{"id":735,"date":"2020-04-13T21:12:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T21:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/?page_id=735"},"modified":"2020-04-13T21:12:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T21:12:31","slug":"meditations-on-looking-into-mind","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/meditations-on-looking-into-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditations on Looking into Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MEDITATIONS ON LOOKING INTO MIND<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. WHO IS LOOKING? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: When most of us\nsit down and we meditate, you close your eyes and you look and there is\nblackness in front of you.  Nothing.  Right? \nAnd after a little while you get bored. \nYou say, “there is nothing here. \nWhat am I doing?”  And then\nafter a little while you get sleepy and you go to sleep.  Some of us, when we sit down and we’re\nlooking at that blackness in front of us, you look there, there is nothing\nthere.  What am I looking for?  You have to ask yourself, “Who is\nlooking?” Whether there’s pictures in front of you, or whether there’s\njust blackness in front of you or whether there’s a lot of thoughts, the\nquestion that should come up is, “Who is looking?”  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\nare always looking at something, but the one who is looking at you always\nforget.  You’re always preoccupied with\nwhat goes on so to speak on the cinemagraph. \nAnd you never look at the guy who is looking.  It’s like when you go to the movie, you\nforget about yourself and you’re just looking at the picture.  Well, that’s what we’re doing all the\ntime.  We’re always looking at\npictures.  We looked at pictures so much\nthat we forgot that WE ARE.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

13. ITS NOT FAR AWAY <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PB: “Reason tells us that pure Thought cannot know itself because that would\nset up a duality which would be false if pure Thought is the only real\nexistence.  But this is only reason’s\ninability to measure what transcends itself. \nAlthough all ordinary experience confirms it, extraordinary experience\nrefutes it.”<\/em> (28:2.132 and  p.\n385)  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: You know it’s\nnot something far away from you.  It’s\nnot out there.  It’s like I said, when\nyou close your eyes and you look within and you see this blankness.  Ask yourself the question, “Who sees\nthis blankness?”  Try to understand\nthe who who sees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never\nmind what it sees.  Just concentrate on\nwho sees.  And after a while there\ndevelops the looking sensation, that you’re just looking.  And then after a while that drops away.  The sensation of looking drops away and\nthere’s just looking.  Then you begin to\nfeel that you aren’t anything at all, but just this infinite consciousness, no\nlimits to it.  But it’s right there when\nyou close your eyes.  You say, “Look\nI see all these thoughts running around.” \nNever mind the thoughts.  Who sees\nthe thoughts.  “Oh, I’m disturbed\ntoday.”  Never mind the disturbance,\nwho sees the disturbance?  Always go back\nto the who.  It’s that point of light\nwithin you that you got to go into and follow it through all the way.  And that’s the void that he’s speaking about.  Because that seer is consciousness.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nyou will see, you’ll think about consciousness and you’re off the point.  Because to think about consciousness is to\nput you outside of consciousness.  So all\nyou can do is to be attentive to that seeing. \nNever mind anything else.  Who’s\nlooking, who sees this blackness in front of me?  It’s horrible.  I keep looking, I keep hoping to find myself,\nbut all I see is this blackness, this darkness. \nAnd you got to try to remember. \nGo back to who sees it and stay with that.  Don’t let the contents usurp your attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S<\/strong>: This is not what\nyou would call the Witness, this is beyond that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: You go through\nthe Witness-position too.  The important\npoint here is to try to understand by being that awareness.  That’s the only way that it could be\nunderstood, by being that awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S<\/strong>: Is there any\nexperiences which could be like that experience, which is not that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: You could\nimagine, if this is what you mean, you could imagine that you’re having the\nexperience.  But whenever you imagine\nanything, it won’t give you the feeling of being infinite awareness, boundless,\nuncircumscribed, empty of everything…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14. FACULTY OF ATTENTION <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PB: “The faculty of attention is\ninteriorized and turned back upon itself.” (23:7.216)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: Let me read that again, because this is in one sentence\nwhat you’ve got to do.  (rereads)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: You remember we take the example you are reading a novel,\nyou are very interested, you’re absorbed, then take the novel away and stay\nlike that, very absorbed.  Your attention\nis at a peak.  Now you take that\nattention and you turn it upon itself. \nDo you follow that?  Now that is\nvery difficult, but it can be done, and you could do it, by just doing the\nexercises.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I give them the Hua-tou \nexercise because that is the quickest way to get to the attention.  The exercise where I tell them, “Close\nyour eyes, look at your mind, it is black, just pitch dark, there is nothing\nthere.”  You say, “What the\nhell am I looking at?  There is nothing\nthere.”  You keep looking, but a\nthought comes up.  As soon as the thought\ncomes up, you have got a big sword, cut it right off.  You stay there, you keep doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you have got to be at attention, constantly.  Every instant.  Like when you’re playing the piano.  As soon as your attention backs off, the\nexercise is over, and you have got to start again.  So you are looking into your mind.  “Boom, there I got that one!”  Every time a thought comes up, you cut it\nright off.  When you do this for a couple\nof weeks and let us say you could do it for a half hour, because it is really\nvery strenuous, right?  You are doing the\nexercise, after a while you are looking at your mind, a thought comes up, you\ncut it off, you keep looking, you are constantly looking into your mind.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as a thought comes up, you cut it right off, you\nchop off its head.  I don’t care what you\ndo, hang it, strangle it, anything you want to do.  Get rid of it.  It is just that simple.  Get rid of it.  If you could do that for a few weeks I\nguarantee you results.  I guarantee\nthem.  Maybe I shouldn’t talk like\nthat.  But it is impossible, because your\nattention gets so intense that you become like a statue of attention, a mass of\nattention.  That is all you become.  I see myself get so stiff I was like a\nboard.  If you kicked me I would have\njust, you know, like a board gone down. \nThat’s how stiff you get.  That\nmeans you haven’t succeeded yet, because you’ve got to get so intensely\nattentive that suddenly something snaps, it is over.  You are no longer tense, you are\nrelaxed.  But you can be at\nattention.  You are very relaxed, but you\nare at attention.  Until that happens the\nexercise isn’t completed.  Assuming that\nthat happens, assuming that you finally get there, then the attention which is\nso alert, now you turn that attention on itself.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is like trying to see your own face, but it can be\ndone.  You can be focused, you can be\nreflectively self-attentive.  You can\nhave the attention looking at itself constantly.  That is when the separation between your\nconsciousness and your body starts taking place.  You begin to feel, you are no longer your\nbody, you begin to feel that you are distinct from anything and everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. LIFE CURRENT  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PB: “Once you have caught this inner note in your experience of your own\nself existence, try to adhere firmly to the listening attitude, which catches\nit.”<\/em> (23:6.228)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: In meditation\nwhen your mind is very quiet and lets say your thoughts have subsided somehow,\nthere is a feeling attitude that a person operates with: It\u2019s like you\u2019re\nfishing around and you pick up the scent of your own being.  \u2026  Now,\nin meditation very often when a person is listening inwardly he can pick up,\nwhat you might call the life-current in you. \nIt\u2019s a feeling that you are authentic.  \nDo you have any notion of what I mean when I say that you have a feeling\nthat you are authentic, that you\u2019re for real?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\na very delicate subject, this listening attitude that you acquire when you\nmeditate.  You have an attitude where you\nare very attentive .  You know there is\nsomething there but you just cannot quite get to it.  Nonetheless without that attitude of\nlistening and paying attention you would miss the whole point.  It is like if you are listening to a great\npiece of music.  You know at a certain\nplace there are a very important few measures that are very melodious and that\nyou know are very inspiring, but you are not listening and they go by.  And you are not there.  But whereas if you were in the attitude of\nlistening and expectation and you were watching for it, the moment it arises\nyou would immediately pick it up and you would feel it.  In a similar way, when this current comes\nthrough you or passes through you, you pick it up and you’ll hold on to it and\nit takes you deeper and deeper into yourself. \nAnd they call that the life-current. \nSome people refer to it as the I-current.  But you have to look for it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  If you could completely\nrelax\u2014if anyone here could completely relax\u2014you would immediately get very\nstill, absolutely still. Looking Into Mind<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16. MAKE MIND THE OBJECT  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PB:<\/strong> “Now an\nextraordinary and helpful fact is that by making Mind the object of our\nattention, not only does the serenity which is its nature begin to well up of\nits own accord but its steady unchanging character itself helps spontaneously\nto repel all disturbing thoughts.”<\/em> (p.236 23.7.10) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> Let’s\nnot have any comment on this, but let me recommend it as one of the finest\nmantrams that you could use in meditation. Just memorize that and go over it in\nyour mind when you meditate.  
\nAH:<\/strong> Anthony, may I ask a question in regards to the meditation on this?\nHow could Mind be made into an object of attention?
\nAD:<\/strong> Keep saying the word to yourself, “Mind,” “Mind”–you know? Say\nit enough times that you even get angry and you pinch yourself: What the hell\nis it? Things like that.
\nAD:<\/strong> Yes, you know, keep asking yourself the word, keep repeating the\nword to yourself, and see if you can taste the flavor of it. It’s like when I\ntell you to be at attention.
\nAH:<\/strong> We should have a thought of what mind is and make that the object of\nour attention.
\nAD:<\/strong> Well, I keep telling you, like in the “hua t’uo”, to make\nattention the goal. No object or anything; just make attention–pure attention\nitself–the goal. So that means now on the one hand you have no object of\nconsciousness but at the same time you have to be attentative. It’s a similar\nthing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’re trying to feel or grasp or grip this thing\nwithin you which you call consciousness. And then as you grip it and keep it\nfrom moving, after awhile it kind of tries to retract and draw you into itself.\nAnd that’s when it starts getting absorbed back into the Mind. It can<\/em> be\nexperienced; I think it’s easier to DO it than to talk about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15. \nTHE MASTER STROKE   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This path is a master stroke.  This method of destroying the illusion of the\nself by means of the intellectual function which is its primary activity stands\nsupreme and almost alone.  That very\nfunction automatically ceases when directed upon itself in the way that is\nherein taught, and with its cessation, the self is dissolved, appropriated by\nthe Universal.  20.3.79<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: Maybe you could make a leap in your imagination to follow.  If you could think of yourself as attention,\njust pure attention.  Now conceive of\nyourself, this attention, examining or introspecting into itself.  Now you can see that you’re beyond worrying\nabout what the body is or what the world is. \nYou’re not concerned with that at all right now. Let me repeat this,\nbecause it\u2019s kind of subtle.  You reach\nthe stage in your meditation where you are nothing but attention and you’re\ngoing to take this attention and you are going to force it to examine\nitself.  Is that right?  That would be (like) the general way he\nspeaks about thinking examining itself, inquiring into its own origin.  Attention or thinking is saying, where did I\ncome from, who am I?  What am I?  (alright) Now in what sense is that a master\nstroke?  Read it again\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Quote read again)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I think so far we could\nsay that (right): Attention introspecting into itself comes to a position or it\nceases functioning.  And if it ceases\nfunctioning, then how is the lower self destroyed, I would ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S<\/strong>: Because it feeds off of\nit.  It only exists by virtue of the\nhigher functioning\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD: Uh huh. So insofar as\nintrospection into thinking, or thinking introspecting into itself, it comes to\na state of cessation–in other words, thoughts stop–then at that moment you\ncould say that the lower self is cut off. \nThere is no lower self.  There\nisn’t anything. There’s only this thought concentrated upon itself, attention\nconcentrated upon itself.  There would be\nno connection then with any lower self. \nBut then if that happens \u2026  the\nlast sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That very\nfunction automatically ceases when directed upon itself in the way that is\nherein taught, and with its cessation, the self is dissolved, appropriated by\nthe Universal.<\/em><\/strong>  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: He\u2019s saying: look we have a certain technique which is really a master method\nby which you can come to this realization that you are a universal Being, an\nIntellectual being, a spiritual being. \nWhat is the method? And he would say: You’re not thinking about the\noutside world, you’re not thinking about any images in the inside world,\nneither outer nor inner.  You’re\npreoccupied with the function of thinking, thinking is preoccupied with\nitself.  What is its nature? And the more\nit is engrossed by trying to understand what its own nature is, it stops\nthinking.  At the moment that it stops\nthinking, then the lower self is gone and the higher takes over.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S<\/strong>: That\u2019s the master stroke!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: Yes.  He speaks about that in the\nWisdom, doesn\u2019t he? He speaks about that in quite a few places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S<\/strong>: Using the intellect\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: Most of the ways are usually\u2026like you take an object, you look at a\npicture, let\u2019s say of a guru. There\u2019s nothing wrong with these ways, but this\nis one way.  You concentrate on the\npicture, you finally focus your attention to the point where the attention is\nriveted and the picture becomes very real for you.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or you turn inwardly and you\nlook at an idea in the mind and you contemplate the idea.  These are the two methods that are generally\nemployed\u2014either external aids or internal kind of meditation.  But he\u2019s saying neither of these two is going\nto be as satisfactory and as thorough as having thinking be preoccupied with\nitself. Because in that very preoccupation with itself it comes to a halt.   If thinking ceases then you are at that\nmoment in a state of egoless being. Right then and there.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S<\/strong>:  Anthony, when you say, thinking\nbeing preoccupied with itself, you said earlier that you thought that you were\nattention\u2026and you say thinking attending to itself\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD<\/strong>: Yes, I\u2019m using them synonymously. \nProbably for personal preferences, because that\u2019s the way I work with\nthem.  I wasn\u2019t thinking of thinking, I\nwas just preoccupied with attention, engrossed in it and then trying to\nunderstand the nature of attention itself; and what happens is there\u2019sa\ndeepening, and inwardization of your attention, you get deeper and deeper.  And then, all of a sudden, everything is\nthrown out, there’s nothing there.  There\nis just this pure attention and you’re like in a state of being where there\u2019s\nno ego.   You are!  If anything characterizes that state it is\nthe characteristic of existence, sheer existence but not being anything in\nparticular. That\u2019s a good way.  There is\none sentence in Plotinus I give out to some people as a mantra.  You remember the one where he says:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To know without images\nis Being\u201d<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[NOTE: Plotinus 6.5.7\u2026 \u201cto\nknow without image is to be.”]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I tell you, just\nconcentrate on that intensely enough, it will get you there.  It\u2019ll give you a whiff. Within a couple of\nweeks you’ll get a whiff of what he is talking about.  “To know without images is Being.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. MENTALISMS TRUTH:<\/strong>  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PB:<\/strong> ``Successful\nresults from these meditation exercises can be got much more quickly and much\nmore easily if he begins their practice after he has thoroughly convinced\nhimself of mentalism’s truth and after having kept this conviction alive by\nconstantly gravitating back to it during reflective moments.” (23.6.21)<\/em><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> That\nhelps a little, huh? You have to constantly deal with the subject of mentalism;\nyou’ve got to keep thinking about it. You’ve got to reflect on thinking, and\nthen thinking has to think about itself.
\nAH:<\/strong> You go through the analysis of mentalism.
\nAD:<\/strong> Sure, you could start that way. You could [go] talk to yourself, say\n“Now what is Mind? What is thinking? Who the hell am I? What is this all\nabout? And I know I can’t get out of my thoughts–I’m always within them.” And\nyou can get yourself in a state where the mind is just paralyzed and can’t\nmove–no thoughts. But you can start out with everything that you understand\nabout the mind in a discursive way. Stick rigidly to it. I mean, if you sit\ndown and you’re going to start thinking of Mind, make sure you don’t bring in\nanything else. And you just have a discursive meditation on Mind in yourself,\nand you just keep elaborating it, until you exhaust every possible association\nor meaning or intellectual idea. Until that’s completely exhausted, you won’t get\nthe flavor or the taste of what you’re doing. But it’s a very straightforward\ndiscursive exercise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. AH:<\/strong> I was speaking about the difficulty of\ndoing that exercise. Really it requires a tremendous amount of energy, vitality\nto do that exercise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> It takes\na lot of energy and vitality to build a log cabin, doesn’t it? And a boat?\nSure, anything worthwhile takes vitality. It depends on what you think is\nimportant. But it is true, the more you understand about these doctrines, the\nmore available a statement like that previous one becomes, the more meaningful.\nIt’ll paralyze your thinking, don’t worry. Just try it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

18. TRACE CONSCIOUSNESS          <\/strong>[9\/21\/83]  3:01 \nMOVED TO DEEPENING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  19. UNDIVIDED  MIND  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PB:<\/strong> “There\nwould be no hope of ever getting out of this ego-centred position if we did not\nknow these three things: First the ego is only an accumulation of memories and\na series of cravings, that is thought. It is a fictitious entity. Second, the\nthinking activity can come to an end in stillness. Third, Grace, the radiation\nof the Power beyond Man, is ever-shining and ever present. If we let the mind\nbecome deeply still and deeply observant of the ego’s self-preserving instinct,\nwe open the door to Grace, which then lovingly swallows us.”(8.4.417) <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nBS:<\/strong>  . It seems to me you almost\nhave to stand at that point just before embodiment, and see that the ego has\nnothing to do\u2026
\nAD:<\/strong> Yes, that’s very true, Bert. That’s quite an accurate perception,\nalthough I wouldn’t use those words the way you put it. I would say the Mind is\nwhole and undivided, and before it gets divided you don’t have those things\nlike instinct, self-preservation; none of that exists. As soon as the Mind\ndivides itself into thinker and thought, then all those things come into existence,\nall those things come into being. So if you could stand at the point where the\nMind is whole, undivided, you’re outside that conflict. That’s why it’s so\nimportant to try to cultivate a quiet mind, because a quiet mind is a mind\nthat’s whole and undivided and isn’t preoccupied, so to speak, with the\nthoughts of the ego. There it stands, so to speak, in this way prior to, let’s\nsay, part of it identifies with the body and in that identification with the\nbody’s sensation (then?\/that?) thinks itself as the body.   So, of course, that’s the thing that all the\ngreat teachers hammer away at. Try to get to the quiet mind, the mind that IS,\nwhen thinking ceases. And if thinking inquires into its own nature, it is eventually\nforced into that position where it’s quiet; it actually ceases functioning when\nit tries to understand its own nature. And at that moment, like he said, it’s\nlike before being embodied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 But you see,\nwe’re talking about very practical things now. Last week and the week before\nwas much more theoretical for many of us. But here we’re talking about day by\nday. We’re talking about what has to be done EVERY day.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDITATIONS ON LOOKING INTO MIND 12. WHO IS LOOKING? AD: When most of us sit down and we meditate, you close your eyes and you look and there is blackness in front of you.  Nothing.  Right?  And after a little while you get bored.  You say, “there is nothing here.  What am I doing?”  And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-735","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":736,"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/735\/revisions\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lookingintomind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}