Re: Mind and Intellect Reply #3 on: July 10, 2009, 08:38:14 AM

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------PraNAms. It is like this. Neither body, mind or intellect (BMI) each by itself cannot kno w anything since each one is inert. On the other hand all pervading pure conscio usness need not have to realize (or I should say realization has no meaning from its reference, since it is infinite). When I say I know my body, mind and intellect, I, who is a conscious entity ide ntifying with the mind, say that I am the BMI. It is not the mind making that st atement since mind is inert, yet it is the mind making that statement, is it not ? Without the mind, that is when I am in the deep sleep state, I cannot say I am BMI or cannot say anything. Thus the BMI are required for knowing or for self-r ealization. If I say I am not the mind, or I am not this, that negation is being done by who? Even that negation is done by the mind only essentially mind is sayi ng I am not the mind. Ego, in essence an identification with the mind as I am th is, says that I am not this. This is the reasons why self-realization is very su btle process involving transcendence of the very process itself, since the proce ss is time-bound. It is the same problem with respect to experience as self-real ization. Hence I have been trying to pointing out the subtleties involved and once one ap preciates this, then one can easily understand what it involves. It is similar to the analogy of the seeing the light here it is the light of consciousness. If y ou are in a room and light is all over the room, you can see the light only when the light falls on an object and the object reflects the light. If I stretch my hand, one see the hand only because the light is falling on it and getting refl ected by it. Looking at the reflected light, I say I am seeing the hand. What I actually see is the light reflected by the hand, and not really the hand. I cann ot see the back side of the hand, since the reflected light from the back side o f my hand is not reaching my retina. Now the process of meditation involves unde rstanding that the light is, rejecting it is not the hand, but shifting my atten tion to the light that is reflecting from the hand, because of which the hand is seen; know that alone is the light and not the hand that you see. If I remove t he hand, I cannot see the light in the region or place where the hand was there before. Hence to see the light in the region where the hand was, I have to have a hand or object there so that I can see the light getting reflected and the ref lected light I can see. Meditations is to reject that light is not the hand or t he object, this, that is reflecting the light. The mechanism involving self-real ization is exactly the same. The thought flow is the mind. I can see the thought only when the light of consc iousness falls on the thought and getting reflected by the thought. That consti tutes the knowledge of the thought since I say I am conscious of the thought. No w meditation is, shifting my attention from the thought (object) but to that lig ht of consciousness that is getting reflected by the very thought which is locus sed on an object. Hence when I say I am not this this is a thought, but I am that because of which the thought is seen. Without the thought, there may be silence, but I am seeing or conscious of the silence (an object different from the seer or kno

wer of the silence). Hence I am not the silence but that because of which I am c onscious of the silence too. Hence the mind as an object is required for conscio usness to reflect and I have to shift my attention of my mind to that because of which I am conscious of the mind (thoughts) too. Now if one asks, Who is seein g that light of consciousness reflecting in the mind?; it is again I, who is ide ntifying with the mind, say that I am seeing the light of consciousness getting reflected by the mind. Hence Vedanta says, mind alone is the cause for bondage a s well as for liberation - mana eva manushyaanaam karaNam bandha mokshayoH| - a mRitabindu Upanishad. Hope this helps. Hari Om! Sadananda