The Vanity of Chasing Experiences

All through our lives we assume we have to collect pleasant experiences.  We give so much importance to experiences that it seems to define our entire life.  Do we not hear people commenting on how a dead person had a rough life or that a dead person had a great life. Have you ever given it a thought? All your life you have been falsely assuming that you are collecting experiences, experiences of all kinds, good and bad. Since, early childhood, one is constantly chasing pleasant experiences or out of curiosity some form of unique or different experience.  It is not uncommon for one to state "my wish is to experience that before I die". Whether it is seeing some geographical place on earth, or to taste some unique food, or to enjoy a joyride in the amusement park, or some mind altering substance, or any other form of experience.

Even in the spiritual field, people are constantly chasing experiences. They travel all over the world to meet some Guru or teacher, to see if they can learn the secret of "reaching higher levels of consciousness".  In meditation, they may experience a "blue light" or "feeling of bliss" and then they want to replicate that pleasant experience all the time. Sooner or later, they get frustrated because of the inability to maintain that pleasant experience.  Nature hopes you will learn the vanity of chasing experiences from this frustration and actually question this whole business of experiencing. Sadly, the opposite is more likely to happen. One is more likely to get even more desperate for pleasant experiences. Is it not amazing?

Based on memory, one can feel as if they actually relive the experience.  One gets the false sense of collecting all the experiences in a sort of bag which one feels will be treasured for ever. One can often hear people saying "you must experience this -man, it is awesome".  Hearing this, one desperately wants to replicate that same pleasant experience that his or her friend had.  Despite all efforts, all experiences are transitory and vanish just as fast, leaving one longing for more (depending on the type of experience). Obviously, one does not want bad experiences!  The mind always chases pleasant experiences and shuns painful experiences. The result? One is constantly in search of an everlasting pleasant experience.  One becomes a slave of the mind.

You hear of some great spiritual teacher who at least in the photos, looks like a picture of bliss.  You wonder if the teacher has some secret that allows him to be in state of bliss.  Maybe, if you can follow his advice and do some sadhana (practice), you may, just may be able to reach that "higher level of consciousness" that he is talking about and permanently experience that state of bliss.  Really? You can see how easy it is to fall into the trap of chasing pleasant experiences.

Can you really take your experiences with you when you "die"?  What happens to all your experiences when you die?  Do they remain somewhere? Is not an experience transitory in itself? Are you not dissatisfied with the transitory, the false, the unreal?  Is there any value in anything that is not eternal or permanent?  Is it not the eternal or permanent or REAL that you are actually in search of? Don't you want the REAL?

What happens to all the pleasant experiences that you had in your dream last night? Poof! Vanished as soon as you woke up.  So, would you really chase experiences in the waking state, if you realized that they are just as transitory as the experiences in a dream?  If, on realizing that the waking state is nothing but a prolonged dream, would you give the experiences in the waking state any value? Just like in a dream would they not vanish on Awakening? 

Would it not be preferable to be AWAKENED from this dream world rather than continue to chase false experiences in this dream world?  THINK, INVESTIGATE AND WAKE UP!

Dead and Gone- Part 3

Staying on this same topic, let us further explore how we can investigate the subject of birth and death and get to the Truth.  As we already learned, the body is nothing but the combination of five elements (earth, water, fire, air and space). After so called 'death' of the body, the elements mix back with the universal elements. Meaning thereby that there is no such thing as "my individual water" or "my individual space" (although myspace.com may object to that statement!!) or "my individual air". Air is air, water is water and space is space. In the same way, consciousness is consciousness. There is nothing like individual consciousness or universal consciousness.  However, for the sake of understanding and clarity, a Guru may use such terms. After so called 'death', the consciousness no longer having a vehicle for its expression (i.e. the body), returns to universal consciousness. There is no actual return as such.  For example, the space inside an earthen pot is the same as the space outside the pot.  On breaking the earthen pot, the space inside does not actually 'return' to the space outside.  Space inside mixes up with space outside, really? You get the point.

As already explained elsewhere in this blog, consciousness is like electricity. Electricity is electricity. There is no essential difference between electricity in Mexico and electricity in Holland or electricity in China or Russia.  Just like electricity can function in different forms and produce different effects, consciousness does so too.  Electricity functioning through a fan produces a breeze, through an oven produces heat, through an air-conditioner produces cooling, through a radio produces sound, or through a motor produces motion. In the same way, consciousness expressing through different forms like humans, dogs or worms produces different effects. The consciousness expressing in the body through various permutations and combinations of the gunas (attributes or gunas are Sattva, Rajas,and Tamas) give rise to unlimited personalities in the same species. The effects can be many but the cause is one.

For something to die it must be born.  Keeping it simple, we can see that the elements are not born for they were there before the so called birth of 'my body'.  Similarly, the consciousness is not born with the birth of "my body".   So, what exactly is born?  Can you not SEE the obvious? Nothing is born and therefore nothing dies. What happens is that the consciousness no longer expresses itself through that particular body.  Where is the question of birth and death other than a concept created in the mind based on the primary concept of being 'born' as a separate and independent body-mind entity called "me"?

Having heard and digested all of the above, who and what are you?  In what capacity are "you" going to change or do anything?