10
October: Thinking and the Mind
10.1 "Become no mind. Don't think about anything."
Thinking is actually a phenomenon that occurs spontaneously. There are many different kinds of thoughts that arise in response to different kinds of stimuli, but they are all happening mechanically. The difficulty, or confusion, arises because of the ego. The ego is a kind of "meta-thought" that encompasses all the other thoughts. This "I-thought" gives you the sense that "you" are thinking "your" thoughts, when, in fact, nothing of the kind is happening. The ego is itself a thought. So thought is what is thinking. This is why Maharaj says "Don't think about anything." The intention is not to try to stop thinking, which is impossible, but to break the identification with the thoughts, that is, separate yourself from the thoughts. You are the thoughtless reality, which Maharaj here calls "no-mind."
10.2 "Try to understand so profoundly that your mind can't fight you."
"Your mind" is not you. You are existing at all times, with or without any mental activity going on. However, the mind, permeated with the false concept of the ego, wants to continue to be you, like a beggar sitting on the throne of a king. That is why understanding is emphasized over and over again. Only understanding of what you really are can restore the king to his throne. The beggar does not see things in a kingly way; many mistakes are made in governing the kingdom, but even when exposed as an impostor, he puts up a fight and doesn't want to give up his seat, because he has become accustomed to issuing orders. It is necessary to see through the ego using the Master's teaching as a light, and to understand that the ego is only a concept. When the light of profound understanding comes, the darkness of the ego is dispelled.
10.3 "Meditate on me as reality, not as the body."
When you sit and meditate on the Master, you can start by thinking of his bodily form, but the switch must be made so that you are meditating on him as the formless reality. At the same time, you let go the concept that "I" am meditating. Then you have non-duality-the formless resting in the formless. Meditation, in this sense, is essentially just silence, beingness. There are no names for it, because it is not a thing, not an object.
10.4 "Expand your thoughts and become bigger and bigger."
You need some kind of antidote for the hypnotic state brought on by habitual wrong thinking over a long period of time. There is a story about a tiger cub whose mother died and who was found and brought up by a herd of goats. The cub grew up among the young goats and assumed all of their mannerisms, eating habits, bleating, and so on. One day, a large, adult tiger came by and, examining the goat herd for a candidate for a meal, was startled to see the young tiger, now almost mature, living harmlessly among them, in a way so contradictory to its true nature. The tiger approached, the goats fled, and the young tiger was questioned. Understanding what had happened, the adult tiger took the young one to a pond where it could see its reflection clearly. It explained that the young tiger was a tiger too and showed how the reflections of the two tigers were the same. In this way, the young tiger realized its true nature and began to roar and generally act in a manner appropriate to its birthright.
This story shows how you can make the mind bigger and bigger. As long as you take the familiar thoughts and desires to be yourself, you remain hypnotized by the thought that you are a goat. The Master's thoughts are much bigger in scope, more expansive, and more demanding. Once you accept those thoughts as your own, you can no longer forget for long what you really are.
10.5 "You must churn what the Master says. Think again and again."
For a person to sit down and actually think about an idea, with the intention of understanding what it really means, is a rare event. Generally, what is called thinking occurs mechanically and is simply a reaction to another thought. So Maharaj uses the word "churn" to indicate what is required. When milk is churned for a while, it solidifies and becomes butter. This is a symbol for the way that thinking about an idea turns into understanding. It is a similar kind of transformation. Understanding is the only way to destroy the ego.
10.6 "The mind should not be forced. Let the mind think."
There is a story about a yogi who sat to meditate. Just before he became fully absorbed in samadhi, a thought crossed his mind to obtain a new tiger skin to sit on, because the one he had was getting worn out. He was an adept yogi and, on this occasion, he entered into a state of samadhi that lasted for 2000 years. On finally returning to normal consciousness, the first thought that occurred to him was to obtain a new tiger skin. The story shows, first of all, that you should not confuse the ability to enter deep states of meditation with enlightenment, but also that the mind cannot be prevented from thinking. That is what it does and will continue to do, whether the gap between thoughts is two seconds or 2000 years.
10.7 "You become wet at once with these thoughts."
Maharaj said that we should be like the lotus leaf, that sits on the water, but does not get wet. If the leaf became wet and waterlogged, it would sink. To live in this world as a devotee or disciple of a Master, you need to keep yourself separate, as much as possible, from the false sense of identification with the I-thought. "I am doing this to get that," "I want something," and all the variations on that theme, are the thoughts that make the leaf wet, and which sink it.
10.8 "All thoughts come, good and bad, but say "It's not mine." Then you are out of it."
It seems a strange idea at first-not to think one's own thoughts-but this only indicates the depth of the habit of assuming that thoughts are real. The mind always thinks in terms of "my thoughts." But who am "I?" That it never asks. To get out of this situation, you, as an aspirant, really have no choice but to actively separate "you" from the thoughts, becoming effectively an observer of them, rather than the thinker of them. Whatever thought is arising, you say "This is not mine." This practice creates the distance necessary to begin to understand that you exist before, during, and after the arising of the thought.
10.9 "You all have the highest power in you. Welcome it. The mind must completely accept that."
What we call thoughts are called in Sanskrit vritti, which means "modification of the mind." Thoughts are like waves that appear on the surface of water; they modify it, but they are not different from it and have no power of their own. They come and go and the ocean remains as their source. The ocean is knowledge, which is limitless power and consciousness. What is required is that the mind, through the thoughts introduced by the Master, enquires into its own nature until it completely accepts and understands its true depth and power. Thoughts then cease to operate as though they were separate from the knowledge from which they arise, and the mind becomes pure, which Maharaj often called no-mind.
10.10 "By words I have become bound, and by words I can become free."
The human body is not born with the capacity to use words. That is a skill that is acquired through a process of trial and error during early childhood. The infant learns to objectify its sense impressions by imitating the words provided by its parents. Consciousness, which is the power that allows the process to take place, and which is the real "identity" of the child, becomes veiled by ignorance. The brain, divided into two halves, provides the basis for a mind that also divides everything into two, beginning with the fundamental duality: "I" and "not-I." This confusion of the consciousness with the I-thought creates identification with the body and is bondage.
To undo this process of misidentification, the opposite process must be applied, like unscrewing a screw or tracing a river back to its source. By enquiry into your true identity through seeking the answer to the question "Who am I?" the misunderstanding can be removed and the individual identity merged into its source. Both processes take place through the use of words and concepts.
10.11 "Mind should be made no-mind. No-mind means `I do nothing.'"
Mind exists because you have created it and are taking it to be yourself. To put it another way, you, the subject, have projected an object called "I," and that object is now taking itself to be the subject! Where have you, the subject gone? Nowhere. You remain as the subject, but you are currently identifying with the mind, which is an object of your own creation. The mind is the apparent source of all the activity which you take to be you doing this or that. It is a phantom, not a real being. Maharaj says that the mind should be made no-mind, which means that it should be recognized as false, as only a projection, and not the center of independent activity that it pretends to be. The mind then reverts to its original condition of pure consciousness, no-mind, or thoughtless reality.
10.12 "You must have complete conviction in the mind that nothing is true."
The ego-mind assumes that there is a world that exists independently, remaining there while it, the ego, disappears in sleep. This is ignorance. The world does not come and say "I exist." This table does not say "I'm a table." It is the mind that gives them existence. Without the mind, nothing is. If the world were true, it would laugh at you for knowing it while remaining in ignorance of yourself. So forget about the world and know what the mind is. Complete conviction that nothing is true will come when the mind itself is seen to be false.
10.13 "Right thinking is my duty."
You owe it to yourself to act in accordance with what you know to be true, even though that goes against what other people believe to be true. No one is going to force you to think rightly. You have to find the reasons to do so within yourself. To reject illusion and hold onto reality is your choice. It is important only to you. As long as you are an aspirant, you can make it your duty to apply what you have learned from the Master. If you do not do so, other people will not care. Neither will the divine power gain or lose anything. It creates and destroys millions of forms every second. It is not even aware of "you" because "you" are just thought and don't have any real existence. The illusion called "you" reaches the end of its life and then disappears. Your opportunity is wasted.
10.14 "Forget everything, forget meditation, and sit in yourself."
This statement is actually an instruction for what to do while meditating, when you reach the point where the thoughts have become quiet. Maharaj did recommend meditation to his disciples "in the beginning" and said that its purpose was to make the mind subtle. This instruction refers to the level where the mind has become subtle. You have forgotten the thoughts, including the thought "I am meditating," and are resting in pure being. This "sitting" then becomes the practice of meditation. This level of meditation generally comes after working with mantra meditation for some time.
10.15 "Mind must change, that is all."
It can hardly be emphasized often enough that the whole drama of life, the world, and spiritual search, occurs in, and through, the mind. The contents, configuration, and structure of the mind create the material from which the dream of life is projected. If you change the contents of the mind, the whole dream changes. The meaning becomes completely different. For example, what was previously felt to be true and important becomes untrue and unimportant. It is a mistake to look at the world and think it should be this way or that way, while forgetting that it comes from you. It is like the child who is trying to touch the head of its own shadow. As it reaches out to touch it, the shadow moves out of reach. The child cries until the mother comes and shows it that by touching its own head, the shadow's head is also touched. In the same way, to change the world it is necessary to change the mind.
10.16 "Think and think and finally forget everything."
The final purpose of thinking is to arrive at the understanding that there is no one who is thinking. The whole process then implodes and mind becomes one with pure knowledge or consciousness. Seeking is forgotten and peace reigns. Who is it who understands this? No one, but still understanding is there. There are no words for that thoughtless reality.
10.17 "By thinking, you can become the greatest of the greatest."
You already are the greatest of the greatest. However, to become That consciously, the mind must work at it and realize it. The way of the bird is really about thinking and the mind. It is a way that uses thinking to enquire into the nature of the mind, because once the mind is understood, everything is understood. The Master's ideas are like particles of powder poured into muddy water. As they settle, they take the impurities with them, leaving the water pure and clear so that it reflects the Self, which is shining always and everywhere.
10.18 "You have to kill your mind and say `I don't exist. He exists in me now.'"
What is the nature of surrender? Who surrenders? If everything already belongs to the Self, surely it is presumptuous to imagine you can surrender what is not yours. Suppose there is a statue of a deity made of sugar. You break off a piece and then present it to that deity as an offering! All you can really surrender is the false concept that you are separate from Him. To give up that concept is to kill the mind. When the mind becomes no-mind ("I don't exist), the Self that always is becomes apparent ("He exists in me now").
10.19 "Be mute, stay in yourself, don't speak."
To abide in the Self is to rest in silent being. Silence is natural. Thinking, and the speech that is its expression, is a superimposition. It modifies the appearance of the thoughtless reality, making the world appear to exist, but it does not disturb that reality. The Self remains always unaffected, whether there are thoughts or not and whether there is speech or not. At the level of silent being, there are no individuals, no illusions. The realized person is established there, and naturally tends towards silence.
10.20 "Whenever the mind affirms `That is true,' go against it and say `No, it is false.'"
Nobody likes to follow a diet. When you are following a diet and the body craves chocolate or fried potatoes, you have to use will power and tell yourself "this may taste good, but it is not what I want." Following the Master's instructions is similar. You may appear to be an individual person with your own unique thoughts and desires, but actually you don't exist, only He, the divine power, exists, and this life is nothing but a long dream. The mind should put itself on a diet to adopt the Master's point of view.
Desire for understanding becomes stronger and more focused as you go on pursuing it and so you need to exert less effort rather than more. In the end, surrender to the Master is complete and you feel that everything is done for you. In the beginning, though, you have to make a habit of going against the tendency of the mind to take the world to be true.
10.21 "He gives the key. Open your mind, which is locked."
The Master gives you the key by teaching you, but you have to accept it and use it to open your mind to what he is saying. Then it will have its effect. Many seekers take the key and put it in their pocket, sometimes along with other keys they have received from other teachers, which also go unused. They never make a commitment and so all the possible doors remain locked. The Master has plenty of keys; he will give them to anyone who asks, but it is really up to the aspirant to say "I am going to use this knowledge to understand my own mind. Whatever I find along the way, I will continue until I reach the reality that the Master is speaking about." The key is free but the price of admission is your own willingness to enquire into the nature of the mind. No one else can give that to you.
10.22 "Effort is needed in the beginning. Thinking is effort."
Thinking, in the sense of churning the ideas, takes effort, just as meditation takes effort, and it is a good idea to put aside a certain time each day for it, in the same way that you put aside a time for meditation. Thinking is also like meditation in that once you have established the practice, you develop a love for it, so that you look forward to sitting down to reflect on the Master's teaching. In this sense, it ceases to become an effort, and you do it because it brings joy and so naturally you want to do it.
Whether it seems easy or difficult, you should still think and study on a regular basis, because that is the essence of this way. Understanding an idea through study is a very pleasant experience, and it brings with it the sense of achievement and progress, which is encouraging. There is nothing we cannot understand if we study.
10.23 "Guests come and go. They never become the host."
Thoughts of different qualities may come in the mind, according to the three principles of tamas, rajas, and sattva. Depressing, heavy, or negative thoughts may come. Those are tamasic. Thoughts about worldly goals, desires, and activities arise. Those are rajasic. Finally, thoughts about reality or about the spiritual path also appear. They are sattvic in character. These three principles are called gunas. They are the three aspects of Maya, into which the divine shakti (power) divides itself when it first appears.
The three types of thoughts are like the guests who come and go in a tavern. They are only passing through. They are not permanent, like the host. When the sattvic principle is strong, you feel the power of consciousness, of your own presence. The mind is purified and you become one with the host, which is the Self. This may occur intermittently, interrupted by periods in which rajas and tamas obscure the light of sattvic consciousness. With realization, all three principles are transcended and you become the host permanently.
10.24 "Nothing is yours. Be bankrupt in the mind."
To be bankrupt in the mind is to make the mind free of attachments. A sattvic mind reflects reality clearly, like clear water that reflects the sun. When you want nothing and hold on to nothing, you are free. That is real renunciation. Even though you may have possessions around you, if you don't identify with them or say "mine," they cannot bind you. In fact, nothing is yours, because "you" don't exist. Only He exists, and He is everything.
10.25 "The mind is just like a monkey, thinking of everything and then forgetting."
Because the body remains the same and we keep the same name throughout this lifetime, it is easy to assume that there is some real and permanent "I" occupying the body. In fact, there are innumerable temporary "Is," each of which has its own life and its own desire. A thought arises, lives for a few moments, and then dies. This dying is going on constantly during the waking state; thinking and then forgetting, thinking and then forgetting, something and then nothing, something and then nothing again.
There is no fixed point in all this movement. The ego appears to be a constant point, but it is imaginary, unreal. Where is it in deep sleep? The ego-mind appears in the waking state and goes about its monkey-like activities, associating from one thought to another, swinging wildly between noble imaginings and uncouth cravings. How can this absurd bundle of different elements possibly constitute any kind of reality?
10.26 "Mind is your greatest friend and greatest enemy."
The mind has a very important role to play in the drama of seeking and awakening. It changes its character during the course of the search, transforming itself gradually from ignorance to knowledge and from darkness to light. The whole story of the Self revealing itself to the Self unfolds itself in the mind, although ultimately it is not of the mind. When the mind is not there, as in deep sleep, who is there to be concerned with bondage and liberation?
It is the mind that thinks and it is the mind which is capable of changing its thinking. It is the mind in which the seed of longing for reality sprouts and takes form. Thus, the mind, which in its ignorant and undisciplined state is an enemy, becomes the greatest friend, serving faithfully the cause of understanding. The mind should be like a devoted servant who puts the house in order for the absent Master. When the work is complete and the Master comes home, the servant disappears.
10.27 "As long as illusion is there, you have to think of the final reality."
When you arrive at your destination after a long journey, the concept of "destination" goes away, because you are there. You are not apart from your destination. However, as long as you are traveling, you always have to be thinking about the destination and how to get there. In the same way, the goal of reality has to be kept in mind as long as the illusion persists that you are apart from that reality. When you realize the Self, that goal disappears and you understand that you haven't gained anything you didn't already have and that you haven't gone anywhere. The destination was always under your feet.
10.28 "Tell the mind `enough!'"
The inane and repetitious behavior of the mind can get tedious sometimes, and often one wishes one could just turn it off. However, it is in the nature of the mind to process experience and think, just as it is in the nature of the digestive system to process food and then to eliminate the waste. The problem arises when you take that spontaneous mental process to be yourself. Eventually, you may come to see that the whole of the spiritual search itself is all taking place in the mind. The mind is the seeker! Ultimately the mind's constant seeking for something becomes a burden. Then the word "enough!" comes out spontaneously as an admission of defeat and a gesture of surrender. The understanding finally comes that "I" am never going to find the solution to the problem because "I" am the problem! At that point, no doing is possible and everything is left to Him.
10.29 "Mind always thinks, but if that mind is given the understanding then the mind becomes quiet."
The main reason that the mind is full of thoughts is that there is the underlying concept of "I" as the doer of actions. As a result of this persistent notion, the mind is always thinking about how to get this thing or accomplish that thing. If the understanding comes that there is no such doer, that basis for constant thought is destroyed. The mind therefore subsides into a peaceful, quiet state. That state of deep peace that fills the mind is one of the great benefits of understanding. The mind has an inherent beauty that is not clear until its true nature as pure consciousness is revealed.
10.30 "It is not easy to cross the mind. Cross it by saying it is not true."
What is the mind? Does it have any substance, any existence of its own? If it does not, if the concept "mind" itself is not true, then there is nothing to do, nothing to cross. It becomes very simple. That is why, on this way, you enquire into the nature of the mind and understand what the mind is, so that it ceases to present a problem and is no longer an obstacle.
10.31 "The power, the effect of knowledge, must penetrate the mind. "I am the reality."
Ultimately the mind has to destroy its own ignorance. The mind is really nothing but the Self. The concept that there is some individual "thinker" is only imagination. The method by which this is revealed is Self-enquiry, in which the mind turns to focus on itself and asks "Who am I really?" Power, which is knowledge, consciousness, seeks its source and penetrates the mind. Finally, it is understood that the mind is not really there at all. Consciousness comes to the end of its search by realizing that it alone is there. Then it says with complete conviction "I am the One, I am reality."