Mind Is Vacillation – In Gita Verse 17.16 And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind.
Krishna is saying in this verse is no-mind. You can be simply simple, with all the qualities described by him only in no-mind.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 8.22, blog I wrote – The difference is very delicate. A man who is keeping his mind still and a man who has no mind will look exactly alike from the outside, because the man who is keeping his mind still is also silent. Underneath his silence there is great turmoil, but he is not allowing it to surface. He is in great control.
What is mind?
Wherever you go, your mind will go with you. Your knowledge will go with you, your prejudices will go with you, your scriptures will go with you. Your idea that you are a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan will go with you.
So what are you renouncing?
Mind is vacillating. The discipline of a meditator is to become so watchful of the mind, so alert to the mind and its stupidities – its hesitations, its trembling, its vacillations – to become so watchful that you are cut off. That is the whole purpose of watching: watching cuts you off. Watch anything in the mind, and you are cut off. Watching is a sword. If a thought is moving in your mind, just watch it – and suddenly you will see the thought is there, you are here, and there is no bridge left. Don’t watch, and you become identified with the thought, you become it; watch, and you are not it. Mind possesses you because you have forgotten how to watch. Learn it.
Just looking at a rose flower, watching it; or at the stars, or the people passing on the road, sit by the side and watch. And then slowly slowly close your eyes and see the inner traffic moving – thousands of thoughts, desires, dreams, passing by. It is always rush hour there. Just watch as somebody watches a river flowing by, sitting on the bank. Just watch – and watching, you will become aware that you are not it.
Mind is being identified with it. No-mind is being disidentified with it. Don’t be a mind, because in fact you are not a mind. Then who are you? You are – consciousness. You are that watchfulness, you are witnessing, you are that pure observation, that mirrorlike quality that reflects everything but never becomes identified with anything.
Remember, I am not saying that you are conscious. I am saying you are – consciousness: that is your true identity. The day one knows, “I am consciousness,” one has come to know the ultimate, because the moment you know, “I am consciousness,” you also know all is consciousness, on different planes. The rock is conscious in its own way, and the tree is conscious in its own way, and the animals and the people. Everybody is conscious in his own way, and consciousness is a multifaceted diamond. The day you know, “I am consciousness,” you have known the universal truth, you have come to the goal.
By meditation Atisha never means concentration, remember. Concentration and meditation are polar opposites. Concentration narrows down your mind; it is focusing on one point. It includes only something and excludes everything else. Meditation is all-inclusive, it excludes nothing. It is not a narrowing down of the mind, it is an expansion of consciousness. Concentration is of the mind, meditation is of consciousness. Concentration is mind, meditation is no-mind. Concentration is a tension: you will be tired of it sooner or later. You cannot concentrate for a long time, it is effort. But one can be meditative for twenty-four hours, because it is a relaxation.
The mind is not separate from your body, it is the inner part of the body. You are separate from the body and the mind, both. You are an entity, transcendental, you are a witness to the mind and the body, both. But your mind and your body are both one and the same energy. The body is a visible mind, the mind is an invisible body. The body is the exterior mind, and the mind is the interior body.
The mind and the body both are sexual. The body has come out of sex, and the mind is always hankering for objects, hence it is sexual. But both can be purified through creativity. My message, my key, my golden key to transform your energies, is creativity. Be more and more creative, and slowly slowly you will see a transformation happening of its own accord. Your mind will disappear, your body will have a totally different feel to it, and constantly you will remain aware that you are separate, that you are a pure witness.
And that pure witness is pure desire and nothing else. I am not against desire. I am all for desire, but I am not for desires with objects. Let objects disappear, and then you will have a desire like a flame without any smoke. It brings great liberation.
Krishna says mind is what you have. No-mind is the search for meditation. And from no-mind blossom flowers of unselfishness, of love, of compassion, of sharing.
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