Muddy Mind And Pure Consciousness

Wednesday, May 26, 2010, 14:58 [IST]
Muddy Mind And Pure Consciousness
A beautiful Buddhist story illustrates the state of pure consciousness.

Buddha was once on His way to deliver a sermon in a village with His disciple Ananda. On their way, they crossed over a small canal and proceeded further. It was a hot day and the sun was blazing. Buddha felt thirsty and rested under a tree.

He asked Ananda to get Him some water to quench His thirst from the canal that they had just crossed. In the meantime, a bullock cart had crossed the canal making the water muddy.

Ananda on finding the water muddy returned back to Buddha saying that the water was not clean.
Buddha insisted Ananda to wait for sometime until the water becomes clean and then fetch some to quench His thirst.

So when Ananda went back he still found the water not good enough to drink. He waited for a while and went into meditation.

After his meditation, Ananda was surprised to find the mud settled and the crystal clear water fit to be drunk.
Osho says that same is the case with our minds too. Thoughts are like the mud which pollutes the consciousness. Our consciousness gets cleared the moment we cease paying attention to thoughts, cooperating with them, analysing them and bothering them. It is only then that silence descends in pure consciousness.
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Emmanuel Karavousanos 27 May 2010 12:58 pm
The above example from Buddha is why it is necessary to analyze the ongoing thinking so that awakening, insight, a realization can take place which in western terms is the mystical experience -- the onset of the mystical state -- enlightenment! What is the basis? It is in Hegel, Whitehead, Shaw, Gibran, Huxley and several others. Hegel, for example writes, "Because it's familiar, a thing remains unknown." Whitehead writes, "Familiar things happen and mankind does not bother about them. It...
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