Dear Asha,
Ajay, Ravi, Ariana and Roma:
Have I told
you that I follow two different modes of meditation? One follows the teachings
of Patanjali’s Yoga Sastra and the focus is an attempt to get the mind towards
total silence. This is ideal early in the morning. The other follows the
teachings of the Venerable Thich Naht Hanh and Zen Buddhism. It is “deep
looking”. I find it useful during the
day, as part of my “walking meditation”. The
following two essays are based on thoughts during walking meditation.
“Deep looking” and “deep listening” lead me to
a crucial insight. As usual, it is not intuitive; it was a sudden fitting
together of a puzzle. The pieces were there, buried deep inside.
My
reflections lead me to the inescapable conclusion that something could not have
come from nothing. Also, everything in
this Universe must have come from the same Primordial Source. If so, that ONE
has a piece of ITSELF in everything, animate and inanimate. IT is inherent in
me, imbedded in me – and of course, in you and in every one and in every thing.
Obviously, IT’s knowledge and qualities are also in me, all the time. What
prevents my view and experience of IT, has to be my mind and the “I” associated
with it.
At this
point in my thinking, I remembered a thinker from the recent past – Prof.
Charles S. Pierce. His concepts on semiotics are becoming fashionable now,
particularly in the field of information sciences. Although I could not get
hold of his books, I came across a quote from his writings. In this quote, he
is trying to explain the extraordinary success of scientific theorizing. How is
it that scientists hit upon correct hypothesis “after two or three or at the
most dozen guesses”?
Dr.Pierce
thinks that “general principles (of nature) actually operate apart from men’s
minds and that men’s minds are nevertheless capable of knowing these
principles”. Pierce suggests that “since the reasoning mind is the product of
the universe”, it is reasonable to consider the possibility that the laws of
nature are imbedded and incorporated in the mind itself. (Walker Percy in The
Message in the Bottle. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. 1983, page 322)
Obviously
this is a speculation, but it agrees with where I am at present philosophically.
But, leaving aside my bias, why cannot this be a true explanation?
Since that
ONE has to be in me and you, however minute and subtle it may be, IT is here
and now. It knows It’s own nature. It
has to. IT should know how to get to It’s source, of which, It is only a part.
IT is probably trying to get back to IT’s natural SINGLE (Kaivalya) state all the time. But, the individual ego, the “I” will not get out of the way… ..
Is this why,
all the saints and mystics from all traditions keep saying “ Get rid of the
ego, let go, stop the mind and surrender”?
