"yifuxero" wrote: "Thinking of Nothing" (blank mind?)? > There's no necessary connection to Transcendence. Dead people have blank minds.
Words, words, words. How to make them impactful? Ya gotta put the intellect onto this "thinking of nothing" until it reveals its basic philosophical axioms instead of being an empty blurb passing through the mind so swiftly that its potency to ignite Advaitic self inquiry is but briefly experienced. How could a mind think of nothing? It can't, because thoughts are things, and the mind is only a parade of thoughts. Without thoughts, no mind. Even pure Amness is a thought, a process of a nervous system that Identity is flowing into (attachment.) Identity is the sought, the eternal. It is Identity, not the mind, that can survive being unmanifest. It's about identification slipping off of the activities of a meat robot and onto the Absolute -- a turning of identification to its source, Identity -- or, at least onto Amness from whence it may then slip onto the Absolute. Dead people don't have minds, yes, so that's proof that one isn't the mind if one has as an axiom that one's true state is eternal; "the mind dies, so what doesn't die? -- and how does one identify with it?" Only the purest silence can be eternal since all processing must obey the law of entropy eventually -- ask Indra how many "lifetimes as Indra" preceded him. How can the ego be satisfied with such an identification when it is commonly found firehosing isness like a ceaseless parade of mask wearing? The mind is always found to be saying "I'm that. Now, I'm that. No, wait, I'm this now." Each "this-that" that we say we are is like placing our treasure (Identity) where moth and rust doth corrupt. We are not new cars waiting for our first dent, and though we are ever so certain that "thoughts R us," they too will be dented and finally die and leave us bereft of an object of consciousness to glom onto for the sake of embodying Identity. Only the silence of Amness (a glorious illusion, the noisiest noise what am: OM) will remain if all expressionism is stymied by transcending thought, but Amness too will die with the body. And the good news is: Amness is identification waiting for "an impulse of the Absolute" to engender an expression -- a mind dwelling upon Amness is like an arrow fully drawn back, and from that stance, from that dynamic stillness, in that "perfect illusion of silence," the pure mind (still existing but not doing) that can find itself suddenly "not enough" or "too claustrophobic," such that "whatever is identifying with it" must spontaneously (via grace) expand its definition of self to include the other half of the yinyang thangy -- white side is "all the processing possible" and the dark side is "not that light side, but a side nonetheless." In that Amness, Identity finds that it has a true choice to be or not to be. It can manifest "all the things possible that can be identified with," and/or it can also be "where no hat can hang." Beyond thingness, (ask Godel how limited thingness is,) is that which cannot be expressed by any system of axioms. Godel teaches that not all truths can be expressed by any system no matter how complex it might be. Godel says, "You can't get there from here -- you can only get there by not starting out here. Yet that 'there' exists." The mind can be stilled down to one primal thought which is the home of all knowledge but not the home of all-knowledge-that-cannot-be-expressed. Only the Absolute can be said to encompass that which cannot be expressed. The ultimate mind, say, Lord Brahma's, can cognize the largest or least of all things graspable, but the Ineffable eluded His perfect mind for the 3000 years He sought it. Only tapas revealed it to Him. Seeking the Absolute exhausted Brahma to When asked, "What is the difference between inquiry and meditation?" Ramana replied: "Inquiry consists in retaining the mind in the Self. Meditation consists in thinking that one's self is Brahman, existence-consciousness-bliss." And: "Although the practices for achieving strength of mind are numerous, all of them achieve the same end. For it can be seen that whoever concentrates his mind on any object will, on the cessation of all mental concepts, ultimately remain merely as that object. This is called successful meditation (dhyana siddhi.) Those who follow the path of inquiry realize that the mind which remains at the end of inquiry is Brahman. Those who practice meditation realize that the mind which remains at the end of the meditation is the object of their meditation. As the result is the same in either case, it is the duty of aspirants to practice continuously either of these methods till the goal is reached." Note that Ramana is comfortable with Identity flowing into manifestation or with Identity remaining within itself....either is realization. Inquiry is seen as directly going to Identity; meditation is seen as engaging the mind in a process of attending to ever subtler nuances of the thinking-experience and eventually ending up with pure Amness as the embodiment of Identity. Either side of the yin yang can be found as a perfect embodiment of Identity; thus, the Absolute (Identity) is said to be beyond both. And that's just for starters when one wants to grok what "thinking of nothing" entails. And, yeah, just yesterday I said I wouldn't post any of Ramana's words. But, but, but, it's a thorn removing a thorn I tells ya! Edg
