The Search For Meaning - ACIM lessons

The inspiration behind this blog entry is a very interesting channel I found on youtube.

The channel is ACIM esstentials featuring Auntie Patricia (Patricia Robinett)

Here's
Auntie Patricia on 'Meaning versus Meaninglessness', ACIM Lesson 004.




People all through the ages have been searching for the 'meaning of life'.

I don't think this 'meaning' has been found. Because I'm not sure there exists any 'absolute meaning' in the realm of the mind.

The 'meaning of life' cannot be some complicated network of mental concepts.

The intellectual route in the search for 'meaning' is not wrong, but will eventually take one to the point where all 'meaning' will dissolve...into nothing...


I believe that the moment meaninglessness is seen clearly.
Is the moment in which MEANING will show itself.
Clearly.

The ACIM route into the realm of true meaning, via the dissolution of the 'meaningless meaning' we attribute to things and events: 1. Nothing I see means anything. 2. I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me. 3. My thoughts do not mean anything. 4. My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

I currently believe, that the absolute, self evident meaning, when it is finally seen clearly, will be accompanied by the dissolution of the mind, signifying a total withdrawal from worldly affairs. And the mind that can see to an extent, the meaninglessness that exists, can see, to an extent, the absolute, self evident meaning of it all.

Digging deeper into the ACIM perspective:

A. If thoughts do not have any meaning, it means that INTERPRETATIONS that thoughts give to situations rising in the surroundings are absurd and meaningless.

Further...memories are also thoughts. When a memory comes, it comes as a thought.

If statement A. is true, it follows that mental movies that pretend to be memories are not really memories, but are pretending to be memories. And their content is also the same - absurd and meaningless. And this takes me to my post on CARL JUNG's commentary on 'Time'.

To people who subscribe to the Advaita Vedantic perspective of MAYA, the following statement will ring true:

Meaningless thoughts from the void are projecting or generating the illusion of a meaningless world that exists only to the extent it is observed.

Quote by Ramesh Balsekar:

In the meditation for November 27 in A Net of Jewels (1996), Ramesh Balsekar says,

"Breathing goes on by itself while the deluded individual thinks it is he who is breathing. Thoughts come from outside, arising spontaneously through intervals of mental vacuum, and he thinks it is he who is thinking. The thoughts get transformed involuntarily into action, and he thinks it is he who is acting. All the while, he is doing nothing but to misconstrue the actions of the Totality as his own action."


Update 2011:

Stepping beyond conclusions & intellectual concepts, judgments, straight into the realm of pure faith...this song is very profound christian mysticism...

The Interplay of Opposites

Consider the following situation: Father throws out his two errant sons because they are useless. One son dies in the harsh environment of the outside world. The other son thrives in the harshness, and becomes a successful man. So the question is.... Was this act of the father Good? or Evil? Perhaps it was BOTH Good and Evil? Perhaps it was neither Good nor Evil?

The fleeting, illusory qualities of MAYA are difficult to classify, separate. Because of their inherent oneness.

Here is a beautiful christian mysticism number that tries to instill that there is a deep relationship between opposing qualities of life.


Lyrics
If you believe in light, it's because of obscurity
If you believe in joy, it's because of sadness
If you believe in God...it's because of the devil





This concept can be found in physics, freudian psychology, buddhism, hinduism too.

So if opposing qualities of life are mere aspects of the same unified whole, mere flavours of the same continuum, it would mean that qualities like cruelty, madness, sadness, hatred, disease, death...all emerge from the deepest level of life itself...
just like their opposite qualities.


In his book the "Tao of Physics", Fritjof Capra writes...

"In our normal state of consciousness, this unity of opposites is extremely hard to accept...

But when mystics transcend this realm of intellectual concepts, they become aware of the relativity and polar relationship of all opposites. They realise that pleasure and pain, life and death, sadness and joy are not absolute experiences belonging to different categories, but are merely two sides of the same reality. Extreme parts of a single whole."

And what is this 'single whole'....the answer to this question does not follow simple logic that our minds are accustomed to.

Because over here, we are dealing with nothing but the infinite....

It moves. It moves not.
It is far. It is near.
It is within all this.
And it is outside of all this.
- The Upnishads.

SUMMARY:

OPPOSING QUALITIES OF LIFE ARE NOT ABSOLUTES. THEY ARE DIFFERENT FLAVOURS OF THE SAME CONTINUUM.

Manifestation of Infinite Silence

Consider the statement: "BE AWARE OF THE EMPTY SPACE IN YOUR IMMEDIATE SURROUNDINGS". Does this statement suddenly add any extra quality to your perception? If yes, then this blog entry is for you.

॥प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय॥ ॥गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा॥ ..The Heart Sutra.. Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail! "Form is Emptiness...Emptiness is Form"

In the following passages...there is nothing to understand.

These words are just pointers that we are surrounded by infinitely deep mystery. Beautiful mystery.

This infinite mystery is not far away in deep space.
It is all around us.
It is above us.
It is behind us.
It is below us.
It surrounds us.

Eckhart Tolle explains that awareness of empty space and silence are the key to seeing this beautiful mysterious infinity that is ever present in our surroundings.

Terms used by Tolle:

1. UNMANIFESTED = NO-THING. NOTHINGNESS. EMPTINESS. INFINITE SILENCE.
2. MANIFESTED = PHYSICAL WORLD.

SILENCE
(Modified Eckhart Tolle Passage.)
The Unmanifested is not separate from the manifested. It pervades this world, but it is so well disguised that almost everybody misses it completely. If you know where to look, you'll find it everywhere.

Do you hear that dog barking in the distance? Or that car passing by?

Be aware of the distance between you and the sound.

Be aware of the silence that surrounds the distant sound.

Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still.

Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and during its life span is surrounded by silence. Silence enables the sound to be. It is an intrinsic but unmanifested part of every sound, every musical note, every song, every word. The Unmanifested is present in this world as silence. This is why it has been said that nothing in this world is so like God as silence. All you have to do is pay attention to it. Even during a conversation, become conscious of the gaps between words, the brief silent intervals between sentences. As you do that, the dimension of stillness grows within you. You cannot pay attention to silence without simultaneously becoming still within. Silence without, stillness within. You have entered the Unmanifested.

SPACE
(Modified Eckhart Tolle Passage.)
Just as no sound can exist without silence, things cannot exist without the empty space that enables them to be.

Every physical object or body has come out of nothing, is surrounded by nothing, and will eventually return to nothing.

Not only that, but even inside every physical body there is far more "nothing" than "something." Physicists tell us that the solidity of matter is an illusion.

Even seemingly solid matter, including your physical body, is nearly 100 percent empty space -- so vast are the distances between the atoms compared to their size. What is more, even inside every atom there is mostly empty space.

What is left is more like a vibrational frequency than particles of solid matter, more like a musical note.

Buddhists have known this for over 2,500 years.

"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form," states the Heart Sutra, one of the best known ancient Buddhist texts.

The essence of all things is emptiness.
___________________________________

AWARENESS OF THE EMPTY SPACE IN THE SURROUNDINGS. Awareness of the SILENCE that SURROUNDS SOUND. This is the key to the infinite, unspoken mystery.

Further Reading:
Dakini Notes on Psychedelic Science.
Dakini Notes on Psychedelics.

Gayatri Mantra, Nav Rasas, Awakening

Back in 1989, I saw a Meg Ryan movie - Innerspace - in which a tiny human in a tiny ship is floating around in the human body.

Saw it again a few days back and it set me thinking - what if we are in a similar situation - what if the cosmos is a living environment...?

I believe it is impossible that the Cosmos is a dead machine.

So would scientists who expounded the 'living systems theory'.

To them it's evident that living systems are not limited only to the bodies of humans or animals and other phenomena that traditional science classifies as 'living'.

If the cosmos is not alive, how come we are? Can a dead machine create and sustain life?


This blog entry is on the gayatri mantra, a popular hindu prayer to the cosmos.

ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः ।
तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं ।
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि ।
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥



Om Bhoo bhuvah svaha
Tat savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi
Dhio yo nah Prachodayaat

Table reproduced from Shanti Mayi

Sanskrit	Translation	English Version
OM	All of existence. Perceptive vibration of the cosmos. The Almighty. Life.	Throughout the experience of Life
BHOOR	Coming. The physical world. Vital energy.
BHUVAH	Going. The mental world. Destroyer of suffering.
SVAH	Balance. The intellectual world. Embodiment of happiness.
TAT	That; indicates the three planes of experience, isness, pure being, God.	That essential nature
SAVITUR	Radiant brilliance shinning forth from nowhere. Bright, luminous, like the sun. Knowledge. Male principle.	illuminating existence
VARENYAM	Adorable. Venerable. Supreme.	is the adorable
BHARGO	Permeated with Magnificence. The destroyer of sins.	One.
DEVASYA	Divine. Intrinsically pure and brilliant.
DHEEMAHI	Meditation-focused, absorbed. Receiving.
DHIYO	Intellect.	May all beings perceive through subtle and meditative intellect
YO	Who
NAH	Us (Out of one into many; Yo-Nah: Female principle.)
PRACHODAYAAT	Inspire, enlighten and ignite.	the brilliance of enlightened awareness.

Here is a simpler translation:

ॐ	OM	Symbol of the Brahman
भूः	Bhoo	Bhu-Loka (Physical plane)
भुवः	Bhuva	Antariksha-Loka (Astral plane)
स्वः	Svaha	Swarga-Loka (Celestial plane)
तत्	Tat	That; Transcendent Paramatman
सवितु	Savitur	Of the Sun
वरेण्यं	Varenyam	Fit to be worshipped or adored
भर्गो	Bhargo	Light, Illumination
देवस्य	Devasya	Divine
धीमहि	Dheemahi	Let us meditate
धियो	Dhiyo	thoughts
यो	Yo	Which
नः	Nah	Of us, Our
प्रचोदयात्	Prachodyat	Enlighten; Guide

“The Cosmos is the giver of life, the remover of myopia, the bestower of sanity; I pray to the Cosmos to bless us with enlightenment and awakening and dazzle us with its intelligence.” - My interpretation.

The meaning is awareness of the environment around us, in all its forms and flavours, at all its scales, humble or huge, and the appreciation that it enlightens.

The sanity, the illumination that exists...tries to come to us through our environment. Sometimes we are given sweets. Sometimes chillies. By universal wisdom. Perhaps so that we may awaken spiritually.

In fact, hindus say we are given the entire Nav Rasas. And through these Nav Rasas, which are sometimes tough, sometimes soft....life toughens us, shapes us, awakens us, illuminates us.

It would be great to look upon the different elements of the environment as *one unified conduit of the Cosmos* through which it sends the Nav Rasas to awaken us.

WHY PRAY FOR AN AWAKENING? AREN'T WE AWAKE?

We could be awake, as awake as is possible, but, it's also possible that we are asleep, experiencing MAYA...according to hindus and buddhists.

And maya is considered to be the state of suffering, by both hindus and buddhists, who feel that awakening is required.

We could be a bit like the mythological KumbhKaran who needed a lot of tough treatment from the environment before he finally woke up.

Summary :
This mantra wants to show us the amazing, dazzling splendour of the infinite cosmos. Instill in us that it is nothing but eternal, infinite cosmic wisdom that is playing with us through our surroundings, using various means, to wake us up from deep spiritual sleep.

If indeed infinite cosmic wisdom is operating in our lives...all that has ever happened, all that is happening, and all that will ever happen - every tiny bit of it - it is all perfect. Often it is tragic. But the tragedy is also perfection and necessary for our illumination.


PART 2

BOOK PASSAGE:
Passage from Rob Brezsny's book "PRONOIA":
Many of us are essentially asleep, even as we walk around in broad daylight. We are so focussed on the restless narratives and repetitive fantasies unfurling in our heads that we only dimly perceive the larger story raging in all of its chaotic beauty around us.

To have any hope of permanently breaking out of our fuzzy trance, we require regular shocks. A single jolt might cause us to briefly come to attention and see the miracle of creation for what it is, but once the red alert has passed, we relax back into our fixation on the dreamy tales our mind never stops telling us.

In the course of its conspiracy to shower us with blessings, life does its best to provide us with a steady flow of healing shocks. Bt because it tends to err on the side of tenderness, its prods may be too gentle, allowing us to ignore them. Gradually life will up the ante, trying o find the right mix of toughness and love, as it encourages us to wake up.

But our addiction to phantasmagoria is tenacious. The stream of voices pretending to be thoughts, even when they are racked with torment and terror, are perversely entertaining.

And we may avoid responding to the kind shocks for so long that life may have to resort to stronger shocks.

It doesn't have to be this way. We could cultivate in ourselves a sixth sense for the wake up calls life sends us. We might develop a knack for responding with agile grace to the early, gentler ones, so that we would not have to be visited by the more stringent measures.

There is another possibility: With hungry intent, we could seek out and hunt down invigorating jolts. We wouldn't wait to have our asses kicked, but would kick our own asses -- over and over again, with a creative ingenuity that would be the envy of a great pronoiac novelist or musician or film maker. Who knows? We might even master the art of inducing shocks that feel a little good.

And an interesting Rob Brezsney speech: