"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Everything Is A Notion


Sage Vasishtha
Continued from here
My son, when, in the infinite consciousness, the consciousness becomes aware of itself as its own object, there is the seed of ideation. This is very subtle. But soon it becomes gross and fills the whole world of space, as it were. When consciousness is engrossed in this ideation it thinks the object is distinct from the subject. Then the ideation begins to germinate and to grow. Ideation multiplies naturally by itself. This leads to sorrow, not to happiness. There is no cause for sorrow in this world other than this ideation!

This ideation or notion has really come into being by sheer coincidence (the crow alights on the palm tree, and the fruit falls to the ground, without any causal connection). But this unreal non-substance is yet able to grow! Your birth, therefore, is unreal; your existence surely is unreal too. When you know this and realize this, the unreality ceases.

Do not entertain ideas. Do not hold onto the notion of your existence. For it is only by these that the future comes into being. There is no cause for fear in the destruction of all ideation. When there is no thought, notion or ideation ceases. My son, it is easier to cease to entertain notions, than it is to crush a flower that lies on the palm of your hand. The latter demands effort; the former is effortless. When thus all notions cease, there is great peace, and sorrow is destroyed to its very root. For everything in this universe is but an idea, a notion, a concept.

PS: This discourse was given by a Sage Dasura to his son. Sage Vasishtha narrates this story to Rama as a part of his instruction.

No comments:

Post a Comment

सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad