Accept the mind as an illusion

Who is really sad?  You are not a sad person!

You are not a sad person; you are not a miserable person.  No, you’re not!  Your mind is miserable, conjuring up misery and sadness all the time, and creating troubles for it all the time. That’s not you.  It is this mind which is so transient and without any substance.  For if it had any substance or substantial value, then it would not be transient. The mind keeps on playing tricks, and we allow and encourage it to play tricks on us so that we will be more miserable.

 The mind plays tricks

In the process, we watch these tricks that the mind plays. Not that the mind wants to do it purposefully, but it is the nature of the mind to play these tricks because of all the past experiences. All those tricks put together create more and more tricks and illusions of suffering and misery.  It’s the mind that does it.  So when we start watching the mind, then we could see through the illusion. If we watch that magician on the stage very carefully, we can see how he palms things away and makes things appear and disappear.  And yet when we go to a magic show, something inside us tells us that this is a clever man, he knows how to form these tricks.  They seem so real yet inside us we know that he is creating an illusion.

The knowingness of unreality

When you go to a magic show, and the magician cuts the woman in half, it seems so real, but you know inside that it is not real.  Now, why can’t you apply the same principle to your mind?  Inside you, there is a knowingness that all these tricks that the mind is playing are not real, and yet you accept it to be real.  And when you accept it to be real, there has to be misery. Then you are involved in the law of opposites, pain and pleasure. It is inevitable.  And yet, inside you know that it is an illusion.  Now when we start watching the illusion, then the illusion fades away.

Becoming emotionally involved in an illusion

I remember going to see film shows because I was involved in films during business days. Sometimes, I never used to watch the film, but I used to watch the people watching the film. If you are in the business, your eyes get so accustomed to the darkness in the cinema that you can see people’s faces from the light reflected from the screen. I’ve seen people crying if it’s a sad story, getting so emotionally affected, and yet knowing that it’s an illusion.  The film is not real; it’s a story happening. Even if you go and touch the screen, what do you touch?  Nothing. That is the same thing we do all the time, not only in the cinema.  Here we are crying and suffering misery over an illusion.  The mind creates all the illusions, and we cry, suffer, and feel miserable.  It’s the same principle all the time!

So take the mind to be an illusion.  Know that it has no substance.  Watch it.  Let it perform.  Let the mind and body perform their tricks.  Give it vent.  Give it a rope.  It will hang itself – yes, but you stand still.  You stand unchanging, firm – established in self.

…Gururaj Ananda Yogi – US 80-40

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