What is appropriate action? || Acharya Prashant (2013)

Acharya Prashant

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What is appropriate action? || Acharya Prashant (2013)

Question : There is a state the other is in, there is a state that I think the other is in, there is a state the other thinks that I am in. What is then an appropriate action?

Speaker : When one is in a mental state, it is never a mental state, it is the reality. It is more than the reality, it is the absolute truth. A mental state would not be the same mental state were it to be known as just a mental state. In the moment of anger, is anger just a mental state. What is anger at that moment?

Listener 1 : It is the reality.

Speaker : Who is saying this that there is a mental state that I am in?

Listener 1 : Somebody after that sate.

Speaker : This is a memory. The question is- what is an appropriate action? This question itself is the appropriate action, were it come at that point itself. Nothing else is appropriate. This question is appropriate. It is just what is needed. But let it arise then . When? Whenever one is in that mental state, and that is not any one particular mental state.

This is not something that you can conveniently summon that in the moments when it is alright with me I will call remembrance, I will press the attention button, and in the moments of pressure I will nicely forget everything, and I will just please my senses, and my mind.

Remembrance, immersion is your being.

Tell me, the same mind that is angry, is that mind capable of knowing the remembrance? So there is only that mind, there is no any other mind. All other minds are memories. That angry mind, is that capable? But that is all what we want. We want to move into remembrance, attention at the exact moment, when the anger is causing the most suffering. When we have already moved into suffering and the entire organism is reeling under the act of suffering, then we want a medicine. Obviously, it is a weak organism that is suffering. The medicine cannot arise from that weakness. Can it arise from that weakness?

‘Habit’ is a wrong word, and an inappropriate word. But let me use it. It has to be a habit. Remembrance has to be a habit. Attention has to be a habit. It cannot be an emergency number, that when your house has been broken, then you dial hundred. Attention is not hundred number. Attention is the way of life .

Remembrance is the way of life, but we take it as an emergency service.

The question is: why does the moment of suffering come at the first place? Why do you come to suffering in the first place? Of course you are not writing this in the moment of pleasure. And that is the reason why you are writing this. That is exactly the reason why you are writing this, because you don’t write in the moment of pleasure.

Kabir says, “Dukh mein sumiran mein sab karein, sukh mein kare n koye. Jo sukh mein sumiran kare, dukh kahe ko hoye (Everyone remembers him in sadness, no one remembers him in happiness. If you remember him in happiness, why would you suffer in sadness?)”

When you have good time, when all seems well, then why do you forget? Will that forgetfulness not remain with you as a habit for the rest of the time? That’s the price to pay. We all know duality. Suffering goes with pleasure. But the mind is such that it is attracted towards only one end of duality. Which one is that?

Listener 2 : Pleasure.

Speaker : Pleasure. Mind is attracted towards that. In that moment you do not bother to remember. “All is good, nice. Who wants to remember?” But exactly because you do not want to remember, you will very quickly slip into suffering. “Everything is fine, who wants to remember?”, but because you don’t want to remember, you slip into suffering. By ‘remembering’ we do not mean that one should suppress that pleasure. When suffering can’t be suppressed, how can pleasure be suppressed? Remembrance is obviously not suppression, it is not a forced mental activity. Remember it.

Let constant remembrance be a way of life, otherwise all we will be left with will be intelligent sounding questions which are not useful. Questions which are intelligent, nice, good, through which you can express yourself in language, but they will not have an impact on your life. What do we want, a better life or a better vocabulary?

Listeners : A better life.

Speaker : There is no point enriching your memory godown. Remembrance has to be a way of life. One has to live in knowing, and then the very root from where all this arises will be no more. I assure you, it won’t happen suddenly. You know, somebody is abusing you, it won’t be possible for you to suddenly realize that it is not a person but a state of mind, a way of conditioning. This flash won’t occur to you unless you are deeply immersed, and that immersion won’t arise in that moment. It has to be a way of the mind, otherwise it won’t arise. You have to give it due respect.

Looking at every thing as divine- it just doesn’t start abruptly. It is a kind of practice. So when one says, “I cannot accept that the the stone is divine, looking at trees I cannot accept that the tree is divine,” what do you expect? That you would suddenly move down and start looking at the roads, stones and the trees and suddenly you will start feeling that everything is THAT, divine. That can’t happen.

I know that I am using two words which are otherwise used in different context- ‘habit’ and ‘practice’. It is a practice.Your wife is in front of you, your son is in front of you, your father is in front of you, you don’t look at them as divine. She is your wife, most of the time wife is just a body. Then it is your son, especially if the son is a kid, he is just a toy to play with it. Your wife as a body, your son as a toy, and suddenly you move out and will see the tree as divine?

How can the tree appear divine if the wife does not appear divine? How can that happen? It is a practice, a way of living. But in the moment of pleasure with wife, it will be very difficult, very inconvenient to remember that she is divine, and not merely a body. So you won’t remember, otherwise all the fun is gone. Sex is no more pleasing. The wife is no more a body. It is divine in front of me. How can it be pleasing anymore? Of course, there is a particular joy in it, but it is not pleasure, and you are addicted to pleasure.

Who wants joy, when the entire system is craving for pleasure? That is why saadhana has its own importance. It is a kind of training, its a kind of rehearsal. Getting it? Let me bring in a third adage and that is from the language of war. They say that the more you sweat in training, the less blood you spill in war.

So, more attentive you are in your normal moments, the less suffering you will suffer, when situations go adverse. You have to give your time, energy, attention to it, otherwise it won’t happen. There is no trick, no magic, this question is all.

It is just that this question is arising at the wasted time. Let this question come at the appropriate time and you will know what appropriate action is. This question is all, you are already there, but at the wrong time.

Listener 1 : Sir, does that mean that when I am in attention, I am not allowing remembrance, and when I am in remembrance, I am not allowing attention?

Speaker : Remembrance is not memory. ‘Attention’ is the ‘Remembrance’. By saying ‘remembrance’, probably you feel that you are referring to a particular object, remembering a particular object. Remembrance is not remembering a particular object. Remembrance is the state of attention.

Listener 2 : Only then it can be total.

Speaker : Attention is total. Memory is always fractional. Memory says, “Remember that one thing.” Attention is never fractional. Attention is always total.

Listener 2 : I was relating it with present and past. So attention means that I was referring to the present moment. Only this experience.

Speaker : In attention there is nothing called ‘only this experience’ because whenever you say ‘this experience’, it will not remain total. In attention there is no point of memory. When we say that memory is fractional, attention is total, that does not mean that in attention you are remembering everything. Please don’t take everything as the opposite of one thing. It means that you are remembering nothing, you are just attentive.

Usually when we say that concentration is on one thing and attention is not limited to one thing, probably we are lured into believing as if in attention, when you are attentive, this will happen or that will happen. If you are attentive, does that mean that you trying to remember everything in your life? ‘You are attentive right now’, does that mean that a particular part of the mind is going to the direction of one sound that is coming from outside? No, none of that.

Attention is like a background on which all the usual processes of the brain are happening, but that background is there. Everything is happening, but the mind is in a particular state. Attention is not a special activity. Attention is not a new activity at all. Attention is the change of the actor itself. It is not a new activity. You want to say, “I will remain the same but I will include in my portfolio attention as another activity”? No, that is not attention.

Attention is the change in the quality of the actor itself. All the activities will remain the same. You can drink tea, you can sit and nod, you can get up and walk. No new activity.The actor is changing.

Listener 3 : Change in actor is the change in mind.

Speaker : Yes. But what will the ego say? The ego will say that let the actor remain the same, activities must change. Who is the actor? The ego itself. Attention is not a new activity. “I am the same but I am meditating”, this will not help. How can this help? The actor has to change and the activity can remain the same, if it has to remain same. When the actor changes, chances are that the activity also changes. But even if they are to remain the same, let them remain the same. You focus on the actor. You look at the actor.

Listener 3 : We are considering that when the actor changes, then the activity changes. Is that possible, for the beginning, that I start changing the activities then it may…?

Speaker : Yes. Of course, it is possible. That is another way. But that is a very delicate way, because the mind is so cunning that even if you change the activity, it will say, “I am changing my activity.” So it has great capacity to co-opt whatever comes to it. That is possible. But howsoever cunning ego may be, still what is it? The poor ego. One can overcome it.

The fact of the matter is that as the body changes, the mind also changes. It is scientific research that the mind is not only in the brain but in every cell of the body. Every cell of the body is mind. Obviously, as your cells change, as your configuration changes, your thoughts also start changing. When you start exercising regularly, your mind changes.

Yes. I am asserting that a fit person is likely to have different thoughts as compared to an unfit, overweight person. Yes, with the activity, the actor can change. But to me it appears as a secondary way, but this way can also be utilized. There is no doubt about it. It can also be utilized. That is how it is used in most saadhanas . That is how it is used in most methods, that change the activity and correspondingly hope for a change in a mind. Again, remember and be cautious about the pitfall. ‘WHO AM I’ right now?

Listener 2 : The one who is attending the session right now.

Speaker : A very intelligent man. Alright, there is great arrogance here. Alright, go and read four books of Krishnamurthi. Next Sunday if I ask, ‘WHO AM I?’, you will say, “Last Sunday I was just an intelligent man, and this Sunday I am an intelligent man who has read four Krishnamurthi books.” So what has happened? The actor has co-opted the activity. The actor has remained the same, the activity has just become a tool with the actor. That danger is there, one has to be cautious.

Using the activity route, this danger is there, especially if one is deeply conditioned. Obviously, these books will have an impact if you read them in attention, but the point is, deep conditioning does not allow attention. So, you will never know, you will require a trainer at that point in time.

Listener 3 : If this is the secondary, then what is primary?

Speaker : Primary is, to just realize under the weight of your own suffering. “I am conditioned but I am suffering.” Whose suffering is it? “My own.” Given that we are pleasure seeking animals, the mind will apply all its energy to get rid of suffering. We want pleasure, but what we get is suffering. In a way its good, because when you suffer, the mind just wakes up. It wants to find out what is wrong. In pleasure, you won’t wake up, because everything is alright. “I am already pleased. Suffering?”

Listener 4 : But in that waking up, we look for pleasure.

Speaker : Yes, you look for pleasure, but with the causes of the suffering. And there is a great chance that if you really go into the causes of suffering, you will find out something. Of course, there also you can deceive yourself. You may apply incorrect diagnosis. But then if you do an incorrect diagnosis, then you get greater suffering and repeated suffering. So life itself will keep hurting you and hitting you till you recognize something. That is a clue to most of us.

If you find yourself suffering due to the same reasons, in the same situations, again and again, that is the clear indication that our diagnosis of the suffering is wrong.

Listener 4 : I have often met people who consider this as the way of life.

Speaker : Yes, yes. They are right in their own way. Suffering will be there in their life. Let them be in suffering. Pray for them, nothing can be done. Just pray.

If you want to increase somebody’s suffering, then there is one beautiful way. Suffering and the toleration of suffering always come with the belief, as you said, that this is the way of life. The fellow says, “This is the way life is. Everybody has got to suffer, so what is exceptional if I am too suffering? That’s the way of life.”

Prove him wrong. Stand in front of him like a shining example. Show to the fellow that suffering is not the way of life. “Here I am.” This will be such an insult to the ego and his suffering will multiply manifold, and then he would need to wake up.

A Buddha is a great insult. A Buddha is like a bag of abuses walking on the road. You look at him and if you have any ego, because ego all said and done, has the same source as its power provider…

Listener 3 : But I think that here is some feasibility required because I have heard people saying, “Forget Buddha, Buddha is Buddha, we are not at that level. So you can not talk to us about him.”

Speaker : Let them say that in the presence of Buddha. Buddha is there, eating, sleeping, walking. Let them see. They will see that he is living the same life differently. And the same ego which is keeping them asleep, will become a reason for their awakening.

Listener 3 : You will have to get close to them.

Speaker : You have to get close to them. See, the ways of all this are mysterious, you don’t have to try too hard. A Buddha may be a great insult, but at the same time once you have seen him, there is some part of you that cannot forget him. You may run away and you may not come in contact with him for years, but there is one part of you that will remember him.

Somewhere you may keep saying that the fellow was a bastard, who likes him, let him go to the dogs and whatever, and that is what you are saying, but somewhere you know that you worship him. That one glimpse has been sufficient. And that will cause such a consternation in your mind that you have to come close to him. If not in one year may be in a decade. You have to return to him, in some way or the other. Remember, ‘Buddha’ is not a physical body, it does not mean that you have to remember that physical body.

You have to remember the Buddha-hood. You will have to return to the Buddha-hood. Once you have seen Buddha, you are no more the same. He is a glimpse of what is possible. You can reject him, you can abuse him, but sooner or later you will have to return to him. And that’s the best way.

Be a Buddha and you will become the cause of awakening of the sleeping ego. You don’t have to work too hard. How it will happen? That you don’t have to worry about. A Buddha is not too concerned about what will happen, and how will it happen.

Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.

This article has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation from transcriptions of sessions by Acharya Prashant
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