A Single Step – In Gita Verse 12.3-4 But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed and immovable – the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth – by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.
Krishna talks in this verse regarding a person who practices the other path, path of Meditation. They also ultimately merge into Me, Universe.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 6.31, blog I wrote 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 (Dahui Zonggao), a famous Chinese Zen master says – Not “keeping the mind still,” but mindlessness.
To attain mindlessness a totally different process is involved: I call it the ultimate alchemy. It consists only of a single element – that of watchfulness.
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.
Ta Hui slowly, slowly is penetrating into the deeper secrets of inner transformation. He says – When old habits suddenly arise, don’t use your mind to repress them. At just such a time, it’s like a snowflake on a red-hot stove.
He is reminding you that even when you are moving on the path of watchfulness, sometimes old habits may revive. But don’t be concerned; they are like snowflakes on a red-hot stove, they will disappear of their own accord. You simply watch. don’t get concerned, don’t get disturbed, don’t be worried.
Sometimes there will be anger, sometimes there will be desire, sometimes there will be ambition, but they cannot disturb your watchfulness. They will come and they will go without leaving a trace on your mirror-like purity. But you have only to remember one thing: not to start fighting with them, smashing them, destroying them, throwing them away. It comes very naturally to the mind that if something wrong is happening, jump on it and destroy it. This is the only thing you have to be aware of, because this is what never allows a man to get beyond the mind. Old habits will come – and old habits are very old, many, many lives old. Your awareness is very fresh and very new; your mechanicalness is ancient, so it is very natural that it will come back.
Somebody insults you – you don’t have to be angry, but suddenly you find anger arising. It is not an effort, it is just an old habit, an old reaction. Don’t fight with it, don’t try to smile and hide it. Just watch it, and it will come and it will go… like a snowflake on a red-hot stove.
For those with a discerning eye and a familiar hand, one leap and they leap clear. Only then do they know Lazy Jung’s saying: right when using mind, there’s no mental activity. If a man has learned the art of watchfulness he can use his mind too, and still he has no mental activity.
Mind is the only way to convey any message in words; that is the only mechanism available. But my mind is absolutely silent, there is no mental activity: I’m not thinking about what I’m going to say, and I’m not thinking about what I have said. I’m simply responding to Ta Hui spontaneously without bringing myself into it.
It is as if you go into the mountains and you shout and the mountains echo: the mountains are not doing any mental activity, they are simply echoing.
Right when using the mind, there’s no mental activity. Crooked talk defiled with names and forms, straight talk without complications. Without mind but functioning…
This is a strange experience, when you can use your mind without any mental activity… Without mind but functioning, always functioning but non-existent.
Krishna says that the person who is practicing the path of Meditation, Awareness will do all his activities but without mind functioning. These people also merge with Me, Universe.
Tags: A Single Step
