Viveka talks – exercise 12.
Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as “writer’s NFT!”
Points to consider
Many spiritual seekers developed quite a repulsion for everything and anything „mental“. They literary escaped from such things in the opposite direction towards the warmer and comfier fields of the heart.
You may hate Shankara or me, but if you want liberation from the illusion, you’ll have to deal with the mind.
Here is one of the most prominent quotes from Vivekachudamani (172):
vāyunānīyate medhaḥ punastenaiva nīyate |
manasā kalpyate bandho mokṣastenaiva kalpyate ||The winds gather clouds together, and again the wind disperses them.
Similarly, the mind creates bondage, and again it creates liberation.
Spirituality welcomes newly „awakened“ people with intense emotions, heightened sensitivity, different states of consciousness, understanding, empathy, and universal love.
The upside of that movement is that spiritual seekers start to breathe more lightly. They find not only inner peace but also a long-lost feeling of security and hope. Many find new creativity and become successful, confident, and much healthier than before.
The downside… well, if you run away from thinking, you could end up losing that ability. If by neglecting it, you lose a lot of mental discrimination, your bullshit detectors could turn off, and you’ll probably end up believing nonsense.
The fate of the mind as a villain in spiritual circles is sealed by many old and new sources – texts, books, and teachings.
But, Vivekachudamani brings up another idea: The problem is not the mind; the problem is in mind! There is a vast sea of differences between these two statements.
If you follow the first (mind is the problem), you’ll end up losing the mind and, with it, the sharpest tool for dismantling the illusion. If you follow the second (the problem is IN the mind), you have a chance to discover viveka and lose the illusion.
So, love it or hate it, the mind is the battlefield where truth and illusion fight for the dominion of your reality. You are in the middle of that fight, and you can not run away. You can try as many do, but that’s the point. There are two kinds of people on that battlefield: the soldiers of Maya – the ones who run and run and run, and the soldiers of truth who are standing upright, trembling from fear but facing the beast nevertheless.
A quote from Chapter 12:
The mind is the only feature of consciousness that can discriminate on the most delicate levels. Since the superimposition of an illusion on top of reality can be very sophisticated, we need a sharp tool to separate one from another. The expression „the Sword of Truth“ (from the title of this chapter) attributed to viveka is actually poetic. It is meant to inspire your mumukshuta and make you see yourself as a warrior of truth.
One thing should be clear, though: placing our hope for winning the battle over illusion on the mind does not depreciate the value of other functions of consciousness. Quite the contrary, that just means that the diagnostic is precise, and now we know which part of „us“ is problematic, so we’ll have to work on it. The other parts are free from mistakes and should be all right once we eliminate the main problem.
If we want to express it in a Vivekachudamani way, it will sound like this: the other bodies of ours do not participate in the creation of an illusion. It’s all happening in the manomayakosha.
Or, even more bluntly: manomayakosha is responsible for the awareness of all experiences. It is there, in mind, that we can say: „I am experiencing that“. It is happening all the time, without exception.
It happens when bliss rises in your anandamaykosha.
It happens when you experience Universal Love.
It happens when you travel through astral planes.
It happens when you experience the highest peaks of divine consciousness.
It happens when you have clear personal contact with God.
It will happen again and again, no matter what you EXPERIENCE.
And because of that, you’ll stay firmly grounded in the illusion.
Forever… if you don’t get rid of the mistake of the mind.
And for that, you’ll need a sword, a tool, a scalpel. And you’ll have to fight; you’ll have to work, cut, and cut, and cut through the thick veils of mental parasites in your mind.
Questions for thinking
- Do you clearly understand the difference between the “mind is a problem” and “the problem is in mind” statements?
- Does focusing on the purification of the mind diminish the value of the other parts of our life (other koshas or bodies)?
- Is viveka applicable in the higher states of consciousness?
- If the mistake of the mind is not corrected, what will happen in higher states of consciousness?
It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.
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