Mindlessness – In Gita Verse 6.31 Such a yogī, who engages in the worshipful service of the Supersoul, knowing that I and the Supersoul are one, remains always in Me in all circumstances.
By saying yogi, Krishna means a person of mindlessness, and only a mindless-ness person can engage in the worshipful service of the Supersoul, knowing that I and the Supersoul are one, and remain always in Me in all circumstances.
To attain mindlessness a totally different process is involved: the ultimate alchemy. It consists only of a single element – that of watchfulness.
To understand watchfulness I will be sharing with you Buddha’s life incidence.
Gautam Buddha is passing through a town when a fly comes and sits on his forehead. He is talking to his companion, Ananda, and he just goes on talking and moves his hand to throw off the fly. Then suddenly he recognizes that his movement of the hand has been unconscious, mechanical. Because he was talking consciously to Ananda, the hand moved the fly mechanically. He stops and although now there is no fly, he moves his hand again consciously.
Ananda says, “What are you doing? The fly has gone away….”
Gautam Buddha says, “The fly has gone away…but I have committed a sin, because I did it, in unconsciousness.”
The English word “sin” is used only by Gautam Buddha in its right meaning. The word “sin” originates in the roots which mean forgetfulness, unawareness, un-watchfulness, doing things mechanically – and our whole life is almost mechanical. We go on doing things from morning to evening, from evening to morning, like robots.
A man who wants to enter into the world of mindlessness has to learn only one thing – a single step and the journey is over. That single step is to do everything watchfully. You move your hand watchfully; you open your eyes watchfully; you walk, you take your steps alert, aware; you eat, you drink, but never allow mechanicalness to take possession over you. This is the only alchemical secret of transformation.
Krishna is saying that a man who can do everything fully consciously becomes a luminous phenomenon. He is all light, and his whole life is full of fragrance and flowers. The mechanical man lives in dark holes, dirty holes. He does not know the world of light; he is like a blind man. The man of watchfulness is really the man who has eyes.
Ta Hui says, Though you may not fully know whether the teachers of the various localities are wrong or right, if your own basis is solid and genuine, the poisons of wrong doctrines will not be able to harm you…
He says it is useless to think who is right and who is wrong. There are thousands of doctrines, hundreds of philosophies, and if you go on searching for truth in those words, you will be lost in a jungle where you cannot find the path. All that you know is to attain a solid basis within yourself.
…. “Keeping the mind still,” and “forgetting concerns” included. If you always “forget concerns” and “keep the mind still,” without smashing the mind of birth and death, then the delusive influences of form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness will get their way, and you will inevitably be dividing emptiness into two.
Let go and make yourself vast and expansive….
It is not a question of controlling yourself separate from existence; it is a question of letting-go and becoming vast – as vast as existence itself. And in watchfulness you become infinite: that is the only thing within you which has no limits.
Just have a look at your watching, witnessing. It is unlimited. No beginning, no end…it is formless.
This absolute stillness of the mind is exactly no-mind or mindlessness. It is not control, it is not discipline; it is not that you are putting all your pressure on your mind and keeping it silent. No, it is simply not there. The house is empty. There is nobody to control and there is nobody to be controlled. All concerns for control have disappeared into a simple watchfulness. This watchfulness is expansive. Once you have tasted it a little, it goes on expanding to the very limits of the universe.
Krishna says that a person who has become vast and expansive is not separate from me or from the universe. They remain always in Me in all circumstances.
Tags: Mindlessness
