8.1 When the mind desires or grieves things,
accepts or rejects things,
is pleased or displeased by things--
this is bondage.
8.2 When the mind does not desire or grieve, accept or reject, become pleased or displeased, liberation is at hand.
8.3 If the mind is attached to any experience, this is bondage. When the mind is detached from all experience, this is liberation.
8.4 When there is no “I” there is only liberation. When “I” appears bondage appears with it. Knowing this, it is effortless to refrain from accepting and rejecting.
Ashtavakra Gita
I getup early in the morning and start thinking about a cup of green tea to start of the day. Now my mind is filled with this thought " I need green tea". When this fills me, i automatically go towards the kitchen and find the green tea bag and a piece of lemon. Now i make this tea and rest in my chair sipping this tea . The morning is silent except for a few chirping birds. Now the thought " I need green tea " is replaced with "Ah there are birds ..and i am hearing their sweet voice" .
What are these thoughts ?. You can see that i am thinking about other things than me. Green tea , the birds etc. Then the mind needs to tell me who is doing the thinking or who is the thinker of these objects. So it first creates a root thought " I ". Now we get a feeling that I am thinking. I am thinking of things other than me.
What happens when i turn my attention from the objects other than me to the internal me that is doing the thinking?. Now you can see that the root I thought would be vague. Why is this so?. This is because in the former case where i am thinking of other objects like tea, birds etc a thinker of them is understandable. But when i think of myself , the root I thought can be seen to be meaningless, because there is something apart from the thoughts that is doing this introspection. Some thing apart from the "I thought" should be there to watch the "I thought". So the root I thought is not the thinker actually. There is something above it which can even view it. So if the root I thought is not real , then who am I actually?.
You can see that most of our day passes on thinking of other things than me, so we assume that the mind I is real.When we sit in meditation we again turn our attention towards our mind objects. Then we clearly see that the I mentioned in the thoughts of the mind is not so real. That is when we see the mind quietening down.
The mind wants us to believe the I mentioned as the root thought. But when we turn our attention towards it , it becomes vague. What happens if you believe in the root thought is what we call as experiences in our life. Any thought about other things becomes real and our awareness gets caught up with them so much so that , we have no space in our awareness to be aware of anything else. We feel bound to our mind. The moment you start questioning the root I thought , the thoughts loose their sanctity. Because you see that there are just thoughts without any I. They are coming and going like heart beats. Just as we are not concerned about heart beats, we don't feel bound to them.
When i get up in the morning suppose i have this thought " I need green tea". Now instead of believing in it , i turn my attention towards this thought . I try to find "who really wants ". You will not find anybody. When you take green tea there are certain sensations in your tongue. Now the tongue will never come and say I want green tea. So who is saying i want tea?. There is a slight stimulation if i take tea. But will the brain come and say i want tea?. No. So who is this "I" who wants it ?. Actually there is nobody. There are only thoughts. However these thoughts are colored with other thoughts about yesterday where you had tea and you have some pleasant memories of the experience. However these colorful memories are also just mental impressions. So if you look deeply in your mind , instead of finding an I who is wanting tea, all you will find is a set of thoughts allied with tea. Once they get numerous, your awareness is bound to it . Now your awareness wants to be free from these deluge of thoughts . So it goes to the kitchen and has it. Now your awareness has become free from the mind. It rests in its true nature feeling blissful. See how a root I thought in your mind has created bondage and also gives you a feeling " I had tea".
The real story is "body moved and had tea" and me who is pure awareness witnessed this process. Drinking tea was happening and i was a witness to it . When you watch a movie in which suppose a hand comes and lifts and has tea. You are watching this action. Just like that if you have the sakshi bhavam of watching your own body actions, then how dispassionate it would feel?. You are the knower of your actions.
Bondage happens when your awareness gets caught up with the thoughts in your mind. It gets caught up when the thoughts are numerous . So unless these thoughts go you wont feel free.
Having a cup of green tea is easily accomplished and hence you can become free from it by having it. But what happens in your life, if you have thoughts from which you can never be free?. For e.g. suppose you don't like a person . You don't like what he is doing . You don't like what he is thinking and so on. Do you have any choice in this matter?. So this thought " I don't like" gets more and more pronounced in you. It gets colored by impressions, mental imagery and so on. But since you have no choice over his actions, these thoughts will never get eliminated. Now you start attending towards this thought " I dont like". Who doesn't like ?. You can see that there is nobody who really doesn't like. There are only a set of thoughts precipitated by experiences.
We always suffer if we have thoughts for which we have no choice. Suppose you want the sun to rise in the west. Wont you suffer the whole of your life?. This looks dramatic. But think of many of your delusions in your life. You would see this in action, You tend to have thoughts for which you have no choice. By concentrating on these thoughts we loose our power to do things for which we have choice. So by turning your attention towards your thoughts try to see whether the thought that has arisen is something for which you have a choice. If not , just let it go. Otherwise see what you can do now . Wisdom is when you have the power to know the difference.
All through our life we imagine things and believe them to be true. We imagine for example. See her action. I am sure that this is what she is thinking about me. See how she behaved today. I am sure she might be fuming in her mind and so on. How do you know what the other is thinking?. Why do you suffer because of your imaginary fears and apprehensions?. Since we donot know what the other is thinking , we have no choice to know it or change it. What we can have at best are imagination.
The power of letting go of blocking thoughts for which you have no choice is called acceptance. Acceptance is not meek surrender . It is appreciating of what is . It comes from understanding the grand scheme of things. It comes from understanding your true being and how it is in harmony of all existence.It comes from understanding the imaginary I in your mind and the real I which is awareness.
Our true being can only be known when we turn our attention constantly towards it. This Svatma bhakti is the only way to liberate ourselves from the mind and its imagery. Instead of becoming aware of all the other objects, turn your attention towards yourself most of the time. This will tell us who we really are distinguishing from the imaginary I in your mind. This is the path towards liberation.
8.2 When the mind does not desire or grieve, accept or reject, become pleased or displeased, liberation is at hand.
8.3 If the mind is attached to any experience, this is bondage. When the mind is detached from all experience, this is liberation.
8.4 When there is no “I” there is only liberation. When “I” appears bondage appears with it. Knowing this, it is effortless to refrain from accepting and rejecting.
Ashtavakra Gita
I getup early in the morning and start thinking about a cup of green tea to start of the day. Now my mind is filled with this thought " I need green tea". When this fills me, i automatically go towards the kitchen and find the green tea bag and a piece of lemon. Now i make this tea and rest in my chair sipping this tea . The morning is silent except for a few chirping birds. Now the thought " I need green tea " is replaced with "Ah there are birds ..and i am hearing their sweet voice" .
What are these thoughts ?. You can see that i am thinking about other things than me. Green tea , the birds etc. Then the mind needs to tell me who is doing the thinking or who is the thinker of these objects. So it first creates a root thought " I ". Now we get a feeling that I am thinking. I am thinking of things other than me.
What happens when i turn my attention from the objects other than me to the internal me that is doing the thinking?. Now you can see that the root I thought would be vague. Why is this so?. This is because in the former case where i am thinking of other objects like tea, birds etc a thinker of them is understandable. But when i think of myself , the root I thought can be seen to be meaningless, because there is something apart from the thoughts that is doing this introspection. Some thing apart from the "I thought" should be there to watch the "I thought". So the root I thought is not the thinker actually. There is something above it which can even view it. So if the root I thought is not real , then who am I actually?.
You can see that most of our day passes on thinking of other things than me, so we assume that the mind I is real.When we sit in meditation we again turn our attention towards our mind objects. Then we clearly see that the I mentioned in the thoughts of the mind is not so real. That is when we see the mind quietening down.
The mind wants us to believe the I mentioned as the root thought. But when we turn our attention towards it , it becomes vague. What happens if you believe in the root thought is what we call as experiences in our life. Any thought about other things becomes real and our awareness gets caught up with them so much so that , we have no space in our awareness to be aware of anything else. We feel bound to our mind. The moment you start questioning the root I thought , the thoughts loose their sanctity. Because you see that there are just thoughts without any I. They are coming and going like heart beats. Just as we are not concerned about heart beats, we don't feel bound to them.
When i get up in the morning suppose i have this thought " I need green tea". Now instead of believing in it , i turn my attention towards this thought . I try to find "who really wants ". You will not find anybody. When you take green tea there are certain sensations in your tongue. Now the tongue will never come and say I want green tea. So who is saying i want tea?. There is a slight stimulation if i take tea. But will the brain come and say i want tea?. No. So who is this "I" who wants it ?. Actually there is nobody. There are only thoughts. However these thoughts are colored with other thoughts about yesterday where you had tea and you have some pleasant memories of the experience. However these colorful memories are also just mental impressions. So if you look deeply in your mind , instead of finding an I who is wanting tea, all you will find is a set of thoughts allied with tea. Once they get numerous, your awareness is bound to it . Now your awareness wants to be free from these deluge of thoughts . So it goes to the kitchen and has it. Now your awareness has become free from the mind. It rests in its true nature feeling blissful. See how a root I thought in your mind has created bondage and also gives you a feeling " I had tea".
The real story is "body moved and had tea" and me who is pure awareness witnessed this process. Drinking tea was happening and i was a witness to it . When you watch a movie in which suppose a hand comes and lifts and has tea. You are watching this action. Just like that if you have the sakshi bhavam of watching your own body actions, then how dispassionate it would feel?. You are the knower of your actions.
Bondage happens when your awareness gets caught up with the thoughts in your mind. It gets caught up when the thoughts are numerous . So unless these thoughts go you wont feel free.
Having a cup of green tea is easily accomplished and hence you can become free from it by having it. But what happens in your life, if you have thoughts from which you can never be free?. For e.g. suppose you don't like a person . You don't like what he is doing . You don't like what he is thinking and so on. Do you have any choice in this matter?. So this thought " I don't like" gets more and more pronounced in you. It gets colored by impressions, mental imagery and so on. But since you have no choice over his actions, these thoughts will never get eliminated. Now you start attending towards this thought " I dont like". Who doesn't like ?. You can see that there is nobody who really doesn't like. There are only a set of thoughts precipitated by experiences.
We always suffer if we have thoughts for which we have no choice. Suppose you want the sun to rise in the west. Wont you suffer the whole of your life?. This looks dramatic. But think of many of your delusions in your life. You would see this in action, You tend to have thoughts for which you have no choice. By concentrating on these thoughts we loose our power to do things for which we have choice. So by turning your attention towards your thoughts try to see whether the thought that has arisen is something for which you have a choice. If not , just let it go. Otherwise see what you can do now . Wisdom is when you have the power to know the difference.
All through our life we imagine things and believe them to be true. We imagine for example. See her action. I am sure that this is what she is thinking about me. See how she behaved today. I am sure she might be fuming in her mind and so on. How do you know what the other is thinking?. Why do you suffer because of your imaginary fears and apprehensions?. Since we donot know what the other is thinking , we have no choice to know it or change it. What we can have at best are imagination.
The power of letting go of blocking thoughts for which you have no choice is called acceptance. Acceptance is not meek surrender . It is appreciating of what is . It comes from understanding the grand scheme of things. It comes from understanding your true being and how it is in harmony of all existence.It comes from understanding the imaginary I in your mind and the real I which is awareness.
Our true being can only be known when we turn our attention constantly towards it. This Svatma bhakti is the only way to liberate ourselves from the mind and its imagery. Instead of becoming aware of all the other objects, turn your attention towards yourself most of the time. This will tell us who we really are distinguishing from the imaginary I in your mind. This is the path towards liberation.
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