Читать книгу Mysticism from A to Z. A clear introduction to the deepest and most complex spiritual issues - Нго-Ма - Страница 3

Dear spiritual friends, I am very glad to welcome you to the pages of my book. I decided to record a short but complete introductory course for you, for those who are interested in mysticism.

Recently I have received an interesting question that concerns a schematic understanding of the mental plane system. It is closely tied to the question of what is the practice of staying «right here and now» in the Moment of Now, and I would like to discuss with you whether we understand this practice in the same way and whether we understand what the mental plane is, what is the cutting off of the fantasies of the mind, and what is staying in the Moment of Now. There is a lot of confusion around this topic. It is primarily associated with the fact that in a huge number of traditions Mind is equal to consciousness, they often write «Mind» (with a capital letter), equal to «consciousness.» In our country, in our colloquial and in our conceptual apparatus, it is written that the mind is thinking, intellect, mental plane. Because of this, there is a lot of confusion associated with misreading Buddhist and Zen Buddhist texts. I want you to have a complete clarity on this subject, so I have separated the concepts of consciousness and mind. This will correspond to the fact that there is a «small» and a «big» mind. So, for example, in India in general there are several concepts of the mind, so the most important point is to be aware of what do we mean using this word. I am referring to our intellect, using the word «mind», I mean our descriptive ability, this little mental plane of ours. In that way, it is by no means consciousness. Therefore, you and I will consider the mind as a collection of thoughts that describe our direct experience.

The main activity of a working mind is to describe, to interpret, to evaluate, and to compare our direct experience. In my model, which I give to my students, we divide the mental plane into sectors. It is very simple and you need it in order to be aware of what is at stake. So, the first sector is the mind serving our direct experience. This is what helps us to survive in our daily life. Every day we understand what we see, we interpret it, we evaluate it, we compare it, draw conclusions – all this is a working mind that really deals with direct experience.

The second sector of the mind activity is work with mediated experience; it is our way to receive mediated experience. This is the mind that helps us to understand speech, to create images when we hear words, to remember them, and this is the most important element of experience in the modern world. Experiences that are mediated are of paramount importance: these experiences you do not put into practice. You, as it were, accept it from people who have gone through something in practice, but accept it in the form of words, descriptions, images, explanations, clarifications, and you may check a small part of it directly in practice. A modern person, a social person does not exist without the ability to receive mediated experience. If we were told that you shouldn’t stick your hands into the electric plug, few people would check this out by experience. Many will be able to understand this intellectually and to get indirect experience from other people that this act can lead to some kind of damage. They would never test it in their entire lives. They would just take other’s word for it. So, the ability to gain experience through words, through description is very, very important, it is the most important ability of a modern person, in whom this experience is already much superior to the experience that you get directly. These are books, films, dreams, and communications. This all gives us a kind of indirect experience. Thus, the second most important part of the mental plane is the part of the mental plane responsible for indirect experiences.

The third important part is the creative mind. This is the mind that is capable of creating something new from the first and second parts, relying on them – on the direct and the mediated experience, to create something that has never existed before and this is something that drives evolution, drives our progress. It is a very important element of the mental plane, it is the ability to compile, the ability to evaluate, and also create something new that has not existed there before. Yes, it may be a blueprint for a new car that is going to be embodied in metal, but it is something that was not there before. Of course, a person relies on previously seen cars, on the study of their designs, on the study of what was given to us in direct experience, when it comes to an engineer, but in any case, a creative element, a creative approach and something brand new is appreciated.

So, I have listed for you three types of the mental plane, three types of mind. First is a working mind that operates with the direct experience, second is a mind that relies on the mediated experience, which we receive mainly through words, third is what we have called the creative mind. And only the fourth part of the mental plane is damaged by the virus of the ego-structure, this ego-virus, only this one is occupied with serving the ego. So, only one fourth of the mind is involved in maintaining the ego structure, no matter how much it is there in percentage terms, each one probably has a little bit in a different way. However, it is very foolish to say that you can turn off the mind. Any damage to one of the listed segments is a serious illness. You would become practically a «vegetable». You would be not able to function or live in our social space, therefore, do not take seriously those who have «killed the mind», «turned off the mind» – we do not need it.

There is only one sector that brings problems, and this is the sector which serves the ego-structure. And this sector is not related to direct experience. It can be associated with mediated experience and, basically, it is associated with imagination, with thinking about, with some kind of implication, therefore, when we talk about withdrawing attention at the «Moment of Now», about living in the «Moment of Now», we are talking about the output into direct experience and we leave the sector of thinking that serves the ego.

Staying in the moment, staying in the immediate experience of the Moment of Now, it is okay to know the names of things – this is a working mind; it is normal to be aware of and know the purpose of objects, it is normal not to be a moron who does not understand what he is looking at. Socially active people should not practice at this level: in order not to know the names of objects, to look at them and not to know their purpose. It is already a very deep disconnection of the entire mental plane and, as a rule, it is practiced in some retreats by hermits, but not by socially active people. You all have been in such states when, after some long flight, you woke up somewhere in an unfamiliar place and could not understand – who are you, where are you, what is hanging on the wall and, what does it all mean after all? After such long flights, changing time zones, sometimes it takes time for the mind to turn on and «download files» for the normal movement of thinking to begin. Otherwise, you simply have perception, you open your eyes, but the mind does not turn on, it is still in some kind of dormant state. Sometimes this happens during sudden awakenings, when you wake up in the wrong phase and, again, it takes time to align the mental plane and your perception.

So, I told you about the four parts of our mental plane, and also pointed out that staying in the Moment of Now turns off, in fact, three of the four parts and leaves only one at work. It has nothing to do with time, first of all – it is connected with turning off the imagination. You turn off the imaginary, those thoughts that produce stories, that unfold a certain time continuum, and you come to the Moment of Now in which this psychosomatic organism is functioning. Now there is quite a lot of speculation that thoughts are also occurring in the Moment of Now, but these are some kind of advanced people that confuse you a little. Of course, thoughts also occur in the Moment of Now, but our «imaginarium» is able to unfold its space-time continuum, and when attention begins to «swim» along this continuum, asking questions: «What is going to happen?» «What has happened?» «What happened when I was a kid?» «Where is it now?» – it is what is called the exit from the «Moment of Now» which is right here and now. Thus, you lose touch with direct experience, and attention is immersed in these stories. So, the Moment of Now, about which Ram Dass once spoke, he called it – «be here now», and as Eckhart Tolle now says – this is not a profanation. It is practice, the practice of staying in direct experience. It allows you to see how much trouble and suffering your imagination is giving you, and this practice is the cornerstone of all teachings. I have not come across a single teaching that would not give you support for the Moment of Now, which would not talk about disconnecting, stopping internal dialogues, about stopping this imaginary. But you should not stop the working mind, which adequately tells you the names of objects and their purpose. This is superfluous, this mind does not serve the ego structure, the ego structure is served by the imagination, thinking, etc.

Now I have told you in detail about the mental plane, as we see it in our Free Away teaching, have told you about the practice of the Moment of Now, that is the withdrawal of attention and the best of all is the withdrawal of attention in which you are aware of your body. You can concentrate on breathing, you can concentrate on sensations, you can concentrate on perception, but at the same time, you do not lose the perception of your own body. Because your body is always in the Moment of Now, it is never yesterday, it is never tomorrow. This organism is always fresh, always – today, and, as I like to joke, even with your own breakfast: you have this «fast break» not tomorrow, not yesterday, but right here and now.

This is where I want to end this chapter. Send your questions to the address at the end of the book, and I’ll be waiting for you on our live streams every two weeks.