"Borrowed" Wisdom...

True knowledge or wisdom is coming from within our Self, our very own realization of the truth of names and forms as it is. “Knowledge” or “wisdom” that is “borrowed” from reading and hearing, is a good guideline for us to strive to realize the real wisdom within us. But it will turn into pride and arrogance if we try to use the “borrowed” wisdom to “teach” or “criticize” other people.

There is no idea of criticism or the sense of superiority in the one who had developed insight and realized the wisdom from within.

When we (the mind) know the truth of impermanence and selflessness, there is no need of justification, or debate, or criticism towards the “opposition”, because there is no opposition in non-duality.

Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.

Form is not different from emptiness. Emptiness is not different from form.

The body and mind (the worldly life existence) is bound by names and forms, birth and death, cause and effect, action and reaction, duality, the law of nature and impermanence. As long as we (the mind) are still identifying with the body and the mind, thinking that we are “this” and we are “that”, then we are still bound by all these names and forms, actions and inactions, and cause and effect.

But the selfless nature of everything (the silent witness towards the modification of the mind) is not contaminated, or affected, or determined by all these names and forms that sprung from the mind, perceived by the mind and dissolved in the mind.

Without the mind, there is no perception, no names, no forms, no duality, no birth, no death, no good, no bad, no craving, no aversion, no likes, no dislikes, no action, no reaction, no colours, no shapes, no sounds, no smells, no tastes, no touch, no thinking, no thoughts, no feelings, no sensations, no existence, no non-existence, no past, no future, no time, no space, no causation, no “you”, no “I”, no karma, no impermanence, no happiness, no suffering, no body, no life, no world, no beginning, no ending.

Realize this, and be free. Truly free.

This freedom is not the impermanent conditioned and limited freedom for us to be able to do whatever that we want to do, or be able to control everything to be the way that we want it to be, and to go wherever that we want to go. It is beyond the impermanent ability and condition of this body, this mind, this life existence, beyond this world of limited and conditioned names and forms.

Mind doesn’t really exist. Without thought waves, there is no mind. It’s the ceaseless modification of the mind that generates the idea of the mind, or what the mind thinks and believes and identifies as “I”.

The existence of the mind is due to the unceasing continuous flow of thought waves or thought currents (impurities and duality deriving from the attachment/identification towards the perception of names and forms through the sense, the actions and reactions, the judgment, the desires of craving and aversion and expectation).

The moment when the thought waves are subsided, that’s where we (the mind) will have a glimpse at the selfless nature of everything (nameless, formless, attribute-less, non-separateness, birthless, deathless, neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, all full, whole, content, bliss).

All the yoga practice and meditation (non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, non-expectation, self-control, letting go the ego, desire-less, dispassion, discrimination of real and unreal, selflessness, compassion, purity, equanimous, calmness, and etc) are there to purify the mind, calming the mind and stilling the thought activities in the mind. So that we (the mind) can have a glimpse at the selfless nature of everything (selflessness, oneness, non-separateness, namelessness, formlessness, attributelessness, changelessness, birthlessness and deathlessness) and realize the truth of everything as it is.

It’s like the mirror. The mirror constantly, selflessly, unwittingly reflecting the images of everything in front of it. But the mirror doesn’t see itself, unless it’s being reflected through another reflector in front of it. The mirror doesn’t associate, or attach, or identify towards all the reflections being reflected on it. The mirror isn’t being changed, or contaminated, or affected, or influenced, or determined by all the reflections of different names and forms being reflected on it. The mirror doesn’t change, or contaminate, or affect, or influence, or determine all those names and forms being what they are, even though the reflections of those names and forms on the mirror might be distorted or blurred due to some defects on the mirror.

The practice of self-inquiry and meditation act as a tool same as another reflector to reflect upon the mind itself, to allow the mind to see itself, or know Thyself.

The mind is like the mirror itself. Selfless and non-discriminative. The mirror doesn’t discriminate any names and forms being reflected upon it. The projector screen also doesn’t discriminate any images being projected upon it. The nature of the mind doesn’t discriminate anything. ‘Discrimination’ exists in the mind deriving from the idea of “I”, or the ego, born out of ignorance.

Both the mirror and all the names and forms that are being reflected on the mirror are impermanent and selfless. The mind is the projector screen that reflects all the images of names and forms being projected by the modification of the mind itself. Both the mind (the projector screen) and all the modifications of the mind (the projected images) are impermanent and selfless. The projector screen is just what it is and doesn’t exist, not even being ‘a projector screen’ when there’s nothing that is being projected.

It’s the ego, or the idea of “I”, born out of ignorance in the mind that generates discrimination, attachment, identification, desires, craving and aversion, judgment, expectation, actions and reactions, and perceives ‘good and bad’, ‘right and wrong’, ‘positive and negative’, ‘likes and dislikes’, ‘agreements and disagreements’, ‘happiness and unhappiness’, ‘satisfaction and dissatisfaction’, ‘pleased and displeased’, ‘acknowledged and unacknowledged’, ‘praised and condemned’, ‘respected and disrespected’, ‘glorified and belittled’, ‘meaningfulness and meaninglessness’, ‘joy and sorrow’, ‘enjoyment and suffering’, and so on.

If we (the mind) are constantly being busy with the mind activities (the ceaseless perception of names and forms, attachments, identifications, passion, desires, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison, expectation and all sorts of emotions and feelings, actions and reactions), then it is very difficult for us (the mind) to get closer to the truth. The mind can’t see it even though the truth is always there as it is.

But never give up. Keep practicing non-attachment and letting go. Until the mind is just the mind, selflessly and impermanently reflecting the selfless mind perception of selfless names and forms. It is no longer determining the delusive existence of the non-existing "I", of what the mind thinks and identifies as who we are, what we are and how we are. The impermanent condition of the body and the mind as well as the mind perception of names and forms cannot contaminate, or determine, or affect, or change the birthless and deathless universal consciousness beyond the restless impure modification of the mind. No fear, no worry.