I've discussed nondoership a lot on this blog. While logically it is infallible, even that realisation is subjective and thus it is not a fact but a notion. A notion is not truth. Truth cannot be touched by humans. Only notions of truths, interpretations of meaning, ideologies...et cetera. Nondoership is just the same. No human can KNOW nondoership. Nondoership is the impersonal reality of the universe. How can someone know that? The knowing of nondoership is not truth. Knowing is never truth. Knowing is an aspect of truth, the totality but on its own it is only qualitatively truth. It has the essence of that total truth but it does not represent it totally itself. The problem with this is that it remains personal, it remains limited to this particular path, this specific individual life with all its idiosyncracies. You can imbibe the doctrine of nondoership and in many ways it will help to alleviate some of the worst human emotions: guilt, regret, confusion so and on so forth. But it may also sap you of all motivation, of all interest in life, as you sit back on your laurels and content yourself with the notion not the truth, that everything is predetermined thus NOTHING MATTERS.
This 'NOTHING MATTERS' absurdity is not compatible with the kind of life a human being must live: a life of survival. Disinterested survival is not possible. Strip Ramana Maharshi of his retainers, strip Nisargadatta of his acolytes, Balsekar of his mistress and you will see that these men have not realised the absolute, they are still individuals, only individuals that have imbibed certain truths that confer some degree of apparent 'grace' on them. You can intone 'NOTHING MATTERS' but it will never truly be NOTHING MATTERS - instead it will be your highly personalised 'NOTHING MATTERS' which is used by you for your specific ends. However as most people don't know what's good for them it can lead to a right royal mess.
There is no external truth. We make the truth. The world does not exist before we give meaning to it. That meaning is ours, it is totally ours, it is not the totality for even the notion of totality is ours. All of this is grounded in personal needs, anxieties, experience, conditioning. You can never escape the conditioning. Each passing moment you are the conditioning. Even your nondoership, your nonduality is conditioned.
I maintain that enlightenment is impossible. Anyone who claims such a thing is simply fetishising their own notion of enlightenment that fits in with their obscure survival needs. We are all animals, surviving in a harsh world.
No such thing as enlightenment. And sticking strictly with the relative story..."letting go" often gives rise to the most effortlessly amazing ambitions, rather than some kind of lethargy. The personal identity balks at "nothing matters". However, once "nothing matters" sinks in, the converse can seem incredibly obvious: everything matters, for its intrinsic value.
ReplyDeleteQuite...but then even that is a passing thought...
ReplyDeleteLike this post a lot. Did an article a little while back thats very like this. You're doing great work here
ReplyDeleteThank you, glad you like the blog.
ReplyDeleteIf thought is gone, is there a knowing of that? Of course, you might say...'well , that is another thought, you silly....there is no thing such as knowing of whatever happens'.
ReplyDeleteBe silent and know. This knowing SEES that there is seeing, sees that there is hearing. IF the brain is just like a computer which sends and produces electric signals, WHAT is it that SEES those signals or what converts those signals into ALIVE sounds to to speak. No 'observer', no signals.
So what SEES the thoughts? What sits waiting on the edge of a traffic road of thoughts and knows what is passing by? YOu might say, me...the brain. YOu might say the '.......'. call it whatever you like, cuase it is there in the silence too.
Jean-Paul Sartre, the absurdist, would say, "Whatever meaning you get out of life, you're simply conferring." So, I think that could work backwards, too. That is to say, "Whatever meaninglessness you get out of life, you're simply conferring." In other words, if you say "nothing matters," this is simply a put-down towards your experience. I don't know what a neutral response would be. Would it be to say that it's neither meaningful nor meaningless, it simply is? That way, you can't out of the universal Rorschach block get caught up in duality and say "nothing matters."
ReplyDeleteConsius...something miraculous indeed...
ReplyDeleteViolet_210...best to say nothing at all...
Yes, and that was my point. Of course, to communicate the point, we have to say something, just like Hindus don't really have a name for what it is that is, but for purposes of discussion, they've called it Brahma or Brahman, but I had the impression you say 'nothing matters' in a dysphoric tone.
ReplyDelete