotional

or physical. In the Vedas, we find hymns that praise the various

gods Indra, Varuna, Mitra, and Vayu among others. If we explore the

meaning of these hymns we realize that the rishis are praising a god

in order to gain the power of discernment, so that they too can

enjoy the Soma, the divine delight of pure being. Indra is the power

of the mind which is able to evoke the energies of pure existence;

Vayu, stimulates the juice of Soma that can flow and purify our

mortal mind; Varuna is the power and clarity which removes the

impurities and limitations of the imperfect mind, and Mitra is the

activity of love and joy in harmony, which is the foundation of a

strong and bright intellect that discriminates between what is true

and what is false.

 

Today the traditional tools available to us are hard to come by and

the gods seem to be silent. The modern world disparages for the most

part the reality of the inner, unseen world where the gods and

demons exist. The only justification for the truth of an ideal

appears to be its physical manifestation; in this way, truth has

been inverted and leaves us dissatisfied. Wealth and power are the

tokens by which people evaluate their own worth. They see the

jealousy and envy of others as confirmation of their own value,

while instead of praise for others we hear ridicule as though in

some way that underlines our own worth.

 

For those who fail to heed `common sense' and are reluctant to

embrace the overt security of society with its subtle conventions,

there is the dilemma as to what they should do without compromising

this inner urge that asks inconvenient questions. It is not so much

a rational decision as a compulsion; like the salmon trying

desperately to find its way home. We meet these awkward people

frequently in our lives and it is interesting to observe the many

ways in which their craving for certainty, evolves. They may see a

desirable yet distant object and embark on a pilgrimage. They may

give in to the lure of danger like racing cars or climbing

mountains,1 or develop a hobby that satisfies their appetite for

solitude where they can think their private thoughts without

hindrance — there are many anglers who have never caught a fish and

wouldn't know what to do with one if they did. We all in fact,

create a private bubble in which to be free of customary

constraints. In whatever form it takes this personal quest may

constitute the whole meaning of life to many people. Without

hesitation, they make sacrifices that appear enormous to others. For

them it is nothing, for what they value is greater than the sum of

the benefits that they now enjoy. What exactly it is they cannot say

but it does involve a sense of harmony and rightness in the moment.

 

Some follow a different path that leads them to look for truth in a

microscope or test tube or even in the fluctuations of the stock

market, whilst for others who have neither the knowledge nor the

persistence to find their way, there is often a fall into

licentiousness and worldly self-gratification. The sceptic finds

consolation in the reassurance that the ultimate truth does not

exist. The down-to-earth pragmatist can find his goal in the

preparation of delicious food and the enjoyment of eating. The poet

addresses the ideal dream in ecstatic prayers of worship and vain

songs of despair. The musician tries to capture the distant notes of

harmony.

 

Whatever symbols the seeker uses in his objective quest none has

been able to persuade the world that what they have found is the

ultimate fulfillment. Yet, we do hear reports from those rare souls

who succeed in establishing communication with some higher spirit in

them. They seem to have prevailed where others were ineffectual.

These rare souls have become whole and radiant with peace in a way

that is instantly recognized and brooks no denial. They aver that

there is something immaterial which is the true and final object of

people's longing.

 

There have been so many similar reports over the centuries by those

who came back to tell us of their journey and discovery that we

cannot dismiss their assertions as delusions simply because we

lacked the opportunity or courage to penetrate beyond the mist of

our own confusion. So remote are some of the conclusions we read and

hear that if we wish to follow the same trail we need a definite

preparation that requires us to leave behind our preconceptions.

This elimination of our stale habits of thought and feeling which so

far have not lead anywhere is a prerequisite if we are to be open to

the unknown, the new, the unimaginable to which mystics so often

refer.

 

They say purification is the gateway to knowledge. We need to come

to this encounter with the unknown with clear minds free of

prejudice and also free of the convention of taking the visible

world as the only reality. We must give up our assumptions and enter

a state that simulates nothingness. In Sufi literature it is called,

faqr; in Christianity, apatheia; in Hinduism, the one-pointed

absorption of dhyana. We cannot begin to understand what those

masters of the inner reality speak about until we too are able to

enter in some measure that silence where our so-called solid world

seems but another dream with little substance.

 

Where do we start? We can only start with what we have, our sense

of `I', the self-conscious individual who is pondering the quest. No

arguments can shake our conviction that we are alive and exist. To

this `I' comes a perpetual stream of messages and experiences. A

human being is defined by his or her encounter with their specific

world and how they react to it. What are these experiences that we

undergo in the course of everyday life? And what do they mean? We

encounter the external world through our senses as we interpret and

construct our universe from the impulses that arrive in our brain.

Through our eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin we attempt to create a

coherent image, which is consistent and safe. To live we are forced

to engage with it and to gain its compliance if our physical body is

to survive.

 

The mind accepts, rejects, sorts and combines these impressions

gathered by the five senses and creates a concept, which is

attributed to the external world. The world consequently consists of

impressions. If one carefully considers this idea then the world

cannot be something external to the mind. The world is in the mind.

If we take this thought to its conclusion, we can say the mind is

the world. The world is the unique creation of an individual. Each

person creates their own world and the inter-exchange between

different people's worlds is a dialogue taught with its own private

language and significance. Each person is an artist who creates

their own world using an individual palette of ideas.

 

There is no absolute reality because it is dependent on what the

variable mind makes of it. There is no direct, unmediated

relationship between the world and the mind. We live with second

hand information. We construct a world by using concepts derived

from the information provided by our senses. The evidence of the

senses is variable and therefore cannot be accepted as a

corroboration of the true nature of the world. The external limit of

our senses is the boundary of our physical explorations and to know

oneself is only to know one's personal universe. We are locked up

with the limitations of our sensory capacity.2

 

There are mystics who have the aptitude to see colour as sound and

sound as colour. Some animals see in the infrared things, which we

too can see, but only with the aid of machinery. The world sends us

the same messages but with an alteration in our senses, we would

receive the impressions in a different way, which are no less true.

Therefore, our senses cannot lead us to an absolute, an unchanging

reality which we do require as a substratum upon which the passing

show exists; a still centre of the spinning world is essential.

 

If we are completely dependent upon our fallible senses for

knowledge of the world who is it who decides what is true and false?

Who discriminates between what is absolute and what is impermanent?

When the mind is in constant flux who are we to decide what is real

and what illusion? We seek a transcendent principle applicable to

all circumstances, one that presupposes a standard which is not

dependent upon the senses for confirmation.

 

Meister Eckhart said that the word sum, I am, cannot be spoken by

any creature but by God alone. Because we are so identified with the

senses, we identify our being, our sense of `I' with the

jnanendriyas3 and karmendriyas.4 We forget the base upon which the

impressions are made — the great white invisible screen of

consciousness untainted by the stream of forms emitted in the

attempt to visualize and understand who we are. We create forms with

our mind and are swallowed up by the spell of their convincing

allure.

 

There is the famous analogy of Plato who proposed that we all are

like prisoners chained to a wall in a cave. We are unable to turn

round towards the light of a fire at the entrance of the cave and so

all we can see are the flickering images on the wall in front of us

that are but shadows of those activities. Our world is made up of

shadows and we never see things as they are. Bhagavan in Spiritual

Instruction gave a similar illustration of the movie theatre to

illustrate the process of identification with the effects of

activity rather than seeking the source of the activity. He

explained that the Self was the light shining of its own accord.

When the film of latent tendencies is passed across the lens of

limited individuality, the light of the Self throws the movement of

the dream and waking states on to the clear screen of

consciousness.5

 

To see for ourselves and experience directly the source of our

being, we should not depend on external images or ideas that have

taken form as thought, but turn round and go right back to the heart

of our predicament: who is it who sees; who is it who is conscious?

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1. `When climbing, the presence of mind that one needs in dangerous

situations makes one naturally undistracted, that that

undistractedness is what generates awareness and a feeling of being

completely alive. Every action becomes meaningful because each

movement is a matter of life and death. As one rock climber

reportedly said when asked why he climbed high and extremely

difficult vertical cliffs solo, without a rope: "It helps my

concentration." ' Touching My Father's Soul by Jamling Tenzing

Norgay. p 218-9 Ebury Press 2001.

2. Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason stated that we can

never know the nature of things but only what filters through our

senses and is processed by our mind at second-hand. We can never

directly experience the thing in itself.

3. The five faculties of sensation: sight, touch, taste, sound and

smell.

4. The five faculties of action: hands, feet, voice, generation and

excretion.

5. The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, pp.59-60, Sri

Ramanasramam 2001. See also Letters from Sri Ramanasramam by S.

Nagamma, pp. 310-11, 1995.

 

Mountain Path Editorial, September, 2005