[Advaita-l] Meditation Vs nitya karma

[Marko Gregoric]

Dear friends
You all write from the standpoint of the body-mind apparatus. Who or
what is the entity which can possibly control the mind and which is
not itself a creation of mind?
The body-mind works by itself, spontaneously. Nothing can control
that. You are not the body nor the mind nor the entity which controls
both.
Agree?


On 10/18/08, sivasenani at yahoo.com <sivasenani at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dear Sri Amuthan,
>
> Very well said. I initially thought Sri Narayanan's question was specious. I
> mean one is not going levitate, right?
>
> However your response opened my eyes.
> Demonstrated control of the mind is the sure pointer of progress. Not merely
> in the spiritual path but in all walks of life as well. As  phala stuti, we
> can say: to the one who has controlled his mind accrue wealth, health,
> friends, joy, peace and liberation.
>
> Senani
>
> Sent from BlackBerry(R) on Airtel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Amuthan <aparyap at gmail.com>
>
> Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:54:46
> To: <z1e1b1r1a at yahoo.com>; A discussion group for Advaita
> Vedanta<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Fw: Re: Meditation Vs nitya karma
>
>
> Dear SrI Narayan Iyer,
>
> On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 8:18 PM, narayan iyer <z1e1b1r1a_at_yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>>> I have always been wanting to ask this question.  How does
>>> the process of chitta suddhi works?  What are the symptoms
>>> that show me conclusively that I am making some progress at
>>> least?  How do I know that my mind is not deluding me into
>>> believing I am ascending in the spiritual progress?
>>>
>>> Can you please point any pointers that can help me
>>> bench-mark my progress?
>
> Fundamentally, any aSuddhi in the mind comes into being because of
> avidyA. Though avidyA itself cannot be directly perceived, its effects
> can be immediately recognized in its triple manifestation as rAga,
> dvesha and moha. So one's cittaSuddhi can most easily be understood by
> noticing how the mind reacts to various external events. Whether the
> progress is in the right direction can be understood if the history of
> the mind's reaction over a period of time is analyzed. As long as the
> mind tends towards a reduction of these kleSa-s one can be content
> that the progress is in the right direction. Though this is easier
> said than done, it is (imho) the only means to unambiguously see the
> effect of any form of vedAnta SravaNa or vaidika dharmAnushThAna or
> dhyAna or whatever activity for that matter that we perform, on our
> mind.
>
> Of the three, the most difficult aspect to study is moha since unlike
> rAga and dvesha which arise from sukha and duHkhAnubhava-s and are
> accompanied by a variety of observable mental and physical reactions,
> moha doesn't have any easily observable mental or physical correlate.
> It is precisely here that the mind can be deluded about its own
> progress since it is easy to wrongly attribute a state of calm that
> arises due to certain special external factors to some progress in
> cittaSuddhi. To elaborate, even when the mind is very calm, what lie
> dormant are a variety of deeply ingrained self-opinions and habitual
> tendencies (vAsanAs). When it so happens that some external factors
> are condusive to a peaceful mental state (as say due to proper
> prANAyAma or some sAlambana dhyAna or the acquistion of desired
> objects or laziness and sleep (!) etc.) these views and tendencies go
> entirely unnoticed and worse, do not get destroyed. And these are the
> culprits who stir up the mind with further suffering when the
> intrinsic impermanence of mental and physical events destroys those
> special external factors that led to the state of calm in the first
> place. The only way to destroy these is by the j~nAna that arises upon
> proper tattva vicAra.
>
> Useful and exhaustive description of the citta that is fit for
> brahmajij~nAsa and the appropriate means to train the citta can be
> found in innumerable places in the gItA whenever KRshNa talks of
> sattva guNa or the qualities of sthitapraj~na-s or in the yoga sUtra-s
> or in prakaraNa grantha-s like vivekacUDAmaNi.
>
> Amuthan.
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