11 Mind and Self
The old only exists in the mind.
Nothing is old, nothing has a history, except in the mind that remembers.
Only what is gross sees what is new in terms of the old.
The mind is the organ of division.
A unified mind is almost a contradiction in terms.
To be simple you must be detached from thought.
The mind doesn’t comprehend anything.
The self propagates the need of its own survival by the idea of the incompleteness of the present moment.
Letting go of self in the present is the ending of a storing up against the morrow.
Each moment is complete in itself, but the self is never satisfied, greedy as it is for more.
The first thing the self desires is its own continuity – this is fundamental to its nature.
Desire always desires its own continuity.
First the self must continue, then it can enjoy.
The moment you think you can find refuge anywhere you are deluded.
There is nothing in the self that is not subject to change.
Today you think you are one thing, and tomorrow you will think you are another, but in fact you are neither.
Only what is dead does not change.
To understand the self you must first understand pleasure and pain, for it is these that prevent you from understanding anything.
You do not understand pleasure and what it gives rise to, you simply seek more of it; and you do not know anything about pain except that you do not want it – and therefore you never find out how it arises.
Between the poles of pleasure and pain you are driven through life, with never a moment’s rest.
If you are guided by pleasure and pain than when there is a conflict of interest all virtue will be laid aside.
If you are only virtuous when it suits you of course you are not virtuous at all.
The self does not, cannot, guide you into the way of truth.
The self is always creating problems.
The source of your problems is always the same.
When you struggle with the self you only tighten the bonds.
When you understand the problem you understand the self; and when you understand the self you understand the problem.
When you understand the self you understand how conflict arises – only then can it come to an end.
If you do not understand the problem you must live out your life in a state of perpetual self-contradiction.
To understand means to have seen that you are the cause of your own suffering.
When you understand the self and its arising in the world you will no longer identify with it, and it will not have the power to hurt you anymore.
You cannot truly understand the self until you discover its origin – but when you know that much you will be free of it.
You only identify with what you don’t understand.
When you see yourself clearly you see that there is both darkness and light.
No one is all darkness and no one is all light – and no one is stable.
As long as you seek one half of a duality there will be conflict.
As long as you think your ‘true’ self is only light, you will condemn the darkness – but you will not overcome it.
When you see that what you call ‘bad’ states have arisen in the mind why do you double the problem by being angry or disappointed with yourself?
If you are angry with anger does it go away?
Once you see the totality of yourself there will be compassion for others too.
When you know the truth about the self you will no longer call it ‘my’ self.
When pain is ‘my’ pain, then it truly is pain.
If you don’t possess the mind you don’t possess what arises in it either, then where is the problem?