Insanity and sanity

To wish that reality were different is the beginning of insanity.

To completely accept reality is the way back to sanity.

Karaniya Metta sutta

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born —
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

Poisonous intentions

To desire misery for others is a poisonous intention.

It poisons and darkens the mind and does not allow light to enter inside.

The fundamental healing is the healing of intention. Heal the intention to cause pain to others.

Instead, desire ease and well being for all. To desire liberation for your enemy is the most healing intention.

Let there be no suffering, even to the most wicked.

Suffering is only a call to awaken. It is only through suffering that evil is transformed.

The Absolute

The Absolute cannot be conscious of itself.
To be conscious of the self is a movement.
Since, there can be no motion in the Absolute, it cannot be conscious of itself.

Consciousness is borrowed from The Absolute, which is itself beyond consciousness.

It is said that the Absolute alone is.

The supreme peace beyond all comprehension.

Boredom

One of the biggest challenges in life is dealing with boredom. Many times, in order to escape the boredom of a mundane life, we seek various thrills, excitements, sex, relationships and even 'enlightenment' which we believe is the permanent cure to this boredom. We are terrified of accepting it and remaining with it. In many ways, our inability of accepting the fundamental boredom of life is responsible for all kinds of perversions. In order to seek escape from boredom, we allow perverse notions to captivate the mind. Indulgence in perverse notions results in downfall.

And yet. There is only this. No escape from truth. It is beyond acceptance and rejection, which is only another game played by the mind.

There is nothing to do to realize this. It is absolute.

Seeking

The very creation of 'the world' is to promote seeking. We experience a void, or a sense of in-completion. And then get trapped up in the seeking mindset, which desires to 'go out' into the world in order to seek that something which will end the sense of in-completion. But the sense of incompletion remains. Hence seeking will not end the sense of incompletion.

Then what to do if not seek? Do the unthinkable...yes, do not seek. Remain as you are. Does the incompletion disappear?

Have I acted right or wrong? Who is to judge? There is only action and consequence. No right or wrong.

The supreme realization

The supreme realization is to not desire things to be other than as they are at this very moment.

To desire things to be different from what they are right now is insanity.

Infact, it is impossible for things to be different from how they are right now.

An excerpt

A Buddhist monk, after completing ten thousand hours of mediation, can control his attention on demand. He can locate and focus his attention, and his being, on Self-awareness in the present. How adept he is at maintaining controlled attention and his depth of immersion in the present, is subject to many factors within him and external to him.

 

For the average individual who must face the demanding and distracting world of day labour, controlled attention on Self-awareness in the present is not easy. Not that it is easy for a monk, but the monk does have the advantage of being in an environment that encourages Self-awareness.

 

After almost fifty years of international travel, analytical research and practice, and repeated verification, I have come to an essential understanding — life can only be lived in the present. We can remember and imagine life in the past and the future, but we can only live life in the present.

  

The common man is at a disadvantage, having to bear both the burden of maintaining society, and his own Self-awareness within society. To help keep his higher Self alive, he prays, takes counsel from a master, attends religious festivals, and meets daily with fellow believers of whichever religion he favours. He buys, wears, and displays religious objects and images. He does all he can to remember a higher level of being than what he finds in congested traffic, the clutter of his desk at the office, the daily taunt of monetary rituals, and the drudgery of his habitual inclination to attach a personal identity to every feeling, thought and sensation he experiences.

  

How then can the common man, the average individual, be made into a monk while bound to the canon of conventional edicts?

  

The monk uses internal and environmental prompts to remind him that his attention must be divided between being aware of what he is doing, and of himself doing it. He uses his breathing, he uses what his eyes see, what his skin senses, what his heart feels, what his mind thinks, what his ears hear. He uses the nourishment of his human presence and perception to awaken his afterlife Self. And the common man can do the same. Whenver he is engaged in any kind of daily ritual, task or chore, he can ask, “Am I aware of myself being where I am doing what I’m doing, or not?”

  

We are all born in the present, live and die in the present. All that remains is for us to be in the present, to be Self-aware always. From the moment we open our eyes in the morning to the moment we close them at night, the question remains, “Am I here now?” And there is little to no external change made visible to other people by our being Self-aware in the present. We receive neither praise nor money from being more Self-aware. Beyond feeling less stressed or less incomplete, what we gain from enhanced Self-awareness is greater scale-of-vision perspectives, a glimpse of the world without us in it, a deeper insight into the presence in us of our afterlife which is also in the present.

  

Every moment in the present brings us a moment closer to enlightenment — an escape from the very small world of the human ego and all its possessive “i” attachments. And there is no lock on the present door. All who are willing can walk through it now in this moment as these words come to an end and a moment without words begins.

Warning

All religions and wise beings have invariably warned of two major pitfalls, the road that leads downward and away from truth into the forest of delusion:

1. Excessive indulgence in sense pleasures and dwelling on perverse fantasies.
2. Performing evil deeds.

Craving for sensual indulgence and indulging in perverse sexual fantasies will only take you downward into darkness and ignorance. This will make it difficult to make progress towards the truth of the Soul.

Evil actions only intensify delusion and cause constant misery due to repeated dwelling on the act and fear of the consequence.

Refrain from sensual indulgence, perverse fantasies and evil deeds. These are potent in causing one's downfall.

Dwell constantly on the glory of the truth of the One Soul. This is your best companion and protector.

Evil deeds

In a state of ignorance, an evil deed is performed. Then consequence follows and good deeds need to be performed for balancing out. Thus performance of evil deeds leads to exponential future work!

Hence refrain from evil deeds. This is a nice strategy to avoid future work! Until the evil deed is balanced out, serenity of mind will not arrive.

Realize

Why, o dear one, are you so attached to the innumerable concerns of a limited mind?
Realize the concern-less infinite mind. Pure consciousness.

The Infinite One

The Infinite One is exactly that: truly infinite and absolutely non-dual (One). So totally so that it originally has nothing to contrast itself against and thus has no means to know itself by. The One – in it’s original ‘state’ – is beyond knowledge of any kind, because without contrast of any kind, there is no awareness of any kind.

Creation (Consciousness) is the mirror to Infinity’s faceless ingraspability. The One is forever beyond being experienced. The closest it can get to knowing itself is through consciousness reflecting upon the possibility of what is beyond its own presence; what its source is.
But even when consciousness realizes that it has a source that is truly One and Infinite, The One itself still remains beyond the comprehension of consciousness, but now at least The One gets reflected because Consciousness (presence) ponders the existence of beyond-presence or beyond-existence.
In this way The Infinite One magically and beautifully develops a mysterious awareness of itself through contrast.

-Excerpt

Introspection illusion

Believing you understand your motivations and desires, your likes and dislikes, is called the Introspection Illusion. You believe you know yourself, and why you are the way you are. You believe this knowledge tells you how you will act in all future situations. Research shows otherwise.

Time after time, experiments show introspection is not the act of tapping into your innermost mental constructs, but is instead a fabrication, a construction, a fiction. You look at what you did, or how you felt, and you make up some sort of explanation which you can reasonably believe. If you have to tell others, you make up an explanation they can believe too.

-Excerpt

The introspection illusion is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly think they have direct insight into the origins of their mental states, while treating others' introspections as unreliable. In certain situations, this illusion leads people to make confident but false explanations of their own behavior (called "causal theories"^[1]) or inaccurate predictions of their future mental states.

The illusion has been examined in psychological experiments, and suggested as a basis for biases in how people compare themselves to others. These experiments have been interpreted as suggesting that, rather than offering direct access to the processes underlying mental states, introspection is a process of construction and inference, much as people indirectly infer others' mental states from their behavior.^[2]

When people mistake unreliable introspection for genuine self-knowledge, the result can be an illusion of superiority over other people, for example when each person thinks they are less biased and less conformist than the rest of the group. Even when experimental subjects are provided with reports of other subjects' introspections, in as detailed a form as possible, they still rate those other introspections as unreliable while treating their own as reliable. Although the hypothesis of an introspection illusion informs some psychological research, the existing evidence is arguably inadequate to decide how reliable introspection is in normal circumstances.^[3] Correction for the bias may be possible through education about the bias and its unconscious nature.<sup>[4]

-Wikipedia</sup>

Why is life so hard?

Why do we find life to be a struggle? Why do we feel that life is so hard sometimes?

The thought 'life is hard' occurs to you only when there is some anxiety about the future. This anxiety which comes up is due to the fundamental unknown of the future. The future remains as a dark spot of the unknown. When we dwell on that dark spot, it generates anxiety. Let us enquire. At this very moment, you are here, reading this. Here in this very moment, all that actually exists is just you and your awareness of being present here, now. Feel this presence. This presence that you feel is all that actually exists. Yes, there might be unresolved isuues, tasks undone etc. but right now is only presence. Now, I invite you to grasp that this presence is the only thing thats found when you really enquire. No matter what situation you might be in, the sense of presence is always there, seemingly at the background. The foreground consists of your thoughts of anxiety.

Breathe deeply and feel this very moment. Feel your presence. Let it wash away the anxiety. Let it wash away the fear. Let us see that at every moment, we are faced with two seeming possibilities. Once is the train of thought which eventually leads us only to death and anxiety if followed through. Other is the sense of presence right here right now, which is pure consciousness. If thought is allowed to expand, it can very easily blow completely out of proportion and seemingly embrace our consciousness in its grasp of despair and gloom. Consciousness remains unaffected, however. This needs to be realized. Then thought can change. Then this very moment becomes a celebration. An act of gratitude merely for being alive this very moment. Darkness and despair of thought is just deception. An anchor is needed for life. An anchor which is independent of external circumstances. Consciousness alone can become the anchor. It is present at all times in all circumstances. Dwell here in the stillness of awareness, else the deception of the world will carry you away. Ultimately, there is nothing to seek in life. There is only eternal consciousness. This alone has to be realized deeply. Only then will the strength arrive which banishes all thoughts of despair. All the words of the world and their deception must be burned in this fire of pure consciousness. Only then will true security and peace arrive. No peace or security can ever come from 'external' factors. Seeking any form of security through external means will only increase misery. Until this is deeply realized, you will not stop seeking 'more'. Realize that you have enough. Only then can you truly contribute to the world.

It has been declared by ancient wisdom that self knowledge alone is to be sought. Once the self is realized, all sorrows will vanish.

On deception

There lurks a silent subtle thief in the darkness. This thief is the ignorant mind. Ignorant of truth. It creates a false world through deception and ill will. The ignorant mind is filled with evil intention. The evil intention manifests itself as words of deception. Words of deception seek to confuse the pure mind and hide the truth behind a veil of ignorance. Believing words of deception bounds you to ignorance and suffering.

Since truth is One and beyond destruction, the only way to bound is through deception. Deception is false knowledge parading as truth. Its only purpose is to deceive the mind. Through the deception, we perceive a warped version of reality where everything is seen wrongly. Our major task in life is to protect ourselves from false knowledge that deceives by remaining constantly vigilant. Remain aware constantly. Ceaseless watchfulness. The chief power of deception is its invisibility and speed. It is extremely subtle.

Those in positions of power use deception to rule and control. Our minds are remarkably susceptible to deception and hence need to be guarded at all times, even in sleep and while dreaming as well. The moment you find an evil intent or ill will arising in the mind, know that you have been deceived. The seed of deception lurks deep within the subconscious mind. This makes it powerful. Constant watchfulness and remaining ceaselessly aware are your best weapons. Deception flees the moment it is seen. The moment it becomes visible, it disappears at once. Hence remain clear at all times. Shine the light of awareness deep into the subconscious. Deception will instantly flee. However, it will patiently wait for the next opportunity. It is remarkably persistent. Hence our practice must be ceaseless.

This is the great inner battle. Ultimately, the deception is a mere illusion. Awareness is the reality. Under the spell of ignorance, this is not seen. The great deception has sapped the life out of a large part of humanity. Let us together shine the light of awareness and get rid of deception. False teachings have gripped the mind. Distractions prevent reflection and remaining aware. Resort to the One. Stop deceiving. Stop lying to yourself. This alone is sufficient.