Question::
What is ‘delusive self-knowledge’? Why and How do we get prey to such “self-delusion”?
(or)
Why our “consciousness” is conditioned and cannot function freely?
(or)
When can one attain “true understanding?” Why “true understanding” is not possible at pre-human level?
(or)
Why our psyche cannot function freely? Where are the ‘impressions’ ingrained? How come our “knowledge” is dependent on these “impressions”?
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Why our mind-heart/psyche needs LIBERATION, and from what- it should be liberated?
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What is the cause of our “ignorance” & “limitations”?
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Why ERASING OF PAST EXPERIENCES necessary?
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How come “ingrained habits” veil the Truth?
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Why psyche, of an ordinary person, cannot intuit Truth?
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When can one develop “intuitive’ and “transcendent understanding?”
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What happens when psyche is released from “experiences of the past”?
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What is “Super-mind”? When can our psyche become Super-mind?
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What makes “inner awakening” a necessity for everyone?
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When can one truly judge? How does ‘transcendent understanding’ help true judgement?
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How does ‘lack of poise’ influence our consciousness?
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How can “release of consciousness from one’s past” help one’s INTEGRITY & POISE?
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How come “understanding” paves the way to “freedom”?
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Why is it difficult to understand the real import of ‘joy’ and ‘sorrow’?
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Why “divisions” exist? Who/What creates them?
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Why “consciousness” need to get freed from its ‘impressional dispositions’? What does “impressioned consciousness” do? What sort of limitations does it create?
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What does “transcendent understanding” of the Super-mind do?
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How does “intuitive perception” help realize Truth?
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What is the unchallengeable “Truth” one experiences with his/her Super-mind?
Answer::
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust(©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
Ordinary man identifies himself with his own physical body or form. This knowledge of one’s self is DIFFERENT from the ‘real understanding of one’s true nature.’ The ‘delusive self-knowledge’ which identifies the soul with the body presupposes ‘full consciousness’. Full consciousness is also absolutely indispensable for true understanding.
When “delusive self-knowledge” is overcome, it becomes TRUE UNDERSTANDING.
But for both (‘delusive self-knowledge’ as well as ‘true understanding’), the RIPENESS OF FULL CONSCIOUSNESS– which is characteristic of human beings– is an inescapable prerequisite.
“True self-understanding” is the goal of all creation throughout its pre-human and human evolutionary phases. But it is possible only at the ‘human level’ and in the ‘human form’ because– in the PRE-HUMAN FORM, ‘consciousness’ has not emerged in its fullness.
In fact, “life” cannot fully understand itself even in its purely bodily aspects, unless there is in the ‘human form’ an emergence of full consciousness along with all the evolutionary ‘impressions’ and ‘dispositions’.
But any man, irrespective of his spiritual status, can fully know himself in the purely ‘bodily aspect’ and get falsely identified with the ‘physical body’– which is really only a vehicle of the Soul.
The ‘knowledge’ which consciousness can yield in any particular form is circumscribed by the PSYCHIC ‘impressions’ and ‘dispositions’ ingrained in the ego-mind-heart or ego-consciousness. As these impressions or dispositions develop, the ‘knowledge’ which consciousness can yield also increases.
In the ‘human form’– ‘consciousness’ can yield the ‘full knowledge of the BODILY FORM’, which is its vehicle. At the initial stages, this is mixed up with “delusion” because of dispositional or SANSKARIC IDENTIFICATION with the ‘body’. But, even such ‘delusive self-knowledge’ is not possible at the pre-human level of under-developed consciousness.
At the pre-human level, ‘identification with the bodily form’ is INSTINCTIVE rather than SELF-CONSCIOUS.
Suppose a mirror is placed horizontally at some distance, and that it is exactly in the line of the ‘eye” of the onlooker. Then the onlooker will not be able to see even a portion of his own body in the mirror.
Now, if the mirror is gradually turned round its axis– through increasingly greater angles, it will give the onlooker a ‘full vision’ of his own reflected form.
In the above analogy, the turning round of the mirror through greater and greater angles corresponds to developing consciousness and increasing ‘impressions’ or ‘dispositions’. Since both are full-grown in the human form, the onlooker can now get a ‘reflection of his own bodily form’– through his conditioned or limited consciousness.
The ‘mirror of conditioned consciousness’ can, however, give a full reflection only of the ‘form’. It cannot yield the transcendent understanding of the ‘Self’, which has consciousness.
It is only after ‘consciousness’ is completely released from the CONDITIONING IMPRINTS of gathered experiences that it can give the ‘understanding of the Truth’ as it is.
CONDITIONED or LIMITED CONSCIOUSNESS can yield only a semblance of knowledge with a preponderant admixture of unfathomable illusion.
The DISPOSITIONAL TWISTS of the imprinted ‘mind-heart’ are the real cause of ‘limiting ignorance’.
The imprint of the mind-heart is due to the engravings of PAST ‘actions’ and ‘experiences’. It renders the psyche incapable of ‘free functioning’.
Hence the problem of realizing the Truth is essentially the problem of DECONDITIONING or LIBERATING the “mind-heart” by erasing from the psyche the STAMPED IMPRINTS of “past experiences”.
The ‘mind-heart’ which is DISFIGURED by the marks of ‘uncomprehended experiences’ is like an injured limb. The influence of the restrictive imprints of the past has to be thoroughly undone. The ‘psyche’ must be relieved of its “acquired” and “perverting” RIGIDITY. Then, it may perceive the Truth, instead of embracing illusions that arise out of the inescapable constraint of ingrained habits.
The INTUITIVE and TRANSCENDENT UNDERSTANDING of the Truth is ‘simple’ and ‘effortless’. It only requires the disburdening of the psyche.
The psyche is MODULATED and CONTORTED by the ‘impressioned experiences’ of the false. It cannot therefore intuit the truth. The “truth” remains inscrutably hidden from the grasping dispositional mechanisms.
The truth is not in any way remote even from that ‘consciousness’– which is helplessly and rigorously determined by the ‘distortions’ INFLICTED upon it by the environmental experiences of opposites. But, the ‘rigidity of the psyche’ prevents the intuition of truth.
As soon as the ‘psyche’ is released from the INFLUENCE of the accumulated deposits of the ‘past’, it becomes ‘Super-mind’ and unveils the truth, which so far had been mysteriously hidden by the ‘ego-mind-heart’ itself.
In order to intuit ‘truth’, ‘consciousness’ has to be liberated from its INGRAINED and RESISTANT ‘inclinations’.
‘Intuition’ has been buried under the piecemeal lesson of the assailing experiences of the ‘false’.
‘Learning’ is impressed from without, while ‘intuition’ dawns from within.
Learning thwarts intuition. Therefore, the teaching of the mind by ‘external impacts’ has to be counteracted by ‘inner awakening’. Then and only then can ‘intuition’– in its transcendent understanding– TRULY JUDGE without yielding to the stupor of uncritical impressionability.
“Consciousness” is impressed by
- joy and sorrow,
- good and evil,
- pleasure and pain,
and all other opposites which invoke the “reactions” of
- attachment,
- repulsion and
- the enticing complications of duality.
This ‘impressionability of consciousness’ keeps it from functioning freely. ‘Lack of poise’ prevents it from MOVING ON without the entanglements of attractions or repulsions, i.e., from swift adjustments with the alternating opposites, which shower themselves upon it in quick succession.
For example, while meeting “joy”, it thinks of the joys and sorrows experienced or anticipated in the past; and thus divided, it cannot understand the full import of the present joy.
In the same way, while meeting ‘sorrow’, it thinks of the joys or sorrows which it has experienced or anticipated in the ‘past’; and thus divided, it cannot understand the full import of the present sorrow. It cannot understand the REAL MEANING of the present joy or sorrow because of its being under the influence of past joys or sorrows– which also it experienced WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING.
Thus, there is the perpetuation of the delusion that binds consciousness to the retarding remnants of past joys and sorrows and other similar opposites. Instead of slavishly hanging on to the ‘past’, it should face and accept life in freedom– ‘freedom from clinging’ and ‘freedom from fear or hope’.
If consciousness can swiftly move with life- emancipating itself from the overpowering constraint of the ‘past’, it does not get INVOLVED or DISTRACTED; and it can function in ‘integrity,’ retaining its poise or self-possession. Then it can– not only fully understand both joy and sorrow and the other opposites of life, but also meet, assimilate and transcend them through the INTUITIVE UNDERSTANDING of their ‘true values’.
‘Transcendent understanding’ is the other side of ‘intuiting freedom’.
‘Understanding’ is essentially transcendent and illimitable, while ‘impressionability’ is essentially a perpetual invitation to enslavement.
When one truly understands the real meaning of ‘joy and sorrow’ and all the other opposites of life, they all, in their own way, CONFIRM the intuitive perception that– ‘all life’ is really one and that it is the ‘everlasting and illimitable Reality’ that transcends all ‘duality’.
It is the overpowered and deluded ‘mind’ which imaginatively creates the illusion of the multicoloured world of duality, and then clings to it, inviting upon itself the turmoil and the discord of ‘separative’ and ‘limited’ consciousness.
It creates divisions where there are no divisions in reality.
This SEPARATIVE FUNCTIONING of the “deluded imagination” is like regrouping sunset colors in clouds according to one’s own inclinations, and filling the sky with variegated palaces and forests, forts and lakes, mountains and rivers, imaginatively projecting these multicolored patterns into a void to which they are all foreign.
In the same way, ‘consciousness’– which is subject to dispositional and impressional determinism,
- SEEKS and CREATES an overpowering and false world, getting enmeshed in it and projecting into it a ‘false value’ that must in the end, by its very nature– betray itself.
- It DIVIDES a reality which is essentially indivisible.
- It CLINGS to a ‘form’ which is essentially perishable.
- It GLORIFIES itself in ‘actions’, which are essentially BINDING, and ‘achievements’ which are essentially INSIGNIFICANT.
- It DELIGHTS and SUFFERS on the background of a void, thus depriving itself of any ‘real happiness’ or ‘understanding’.
The only way to live in the sanity of ‘undeluded understanding’ is TO BECOME AWARE OF the ‘impressional determinism’ of the ego-mind-heart and free it from this vitiating constraint.
The undeluded and transcendent understanding of the ‘unconditioned Super-mind’ reveals the Truth– which remains forever, an infinite Divinity that sustains itself in unbounded bliss, power and understanding. This is the unchallengeable Truth.
The ‘intuitive perception’ at once EXPOSES the futility and nothingness of the temporal universe of ‘forms’, and AFFIRMS the ageless reality and fathomless significance of ‘eternal divinity’.
The Truth, which is self-grounded and self-justifying Divinity, needs no complimentary supplements just because it overflows with a fullness that knows no deficit. It is at once the ‘only being’ and also its own justification for ‘being’.
– Meher Baba
Source ::
Sparks of the Truth, Pg:: 65-69
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
