The mind or universe cannot be described as both real and unreal, because these two contradictory qualities cannot exist in the same substance.

"It is this Supreme Oneness which alone is real, since there is nothing else but the Self. Verily, there remains no other independent entity in the state of realization of the highest Truth." –FORMLESS PATH

The mind,which is present in the form of  universe cannot be described as both real and unreal, because these two contradictory qualities cannot exist in the same substance. It must therefore be said that the mind is neither real nor unreal because it is mere mirage.

Mind is myth because it is mere mirage created out of the soul ,which is present in the form of conciousness. ‘Universe appears to exist as real because of our ignorance of  the soul,which is the innermost self. Thus the mind, which is in the form of universe, is reality on the base of the physical self (ego or waking entity), which perceives the world as a person, within the mind. 

Man and universe exist as reality  because of ignorance of the soul ( consciousness), which is the real self.  This ignorance not only covers consciousness, but it projects the universe as a reality. The universe has no reality apart from consciousness.  When the Self- knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma Gnana  arises, the universe is seen as a mere appearance of consciousness.

Another illustration may be taken to explain this. Ornaments of different sizes and shapes are made out of one metal. Their appearance and the use for which they are meant vary, but the fact that,  they are all really only metal, in spite of the different appearances and uses, cannot be denied. The appearance may change, a bangle may be converted into rings, but the metal always remains as metal. Similarly, on the dawn of the  Self- knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma Gnana, though the different forms of  shapes of  beings, creatures,  animals and things, etc. continue to be seen by the Gnani, he sees them all only as appearances of the consciousness.  Thus the perception of difference and the consequences of such perception, such as looking upon some as favourable and others as the  opposite, and the consequent efforts to retain or get what is favourable and to get rid of or avoid what is not favourable, come to an end.

This is the state of freedom even in the midst of waking experience, which is freedom from experiencing duality as reality. Similarly, bondage has no real existence at all. Even when we are ignorant of consciousness and think of ourselves as limited by the body, we are really none but the infinite consciousness. Freedom is thus only the removal of the wrong identification with the body, and the world. The attainment of the state of freedom from ignorance is the goal of the  seeker of truth. 

 

Ignorance  is cause of experincing the illusion as reality. The  illusion is what conceals consciousness and projects the universe. It is because of this that everyone identifies himself with physical self or waking or dream and is ignorant of the truth that “self” is none other than consciousness(soul). Illusion may be looked upon from few different standpoints.

For the ordinary worldly individual who looks upon the world as real, illusion which is the cause of the appearance of the universe is real.

For the enlightened person the self is consciousness.  It is possible to discriminate between truth and untruth, if the reasoning base is rectified from waking or dream [form] to soul (formless),   for the easy understanding, assimilation and realization.

Consciousness’ means ultimate truth, and ‘Mind’ stands for the universe or illusion. The purpose of the pursuit of truth is the destruction of primal ignorance, which leads to the attainment of the ultimate truth or Brahman.  

Man and universe exits within the waking or dream. Waking has waking entity and waking universe. Similarly the dream has dream entity and dream universe. And deep in sleep has neither the waking entity nor waking universe nor dream entity nor dream universe. 

The freedom arises even in the midst of waking experience, which is freedom from experiencing duality as reality.

Similarly, bondage has no real existence at all. Even when we are ignorant of consciousness and think of ourselves as limited by the body, we are really none but the infinite consciousness. Freedom is thus only the removal of the wrong identification with the body, and the world. The attainment of the state of freedom from ignorance is the goal of the  seeker of truth. 

One has to realize the fact that, it is not the waking entity (you) which witnesses the three states.  The formless soul is the witness of the coming and going of the three states. The soul is immutable. The soul is unaffected by the happening within the three states because the three states are mere mirage created out of the formless soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. The soul or consciousness is the innermost self.

The self is neither the waking entity nor the self is dream entity but the self is the formless soul. The on the standpoint of the soul, the innermost self the three states are non-existent as reality.     

Sage Sri Sankara:- "As fire is the direct cause of cooking, so knowledge, and not any other form of discipline, is the direct cause of Liberation; for Liberation cannot be attained without Knowledge."

 Sage Sri Sankara:-  "The world, filled with attachments and avrsions, and the rest, is like a dream: it appears to be real as long as one is ignorant, but becomes unreal when one is awake.

Sage Sri Sankara:-  "As fire is the direct cause of cooking, so knowledge, and not any other form of discipline, is the direct cause of Liberation; for Liberation cannot be attained without Knowledge." (Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana).

Sage Sri Sankara:-  As the moon appears to be moving when the clouds move in the sky, so also to the non-discriminating. Atman appears to be active when in reality the senses are active.

When one is thirsty, he cannot sit idle he runs about for water. Until the thirst for truth has not come, he is immersed in the worldly pleasures. The desire for knowledge has not grown strong in people; therefore they are satisfied with the worldly or religious life. One who is in quest for truth begins to inquire deeply until he reaches his destination.

The seeker has to discriminate between the three states and realize the fact that, body, world, people are all in waking and waking experience is absolutely unreal like a dream.

The seeker has to always think that this body is only an illusory apparatus created out of consciousness within the illusory experience (mind).  The mind is contained within the consciousness which is the true self. 

The indivisible changeless, effulgent consciousness is lying hidden under these delusive veils; therefore its real nature is unknown to waking or dream. The direction of the waking or dream which always runs after the senses has to be turned within. One has to overcome the ignorance in order overcome the illusion. 

The body and universe are but gross -- it dissolves as the consciousness. Because of the accumulated mental impressions it remains until the Self - knowledge arises. Therefore, the seeker has to indulge in spiritualistic discrimination plunge this mind in the consciousness, which is ultimate reality. When the mind becomes aware of its formless substance, all limiting adjuncts vanish and one is established in ultimate reality.

It is difficult for people to direct their uncontrolled ego (waking entity) towards the ultimate truth because of their inherited conditioning.

To navigate along the way, language can be very useful, if it is used to point beyond its symbols and descriptions. Its function is to sacrifice itself, to burn up so completely that no trace of smoke or ash remains, so as to interfere with what its meaning shows. It is the ‘higher reason’ that uses language in this way. The function of the higher reason is precisely to burn up all obscuring residues that language leaves behind.  

The reasoning base has to be rectified from form to formless in order to discover, understand, assimilate and realize the non-dualistic or Advaitic  truth. The rectified reason functions, through discerning inquiry, to dissolve the mind into pure consciousness, from where the mind rises and subsides. And as the rectified reason functions, it makes use of mind reflectively, in order to bring the mind back to consciousness, which is the source from where the mind rises and subsides. There is no question of the rectified reason being an instrument of any mind. It is always the other way about. 

The thoughts and feelings did not exist prior to the appearance of waking or dream.  Only after the appearance of the waking or dream the man became aware of the universe and his individuality.  Only in waking experience one is aware of the birth, life, death and the world. Thus waking or dream appears as a whole and disappears as a whole.  Deeper inquiry reveals the fact that, the self is not physical, therefore the waking, dream and deep sleep are not the experience of the physical body but the formless soul, which is in the form of consciousness. 

The process of ‘rectified reason’ is purely empirical. Each question is tried out to see what result it leads to. And then, further questions rise empirically. They arise from actual experience of the result, not just from imagining or theorizing in advance what it might be. Thus, the process must go on relentlessly, until the actual experience of a truth where questions do not further rise – where all possibility of questioning is utterly dissolved. All this requires that each questioning attack is turned back upon one’s own mistakes of assumption and belief. Otherwise, the reasoning is merely theoretical based on the waking or dream.

The deeper self-search is required to get the un-contradictable truth.  That is possible only through reasoning based on the soul as a self. 

Since change and time do not apply to consciousness, that consciousness is a changeless and a timeless principle of all experience. Consciousness illuminates the whole waking experience. Consciousness illuminates the whole Dream. In deep sleep, consciousness shines alone. In all these states, it remains the same. It is always utterly unchanged in its own existence, which illuminates itself. 

Ultimate truth is accessible to anyone who has an intense urge to know the ultimate truth or Brahman. The one  who is ready to drop all his accumulated dross in order to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana will succeed. The seeker has to hold the deep sleep experience as a ‘key to the ultimate reality. If a seeker is ready to consider deep sleep as true self, then this alone is enough, without the need for a yogic cultivation of Nirvikalpa Samadhi.  On the standpoint of the deep sleep, the waking and dream are mere appearances. 

 In the realm of duality one seeks truth. In the realm of Non-duality all contradictions are dissolved. The soul or consciousness never parts within any of the three states. In deep sleep, the conscious is in its true nature. In waking or dream, it witnesses the experience as the whole. It is nothing to with the individual experience happening within the waking or dream because the three states are mere an object to the consciousness, which is the subject.

Buddhist Sutra- UNMINDING MIND, KEEP IN THE MIDDLE – UNTIL.-- Osho

Osho : Only this much is the sutra. Just like any scientific sutra it is short, but even these few words can transform your life totally.

UNMINDING MIND, KEEP IN THE MIDDLE – UNTIL. KEEP IN THE MIDDLE…

 
Buddha developed his whole technique of meditation on this sutra. His path is known as MAJJHIM NIKAYA – the middle path. Buddha says, ”Remain always in the middle – in everything.”

One Prince Shrown took initiation, Buddha initiated him into sannyas. That prince was a rare man, and when he took sannyas, when he was initiated, his whole kingdom was just amazed. The kingdom couldn’t believe it, the people couldn’t believe that Prince Shrown could become a sannyasin. No one had ever even imagined it, as he was a man of this world – indulging in everything, indulging to the extreme. Wine and women were his whole milieu.

Then suddenly Buddha came to the town, and the prince went to see him for a DARSHAN – A spiritual encounter. He fell at Buddha’s feet and he said, ”Initiate me. I will leave this world.” Those who had come with him were not even aware… this was so sudden. So they asked Buddha, ”What is happening? This is a miracle. Shrown is not that type of man, and he has lived very luxuriously.

 
Up to now we couldn’t even imagine that Shrown is going to take sannyas, so what has happened? You have done something.”

Buddha said, ”I have not done anything. Mind can move easily from one extreme to the other. That is the way of the mind – to move from one extreme to another. So Shrown is not doing something new. It is to be expected. Because you do not know the law of the mind, that is why you are so much taken aback.”

The mind moves from one extreme to another, that is the way of the mind. So it happens every day: a person who was mad after wealth renounces everything, becomes a naked fakir. We think, ”What a miracle!” But it is nothing – just the ordinary law. A person who was not mad after wealth cannot be expected to renounce, because only from one extreme can you move to another – just like a pendulum, from one extreme to the other.

So a person who was after wealth, mad after wealth, will become mad against it, but the madness will remain – that is the mind. A man who lived just for sex may become a celibate, may move into isolation, but the madness will remain. Before he was living only for sex, now he will be living only against sex – but the attitude, the approach, remains the same.

So a BRAHMACHARI, a celibate, is not really beyond sex; his whole mind is sex-oriented. He is against, but not beyond. The way of beyond is always in the middle, it is never at the extreme. So Buddha says, ”This could have been expected. No miracle has happened. This is how mind works.”

Shrown became a beggar, a sannyasin. He became a BHIKKHU, a monk, and soon other disciples of Buddha observed that he was moving to the other extreme. Buddha never asked anyone to be naked, but Shrown became naked. Buddha was not for nakedness. He said, ”That is just another extreme.”

There are persons who live for clothes as if that is their life, and there are other persons who become naked – but both believe in the same thing. Buddha never taught nakedness, but Shrown became naked. He was the only disciple of Buddha who was naked. He became very, very self-torturing.

Buddha allowed one meal every day for the sannyasins, but Shrown would take only one meal on alternate days. He became lean and thin. While all the other disciples would sit for meditation under trees, in the shade, he would never sit under any tree. He would always remain in the hot sun. He was a beautiful man and he had a very lovely body, but within six months no one could recognize that he was the same man. He became ugly, dark, black, burned.

Buddha went to Shrown one night and asked him, ”Shrown, I have heard that when you were a prince, before initiation, you used to play on a VEENA, a sitar, and you were a great musician. So I have come to ask you one question. If the strings of the veena are very loose, what happens?”

Shrown said, ”If the strings are very loose, then no music is possible.”

And then Buddha said, ”And if the strings are very tight, too tight, then what happens?” Shrown said, ”Then too music cannot be produced. The strings must be in the middle – neither loose nor tight, but just exactly in the middle.”

Shrown said, ”It is easy to play the veena, but only a master can set these strings right, in the middle.”

So Buddha said, ”This much I have to say to you, after observing you for the last six months – that in life also the music comes only when the strings are neither loose nor tight, but just in the middle.

So to renounce is easy, but only a master knows how to be in the middle. So Shrown, be a master, and let these strings of life be just in the middle – in everything. Do not go to this extreme; do not go to that one. Everything has two extremes, but you remain just in the middle.”

But the mind is very unmindful. That is why the sutra says, UNMINDING MIND… You will hear this, you will understand this, but the mind will not take note. The mind will always go on choosing extremes.

The extreme has a fascination for the mind. Why? Because in the middle, mind dies. Look at a pendulum: if you have any old clock, look at the pendulum. The pendulum can go on moving the whole day if it goes to the extremes. When it goes to the left it is gathering momentum to go to the right. When it goes toward the right, do not think that it is going toward the right – it is accumulating momentum to go toward the left. So the extremes are right-left, right-left.

Let the pendulum stay in the middle, then the whole momentum is lost. Then the pendulum has no energy, because the energy comes from one of the extremes. Then that extreme throws it toward another, then again, and it is a circle… the pendulum goes on moving. Let it be in the middle, and the whole movement will then stop.

 
Mind is just like a pendulum and every day, if you observe, you will come to know this. You decide one thing on one extreme, and then you move to another. You are angry; then you repent.

You decide, ”No, this is enough. Now I will never be angry.” But you do not see the extreme.
”Never” is an extreme. How are you so certain that you will never be angry? What are you saying?

Think once more – never? Then go to the past and remember how many times you have decided that”I will never be angry.” When you say, ”I will never be angry,” you do not know that by being angry you have accumulated momentum to go to the other extreme.