|
Pravin Kumar
Age: 61 Zodiac: 
|
|
 Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:20 am |
|
 |
 |
|
|
There is a big difference between a lack of thoughts and no-thought. Someone who is in a state where thoughts are lacking is below the thinker, and someone who is in a state of no-thought is much higher than the thinker. A state where there are no currents of thoughts in the mind is the state of no-thought is much higher than the thinker. A state where there are no currents of thoughts in the mind is the state of no-thought: the mind is silent and the ability to witness arises out of that silence. The state where there is a lack of thoughts is one where one does not understand what to do.
So I am telling you to come to a state of no-thought, not to a lack of thought. The person who lacks thoughts is someone who does not understand. A person in a state of no-thought is someone who not only understands, but is also able to witness. And the witness will take you towards knowing, towards your inner soul.
The experiments that we have done to awaken the witnessing of the breath, or of meditation, are simply to enable you to expeience the moment when you are present but there are no thoughts. If you can experience that pure moment when you are there but there are no thoughts, even for a moment, then you will have found a very rare treasure in your life.
Move in that direction and make an effort to achieve it, and make the moment when there will be consciousness but no thoughts your greatest longing.
When consciousness is empty of thoughts you experience truth. And when consciousness is full of thoughts, when consciousness is repressed, then you don't experience truth. Just as when the sky is covered with clouds the sun is not visible, in the same way, when the mind is covered with thoughts your inner kingdom is not visible. If you want to see the sun you will have to disperse the clouds and get rid of them so that the sun can shine out from behind them. You will also need to get rid of thoughts in the same way, so that the inner kingdom can be felt and experienced.
This morning when I was coming out of the house somebody asked me, "Is enlightenment possible in this age?"
I said to him, "Yes, it is possible."
The question that he then asked me was, "If enlightenment is possible in this age, then can you tell what the question is that I want to ask you?"
If you think the meaning of enlightenment is to have just the capacity to tell what your next question is going to be, then you are making a big mistake. You will be fooled by a snake-charmer, you will be fooled by a juggler performing on the streets for a few paisa. For a few paisa this juggler can tell you what is in your mind. And if ever an enlightened person were to agree to this idea, he would not be an enlightened person.
The meaning of enlightenment is not that you are able to tell what is going through someone's mind. You have just not understood its meaning. Enlightenment means the state of consciousness where there is nothing to be known, where there is no one to know and only pure knowing remains. The meaning of enlightenment is the only pure knowing remains.
Right now, whenever you know something there are three things involved: first there is the knower -- he is the one who knows: then there is what he knows -- the object; and then there is the relationship between these two -- which is the knowing. This state of pure knowing, enlightenment, remains suppressed by the knower and the object.
Enlightenment means that the object has disappeared. And when the object disappears how can there be a knower? When the object disappears, the knower also disappears. Then what will be left behind? Then only pure knowing will be left behind. In that moment of knowing, you realize ultimate liberation. So enlightenment means to experience pure knowing. What I have called enlightenment is the experience of pure knowing. This is the truth which all the different religions have talked about. Hence, different religions have different words for truth. What Patanjali has called samadhi, Jainas have called keval gyan, ultimate knowing, and Buddha has called pragya.
Enlightenment does not mean that you can tell what is going through someone else's head. That is a very easy thing. That is just ordinary telepathy, thought-reading; it has nothing to do with enlightenment. And if you are really curious to know what is going on in someone else's head, I can tell you how to find out what is going on in the mind of the person sitting next to you. I will not tell you what is going on in your mind, but I can tell you how to know what is going on in other people's minds == that will be easier.
In the meditation experiment you make the resolution that I have been speaking about, where you exhale all your breath and wait for a moment without breathing -- in the same way when you go home, try this experiment with a small child for three or four days, and you will understand what I mean: exhale completely and have the child sit in front of you, and when there is no breath left inside you, then with absolute determination, with your eyes closed, try to see what is going through the child's mind. And tell the child to think about something small ...the name of a flower.
Don't tell the child which one, but ask him to think of the name of a flower on his own. Then, closing your eyes and throwing your breath out, strengthen the determination to see what is going through his mind.
In two to three days you will be able to see it. And even if you are able to see only one word it does not matter, because then you can also see sentences. It is a long process.
But don't think that this means you have attained to ultimate knowing. It has nothing to do with ultimate knowing. It is knowledge about the mind when you are able to read what is going on in another person's mind. And for this there is no need to be religious, and there is no need to be a saint.
There is much work being done on this in the West. There are many psychic societies which are working on telepathy and thought=reading, and they have developed a scientific system. Within a century or even half a century every doctor will be able to use it, every teacher will be able to use it. Every shopkeeper will use it to know his customers' preferences, and it will all be used to exploit people.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with ultimate knowing, it is simply a technique. But the technique is not known to many people, and this is why you think of it as something extraordinary. If you experiment a little you will be surprised, and you may even be able to understand something. But this is not enlightenment. Enlightenment is a very different matter.
Enlightenment means to experience the ultimate state of pure knowing. In that state you experience the immortal, and what I have called satchitanand, truth-consciousness-bliss.
One friend has asked: Is it possible to glimse the ultimate without enlightenment?
No, it is not possible. Enlightenment is only a door. It is as if somebody were to ask whether it is possible to enter this house without a door. Then what would you say? You would say that it is not possible. And even if he got in by breaking a wall, you would still call that hole in the wall an entrance, you would call it a door. But it is not possible to enter a house without a door. If you are intelligent you will enter through the door, if you are unintelligent you will break a hole in a wall somewhere.
Except enlightenment, there is no way. Enlightenment is the door to the ultimate, to truth. And without a door, I don't see how you can enter -- no one has ever entered without a door.
Remember this, and don't think that the ultimate will be possible without samadhi. The mind is like this: it hopes there might be a cheaper way. It suggests that there is a path that you don't have to walk for yourself. But you have to walk on your path. That is what a path means, that you create it by walking on it. You want there to be a door that you don't have to pass through and yet still reach the destination. But there is no door that will lead you somewhere unless you pass through it.
But the mind has many weaknesses. One of the weaknesses of the mind is that you want to get something for nothing. Especially when it comes to experiencing the ultimate, you have the idea that it is only worth considering if you can get it without doing anything for it. And, in actual fact, even if someone were ready to give it to you for nothing, you would think twice about whether to accept it or not.
Once there was a sadhu, a monk in Sri Lanka, and every day he would talk about enlightenment, about nirvana, about samadhi. Some people had been listening to him for years.
One day a man stood up and said to him, "I want to ask you, so many people have been listening to you for such a long time -- has anyoone become enlightened?"
The monk said, "If that is what you are asking, let's make you enlightened today. Are you ready? If you are ready, then it is my truth that I will make you enlightened today."
But the man said, "Today? Let me think about it a little. Someday ... Just like that, today? Let me think about it a litle. I will come again and tell you."
If somebody were to tell you that he could introduce you to God right this minute, I don't think your mind would immediately say yes. You mind would start thinking about it. I am talking to you about truth, and your mind will start thinking, whether or not to know it. Even if you could get God for free, you would think about it first. When you are paying a price for something it is quite natural to think about it -- but the mind always wants everything for free. Whatever seems to have a value to your mind you will pay a price for.
If you care even a little about experiencing the divine, you will feel that you are ready to give up everything for it. If you have to give up everything for just a glimpse of the divine, you will be ready to do it.
Someone has asked, "Is it possible to glimpse the ultimate without enlightenment?" No, it is not possible. It is not possible without effort. It is not possible without resolve. It is notpossible without your total commitment and devotioin.
|
Welcome to Mystic Board - Free Astrology, Tarot to Psychic Discussion Board. New visitors: Register Now its FAST! Members, please Sign-In.
