Does our sorrow come from our own ignorance?

[Guest guest]

Does our sorrow come from our own ignorance?

 

Can sorrow exist without ignorance? Can we be sorrowful without being ignorant? What is sorrow and what is ignorance? How does ignorance bring sorrow? How can we root out ignorance and therefore end sorrow?

 

A child puts his hand in the fire and burns it. His ignorance has brought him sorrow. Therefore, it is a plain and simple fact that ignorance brings sorrow.

 

Let's talk about ourselves. We are grown-up,so called adults (atleast physically), matured (at least physically). We are knowledgeable, worldly wise, street smart. We have academic degrees, a long list of them. We have achievements, professionally, academically, socially, financially, professionally, physically. We have knowledge- so many little and great things we have learnt since childhood, so many books we have read. All our observation, memory, reading, speaking, listening, working, studying-all these have filled our head with a lot of knowledge. So, we have become learned and knowledgeable. You must be daft in the head to call a learned man like me ignorant. So, with all this learning, all this knowledge, all this worldly wisdom, all my achievements and so on, why is there sorrow?

Why is there sorrow if there is no ignorance? I am not ignorant (or so I say) but I am sorrowful. How? Why?

 

Either I am ignorant or I am not sorrowful. Which is true? I say that I am not ignorant. Most people woud feel offended if they were considered ignorant. Our ignorance is hidden from ourselves but all of us experience sorrow. The eye cannot see itself but it can shed or suppress tears. All of us experience sorrow, so many times in our lives, with little and big things, with lesser and greater intensity. Can this sorrow arise without ignorance?

 

I go for lunch and am kept waiting at the table for 10 min. My knowledge, my learning, my self mastery disappear like a dream. Anger arises in the mind. Hate arises. Intolerance arises. Condemnation arises. Agitation arises. Frustration arises. Self pity arises. Sorrow arises. Sorrow is a fact. We often acknowledge it. We seek help and consolation from others, shoulders to cry on. We accept the fact of sorrow. Why, then, do we deny the fact of our own ignorance? Because we are ignorant!

 

Our self image, our so called confidence, our carefully cultivated manners have all arisen out of conditioning, fear, anxiety, thinking, habit, desire, greed, need, cleverness and so on. They are the mere outward shell, a mask, superficial and polished. There are deep desires, fears, uncertainties, dejection, rejection, insecurity, inadequacy- all these are still alive and kicking in the depths of the mind. These fight among themselves, sometimes one has the upper hand, sometimes another. Sometimes, I may be genuinely happy, from the bottom of my heart. These are the moments of clear perception, the cessation of conflict, the brief moments when the moon peeps out of the clouds. The momentum of our lives and thoughts soon overtakes us and brings in its midst, conflict and sorrow.

 

What is the ignorance within us that is causing sorrow?

 

Primarily, we have a separative identity, "I". This sense of a separate, distinct identity, apart from the rest of creatures and creation is the fundamental ignorance. The notion that "I am the body" is the root of ignorance. While the whole universe is a continuum, a flux of oneness, creation is wholeness, I stand apart, fragment myself within my own mind, consider myself as the body alone and then say this is "I". Everything else, I say, is "not I". This division, this fragmentation, this notion, this misconception, this delusion, this egoism is the fundamental fact of ignorance in all of us. From a garbage cleaning urchin to a head of state, all are equally susceptible to this fundamental ignorance manifesting as egoism. Rich and poor, learned and ignorant, all are victims of this ignorance which causes sorrow. Our ignorance of facts does not alter facts. It only causes sorrow to ourselves and to others. The fact is that creation is one, life is one. Our ignorance creates the notions of separateness, "I" and "you", deep divisions in the mind. I rejoice at my success and at your failures. What colossal ignorance! How powerful and universal is this fundamental ignorance. It is fundamentally created by nature. The very facts of our birth, our physical existence, our sensory limitations, the immediate awareness of our own bodies and the mediate awareness (through the senses) of the world outside create and perpetuate the illusion of separateness.

Society reinforces this notion by fostering beliefs of superiority and inferiority. Nature and nurture conspire, again and again, to make men ignorant and eventually, victims of sorrow. It is every individual's challenge and privilege to find the inexhaustible treasure of awareness within himself, to swim against this powerful current of nature and nurture, to go beyond ignorance and sorrow.

 

We cry hoarse over the death of a loved one, we are untouched by the massacre of thousands of innocents. We spend money guiltlessly on lavish parties but think twice before giving a coin to a beggar. Obviously, deep within us, there is a split "I" and "not I".

This split, this fragmentation, at the deepest recesses of my mind, down to the very unconscious, this is the root of ignorance and egoism. This is also, ultimately, the root of all my sorrow. These two are inseparable, my ignorance and my sorrow. I cannot have one without the other. To eliminate sorrow from my life, I will have to root out ignorance, experience the unreality of the "I". The doll made of salt will have to plunge into the ocean. Only this can end my ignorance and my sorrow.

 

By greater and greater degrees of self awareness, utmost honesty to myself and others, I shall have to watch the tricks and traps of my own mind. Most significantly, I shall have to watch how my body, mind and intellect operate on the subtle but real split of "I" and not "I". In simple terms, I will have to be aware of and observe my own double standards, however clever, however subtle, denied, disowned, suppressed, explained and all the endless antics and devices of the mind. Thought, word and action based on this split have to be rooted out. This is not accomplished by any method or effort. It is only awareness, which is whole, in the best and worst of us, that can heal the fragmentation in the mind by merely watching it. We have to engage in awareness enhancing activity- whatever that may be for a particular individual, working, thinking or gardening. The activity where you experience effortlessness is the key to your own awareness. Your own awareness is the key to healing the fragmentation in the mind, to observe, understand and thereby eliminate egoism, likes and dislikes, clinging to life, fear of death. All these are the product of ignorance. All these bring sorrow. Thus, my own awareness is the only antidote to my own ignorance and therefore, my own sorrow.

 

Ashok Gollerkeri

 

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