This, That and I

[Guest guest]

Advaita Bodha Deepika -

 

 

Disciple: " What is the nature of this mind

which forms the power of projection of illusion (maya)?

 

Master: To recollect ideas or latencies is its nature.

It has latencies as its content

and appears in the witnessing consciousness in two modes

- 'I' and 'This & That'.

 

D: How is this I-mode superimposed

on the witnessing consciousness?

 

M: Just as silver is superimposed on nacre

presents the nacre as silver,

so also the I-mode on the basic witness

presents it as 'I', i.e. the ego [identity],

as if the witness were not different from the ego

but were the ego itself.

 

Just as a person possessed by a spirit is deluded

and behaves as altogether a different person,

so also the witness possessed by the I-mode

forgets its True Nature

and presents itself as the ego.

 

D: How can the unchanging witness mistake itself

for the changing ego?

 

M: Like a man in delirium feeling himself lifted in air,

or a drunken man beside himself,

or a madman raving incoherently,

or a dreamer going on dream-journeys,

or a man possessed behaving in strange ways,

the witness, though itself untainted and unchanged,

yet under the malicious influence of the phantom ego,

appears changed as 'I'.

 

D: Does the I-mode of mind present the witness

altered as the ego,

or itself appear modified

as the ego in the witness?

 

M: Now this question cannot arise

for having no existence apart from the Self,

it cannot manifest of itself.

Therefore it must present the Self

as if modified into the ego.