AW: Bondage and liberation are in the mind

[Guest guest]

Dear

Murthyji,

 

Namaste

 

May I

offer my view - hoping that the learned members are going to correct wherever

necessary.

 

Is it

not worth investigating because by an inquiry/enquiry into mind and knowing

it one can be free from bondage

This is very true, indeed.

 

Then,

how to investigate into the mind itself?



 

I understand this question to mean: Who is it who

investigates into the mind, if not the mind itself? To this I would like to offer the

following thoughts:

 

It helps to consider the four departments of the mind

1 Chitta – memory

2 Manas – ongoing thoughtstream and emotions

3 Ahankara – the claiming (of thoughts, emotions, memories,

intellectual insights as well as sensory input) as „mine“ and expression of

„Me“

4 Buddhi – intellectual insight, discrimination, decision,

ability to learn

 

Only this fourth faculty, namely the buddhi, is able to

investigate into the mind.

 

If the buddhi is well developed it can apply its

discriminating ability also to the mind itself and can distinguish what belongs

to which department – whether what surfaces is a memory, an emotional thought,

the thought of „I“ or an intellectual insight. It therefore can diagnose itself

as belonging to the mind.

 

If it then is trained in spiritual viveka, namely

 

Nitya-anitya viveka, recognition of the difference between

the eternal and the transitory

Drig Drishya Viveka, recognition of the difference between subject

and the object (seer and seen)

Atma-anatma viveka, recognition of the difference between

Self and not-Self,

 

it can realize

that the whole mind including itself is transitory, is an object (can be perceived by the subject)

and is not the Self.

 

This is the foundation of akhandakara vritti taking place

within the buddhi turning the jiva into jivanmukti.

 

Coming back to the question: how to investigate into the mind itself? If

this was asking for practical advice as to how to do it, all the vedantic sadhanas

will help. But in regard to what I said above: to me Viveka is the supreme

discipline, the absolute key. The buddhi/discrimination has to be trained. How?

shravana and manana, with the help of a Guru.

 

Om Tat Sat

Sitara

 

Von: narayana145 <narayana145An: advaitin Gesendet: Samstag, den 6. März 2010, 13:47:48 UhrBetreff: Re: Bondage and liberation are in the mind

 

 

 

H.N.Sreenivasa MurthyPranams to all.advaitin@ s.com, "snsastri" <sn.sastri@.. .> wrote:>> Namaste to all.> > There is an interesting dialogue between king Janaka and sage Suka in the Devi Bhagavatam on the means to liberation, which I am reproducing below. (It may be noted that in Devi Bhagavatam Suka got married and begot children, unlike in Srimad Bhagavatam where he was a celibate throughout life. Such differences are common in the puranas and are not considered material.) Dear Sri Sasriji, sAShTAMganamaskaram s to you.Bondage and liberation are in the mind.The question is :What is mind?Where is the mind?Is it not worth investigating because by an inquiry/enquiry into mind and knowing it one can be free from bondage as well as liberation?Then, how to investigate into the mind itself?With warm and

resoectful regards,Sreenivasa Murthy

 

 

 

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