ANNAPURNA SARADA, Friday, August 21, 2015 8:51 am

Intuiting the Self through every Modification of the Mind

In the early 1990’s I lived in Seoul, Korea for six months.  I had no job other than to care for family, all of whom spent their days at school studying or teaching.  In preparation for this gift of retreat I had brought my Vedantic library and numerous back issues of the little out of print journal Vedanta for the West, published by the Vedanta Society of Southern California.  In those pocket-sized journals are many, many gems.  One day, sitting in my study corner I read an article by Swami Shraddhananda in which he quoted from the Kena Upanisad: “That one indeed attains immortality who intuits it in and through all modifications of the mind.  From the Atman comes true strength, and from Knowledge, immortality.”  I read this verse several times, committing it to memory, and have never forgotten it.  It has been a companion over all these years of study and practice. Looking back on it now, it is a perfect incapsulation of both the practice of Vedanta and Yoga, and their realization as well.

At the time I first read it, I had been studying in Vedanta for only a few years.  I remember pondering “who intuits it in and through every modification of the mind,” and struggling to keep in mind that “it” was the Atman, while considering what “modifications” meant.  In the beginning I thought in terms of emotions and feelings.  My mind appeared to me like a lake that external things would fall into.  It would then break into waves and splashes (emotions) in response.  This would distract me from the calm placid repose of the undisturbed lake.  I did not yet think in terms of a Witness of lake and waves.  It was all I could do to think that there was a peaceful Self and a fragmented mind that was hiding that Self.  I was then in the “recognition” phase of viveka, discrimination between the Eternal and the noneternal. In Vedanta, we call this adhyaropa, recognizing that what we perceive is not the true reality.  This was all I could do then and was really rather baffled by the thought that one could intuit the Atman with all that splashing going on.   The next phase is learning to negate the false appearances to arrive at Truth, which is called apavada.  This held the secret, but there was much to learn about this process.

The first part, adhyaropa, might be thought of as inspired by Grace.  Here we are, living in these bodies, getting knowledge of the external world through our senses, having reactions of pleasure and pain to outer stimuli – why should we think that this is illusory? What prompts this recognition? What gave the rishis the idea to search the intangible “inside” for Truth rather than the tangible “outside”?  Or to consider that there might be one “thing,” by knowing which, all else could be known?  Or to think that there is something that pervades everything else and yet is untouched by the things it pervades?  Such insights seemed to me to spring from that mysterious catchall called Grace.  As I began to understand the philosophy of Advaita, I came to see that Grace is synonomous with ever-present Truth, the fact of Advaita.  As Sri Ramakrishna states so beautifully, “The wind of God’s grace is always blowing…”  And then he adds, “but one must raise one’s sail to catch it.”  Raising our sail is sadhana, spiritual practice, and the major sadhana of Vedanta is this apavada phase of viveka, uncovering the changeful from the Unchanging.  As my teacher, Babaji, often states, “form covers formlessness,” and we must learn to uncover or see through all forms.

In Vedanta there are several ways to categorize these forms or modifications.  For example:

Three Gunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas: balance/light, activity/restlessness, and dullness

Fourfold mind: dual mind, thought, intellect, I-sense (manas, chitta, buddhi, ahamkara)

Five Koshas or sheaths: physical body, vital force, dual mind, intellect, and I-sense

Three Bodies: gross, subtle, and causal

Three States of waking, dream, and dreamless sleep

The details of mental modifications associated with each of these are described exhaustively in scriptures like the Vivekachudamni, Bhagavad Gita, Upanisads, and others.  This is also why we have such lists as the six passions (lust, anger, jealousy, pride, etc) and eight fetters (shame, fear, secrecy, etc)

While contemplating all these for some years, my teacher was also teaching us the 24 Cosmic Principles of Sankhya and the analytic systems coming out of the Yoga Sutras. Some of the latter include:

Four states of the mindfield: disturbed, dull, distracted, one-pointed, and dissolved

Nine Causes of Distraction

Five Obstacles to Yoga: ignorance, egotism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life.

Likewise, with Yoga, there has been much commentary on the details of these systems, enabling the aspirant to recognize them in the mind.  Until one has named and categorized the mind’s modifications it is difficult, if not impossible, to see them operating in one’s mind.  I am grateful to my teacher for spending so much time over the years on these various systems.

Initially, these teachings remained like separate systems for me.  Gradually, the Vedantic systems flowed as one integrated whole.  Later, with more understanding of the Yoga system, that darshana became more familiar and therefore useful to me.  Important insights then came forth when Babaji devoted several years in classes and retreats presenting “Dissolving the mind stream” according to each of these systems: Vedanta, Yoga, and Sankhya.  This is where the practicality of the 24 Cosmic Principles finally asserted itself in my understanding.  In case readers do not know this list, it consists of: earth, water, fire, air, and ether/space, the five cognitive senses, the five active senses, the five subtle elements (tanmatras), mind, I-sense, intellect, and the great Mind called Mahat.  It is a list of everything that is not the unchanging Self/Atman, which in Sankhya is called Purusha.

In both Vedanta and Yoga, there comes a time when the practitioner, via formal concentration, either negates or dissolves the elements into the senses, the senses into the tanmatras, the tanmatras into the four fold mind, and finally into Mahat, the Great Mind. The aspirant, upon becoming an adept in this practice, does not stop here, but finally merges all in AUM, then Atman/Brahman.  Now, the point here (relative to our topic) is that prior to this culminating state, the practioner has examined every possible modification of the mind – not just the cosmic principles, but the emotional, psychological, intellectual, and egoic causes of keeping the mind in a state of modification.  Vedantically, one negates these as unreal and transcends them.  Yogically, one masters each modification, sees it as the effect of some other cause, and dissolves it into its cause (the next most subtle modification).   The end result will be the same, realization of the Self as pure, unmixed, unmodified, uncaused.  This process is subtle and has more nuances than this brief description can begin to offer.  But hopefully the reader is tantalized to learn more.

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