Delusion and Enlightenment.

April 21 2017

Delusion and Enlightenment.

Delusions as well as Enlightenment, both are the products of the MIND. It is the mind that creates its surroundings; hence it is never free from its memories, fears and laments, not only from the ‘past’ but in the ‘present’ and the ‘future’ as well. All delusions rise from ignorance and greed and all the vast complexities of coordinating causes and conditions exist within the mind itself.  All misery and unhappiness arise from the desire to be happy, we look for happiness outside when it is purely a state of ones own mind. Life and death too arise from the mind;

When the mind transcends the concerns of life and death, the fears of life and death pass with it.

Buddha had said that all people are deluded by two fundamental concepts, conditioned by their Karmas:

1. They believe that the discriminating mind, which is the root of this life of birth and death, is their ‘True Nature.’
2. They do not know that it is behind the veil of the discriminating mind that the pure mind of enlightenment lies which is in reality their ‘True Nature.’

The Deer; intoxicated and maddened by the fragrance of the musk that lies within, spends its entire life trying to find its source outside, in vain. Little does he know that which he relentlessly seeks outside, lies inside of him. Likewise, men seek fulfilment and enlightenment from Scriptures and Master’s, befooling themselves that they are awakened and enlightened through their association with the Enlightened Ones. They gain knowledge and pride themselves as being superior to other ignorant beings, but, knowledge is not enlightenment, it can only be the channel to enlightenment.  Just as a horse can be led to the water but he must drink it himself, it is the Buddha within that must be awakened to get enlightenment for each man is a potential Buddha and when awakened inside, becomes enlightened. This enlightenment comes from the removal of the debris collected and coated over the subjective mind from past and present manifestations of Desire, Delusion, Loss of Discrimination and Greed.

Enlightenment is abstract, it has neither form nor nature through which it can manifest itself and therefore in enlightenment itself there is nothing to be enlightened. Delusion and ignorance are the cause of enlightenment, for they are the eternal pair of opposites, one cannot exist without the other. They are opposite but not opposed for the death of one gives birth to the other and one cannot exist without the other. When anyone peruses enlightenment as an object in life, it becomes obstructive. As long as one seeks enlightenment it means that delusion and ignorance are rampant in the darkened and veiled mind. When darkness becomes enlightened, it passes away and in its passing so does enlightenment pass.  All dualities between the two end at that moment and there being no separation then, they merge into one. Hence enlightenment cannot be taught for it cannot be learnt; it has to be experienced by the mind. It already exists inside each and every human being, but is like a mirror whose reflective surface is veiled from vision by the collection of dust over years of neglect, disuse and/or misuse and abuse. The mind, which has collected innumerable impressions from past and present life manifestations, though veiled by delusions and desire, can never loose its original potentialities.

Just as pure gold is procured by melting ore and filtering all impurities, if man would melt the core of his mind and remove all impurities of worldly passions and egoism, greed and avarice, hatred and jealousy, illusion and delusion, pride and prejudice and anger and vengefulness, he would recover the Buddha Nature that is always in a state of enlightenment at the core of his True Self. We are all enlightened; we only have to find within ourselves that which we have lost!

                                                                    

The true seeker will not merely accept anyone else’s experience and be satisfied, for unless he has not experienced it himself, he has not known the truth and the truth is to be known undoubtedly and firmly, not believed in. What one believes in, may be, and may not be true. When one simply knows it, IT IS.

In the words of LOU TZU, “You will start climbing only when you reach the mountain top.”

Gittanjali Elizabeth Mordecai

(Gittanjali Singh)