Silence - A Spiritual Discipline - 1(from Chup Sadhan) Nov 24, 2020
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sadhaka
Silence - A Spiritual Discipline - 1
Total detachments from all mental and physical activities is silence-a spiritual discipline.. We should have a firm determination that nothing is left to be done whether it is mundane or spiritual and whether it is done with a selfish or a selfless motive. With such determination we should sit silently preferably early in the morning after waking up and bowing to God. As we had no thought of performing any deed in the least during sleep, so should we have no such thought of any deed in the least in the wakeful state. Nothing such as reflection or chant or meditation is to be done. There should be no thought of their performance or even non-performance. The reason is that the thought of non-performance is also an action. In fact, actionlessness is spontaneous. An action has its root in mind, intellect and ego etc.
Now become silent by determining that nothing is to be done in the least. If you cant become silent in this way, become silent by assuming that only God pervades everywhere. If you adore God endowed with attributes and form, be silent by thinking that you are lying at God’s holy feet. But this is secondary. Priority goes to the point that nothing is to be done. If by becoming silent in this manner, there are projections and distractions of the mind, don’t oppose them but be quite indifferent to them. Be neither pleased nor displeased with them, have neither attachment nor aversion to them. Don’t get pleased or displeased with good or bad thoughts respectively. Neither get tainted with them, nor assume affinity for them.
You declare that your mind is very bad. But in fact the mind is neither good nor bad. It is the self which is good or bad. If the self is good, there are good projections of the mind. If the self is bad, there are bad projections of the mind. The self becomes good or bad only due to having affinity for Nature. Without affinity for Nature, the self is neither good nor bad. As pleasure and pain are distinct, but in bliss there is neither pleasure nor pain, it transcends both of them; so is the self free from affinity for matter, neither good nor bad. Therefore don’t get pleased or displeased by creating a distinction between good and bad.