cyee@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au (Chut Ngeow YEE) (06/17/91)
My previous postings on the seven stages of life seems to have raised some
eye brows. I have been trying very hard to avoid touching on that issue, but
it seems that I have to go thorough this pain of the ass now. I planned to do
some a series of articles which I hope would clafify the situation somewhat,
but I really am not greatly concerned about the matter myself. When I read
about Baba Muktananda meditation on the "blue pearl" I do not have the
slightest idea what he meant. Then there is the kundalini shakti, the
witnessing consciousness etc. There seems to be a whole range of subtle
phenomena that various people mentioned and which Da Avabhasa commented about.
I will do some research and present you my finding, it will be a good exercise
for me but they will be things that I have to verify myself when the times
come (if ever).
Until then, lets have some crazy time with a wild talk that I re-discovered
by accident:
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Sri Da Avabhasa: Why is there something rather than nothing? Why is there
anything? Where is it? What is it?
Devotee: I couldn't possibly answer.
Sri Da Avabhasa: I am not asking you for an answer. I am asking you to really
consider this. There is no answer. All of our complication, all of our
thinking, is animated as if we have answered these questions. We act as if we
have answered these questions, but we NEVER answer these questions. We have
never answered these questions, and yet we carry on in an orderly fashion,
living, acting, eating, shitting, sexing, as if we had already answered
everything. Human beings have never answered anything ultimately. We have
merely adapted to the ordinary facts of what appears to us. We have never
understood these ordinary facts. We cannot account for these ordinary facts.
We cannot account for the ordinary fact that we are here.
We talk to one another, we think, we engage in functional relations of all
kinds, as if we had answered the great questions. I am suggesting to you that we have never even ASKED the great questions.
Therefore, these conventions of our relations with one another are just
conventions. They are not the products of great wisdom. They are just
conventions based on the facts of ordinary apparitions. Why, then, should we
be so terribly bothered by our conventional mind, as of underneath it there
were some great secret to be learned? There is no secret under it! There is
no secret at all! You open your eyes, there are others, you talk, you have
words, you engage in social activities. There is no great wisdom underneath
it. Why should we imagine that merely because we think about our thinking we
are going to discover some great answer?
There is no answer in our mind! Our mind is not based on any kind of
question, not to mention an answer! The mind is merely an accommodation to
the way things seem to be! There is no great answer in it! All that we are
bothered by is this conventional apparition of things as they seem - the fact
that you are you, and we are we, and other people have other ideas about what
they want to do at this moment. What the hell else is going on? Do we have to
think that there is some kind of great thought underneath our thoughts? None
of us have even HAD a great thought! (Laughter.) All we are involved in are
conventions of experiencing and knowing based on what seems to be. That is it!
We do not engage in these conventions because of some great absolute thought
about Reality. We engage in these conventions because of what seems to be!
Thoughts are just our way of working out the conventions of our apparent
associations. Reality is TOTALLY beyond thought. Reality has nothing to do
with the conventions of our thinking. All the thinking that disturbs us is
just a result of our application to this appearance, these conventions. We do
not have to realize why anything is, what anything is, where anything is.
Rather, we must go beyond thought. Thoughts have never accounted for those
matters. Our thoughts only account for the mere appearance of everything. We
did not begin to think because we realized where, why, or what anything is.
We never thought about any of that. Thought has nothing to do with where,
why, or what anything IS. Thought has only to do with "there is that."
Devotee: Thought comes after the fact.
Da Avabhasa: Yes! The fact! The fact is what we must find out about! Our
thought has never accounted for the fact of where, why, or what anything is.
Where, why, or what, for example, is "arm"? We cannot deal with that! Where,
why, or what is that? Where is it? Why is it? What IS it? To say my, me,
right, arm, hand - those are merely presumptions. Where? Why? What? Do you
know? Do you? Do you know where, why, or what THAT is? (Shouting) do you or
don't you? ... Consider it. Your thinking has to do with the fact that you
perceive your hand, for example. Your thinking has nothing to do with where,
why, or what your hand IS. It has nothing to do with it! You have a
conventional reference for your "hand", but such conventions have nothing to
do with knowing where, why, or what it IS. They have only to do with fact
THAT it is. THAT anything is, is the basis of mind....
Our entire lives are based on the fact of what we perceive. Our lives are not
in the slightest based on knowing where, why, or what anything IS. Our lives
are based on the fact of what appears to be, and our functional relations to
these things. This is what we make language of, responses of, and mind of. We
don't make language, responses, and mind of knowing where, why, or what
anything is, not ANY thing - not even your "nose", so-called. You don't know
where, why, or what this is, do you? Do you? Where it is? Why it is? What it
IS? DO you know this? (Long pause.) It IS! That is the only goddamned thing
you know! That is what your mind is made of, the isness of it, the appearance
of it....
The mind is based on the most superficial acknowledgment of the factual,
perceived existence of things. That is all your mind is. All of your abstract
thoughts are merely a swoon upon that ordinary acknowledgment of the factual
existence of things. It is not based on ANY profound knowledge of where, why,
or what anything is. (Shouting) ANYTHING WHATSOEVER! ANYTHING!! IS IT?!! IS
IT??? You didn't make any goddamned mind out of knowing where, why, or what
anything IS. You made mind out of acknowledging the fact that things are!
That's all! ....
We can go on being totally bothered by our minds, but what does it amount
to?! Mind is nothing! Mind is knowing you have a moustache, two arms, two
legs. What is so profound about all that?...
This matter is a great consideration. I think that we should not be bothered
by our minds, because our minds are just a convention, an ordinary
arrangement whereby we deal with the fact that things seem to be. If you were
to manipulate the organs of the brain a little bit you would not even see
THIS. You would not see anybody! Based on the current state of perception in
this body-mind, which we all can agree is duplicated in each of our cases, we
presume that we exist, and we make speech and thought and mind out of this
acknowledgment. But we have never once considered or answered the question
why, where, or what anything, anything whatsoever, is....
Therefore, mind is not a big problem. If you are disturbed by your mind, it
is simply because you have many thoughts, but there is nothing profound about
it. Mind is merely a confused play upon what seems to be. You do not have to
answer to your mind. There is no answer IN your mind. You must stop thinking,
and just look, and consider where, why, or what is anything whatsoever? This
consideration is prior to mind, has nothing to do with mind, has nothing to
do with what seems to be. Everything we do and think and talk is a convention
that we build upon what seems to be. Where, why, and what anything is, is an
entirely different matter! It IS the great matter. Our complications of
thought are just ordinary aberrations, built upon our most superficial
acknowledgment that things exist. We are looking into our minds to find great
answers, but there are not great answers in our minds. We never made mind out
of any great thing! We never made mind out of a great answer, not to mention
the fact that we never made mind out of a great question.
Mind is an ordinary activity, like digestion, breathing, the movement of
blood. it is an ordinary activity. The great matter is where, why, and what
anything is. Where is it? Why is it? WHAT IS it? Do you understand the force
of my question?...
Our minds are not profound. Our minds are coinage, money, cash for living.
They are conventions. Why should we get so deeply involved in the mind? The
mind has no answers whatsoever. All the mind is equipped to do is tell you
what to pay the taxi driver, what to eat for lunch, or the price of a
cookie...
Thus, if you have complications in the mind, they are merely conventional
complications. They are merely aggravations of this functional, existing
mechanism. There is no profundity in it, no profundity at all. If you are
having problems, you are in disorder, that is all. That is ALL it is! There
is nothing profound about it. Instead of merely dealing with the disorder of
your personality, however, you are involved in a great quest, as if somehow
deep in your being there were an original answer that you knew when you were
a babe, and if you could locate it, all of your complications would
disappear. Your complications are very ordinary. There are like the result of
not putting the tinker toys together right, not piling the blocks together
right, not combing your hair properly! That is all. That is entirely all.
Spiritual life is a matter of considering exactly this moment of existence.
Where is it, why it is, what it is, and ultimately ... what the Substance of
it is, what it is arising within, what is is a modification of. You do not
realize this through thinking, because your mind does not contain any
answers, never had any answers, is not based on answers....
Therefore, spiritual life has nothing to do with thinking about thought,
thinking about emotion, thinking about the body, controlling yourself,
manipulating yourself, believing anything on the basis of a thought or
anything else. It has to do with simply understanding the futility and
ordinariness of thought, emotion and body, so that you stand still and can
receive the Blessing. The Blessing is tangible and intangible. It is a
paradox. You receive it only when you stand still. When you simply stand
still - mind still, emotion still, body still - then you can receive my
Influence, my tangible Blessing, the Blessing that all Adepts through all
human time and beyond human time and throughout the universe have give. This
Blessing has been given by God-Realized beings in countless numbers of forms,
in countless numbers of worlds, in countless numbers of times. But it can be
received only when the mechanics of personality are still, when you are not
believing anything. before you think that you know where, why, of what
anything is.....
You submit yourself to this stillness, this process, voluntarily, because it
awakens love in you. To be still, you see, is to be merely submitted, to
release yourself into That which comes upon you and invades your mind, your
emotion, your body. Thus, without thinking, without even volunteering, you
spontaneously, naturally love it, submit to it, as a women does to her man,
as a man does to his woman. It is a spontaneous gesture of submission that
invades your life. It interferes with you when you are still, when there is
no mind, emotion, or body to think about, to account for, to identify with.
You become still through understanding, and this great Force invades the
circumstance of being. When it invades you, and you recognize it, then you
naturally, physically, emotionally, and mentally submit to it, before you
even think or react. A great Bliss arises, a great knowledge without thought
arises. It is a paradox, a great moment, a great wonder. It is a miracle...
DA AVABHASA
God is Not a Gentleman
and I Am That One
Yee