CONTEMPLATE, INQUIRE, OBSERVE

SURGE 77

C.I.O.

CONTEMPLATE, INQUIRE, OBSERVE

Many great teachers ask us to study the scriptures, reflect upon their instructions and revelations, and contemplate upon them. They emphasize on changing the texture of our thoughts by continuous dwelling on noble thoughts of holy books. As you think, so you become, they say. Masters like Swami Chinmayananda therefore dedicated their lives to the propagation of books of wisdom like the Bhagavad-Geeta. Regular study of the shaastras, Swamiji used to say, will lift your vision to greater heights of contemplation. The quality of thoughts decides your character; it makes what you are and so on. Contemplation (mananam) thus is highlighted.

Certain mystics have given relatively less importance to the study of scriptures or to dwelling on the statements thereof. Inquire, they say, into the source of thoughts. Catch hold of the basic I-thought amidst the wide range of thoughts that rise in you. If thoughts are comparable with the number of branches of a large tree – they give an analogy – the I-thought is like the trunk or the base. Put the axe to the base, they say, by inquiring Who am I? The sage of Arunachala, Shri Ramana Maharshi, is usually credited with this kind of guidance. If a thought arises, (for example), “I was insulted by my uncle last night,” you are to ask yourself, “Who am I?” rather than entertaining thoughts about the uncle, what he said and what he should have said etc. Rejecting all answers to the question, you are to go deeper into the matter. Inquiring constantly into your identity, you are to peel the onion of your personalityuntil no descriptions remain. All pride and hurt vanish in the silence of pure awareness.

A thousand forms of such advice have guided humanity to “do this” or “do that”. You and I have fallen in love with such advice and have believed that “doing something” and “doing it repeatedly” will lead us to total freedom. Techniques, in other words, hold the key to ending of sorrow. Seers like Krishnamurti have taken strong exception to such a view. They seem to say that any technique further strengthens the self. Any practice becomes another shell of conditioning in which you are trapped. Repetition of thought cannot take you beyond thought. Clever manipulation will get a thousand benefits to you but they cannot open the door to freedom. Exercise of will (will power) can help you achieve many goals but all of them are bound by time and perish in time. Ending of sorrow cannot be the result of any effort, with a certain end in mind. The moment you keep a result in mind, all your (gross or subtle) operations reinforce the self. Observe what thought is doing, they say. Do not make this “observing” into another practice, they hasten to add. Observing is not to be an act of will. There is observation without the observer, the agent of observation. Living in attention, not made into a practice of some sort, is freedom. The first step here is itself the last step.

What are you to do now? Contemplate? Inquire? Observe? That is not the right question. Do not be obsessed with the question, “What am I to do?” Be gentle and compassionate to yourself. A hundred goals, some achieved and some not achieved, have already tired you out. Do not make freedom (or realization) another goal and add to your burden. Be kind. Understand your joys and sorrows. Understand your fear and desire. Understand what you call contemplation, inquiry or observation. There is peace in this understanding. You understand there is no way to peace. Peace is the way.

Swami Chidananda

Chennai, September 12, 2010

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