Mysteries of Mind

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

Page 26

SEARCH FOR EXISTENCE: RIGHT VISION
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you have begun to sink into the depths of experience, you will feel self-absorbed. In such a state anger will no longer disturb and torment you. Ordinarily when we are angry, our anger becomes associated with and gathers strength from our vital energy. But once we have begun to watch anger objectively instead of feeling it subjectively, it becomes cut off from vital energy and consciousness. It becomes something alien to our existence, a past event not connected with us any more. The emotion of anger melts away as soon as introspection begins. In this way a sort of transformation takes place in us. This transformation does not take place at the level of the conscious mind which is a material entity. It takes place at the level of the Unconscious mind. When you are not thinking but experiencing your real existence, you will come to realize that anger, pride, greed, attachments and aversions are not the characteristics of your existence but ripples on the surface of your mind. In the depths of your being which you experience directly you are alone. This is the process of discernment. Go on eliminating anger, pride, greed, hatred etc. one after another and when this elimination has been done, what remains is your real individual self illuminated by the light of discernment. That is samyak darśana or right vision.
When the Gordian knot of the deep Unconscious has been cut, discernment becomes operative which brings the practitioner face to face with his self. For thousands of years man has been eager to know "who am l" and has failed to get an answer to this query. The answer is suggested by what is known as vivèka pratimă (the exercise in discernment) and it is 'I am that?. One should not apply his discernment as a human being but as a statue. One who is engaged in the search for the self must discern by becoming calm, stable and motionless like a statue. The concept of viveka pratimă expressed in a figurative form is very much helpful in self-search.
Kâyotsarga Pratimă (Exercise in the abandonment of the body and self-awareness)
Kāyotsarga means abandonment of the body. There is a term muyaccā or mstarcā in the Ācārānga Sütru It means the death of the body. It means that one cannot attain