Who or what is there to be responsible towards any actions and consequences of actions, if all and everyone and everything are selfless? How come there is still cause and effect or action and consequences of action in the selfless actions upon the annihilation of the idea of 'I' and egoism?
All actions are selfless actions, and all actions give rise to consequences of actions, regardless of conscious or unconscious; whether the selfless mind attains self-realization, or not; knowing the truth of selflessness, or not; is free from the idea of 'I', egoism, ignorance, impurities and restlessness, or not; and transcending the restless suffering of ceaseless births and deaths transitioning in different realms, of selfless impermanent changes and the ceaseless thought after thought arising and passing away forming the continuous stream of thought activities that generates the impermanent states of mind governed by cause and effect, that is happening within the selfless physical body and the selfless modification of the mind, or not.
The nature's law of cause and effect, or action and consequences of action doesn't disappear or change into something else upon self-realization, or upon the realization of selflessness and impermanence of ceaseless selfless births and deaths within the selfless body and mind, or while performing selfless actions or selfless service that is without egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, comparison, judgment or expectation.
It doesn't mean that selfless actions or selfless service don't generate the consequences of actions.
It doesn't mean that actions before self-realization that are being performed under egoism, are not selfless actions, while actions after self-realization that are being performed without egoism, are selfless actions.
All minds are selfless. All kinds of actions being performed by the selfless minds via the selfless organs of actions and expression/speech of their respective selfless physical body, are all selfless. And hence, all actions are selfless actions. The difference is that whether the actions are being performed under the presence or absence of the idea of 'I' and egoism.
The selfless mind is not being determined or disturbed by cause and effect, or the actions and the fruit of actions, or all kinds of pleasant or unpleasant affairs/conditions/situations/ties and relationships/interactions, and is resting in unconditional peace under any conditions or situations, when the mind is free from the idea of 'I' and egoism, where all actions are being performed without the idea of 'I' and egoism. And vice versa.
Such as the yoga practitioner can be performing the yoga asana practice regularly without egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving or aversion, comparison, judgment or expectation, while allowing the effect of the practice to be there as it is. The practitioner that is free from the idea of 'I' and egoism is not being determined or disturbed by the practice and the fruit of practice being what it is. While the practitioner that is under the influence of the idea of 'I' and egoism is being determined by the practice and the fruit of the practice, and is being disturbed by the practice or the fruit of practice that is not the way that the practitioner would like it to be. The effect of the practice is still what it is, it doesn't become more or less, or it doesn't change into something else, regardless of whether the practitioner performs the practice under the presence or absence of egoism, whether the practitioner knows or doesn't know what are the names and the effects of the different yoga asana poses or exercises.
Some minds might think and believe that, it's the sole responsibility of the supportive elements and energy towards the selfless impermanent changes in all and everyone and everything, or towards the transformation or the outcome of all and everything, especially the selfless impermanent life existence of all sentient beings that come with a selfless perceptive cognitive intellectual emotional thinking and acting faculty, where the functions, or the modifications, or the mind behavior pattern, or the states of the mind, is very much being determined or influenced by the presence and absence of different elements and energy fields, where there's no individual freewill to be altering/modifying or transcending all that, because all are selfless, there's no 'I' existing, but only existing and functioning selflessly governed by the 'existing' cause and effect, influenced by elements and energy.
There's nothing wrong with that understanding under the veil of ignorance. That understanding is due to the minds still haven't realized or couldn't comprehend that the selfless thinking and acting faculty has certain degrees of limited and yet conditional will power or freewill that enabling the selfless thinking faculty to be transcending the conditional and influential elements and energy, or the selfless impermanent functions, or modifications, or states of the mind, of ceaseless impermanent thoughts arising and passing away, knowing how to respect while at the same time transcending cause and effect or actions and consequences of actions, not being determined, or influenced, or disturbed by cause and effect, or the actions and the fruit of actions, not by interfering, controlling, changing, modifying, escaping or going against cause and effect, or the inevitable selfless impermanent changes of decay and disintegration, but by eradicating the idea of 'I', ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, rendering the modification or the state of the mind calm and clear, that allows the selfless thinking faculty to reflect the truth of itself as it is, and reflecting the truth of all kinds of names and forms as they are.
The selfless parents are only responsible towards giving birth to a selfless existence and function of their child under the support of the supportive selfless elements and selfless energy, and are responsible towards how they bring up, guide or teach the child, and what inputs that they feed to their child physically and mentally until the child attains physical and mental independence, that is very much molding, influencing and conditioning the basic foundation of the physical and mental condition, the way of thinking, belief and disbelief, reasoning, understanding, values and practice of the child. However, as the child grows older and starting to be exposed to some other selfless minds and different inputs, ideas, learning, interactions, activities or experiences, that are also influencing or conditioning and changing the way of thinking, belief and disbelief, reasoning, understanding, values and practice in certain way, which is not the responsibility of the parents.
The child grown up falling in love with someone, and gets into a relationship with someone by its own choice, and either is being happy or unhappy in that relationship with someone, or is being angry, offended and disturbed by something that it doesn't like, doesn't agree with and doesn't desire, of all its actions and reactions and the consequences of all that, is not the responsibility of the parents.
All kinds of impermanent thoughts activities or behaviors, actions and reactions as well as their consequences are arising from the selfless modification of the mind of the child, that generate the impermanent states of the mind of the child, are also not the responsibility of the parents. The child eaten something poisonous by its own choice, either intentionally or unintentionally, and suffer painful consequences, it's the responsibility of the child itself, unless someone else fed the child with the poison, either intentionally or unintentionally. But still, it's the child that is having the painful suffering of being poisoned, either inflicted by itself or by others, either intentionally or unintentionally. The parents don't suffer the painful consequences of being poisoned. The parents might be worrying and be disturbed by the child's painful suffering, but, they cannot take the child's painful suffering for the child. All impermanent thinking, belief/disbelief, reasoning, understanding, desires, intentions, behaviors, actions and reactions and their consequences, and all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant life experiences of the child, are the responsibility of the child itself.
The physical and mental independent child that has its own selfless thinking and acting faculty can choose to continue believing or stop believing in certain belief and values, and continue practicing or stop practicing certain practice being passed down by the parents.
Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, Swami Sivananda and Ajahn Chah were great minds and great teachers that reflect the teachings or the dhamma as it is, simply by being what they were, by resting in correct understanding and unconditional peace, transcending the selfless impermanent modifications of the mind that has been rendered calm and clear, void of the idea of 'I', ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, while reflecting the teachings, the dhamma, or the truth by living in the teachings, the dhamma and the truth, and respecting the truth, cause and effect, or selflessness and impermanence, as it is, while at the same time, not being determined or disturbed by cause and effect or selfless impermanent changes of decay and disintegration of the selfless existence and function of the limited and conditional body and mind, and everything that the selfless mind perceived through the senses, and not by going against the truth, or trying to escape cause and effect or selfless impermanent changes of decay and disintegration or mortality, or trying to change the truth to be something else that it is not.
Respecting the truth of selflessness and impermanence doesn't mean that one doesn't, or couldn't, or shouldn't do anything to free the mind from ignorance and the consequences of ignorance, to have peace, to be free from perceiving and generating unnecessary suffering deriving from ignorance, to stop generating ignorant hurtful damaging behavior, action and reaction that hurt oneself and others and the surrounding environment during one's momentary selfless existence and function in the world of diversities that doesn't belong to anyone.
Just as under the presence of the knowledge about 'this is poisonous', the selfless mind can have the correct understanding and freewill of refraining from consuming this poison. That is nothing to do with not respecting or going against the truth. If not knowing 'this is poison', and somehow, one consumes this poison and is suffering the consequences of that, that is due to ignorance. If knowing 'this is poison', and still one consumes this poison, and hence, one is suffering the consequences of that, that is due to great ignorance.
Ignorance is conditional. Knowledge is conditional. Reasoning power is conditional. Thinking and belief is conditional. Will power is conditional. Behavior pattern is conditional. Action and consequences of action is conditional. The impermanent states of the mind is conditional. There are certain things that are limited, that cannot be changed, such as the truth of selflessness and impermanence in all and everything, or the past cannot be changed or undone, but anything else that is conditional, it can be modified, where the selfless mind can be free from many unnecessary ignorant behavior, action and reaction and the consequences of all that, by eradicating ignorance from itself, by itself.
No doubt that the selfless thinking faculty being one of the selfless functions of the selfless physical body cannot be existing or
functioning, if without the selfless support of the supportive elements and
energy, to be forming and powering its selfless impermanent existence or function, however,
it's not the responsibility of the supportive elements and energy towards the different conditional thinking and acting process of each and everyone of the many different selfless minds that are existing and functioning under these selfless support, where different minds have different belief and
disbelief and different values and practice, that are conditioning and influencing their different reasoning, different understanding, different intention, different desire, different decision making, different behavior, different action and reaction and inaction, not to say,
the different consequences of behavior, action and reaction and inaction, being generated by the different selfless
thinking minds themselves via the selfless organs of action and
expression/speech of their respective different selfless physical body.
It's the responsibility
of the selfless thinking faculty itself towards the entire thinking and
acting process, towards what or how it thinks, believes and disbelieves,
reasons, understands, intents, desires, decides, behaves, acts and reacts,
regardless of under the presence or absence of awareness and correct understanding, even when there's
no existence of 'I' existing in the selfless thinking and acting faculty, and even if the selfless
thinking faculty and/or the selfless physical body doesn't and cannot exist or function, if without being supported and powered by the supportive elements and
energy.
Just as a car doesn't exist, if without being supported
by the many different components (elements) that formed the entire
structure and the different functions/systems of the car, and it cannot function if without
being powered by certain type of fuel (energy), but how the driver (the
thinking and acting process of the selfless thinking faculty) drives the
car, either skillfully, thoughtfully and attentively, or not, and how the
driver makes use of the car under what intention or for what purpose (the
modifications or the states of the mind, the reasoning, the understanding, the
attentiveness, the effort, the decision, the intention, the desire, the behavior,
the action and reaction), it's not the responsibility of the different
components (elements) or the fuel (energy).
The selfless elements and energy can affect the functions, or the modifications, or the states of the mind, but the thinking and acting process of the selfless thinking faculty is at its own responsibility, just as the different components and the different types of fuel can affect the over-all efficiency of the many different cars, but, the driver is the one that
decides whether to go faster, or slower, or to stop, and to go left, or go right,
or go straight ahead, or make a U-turn, upon coming to a junction, or to maneuver the car in
certain way to avoid crashing into certain objects, or what is the destination that the driver want to go with the car.
Unless, in certain
exceptional cases, the car could be completely out of the control of the
driver, due to some unforeseen malfunctioning of certain components/functions/systems
of the car, just like when there is certain physical immobility due to certain deformity, or injury, or illness, or damage in the central nervous system, or the peripheral nervous system, or in certain physical structure or system. Or, when the selfless thinking faculty is totally lost
or insane, without any self-awareness, self-control, correct
understanding or sanity, either due to certain deformity, illness or
injury that is affecting the normal functions of the brains, or due to
deep rooted and empowered ignorance, where the thinking and acting process is either completely or partially dysfunction or corrupted. Similarly, a driver that is unfit to drive a car, or insane, or reckless, or under the influence of intoxicants while driving a car, might be causing lots of unnecessary damages to the car, or some other cars, or some other life forms, or some objects, or the surrounding environment.
Even the breakdown or malfunctioning of certain components or systems of the car, is not the intention of the selfless elements and energy for being what they are, being absence or presence, that is influencing the decaying process or the malfunctioning of the different components or systems, where the over-all condition of the car is very much depending on the car-user knowledge and driving skill of the driver, whether it's being over-used or under used, as well as the presence and absence of regular care and maintenance from the driver or the user.
And no matter how much care and maintenance is being shown upon the car by the driver or the user that is also impermanent, that won't be continuously looking after the car infinitely, and the car will eventually come to a point of stop functioning or stop existing, either before or after the driver or the user ceased functioning and ceased existing. Just as the over-all condition or well-being of the selfless physical body and the selfless thinking faculty can be enhanced and maintained as much as possible by the selfless thinking and acting process, but still, it will eventually come to a point of ceased functioning and ceased existing.
That's why it's the
responsibility of the selfless thinking faculty for all its thinking, belief and disbelief, values, practice, reasoning, understanding, decisions, intentions, desires, behaviors,
actions and reactions and the consequences of all that, even if all that
cannot be existing or happening if without being supported by the supportive selfless elements and
energy for it to be existing and functioning.
'The car driver' exists due to the existence of the car, or 'the car driver' doesn't need to be existing if the car is non-existing, and a car doesn't go anywhere or do anything if without being operating by 'the car driver', while the selfless thinking faculty doesn't exist if without the selfless existence and function of the selfless physical body, and the selfless physical body doesn't go anywhere or do anything if without the selfless function of the selfless thinking and acting faculty.
The same driver can be driving the car in different manners on different timing under the different states of the mind, while the same selfless thinking and acting faculty that is under the many different selfless impermanent states of the mind gives rise to different behaviors, actions and reactions in different timing via the selfless organs of action and expression/speech of the selfless physical body.
The only difference is that, the car can have many different drivers and the same driver can be driving many different cars in different timing because the driver is something completely separated from the car, while the selfless existence and function of the selfless physical body and the selfless thinking and acting faculty is non-separated.
It's always the same selfless thinking and acting faculty being part of the selfless functions of the same selfless physical body, even though the same selfless physical body is under going impermanent changes of growth, decay and aging impermanently, or under going ceaseless births and deaths that are happening within in the present moment now, where countless neurons, cells or atoms ceaselessly arising, changing and passing away (that's why it's never the same appearance and condition from moment to moment even though it's still the same physical body structure), while the same selfless thinking and acting faculty of the same selfless physical body is also under going ceaseless changes impermanently, of ceaseless births and deaths happening within the selfless modifications of the mind in the present moment now, where countless thoughts arising, changing and passing away, forming the different states of the mind, transitioning in different realms.
Those who have very obvious changes in between multiple personalities of very different behaviors or constantly swapping in between multiple identities in different timing, either shortly or prolongedly, which was being recognized by many people under different worldly egoistic ideas and beliefs as 'being possessed by different entities' (particularly happens when the energy level is extremely low or is imbalanced/hay-wired, where the different functions of the selfless thinking and acting faculty cannot function properly as they are), are merely because of the extremely weak will power/freewill during those moments of extremely low or imbalanced/hay-wired energy level, on top of the existing intense attachment and identification towards the different states of the mind, where the selfless thinking and acting faculty is being over-powered by the different collections of distorted and mixed up memories, arising and passing away in the selfless modifications of the mind, forming/manifesting/reflecting the different personalities and identities in different timing. These minds are merely lost and confused in the many different impermanent states of the mind under many distorted and mixed up memories arising and passing away due to certain short-term (low or imbalanced energy level/imbalanced diet or activity/illness/injury) or long-term (inherited genetic deformity/non-rehabilitate illness or injury) malfunctioning of the brains, where the selfless functions of the perceptive cognitive intellectual emotional thinking and acting faculty cannot function properly as what it should be.
No doubt that the energy level or the energy field is affecting or influencing the degrees of the will power or the modifications/states of the selfless mind, but the energy level/field is conditional, and hence, it can be modified, or be enhanced, or be balanced through engaging in certain influential practices under the awareness and effort of the selfless thinking and acting faculty. The selfless thinking and acting faculty has influencing power to be influencing the energy level/field in certain way, and hence, it can influence, or modify, or render the modifications/states of the mind in certain way. The selfless thinking and acting faculty can choose what type of inputs that feed the body and mind, unless there are no options. That's why the existence of all these yoga and/or meditation practice being available for the selfless thinking and acting faculty to do something about its own modifications/states of the mind.
Even the so called state of trance, or hypnotism, or half-conscious/unconscious/autonomous physical and mental activity, or out of the body experience, or mystical transcendental experience, is also part of the selfless impermanent manifestation within the selfless physical body and modifications of the mind under certain influential influences. They are merely some momentary side-effects induced by some influential factors. They are not the goal, or the accomplishment, or the end of yoga or meditation practice.
That's why both the teachings of yoga and buddhism emphasized strongly on non-grasping or non-attachment towards all kinds of states of the mind, going beyond all kinds of physical and mental experiences, allowing all perceptions of names and forms being there as they are, arising, changing, and passing away, as they are, without craving or aversion. As well as the high importance of mental and emotional independence, dispassion and renunciation, seclusion and solitude, of moving the mind away from worldly egoistic affairs, activities, ideas, beliefs, values and practice, to be purifying the mind efficiently. Whatever the minds recognized as all kinds of super extraordinary transcendental experiences are still part of the selfless modifications of the mind, it's nothing to do with self-realization, or the liberation from ignorance and suffering. Keep practicing until the total annihilation of the modifications of the mind where the thought activities subsided, or Samadhi, or Silence, takes place - Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodhah.
What the mind perceives through the senses might not be its own choice or freewill, but it can choose whether to react or not to react, and choose how and when it wants to react towards the perceived names and forms. The selfless function of the perception perceiving names and forms as they are, is limited, but the reaction towards the perceived names and forms, is conditional. The cognition, the intellect, the reasoning, the understanding, the mind behavior pattern, the intention, the desire, the decision making, the will power, the awareness, the clarity, the attentiveness, the effort, the behavior, action and reaction, and the consequences of all that, that are determining the states of the mind being what it is, are all conditional.
Upon there's an urge to pee or shit, the selfless thinking and acting faculty can have certain degrees of awareness and will power to hold the pee or shit for certain amount of time until it gets to a toilet. Unless there's certain malfunctioning of the system or disease where one just pees and shits itself anytime and anywhere, without any awareness or control at all.
Upon there's a thought of anger arising in the mind, the selfless thinking and acting faculty under the presence of correct understanding can have certain degrees of awareness and will power to be unattached towards the thought of anger, not feeding or empowering the thought of anger, allowing the thought of anger to be there, changing and passing away. It doesn't have to be over-powered by the thought of anger, and act or react under the influence of the thought of anger. Or, under the absence of correct understanding, the selfless thinking and acting faculty is being over-powered by the thought of anger, while under certain degrees of awareness and will power, continuously feeding or empowering the thought of anger to become a continuous stream of intensified anger that lasts longer in the modification of the mind, while acts or reacts under the influence of the continuous stream of intensified anger. That's why the degrees of the awareness and will power are neither good nor bad, but most important, is the presence or absence of correct understanding, or the absence or presence of ignorance.
Peace, or not, it's up to the mind. To let go, or not, it's up to the mind. To be angry and hating, or not, it's up to the mind. To do something about the presence of ignorance and suffering in the mind, or not, it's up to the mind. To move the hand away from hot burning object, or not, it's up to the mind. To live a healthy way of life, or not, it's up to the mind. To stop thinking, behaving, acting and reacting ignorantly, selfishly and hurtfully, or not, it's up to the mind. To accept the possibility and impossibility, or not, after trying one's best to do and achieve something, it's up to the mind. Even if the mind is existing and functioning selflessly and impermanently. Meanwhile, all its desires/intentions/decisions/actions that give rise to the consequences of desires/intentions/decisions/actions are inevitably affecting its own life existence and others and the surrounding environment in certain way, during its momentary selfless existence and function in this world that doesn't belong to anyone.
It's also the
responsibility of the selfless thinking faculty itself while it still
has certain degrees of awareness, freewill, correct understanding or
sanity, to be initiated and determined to free itself from the influence of ignorance,
egoism, impurities and restlessness, or not, to attain self-realization and transcending suffering, or not, before it's too late to be
doing anything about it.
Inquire the truth of everything.
Posts
