Mind & Happiness 153

We should understand the un-reality & insubstantiality of our Mind, because only then will we be truly convinced of the fact that the only means to overcome our Mind & all its self-delusive tricks is to ignore it by attending only to our Real underlying Consciousness – our

Essential Non-Dual Self-Consciousness "I exist".  Therefore, before investigating the Nature of our real Consciousness, let us first investigate the nature of this un-real Consciousness that we call our "Mind".

Nature of Our Mind:

We call our "Mind" is just a limited & distorted form of our Original & Fundamental Consciousness "I exist" – a spurious form of Consciousness that identifies itself with a particular Body, & that appears to exist only in the States of Waking & Dream, & disappears in Deep Dreamless Sleep.  Since this Mind is the primary obstacle that stands in the way of our knowing our Self as we really are, we now examine it more closely. What is the nature of this limited & distorted form of Consciousness that we call our "Mind"?

Our Mind as we now know it is just a bundle of thoughts – thoughts, that is, in the very broadest sense of the term, namely anything that our Mind forms & experiences within itself, such as any Perception, Conception, Idea, Belief, Feeling, Emotion, Desire, Fear, or such-like.  All thoughts  are just images that our Mind forms within itself by its power of Imagination.  Other than our Fundamental Consciousness "I exist", each & everything that our Mind knows or experiences is only a thought that it forms within itself.

Even our Perceptions are only thoughts or mental images that our Mind forms within itself by its wonderful power of Imagination. Whether Perceptions in the Waking State are formed only by our Mind's power of Imagination without any external stimuli, as in Dream, or whether they are

formed by our Mind's power of Imagination in response to actual external stimuli, is something we can know for certain only when we discover the Ultimate Truth about our Mind.

Because the fact that all our perceptions are only thoughts is so important, we examine it a little more closely, using the example of Vision.  According to the "scientific" explanation of the process of Seeing, light from the outside World enters our eyeballs & stimulates electrochemical reactions in the light-sensitive cells at the back of them.  These cells then stimulate a chain of

further electro-chemical reactions along our Optic nerves, & these in turn reach our Brain & cause more electrochemical activity to take place there.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Different blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."

–  the "no creation" school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada

 for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see:  www.ajatavada.com/

[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators.  Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways.  Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi.  Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course  degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science.  I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]

also:  Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.

Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Mind & Happiness 152

Because the "adjuncts" or "Sheaths" have no inherent & permanent Existence or Consciousness of their own, Sri Ramana concluded that they are all asat – unreal or devoid of true Existence  – & jaḍa – inconscient or devoid of true Consciousness. Therefore they cannot be "I", our Real Self, which is Absolute Existence or sat & Absolute Consciousness or cit.

Once we have thus understood that our Body, our Mind & all our other adjuncts are not our Real Self, we should ignore them.  Instead of wasting our Time & energy examining or thinking about them or anything else that is not our Real Self, we should direct all our energy & effort into scrutinising only our Self – our own Essential Self-Conscious Existence, which we always experience as "I exist" – because we can know who or what we really are only by keenly scrutinizing or attending to our own Real & Essential Self.

By analyzing our experience of our Self in our 3 States of Consciousness (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep), we are able to gain a clear theoretical understanding of what we really are.  However, this theoretical understanding is not an end in itself, but is merely the means to discover how we can gain true experiential knowledge of our Real Nature.  Since we have learned by our critical analysis that our True Nature, our Real Self, is only our Non-Dual "Existence–Consciousness", which we always experience as "I exist".  All we need do in order to gain true experiential Self-Knowledge is to scrutinize our "Existence–Consciousness" with a keenly focused power of attention.

Our real Consciousness is only our "Existence Consciousness" – our Essential Self-Consciousness "I exist". Our Mind or "knowing Consciousness" is merely an un-real form of Consciousness, which exists only in its own Imagination, & which is therefore experienced only by itself & not by our real "Existence Consciousness".  Since the imaginary rising of this unreal "knowing consciousness" is the cloud that seemingly obscures our real "Existence–Consciousness", preventing us from experiencing it as it really is, let us now proceed to examine the nature of this un-real "knowing Consciousness" – our own self-deceptive Mind.

Though our ultimate aim is to ignore our Mind and to attend only to our own True Self, which is the Reality that underlies it, we will nevertheless derive great benefit from examining the Nature of our Mind more deeply & thereby understanding it more clearly.  There are 2 main reasons for this:

1^st & most importantly: it is Essential that we should understand & be firmly convinced of the fact that our Mind is un-real & is therefore not our True Self or "I" – our Essential & Real form of Consciousness.  Since our Mind is an impostor who deludes us into mistaking it to be our Self, we must be able to see through its self-deceptive Nature in order to recognize our Real Self, which underlies its false appearance, just as a Rope underlies the false appearance of an Imaginary Snake.

2^nd: is that when we try to scrutinize our Real Self, the only obstacle that will actually stand in our way will be our own Mind.  Since our Mind is the primary enemy that will oppose & obstruct all our efforts to know our Real Self, we should understand this enemy correctly in order to use it to our advantage & to avoid falling prey to all its subtle & self-delusive tricks.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Different blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."

–  the "no creation" school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada

 for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see:  www.ajatavada.com/

[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators.  Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways.  Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi.  Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course  degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science.  I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]

also:  Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.

Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Mind & Happiness 151

We experience our Mind & Intellect, which are actually just 2 functions of the 1 individual Consciousness that we generally call our Mind or Ego, in both Waking & Dream, but not in Deep Dreamless Sleep.

We experience our Present physical Body & the Life-Force within it only in this Waking State, & in each of our other States of Dream we experience some other physical Body & its corresponding Life-Force.  And we experience the 5^th adjunct, the seeming "Darkness" of Deep Dreamless Sleep, only in Deep Dreamless Sleep.

Therefore, since we experience none of these 5 adjuncts in all our 3 States of Consciousness (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep).  They cannot be our Real Self.  They are not our Real Existence, or our Real Consciousness.  They are merely impostors – "phantoms" that we imagine to be our Self for a short period of time, but from which we are able to separate our Self at other times.  Independent of our Real Self-Conscious Existence, "I exist", they [the 5 adjuncts / Sheaths] do not exist, nor do they know their own "existence".

Though our Mind may appear to be "conscious" of itself now, it is not conscious of itself at all Times & in all States (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep).  The Mind's seeming Self-Consciousness is therefore not inherent in the Mind & hence is not Real.  The Mind borrows its seeming Self-Consciousness from our Real Self-Consciousness, which alone is conscious of itself at all times & in all States (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep).

The Existence & the Consciousness of our Body, our Mind & our other adjuncts are not Real, but are mere apparitions – Illusions created by our power of Imagination. Their Existence & their Consciousness appear to be Real only when we mistake them to be our Self.  By our power of Imagination we superimpose these adjuncts upon our own Real Existence & Consciousness, & hence they appear to "exist" & to be conscious.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Different blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."

–  the "no creation" school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada

 for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see:  www.ajatavada.com/

[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators.  Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways.  Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi.  Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course  degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science.  I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]

also:  Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.

Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Mind & Happiness 150

In Verse 22 of Upadēśa Undiyār Sri Ramana briefly states the essential conclusion that we should arrive at by means of the rational process of Self-Analysis, which in the ancient texts of advaita vēdānta is called nēti nēti or "not thus, not thus":

"Since [our] Body (annamaya kōśa), Mind (manōmaya kōśa), Intellect (vijñānamaya kōśa), Life prāṇamaya kōśa), & Darkness (avidya – ānandamaya kōśa) [the seeming absence of knowledge that we experience in sleep] are all jaḍa [inconscient] & asat [unreal or non-existent], [they are] not "I", which is [cit or Consciousness & ] sat [Existence or Reality]."

The 5 objects that Sri Ramana declares in this Verse to be not "I", namely our Body (annamaya kōśa), Mind (manōmaya kōśa), Intellect (vijñānamaya kōśa), Life (prāṇamaya kōśa), & Darkness (avidya – ānandamaya kōśa), are generally known in vēdānta as the pañca-kōśas or "5 Sheaths", because they are the 5 adjuncts that seemingly cover & obscure our Consciousness of our Real Self.

These 5 adjuncts or "Sheaths" are the annamaya kōśa or "sheath composed of food", which is our physical Body, the prāṇamaya kōśa or "sheath composed of prāṇa, Life, vitality or breath", which is the Life-Force that animates our physical Body, the manōmaya kōśa or "sheath composed of Mind", which is our Mind or faculty of mentation & cognition, the vijñānamaya kōśa or "sheath composed of discriminative knowledge", which is our Intellect or faculty of discernment or judgement, & the ānandamaya kōśa or "sheath composed of Happiness", which is the happy but seemingly unconscious form in which we experience our Self in Deep Dreamless Sleep.

However, instead of using these technical Sanskrit terms to denote these 5 adjuncts, Sri Ramana used five simple Tamil words, which literally mean "Body, Mind, Intellect, Life, & Darkness. The word uḍal or "Body" here denotes our physical Body or annamaya kōśa, the word poṟi, which usually means "Sense organ", here denotes our Mind or manōmaya kōśa, the word uḷḷam, which usually means "Heart" or "Mind", here denotes our Intellect or vijñānamaya kōśa, the word uyir or "Life" denotes our Life-Force or prāṇamaya kōśa, & the word iruḷ or "Darkness" denotes our ānandamaya kōśa, the blissful absence of objective knowledge that we experience in Deep Dreamless Sleep.

However, what is important in this Verse 22 of Upadēśa Undiyār is not the terms that are used to denote these adjuncts that we imagine to be our self, but is the conclusion that they are not actually our Real Self. Our Real Self is sat & cit, Existence & Consciousness, whereas our Body, our Life-Force, our Mind, our intellect & the seeming Darkness of Deep Dreamless Sleep are all asat & jaḍa, that is, they have no Real Existence or Consciousness of their own.  They appear to exist only when we know them, & we do not know any of them in all our 3 normal States of Consciousness (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep).

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Different blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."

–  the "no creation" school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada

 for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see:  www.ajatavada.com/

[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators.  Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways.  Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi.  Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course  degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science.  I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]

also:  Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.

Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.