Mysteries of Mind

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Book Agency

Page 15

THE MYSTERIES OF MIND
* Renunciation of activity is a sādhaná which results in the
attainment of spiritual powers. * Conscious dissociation from past deeds produces discern
ment and intuitive knowledge. * Mostly people live a life of delusions. Lack of discernment
is a deep-rooted torpor which makes us self-forgetful. * Deployment of the forces of delusion :
* The first line of defence --- passions. * The second line of defence-sleep. * The third line of defence- lack of self-discipline, way
wardness of the sense-organs and the mind, and their
fickleness. * The fourth line of defence - lack of discrimination
regarding what is beneficial and what is not, perverted
vision and lack of wisdom regarding joy and suffering. * The attainment of discernment is the first assault on the
defence lines of delusion. We have assumed attachments and aversions to be our natural tendencies. We have assumed anger also to be
our natural tendency. * Pride, deceit. greed, hatred, fear - we have assumed these
to be our natural characteristics. This is delusion. * Discernment enables us to understand their real nature. * How can attachment which produces pain be the
characteristic of the soul ? * How can aversion which produces pain be the charac
teristic of the soul ? * How can anger rhich produces pain be the characteris
tic of the soul ? * The exercise of Kāyotsarga (abandonment of the body). * The body is an insentient entity. The self is not the
physical body. * Breath is an insentient entity. The self is not breath, * The sense-organs are insentient entities. How can the
the soul be the sense-organs ? * The mind is material. How can the self be the mind ?