VBT – Meditation 31.2
Very Staring
When you are looking at a bowl or at any object, you are looking out: the consciousness is moving out, the river is flowing out. You are focused on the bowl. Go on staring at it. That very staring will create the opportunity to move in. Your eyes will become tired; they would like to move. Finding nothing to move out toward, suddenly the river will turn back – that remains the only possibility. You will have forced your consciousness to fall back. And when you will become aware of you, you will miss the bowl; it will not be there.
That is why a Shankara or a Nagarjuna says the whole world is illusory; they have known it so.
When we come to know ourselves, the world is not. Really, the world is not illusory; it is there. But you cannot see both worlds simultaneously – that is the problem. So when a Shankara enters into himself, when he comes to know himself, when he becomes a witness, the world is not there. So he is right. He says it is maya – an illusion. It simply appears to be; it is not there.
Be aware of the fact. When you know the world, you are not. You are there, but hidden, and you cannot believe that you are hidden there; the world is too much present for you. And if you start to look for yourself directly, it will be difficult, the very effort may become a barrier. So tantra says, fix your stare somewhere in the world, on any object, and do not move from there, remain there. This very effort to remain there will create the possibility for the consciousness to begin to flow upwards – backwards. Then you will become aware of yourself.
But when you become aware of yourself, the bowl will not be there. It is there, but FOR YOU it will not be there. So Shankara says the world is illusory because when you come to know yourself the world is not there. It disappears like a dream.
But Charwak, Epicurus and Marx are also right. They say the world is true, and your self is just false; it is nowhere to be found. They say science is real. Science says only matter is, only objects are; there is no subject. They are right, because the eyes are focused on the object.
A scientist is constantly focusing on objects. He forgets the self completely. Both Shankara and Marx are right in one sense and wrong in another. If you are fixed upon the world, if your look is fixed on the world, the self will look illusory – like it is just a dream. If you are looking inwards, the world will become a dream. Both are real, but you cannot be aware of both simultaneously – that is the problem. And nothing can be done. You will meet the old woman or you will meet the young woman, and one will become maya, illusory. But this technique can be used easily. It will take a little time, but it is not difficult.
Once you know the turning of consciousness, you can do it anywhere. Just riding in a bus or sitting in a train you can do it – anywhere. No need for a bowl or any particular object: you can do it with anything. With anything, stare, stare, stare… and suddenly turn inwards, and the train disappears.
Of course, when you come back from your inner journey you will have traveled, but the train will have disappeared. From one station you will reach another, and in between there will have been no train – just a gap. Of course, the train was there; otherwise how can you come to the other station?
But it was not there for you; for you it was not.
Tags: Very Staring
