Mysteries of Mind

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

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THE MYSTERIES OF MIND
sciousness or in an enlightened way, we become dispassionate and neutral with regard to both joys and sorrows. Neither joy attracts us nor does sorrow cast its shadow on us.
Bhagavān Mahāvīra successfully went through many an affliction. Other practitioners of self-discipline also did the same It is possible to do so on the level of ordinary consciousness ? Is it possible to experience such afflictions with a smiling face ? Perhaps not. But with a dispassionate attitude of mind one finds himself to be above joys and sorrows. Consciousness alloyed with feeling keeps us at a lower level of experience. At a higher level of consciousness man becomes a mere spectator of joys and sorrows without being affected by them. He becomes capable of bearing the greatest afflictions. From where does this tolerance come ? Its source is discernment.
Discernment enables us to make distinctions. This ability reaches its highest peak in equanimity. We go on entering into the depths of experience as the chisel of discernment goes on chopping off the layers of evil accumulated on the mind. We are raised above sense-feelings. Freedom from dependence on the senses is called equanimity. Those who live on the level of the senses may be tolerant and may go on enduring afflictions. But equanimity is higher than mere tolerance because it is achieved by those who have raised themselves above the level of the senses.
Those who have attained spiritual experiences after having abandoned sense-feelings adopt an attitude of neutrality in matters of pleasure and pain. This neutrality is the result of a second transformation of personality. But this state is not the final state of spiritual experience. The practitioner has to go beyond this state. He has to be extremely careful. He has to be constantly self-watchful in order to keep the flow of consciousness uninterrupted. He has to keep the flame of consciousness stable and ever-burning. His experience does not remain stable and he is often attacked by inertia. The inter-play of consciousness and inertia continues. It is only when the third ray of consciousness bursts forth, when experience becomes deeper and deeper and when discernment becomes more and more effective, that the inter-play of inertia and consciousness comes to an end. Then the eternal light of wake