One of the important teachings and practice of yoga and/or buddhism, is about the mind be opened and initiative and vigilant to inquire or investigate the truth of everything that it comes in contact with, regardless of whether there's autonomous agreement or disagreement coming from the intellectual reasoning, analysis and judgment towards everything based on the existing conditional and limited family/cultural/social/spiritual/religious/educational/philosophical/political/commercial/traditional/new-age thinking, belief, values and practice in the mind under the influence of ignorance and egoism.
Before reaching complete openness, or absolute non-attachment and non-identification, the mind needs to develop certain degrees of openness, or non-attachment and non-identification in the mind towards the existing thinking and belief, values and practice in the mind that is being conditioned and influenced by all kind of inputs of information/ideas/sayings/teachings coming from parents, elders, care takers, relatives, teachers, friends, communities, reading materials, medias, educations, or everywhere and everyone that oneself comes in contact with, that it has been absorbing and accumulating from the beginning of its selfless impermanent existence until the present.
All minds have the freedom to agree or disagree, to accept or reject, or to blind-agreeing/accepting or blind-disagreeing/rejecting towards anything, although there are certain corrupted ambitious minds desire to be restricting, oppressing, regulating, manipulating or controlling other minds to be thinking, believing, desiring, behaving, acting and reacting in certain way that they desire, out of certain selfish intention and desire to be achieving their particular vision, ambition and aspiration. All minds also be responsible towards their own freedom of thinking, belief, desires, actions and reactions, and the consequences of their desires, actions and reactions based on their thinking and belief.
Many minds might think that they are free minds that are free to think and believe what they are thinking and believing, and living life in certain way that they want and desire, not knowing that they have been being conditioned or influenced to be thinking and believing in such way, and desiring to live life in certain way, that mainly to be supporting and accomplishing the selfish desire of certain ambitious minds to create a world the way that they desire which benefits them selfishly.
Swami Sivananda and many other teachers from the past had been repeatedly advising the students/practitioners of yoga and/or buddhism to stay away from TV watching, radio listening, movie watching, theater visiting, books, magazines and newspapers reading, advertisements, politics, different type of groups/associations/organizations, (and in the modern era of higher technology now, many kind of social media platforms, which is nothing but the platforms for certain greedy ambitious minds to achieve their endless desires and aspirations), and etc. And hence, the high importance of renunciation, seclusion and solitude for a prolonged period of time for the practitioners in the path of yoga and/or buddhism, until the mind developed a strong foundation in correct understanding, dispassion, non-attachment and non-identification. Or else, it's very difficult for the mind to perform self-inquiry for attaining self-realization.
There's neither right nor wrong, even though the mind can be generating ceaseless unnecessary suffering to oneself and others and into the surrounding environment, either wittingly or unwittingly, if the mind is being ignorant towards ignorance, and ceaselessly thinking, believing, agreeing, disagreeing, acting and reacting under the influence of ignorance and egoism empowered by the many existing ignorant egoistic corrupted ambitious minds in the world.
Self-inquiry and self-realization is beyond skepticism, blind-disagreement, denial, or rejection towards everything.
Neither blind-agreement of accepting and agreeing with everything nor blind-disagreement of denying and disagreeing with everything without direct profound investigation or inquiry can lead the mind towards self-realization, or liberation from ignorance and the by-products of ignorance.
Blind-agreement is more dangerous than blind-disagreement. For the mind that has doubt, that is being aware of itself doesn't really know the truth of something, then, it's better to be blind-disagreeing/rejecting than to be blind-agreeing with/accepting that which it doesn't know for sure, however, this doesn't and cannot free the mind from ignorance.
Most minds merely agree or disagree towards everything that it comes in contact with, based on the particular existing thinking, belief, values and practice in the mind, but don't have the initiation to be investigating or inquiring further towards the truth of what it agrees or disagrees with. This is because the mind thinks and believes that, "There's absolutely nothing wrong or incorrect with my thinking and belief, that sets as the guidelines for me to reason and judge towards everything, where what I judge as right, is right, and what I judge as wrong, is wrong," while being strongly disagreeing with "Anything that is different from my understanding and judgment based on my thinking and belief." And hence, "Why do I need to question towards my thinking and belief that is all right and nothing wrong?"
Yoga and buddhism practitioners need to know how to go beyond the autonomous agreements and disagreements that arise and exist in the mind, void of blind-agreement and blind-disagreement, where it doesn't need to accept or reject anything, while perceiving or witnessing everything being there, arising, changing, and passing away, but at the same time, be initiative to be making an effort to inquire and investigate towards the truth of everything under an open mind, including all the teachings and practice of yoga and buddhism, as well as what is here, without being influenced by the existing thinking and belief, values and practice in the mind.
It's seeing/witnessing/contemplating the truth of selflessness and impermanence in all kind of names and forms that the mind perceives through the senses, including the function and existence of the modification of the mind itself, that which is also seeing/witnessing/contemplating itself as it is, which is selfless and impermanent.
Such as through the selfless function of the sense organ of eyes/the sense of seeing, the selfless impermanent mind perceives and investigates what it sees (all kind of selfless and impermanent names and forms), as well as perceiving and investigating the existence and function of the sense organ of eyes/the sense of seeing themselves, as well as the perceptive mind itself that perceives and investigates. Both subject and object are selfless and impermanent. The knife that cuts an object and the object that is being cut by the knife, and the one who uses the knife to cut an object, as well as the elements that enable all that to be existing and happening, are all selfless and impermanent.
The great difficulty on the path of self-realization towards selflessness is that, even when the intellectual reasoning mind says, "I think I understand that," but not really, if the thinking mind is still being restless and perceiving all kind of suffering, being determined by all kind of names and forms that it perceives through the senses, as it still doesn't know how to be unattached and non-identifying towards the existence and function of the body and mind as well as the modifications of the mind, and it's still being over-powered by the passionate desire of craving and aversion, due to the deep rooted veil of ignorance. That's why even the highly intelligent, talented, skillful and knowledgeable minds/scientists/engineers/scholars/researchers/philosophers/inventors are not necessarily be free from disturbs, hurts, unhappiness, disappointment, dissatisfaction, fear, worry, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, meaninglessness, restlessness, painful sorrow and suffering, if the mind is not free from ignorance and egoism. There's neither good nor bad.
There's no "I realized selflessness," or "I understand," or "I am selfless," upon the realization of selflessness, upon the annihilation of the idea of 'I'. Such minds are not moved or disturbed by anything. And it's nothing extraordinary. It's just what things are.
There's neither "I want to be good. I want you to be good. I want life to be good. I want the world to be good. I want everyone to be good." The 'good and positive' minds that propagate 'goodness and positive thinking' in the world, that want to influence and change everything to be all good and positive, might disagree with this, and think, "This is so negative." That's their freedom of thinking and understanding.
Realize this, and be free.
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