To
whom it may concern:
Please
forward this e-mail to your spiritual teacher, Andrew Cohen. It is my belief
that he is a bona fide, enlightened guru, but I also lay claim to enlightenment.
I entered nirvikalpa samadhi in intense experiences during the first and last
weeks of May, 2002. I submit this commentary on some of Cohen’s writings as
proof of my illumination. I also have a website he may care to peruse, www.neochristians.com. I seek nothing from him, not even acknowledgement. I am
simply curious to see how an illumined teacher may respond to me, should he even
care to do so. How many students do I have? Zero. How many students do I want?
Zero. Like Indra I cast down my spittle, which becomes the rain on your jolly
parade. Like mighty Shiva, I dance upon the head of a blind dwarf. Whether this
dwarf will open his eyes a crack or keep them firmly closed is purely a matter
of the Father’s will, whom I worship and adore in the form of Shiva.
I
found these quotations at http://www.andrewcohen.org/teachings/oneMind.asp. I
will precede Cohen’s quotations with “Andrew,” and my responses with
“Kurt.”
The following excerpts are taken from Enlightenment Is a Secret by Andrew Cohen (Moksha Press, 1991)
There Is Only One Mind
Q: What is the mind?
ANDREW: The mind is a mechanical process. If you look closely
enough you will see that you could not be that mechanical process because you
are observing it. You are watching it move. You are not moving. It
is moving. When you see this you will find out what the problem has been all
along. Then you will say, "Oh my God, look what I've been doing! All these
years I thought I was my mind, I thought I was my thoughts and feelings, and
because I thought I was my thoughts and feelings, I acted like a fool!" It
is very humiliating and humbling when you realize that you have been a puppet
all your life. You need to look deeply and find this out for yourself. Then you
will realize there is only one mind, and you will see how everybody is lost in
the same dream.
KURT: The mind is composed of spirit. Every soul is composed
of Atman, higher mind, lower mind, and senses. All of this is spirit, molded and
formed into various shapes to serve the purposes of the living being. For
instance, the spiritual senses trace and underlie the physical senses. When we
see or hear, we do not encounter the external world directly, obviously, but we
also do not encounter our physical organs, the eyes and ears, directly. All
physical processes are mediated by spiritual organs corresponding to them, with
which the conscious portion of the soul interacts. Do you think about moving all
the tiny muscles required when you dance, or do you just dance? Without the
spiritual organs, the soul would not be able to live in the body. If you were to
take a bacterial soul, for instance, and place it directly in a human body, the
body would just lay there, inert, unfeeling, unseeing, and unhearing. The
development of spiritual organs occurs during evolution. It is because of the
spiritual organs, which are immensely complex, semi-solidified forms of spirit,
that animal souls are more valuable to the Creator than bacterial or plant
souls, and human souls the most valuable of all. The spiritual organs which
monitor the body’s ongoing life, including involuntary and voluntary muscular
movement and all autonomic processes, I regard as the lower mind. Above this is
the spiritual organ with which a soul engages in thought, which I call the
higher mind and is certainly what this questioner is asking about. In the human
being this organ comes into its fullest development. I categorize thinking into
five categories, though these can certainly be subdivided further. There is the
discriminating intellect, by which one makes choices between good and bad, right
and wrong. There is the capacity to think rationally and logically, and the
capacity to imagine and think freely which I call discursive thought. Further,
there is the capacity to remember the past, and to plan for the future, each of
which requires distinct mental powers. A human being rises into full possession
of his human thinking capacity at the end of the stage of rajas, before he
enters sattva proper, however this is only as that thinking capacity casts
itself into the external world as manipulator. The successful businessmen of our
world are all highly rajasic, with very active minds which they control and use
very well to exploit the world for their own selfish benefit. Once the thinking
capacity is fully possessed, a moment which comes to all, the pleasures of the
world cease to satisfy as they once did because the real joy came not from
the external world, but from the increasing feeling of mental power that one
experienced as the thinking capacity was mastered. It is only at this moment
that spiritual consciousness is awakened and one begins to turn inward, towards
the real source of joy, the real source of fulfillment, and the only real avenue
for the further spiritual growth which the soul craves. Such a one is truly
called sattvic, and it is only from these ranks that questioners like Cohen’s
student arise. The rest do not care, immersed as they are in finding their
satisfactions and blandishments in the world without, which although they ever
fail to satisfy, seem for a time to satisfy because the inner drive for
spiritual growth is still being met as they come into their full stature as
human beings. Those who care begin to leave their humanity behind, and seek the
divine, of which Cohen is a living, shining example.
Cohen
here takes the practical attitude of calling the mind separate from the
experiencer of the mind. While not strictly speaking true, for the soul is
continuous spirit, there is some practical value to be found here. All creatures
are granted consciousness by the Creator at the moment of their creation.
This is like a little window through which they are able to look out upon the
rest of their soul and control it. The mind is thus a lot like the body. We move
the body naturally and easily, yet we do not feel that we are our arm, our leg,
or any other body part. Similarly we think, but do not feel we are our thoughts.
We use the mind and body like tools of ours, although in actual fact the mind
and the spiritual organs controlling our body are composed of spirit, parts of
our soul that are not discontinuous, in the last analysis, from our
consciousness. Cohen goes one step further and asserts that the mind is a
mechanical process, by which he indicates that our thoughts, while we may have
thought them intentionally in the beginning, are now out of control and have
taken on a life of their own. This is a very accurate picture of the mind. Take
hatred, for instance. While we were animals, and for awhile as humans too, this
emotion enabled us to assert our domination over the rest. It was a useful and
an intended part of our mental world. Hatred served the ego, which is a false
idea we all carry around with us of who we are based solely on sensory
impressions, very well. Hatred does not, however, serve the Atman, who is our
true Self, at all! The Atman exists in perfect harmony with all around. The
Atman implicitly recognizes Brahman’s fundamental law that all were meant to
coexist in happiness upon His planets of life. The Atman is inherently joyful,
inherently free, inherently wise with a portion of Brahman’s own wisdom. We
will not be truly happy until, like Cohen, we destroy the ego in samadhi and
emerge as the glorious Self of man, a divine creature capable of guiding others
forwards to that illustrious realm which ever beckons to the heart of man. So,
it is useful to think of the negative emotions of the mind as foes of ours, who
must be defeated in the battle of sadhana. I prefer to recommend the repetition
of the holy name as a mighty sword to defeat these foes, or more properly
speaking, to sap their strength and bring it from the “dark side” of
ignorance and evil to the “bright side” of knowledge and goodness. Cohen,
like all illumined teachers, plows his own unique furrow in this regard, having
gone beyond the need for any scripture himself. Students go where they hear the
resonance of a kindred spirit; Cohen gathers his eternal friends around him even
as I write this, for his close students will be with him for many, many lives
until at last many of them, too, taste the joy of samadhi, union with the Lord
of Love or the Self within.
The Corruption of God
Q: My mind seems to always keep going and this disturbs me
very much. It constantly interferes with my meditation.
ANDREW: Your mind disturbs you only because you are fascinated
by it.
KURT: The questioner is very insightful into the processes of his mind,
which is a very good sign of a spiritual nature. Cohen takes one valid approach
to the question, but I would take another. The type of meditation that I
recommend is that introduced to the world by my teacher, Eknath Easwaran, of
going through the words of an inspirational passage slowly and with great
concentration. In this type of meditation, which is meditation upon an object
instead of objectless meditation as Cohen perhaps recommends, one’s attention
is naturally drawn away from the mind to the object and fewer difficulties of
this sort arise. This object is of course a form in the mind which one creates
using the power of thought, and in deep meditation this object disappears. Those
immersed in dhyana, the state preceding the final one, samadhi, can often go
through a passage that we can say in a minute or less over the period of two
full hours! They say a word and ahhh… the mind dissolves in bliss. They come
back down, repeat another word, and again ahhh… the mind dissolves. When you
meditate upon an inspirational verse, you make a little “holy house” in your
mind from which the rest of your mind is clearly seen for what it is: a
distracting mess over which you have little control. At the same time you do not
feel that you are an evil being because of this, but a good one set against
mighty, though impermanent and defeatable, foes. Meditation is a process of
slowly drawing all this mental power over to your side, of defeating the evil
motions of the mind by gradually, gently and with dexterity asserting your
sattvic or good will over them. One meditating in this way gets up from
meditation a little more energized, a little more free, a little more joyful
than when he or she sat down. Meditation is wonderful! It refreshes and
rejuvenates the most jaded individual, gives hope to the most hopeless, and
opens the door wide to the vast world of the spirit within to all. The mind is
powerful and out of control, which is why the questioner finds himself disturbed
by it. Through meditation, this power will become yours! You cannot get it all
at once, but little by little. The proof is in the feeling of freshness which
meditation can induce in your soul when you perform it every day with sincerity
and exuberance. There is no spiritual discipline more powerful than meditation.
It is the spiritual vehicle which will carry all at last unto the supreme goal
of union with the Lord or samadhi. Get in, shut the door behind you, and go
forward!
Q: If I relinquish this fascination will I be Free?
ANDREW: Yes. The end of that fascination is the birth of
Enlightenment.
KURT: This is a brilliant statement of the nature of enlightenment, but
it is perhaps not the best practical advice for one still immersed in the world.
Cohen is indeed no longer “fascinated” by the processes of his mind, which
as an awakened being are under his total, complete control.
Cohen’s mind was not destroyed in samadhi; it still exists just as before
enlightenment. What occurred was that in the intense fire of nirvikalpa samadhi
his Atman asserted its power at last, dissolving the knotty and crusty
ego-idea which is the obstacle for everyone. With this idea gone, Cohen at last knows
who he is, and that is a pure, limitless, immortal spirit. His Atman is now
free to use his mind for divine purposes, not mundane ones, and with
superintelligence it proceeds to do so, hence his whole teaching work has
arisen. The Atman is good, not evil. All evil thoughts have left Cohen forever.
He exists in perfect spiritual freedom, but alas! He does not quite remember
what it was like for him before illumination! The process is intense,
irresistible, and complete. He is now an illumined being, and humanity seems strange
to him! He does not understand their problem. He can tell them what life is like
for him, as he does here, but this does not necessarily amount to practical
advice. It is very inspiring, but still… How can anyone just “give up
fascination?” It is not possible! To attempt to do so is indeed a waste of
effort! The mind is a wonderful spiritual phenomenon that is inherently
fascinating. It is a good trait to be interested in things, like the mind, which
are so terribly interesting, not an evil trait. It is a sign of a rational
being. A spiritual aspirant comes to know his or her mind very well by the time
they attain samadhi, better than the “back of their hand,” as the saying
goes. Cohen knows his own mind perfectly, which is why he is able to use it so
magnificently in discourse and writing! I would say to the questioner, Your mind
is indeed fascinating as it is, but there is something more fascinating
still. Through spiritual disciplines like meditation and the repetition of the
holy name, you can take hold of this mind, so full of cruelty, anxiety, and
foolishness, and turn it into a mind full of kindness, sympathy, and wisdom. In
this action you will discover your true source of joy, for only by becoming the
type of creatures Brahman intended for us to become can we taste of that real
joy that is our birthright. Become the artist, the shaper, of your own mind.
Take hold of all those errant thoughts and mold them like putty in your hands.
You have this power within yourself; discover it! You have these abilities if
you will only learn to use them to full effect. Cohen is a master of this;
follow his example, and you cannot go wrong.
Q: I feel that I still have to understand more before I can
relinquish this fascination.
ANDREW: Your need to understand more is the expression of
doubt. You are bargaining with God. You will never find Freedom that way. You
cannot bargain with Him. To Him you can only offer everything. The degree to
which you are ready to give everything for that Freedom is the exact degree to
which you will be Free.
KURT: The mind must indeed be understood deeply. That is the whole
purpose of sadhana. When Brahman creates a soul and endows it with an Atman,
that Atman is only able to cast its awareness out into the sensory world in a
mode that is not self-aware. This is the game of Brahman, which all are playing.
He makes His creatures in darkness, so that they may appreciate light. He makes
them in ignorance so that they may attain unto knowledge. He makes them in
sorrow and insecurity so that they may find security and unfailing joyousness.
Life is a game of acquiring self-knowledge. Advanced aspirants never commit any
evil act, and why is this? They know that the consequence of evil acts is a
severe burden of negative karma. Whether they know this by experience, having
committed such acts and suffered for it in the past, or whether they have
learned by reading the words of the Avatar and the illumined teachers is a
personal matter entirely, lost in the gray and foggy mists of the ancient past.
After illumination, each person sees where he or she has come from, and
understands that these things that I say are true. Evil is always punished, and
good is always rewarded. A person entering samadhi knows all that there is to
know about his or her own mind, having conquered it through the power of the
sattvic will to goodness. There is nothing in the mind which constitutes an
obstacle any more. Evil has been transformed into good, and good will soon be
transformed into the divine. The illumined enter a higher plateau, a higher
spiritual plane, and all their activities are divine, godlike. Knowing and
controlling their own minds perfectly, they venture out into the depths of
Brahman’s spirit, to which there is no end. The illumined among mankind
experience this spiritual growth as impersonal, for Brahman remains forever
impersonal to all His creatures. He does, from time to time, manifest Himself in
a human form as the Avatar, whom the illumined are able to recognize if they
make a special effort. The real spiritual power of the Avatar is not seen in His
mere words, for anyone can speak, and this is what keeps Him hidden. The Avatar
is verily the embodiment of the Creator Himself, and His powers know no bounds.
The Avatar’s last embodiment was as Ramakrishna, at Dakshineswar, India. The
Incarnation before that, in India, was Chaitanya. Who can say when He will
appear again? The Avatar speaks alongside mankind, and as Ramakrishna
demonstrated now adopts the disguise of an illumined person. It is only when the
Avatar perishes that His real power becomes known, for while the words of
illumined teachers fade, the speech and writings of the Avatar live on and
become the guiding force for many. The Avatar lives only to provide guidance for
mankind, and as the Lord provides the supreme advice during any given historical
period. He has been through many, many solar cycles as humanity’s guide, all
of which He remembers and which inform His efforts in terms of effectiveness
over long historical periods, tens of thousands of years. Who can recognize the
Avatar? Truly, only another Avatar, and where is He? Nowhere on earth.
The
questioner is correct in thinking that he must understand his mind better. Cohen
is also right in detecting a trace of doubt in the questioner’s demeanor that
is not evident from his mere words, thus demonstrating one of his illustrious
spiritual powers. Cohen is able to look right into the heart of this person and
communicate with the Atman, who alerts him to the problem. What is this doubt
that Cohen attacks? It is doubt in the teacher’s words. The time for blind
faith, as the Christians bear for Jesus Christ, is past. A new dawning is
occurring where faith must be ever-informed, ever-vigilant, and even scientific
in its application. One should have unfailing faith in the guru’s words, but
this faith can be tested in the crucible of personal practice of the disciplines
which he recommends for his disciples. The type of understanding of our minds
which we need is not the distant understanding of the academic, but the
practical wisdom of the workman. As a bricklayer makes sturdy houses by laying
brick after brick in symmetrical, even rows, spiritual aspirants become wise by
meditating and engaging in other spiritual disciplines every single day. Our
understanding of our minds must not be just intellectual, but practical. It is
wrong to get caught up in fascination of our minds as they are. Instead,
we should get fascinated that we can make significant changes,
little by little. Does a potter sit and look at his wet clay for hours, admiring
its natural forms? Certainly not! He grasps it in his hands and makes it over
into forms that are aesthetically pleasing and practically functional. We should
seek to understand our minds in exactly this way, the way a potter understands
his clay. He knows what to do to change it into the shapes that he desires,
ignoring the shapes that it had when he started. Now, Cohen here brings in the
idea of “God,” and this God is none other than the Atman of man, who is a
divine being unaware of his divinity. Cohen has become this God, which is
why illumined teachers are mankind’s most proximate hope for spiritual
advancement. It is the student’s intuitive awareness of this amazing and
wonderful fact that brings him to a teacher. All Cohen’s students wish to be
like him one day, and through his grace and the grace of their own Atman, one
day they shall so become. What of this “bargaining?” To my mind, Cohen’s
response here reads as a pure statement of the Atman’s authority to teach. It
could be translated thusly: “I am an illumined being. Do not doubt my
authority. You have come to me, and that is good. Remain with me, and it will be
even better for you, for I hold the keys to immortality out freely to all my
students. It may take time. It may take many, many lives, but all my devoted
students shall attain to the ultimate freedom which I experience one bright day
in their future. Until that time, practice the disciplines I give you, and you
will find this doubt of yours vanquished in the flood of spiritual awareness
that your own Atman will bestow upon you, if you will only make the fullest
effort of which you are capable at this moment.”
Q: I can't give everything because my mind always wants to
know more. It wants to be sure that in that absolute giving there will be
safety.
ANDREW: The mind is only a machine. It has no self-nature. It
is not your mind that hesitates. It is you. You fear God and because of
this, you hesitate. The ego is nothing more than the doubt that your fear of God
arises from. What gives the mind the illusion of self-nature is your fascination
with doubt and fear.
The ego is the illusion of self-nature that you alone give to the mind. That is
the corruption of God.
KURT: I do not choose to think in terms of “absolute giving.” This
is not something that is actually possible for a human being to do. One cannot
become enlightened in a single step, however hard one may try. It is a long,
difficult process, which is why the spiritual journey is called a “path” and
not a “step.” In fact, I do not like to think in terms of “giving” at
all. I would counsel people to cultivate an attitude of seeking to increase,
through their work and other efforts, the pool of universal happiness. In the
end, the ego constitutes the idea that we can be happy irrespective of, and
sometimes at the cost of, those around us in the world. The illumined person is
happy not in spite of, but because of the happiness of the world, which is why
he seeks to increase it through his teaching work. When joy in the eyes of
another brings you real joy yourself, know that you are far indeed along the
path, perhaps nearing samadhi. My own sadhana was so intense that I never
considered any other options. I worked hard at selfless tasks at Easwaran’s
ashram (Ramagiri), but I never once thought of this as “giving.” It was a
privilege to help this illumined person further spread his influence in the
world. I was honored to be able to help, and thought that he was giving
to me in allowing me the opportunity to pursue the goal of
Self-realization on the Ramagiri premises. It is not a question, really, of
giving. It is a question of living. Spiritually advanced souls do good actions
night and day without feeling put out in the least, for they taste the joy of
the Atman as they near the goal and this is more than enough reward for anyone.
Do selfless work, therefore, when you get a chance, and do not think of it as
giving but as a royal opportunity to learn to mold and reshape your mind from
its formerly evil forms into the forms of goodness and rightness. Selfless work
is all such work as contributes to the joy of the world at large, although your
joy may also be included in this. A father playing ball with his son engages in
a selfless activity, and tastes some of the joy of the Atman. A mother taking
her kids to soccer practice similarly tastes the Atman’s joy, which is sweet
beyond anything that selfish pursuits can give. A spiritual aspirant gets a
maximum amount of this joy, for he seeks not just to benefit his small,
isolated, family, but the world as a whole, whom he considers as his larger
family. Your efforts do not need to be extreme, but should be those of which you
are capable at the moment. Sadhana is meant to be enjoyed by all. Life should be
sadhana, for everyone on earth, for it is only in the application of the
principles of religion to our lives that lasting joy can come to us, and stay, a
welcome friend. As you near the ultimate goal, your efforts may indeed become
very extreme, but you will enjoy them the way a downhill ski racer enjoys a
challenging course, flying down the hill at speeds that would terrify and
perhaps even kill a beginning skier. The spiritual path meets us where we are;
we are all on it, whether we know it or not, and whether we like it or not.
Everyone should begin exactly where they are, wherever that may be. The
illumined teachers and I at least agree on this one point, at any rate!
Cohen
again goes into the analogy of “mind as machine” here, which I will admit is
a useful one. Cohen rightly asserts his student’s proper position as ruler of
the mind, not its victim. He is also correct in calling the ego “the doubt
that your fear of God arises from,” which is an eloquent and concise
description of the ego, although many others exist. Calling the ego “the
illusion of self-nature that you alone give to the mind” is similarly correct.
I would merely seek to expand upon these concepts here. The ego is our
conception of who we are, as I said earlier, developed from sense impressions
only. The Atman extends awareness out into the world that is not aware of its
blissful origin, and what does this awareness do? It proceeds to conquer the
world by finding sustenance there, engaging in sexual intercourse, and the like,
all through the course of evolution, from single-celled creatures to
multicellular creatures, to fishes, amphibians, mammals and then finally man. We
perceive that we are physical bodies, moving about in a physical realm in the
presence of other physical bodies. Never for one instant do we pause to turn
inwards to ask the question what may be inside of us, at least until spiritual
consciousness at last awakens. This false conception of who we are is an idea,
and it is the root idea about which all other ideas of ours dance, to which they
are all connected like the tentacles of an octopus to its head region. This is
the ego, and it does not disappear until nirvikalpa samadhi, although it is
transcended briefly in savikalpa samadhi. All of sadhana may be thought of as
overcoming one false idea after another, getting closer and closer to the core
of ego that is causing all the trouble. This may not be done in a day, but takes
a long, long time, for the weight of trillions of lives believing we are the ego
stands in our way. There is a lot of “mental momentum” that cannot be easily
overcome, and thus the mind may be likened to a machine that is out of control,
but which we can eventually learn to control. When viewed as an obstacle to
enlightenment, the ego may indeed be called a “doubt about our divinity.” We
doubt that we are divine, for are we not these physical bodies? Instead, we
cling to our old, naughty and nasty ideas which are all that we know of living,
sure that these ideas are true, and thus we give the mind “an illusion of
self-nature.” Indeed, it is the mark of a spiritual aspirant, such as
Cohen’s questioner here, that he or she will begin to feel very uncomfortable
in his or her mental environment: “These ideas seem so evil, random,
unconnected and purposeless. Can I really be these ideas, or am I something more
than this? Am I something that is inherently good? If so, how can I overcome
this evil and discover my inherent goodness?” The ego may be called many
things, but in the end it can only be removed through the long process of
self-discovery that is called sadhana. First you must achieve the “good
ego,” which the Bhagavad Gita describes by saying that those established in
sattva are “bound to goodness.” Once the “good ego” is achieved, life is
a lot more pleasant for you. You swim in an ocean of almost perpetual bliss, for
you have such mental power that you easily overcome all negative emotions almost
without effort, experiencing a rush of positive energy every time you do so. I
knew such a person at Ramagiri, the head of their bindery operations, Sumner. A
smile never left this man’s lips. He was always soaked in joy, drenched in
happiness. Yet, he had not yet experienced samadhi, which comes upon those
established in dhyana like this as a thunderstorm overtakes the arid desert.
Savikalpa samadhi is a thunderclap in which the Atman reveals itself just
briefly: “Hey, you there. You know this ‘Lord’ you’ve been hearing
about? Well, YOU’RE IT!”
The
joy that one experiences after samadhi, which Cohen experiences, is a thousand
times the joy of one like Sumner, for such a one is beyond good and evil, having
realized his own true nature. All the actions of such a one are inherently good,
but they are subtle, for the illumined play an intense game of spirituality,
gambling what joy, wisdom and freedom they already possess for an even bigger
haul of these things, in their next lives. The illumined do not really act in
the world; they act upon the world, from their status as free beings outside
the world. They are completely free from all karma. Acting from their stature as
divine beings, they make the presence of divinity in the core of the human being
known to all. Without them, people have little hope. They are the shining
beacons that cry out, “Come to me. I am the Self, and I dwell within your
heart. I am intense, radiant joy and bliss. I am unending freedom. I am
immortality, and I am who you really are. Realize Me, and know that you are
divine. Realize Me, and pass beyond all sorrow. Realize Me, and attain your
glorious destiny as a creature far above the human plane, as one of the gods,
one of Brahman’s sons and daughters upon the earth.” Along with the
illumined, we have the Avatar, who never was a human being and who has no
Atman. None may recognize Him, so vast is the distance between the Creator and
His creatures. He is the Son of God, a true God like the Father in all relevant
aspects. The Avatar is but a fragment of a mighty spiritual being who has many
other divine duties to perform. Like the Father, He is capable of performing
massive numbers of parallel operations with His immense mind. Like the Father,
the majority of His spirit is disembodied. Like the Father, He never sleeps
(although the body rests) or dies (although the body is left behind for another
at a later time). Whether people believe in the Avatar or not is not as
important as whether they will accept illumined persons like Cohen, for such
people offer all necessary help along the path. The Avatar paints with broad
brushstrokes, for all humanity, while the illumined use a finer brush, meant for
small, select groups of people. The Avatar reaches out to the murderer and the
sinner, while the illumined typically restrain themselves to advanced spiritual
students who are concerned with abstruse spiritual concepts. When even the
illumined cannot recognize the Avatar, what hope has the rest of mankind? For
this reason, it is to be encouraged in spiritual aspirants that they conceive in
their minds the possibility that their own teacher may indeed by
the Avatar, who comes in many subtle disguises and whose crowd is forced by the
Father to ask questions of value to the whole world, and not just themselves.
With your own teacher, you may ask any question that you like! For the human
being, there is little practical difference between the Avatar, say Ramakrishna,
and an illumined man like Cohen. Both shine a bright light that betokens the
goal of all life. Both offer real, practical advice towards attaining this goal.
Both serve to personify the Self, so that a person can understand what it means
to be “divine in one’s inner core.” How else is a man to know that he is
not a mere physical being, but a spiritual one with a glorious destiny? Truly,
there is no other way. The priests will not help, for they are ordinary men with
a little scriptural knowledge. Only gurus, who have attained nirvikalpa samadhi
and personify the Self, can serve this highest function of all for all suffering
humanity, who desperately need guidance in this regard, whether they are aware
of this or all unaware, as much of the world yet remains.
Mind Is Not an Obstacle
Q: It's difficult to stop the obstacles coming in.
ANDREW: There aren't any obstacles.
Q: My mind is an obstacle.
ANDREW: No it's not. There are no obstacles. You are speaking
about obstacles but there is nothing obstructing you. Realize that! It's much
easier to dwell on the idea of there being an obstacle than facing the fact that
there are no obstacles. Yes, that's much more difficult.
KURT: The mind is indeed the obstacle, blocking our view of our inherent
goodness. God within may be viewed and appreciated by the pure mind, but never
by an impure mind. Unfortunately, Cohen seems to have forgotten what it is like
back “in the trenches,” as it were, of the impure mind. It is not his fault.
The process of samadhi is extreme. It is like a thermonuclear explosion
in consciousness. The old man is completely forgotten, and the new one arises in
radiant glory, just as a new phoenix arises from the ashes of the old one. It is
inspiring to speak as He does here, as though a person could attain
enlightenment instantaneously. However, as he will find out in his teaching
career, in both this and future lives, this just doesn’t happen. He will find
the same students, with the same problems, and the same obstacles in
front of them. So, his teaching will become more profound and practical in a
day-to-day sense. One does not enter samadhi until the mind has been completely
conquered, known and mastered in all its various parts. Cohen himself went
through this process, although he does not recall since he became a living
angelic being on our planet, a veritable god among men. He is a human no longer,
but a creature of divine wisdom and intelligence! This the world must learn, for
it is the ultimate, magnificent destiny of every person. In calling the mind a
“machine” Cohen indeed admitted that the mind is an obstacle. This machine
must be stopped, stilled in dhyana, before samadhi can be attained. The process
of stilling the mind is not what one would think, of trying to still the
mind, which is an ill-conceived attempt to restrain mental energy instead of
accentuating and enhancing it, the goal of the spiritual quest. The still mind
is an immensely energetic, powerful mind. It seems still because it rests
when it is not active. One has only to witness the discourse of an illumined
person to see that power that is hidden in the still mind, for this emerges in
the fire of his righteous speech. The mind becomes still through exercising
the mind by meditation, repetition of the holy name, and selfless effort.
Whereas before you would have thought, “I would like a licorice stick and a
pogo stick, and right now,” after some time of sadhana you will think, “I
would like food that nourishes my body, allowing a suitable interval for its
preparation.” The mind is stiller, calmer, quieter, but at the same time more
rational, more powerful, and more on-the-mark when it comes to wise living. This
state is achieved by making more effort, not less, which is why the
world’s scriptures state repeatedly that intense effort is required on the
spiritual journey. Master the mind fully, and all obstacles will be removed. You
will be free from ill-will, anger, fear, greed and disorder of all types. Then
wait a while yet, and the Self will come a-tapping at your shoulder with the
good news: your glorious destiny of illumination awaits!
The Mind Is a Berry Patch (Andrew)
Imagine that the mind is a berry patch and that individual thoughts are like the
berries in the patch. Imagine you are standing in front of the berry patch. As
you stand in front of the berry patch you notice the different kinds of berries
in the patch. You easily notice that some of the berries are sweet, that some
are sour and that some are completely rotten. The sweet ones you eat freely and
the sour and rotten ones you don't touch. And when your stomach is full you
don't even touch the sweet ones.
The existence of the berry patch in no way disturbs or inhibits the perfect
integrity of the universe. The existence of the berry patch in no way
demonstrates the existence of any problem or conflict. A problem only arises
when due to our own blind ignorance we stuff every berry that our eye comes into
contact with in our mouth; rotten, sweet or sour. Then we wonder why our
stomachs are upset all the time!
Stop the habit of compulsively eating every berry that comes into your sight.
Take the time and make the effort to see whether the berry you happen to be
staring at is sweet, rotten or sour. Never under any circumstance allow yourself
to eat a sour or rotten berry. Eat only the sweet ones, and have the sense to
eat them only when you are hungry.
KURT: This is a very nice, pictorial analogy by which many may benefit. It is in actuality a description of the Hindu Way of Knowledge, jnana yoga, by which one continually exercises the discriminating intellect to choose between the real and the unreal, Brahman and non-Brahman, or good and evil. I teach a different Way, however, the Way of Love. On this Way, one does not pay much attention to one’s thoughts, but basically ignores them in pursuit of the beloved, the Lord of Love within our deepest hearts. Repeating the name of God frequently and silently, meditating deeply morning and evening, and engaging in selfless work when they are able, God’s devotees build themselves a “house of goodness” in their minds in which they reside all the time. The unillumined mind is, in the last analysis, a very uninteresting one. The world is not really that fascinating, because it is composed of matter that is conformed into different shapes. When you’ve seen one chunk of matter, as the saying should go, you’ve seen them all. In the scriptures it is said that God’s devotees view gold, lead, and stones with an equal eye, and this is what is meant. God, however, is endlessly interesting, unfailingly creative, and resourceful beyond our ability to imagine. One who acts as God’s servant, offering all of his thoughts and actions before the feet of that shining, blissful One who resides in the heart, very quickly notices all evil thoughts fleeing as darkness flees before light, or as rats flee a room once the wily cat enters. The Way of Knowledge or discrimination is a very difficult, long, and drawn-out one. It ignores the human capacity to feel love, which is much more powerful than discrimination for making internal changes. Where our love is, there also is our joy and our fulfillment, which is the greatest secret. The man who controls his love enjoys his life always, whatever it may bring him. This love is like the love a tennis player feels for his or her sport. You may witness a tennis match where the opponents are sweating and grimacing, grunting when they strike the ball and moaning when their shots go out. Ask them after the tennis match, however, why they are so miserable and they will tell you, “What? We aren’t miserable, man! Tennis is fun, didn’t you know that? We love it!” One traveling on the path of love similarly loves his whole life, everything he does, all the time. He is always happy, because his actions have a deeper meaning as love offerings onto Sri Krishna, or however he may conceive of his own Atman. All evil dissolves in this flood of happiness, as a flood of water overwhelms an arid, dusty, plain. The Way of Love is the best way for man, for all time, though I may be alone in countenancing it. It is based on the nature of Brahman Himself, who is full of immense love. The universe was brought forth in love, and it exists in love. Love pervades the entire cosmos, to every distant corner and tiny niche. When you feel this universal love, you become like Brahman Himself. Can sin remain long in the heart and mind of such a one? Assuredly, it cannot. Top