Marcus Stegmaier, M.A. Published on www.nevernothere.com USA 26th June 2010 |
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“Listen to the Master, and to your mind!”
The ego has a certain meaning for every word it uses. Love, Happiness, God... every word has a meaning which is based on the assumption that man were a separate individual being the thinker, speaker and doer. And the ego‘s language is furthermore based on the false belief that the world, man and mind were real entities in life. Language is dual by its very nature and this duality is taken to be real by the mind whereas the enlightened Master understands it to be illusory.
The Master has to “use” the same language to communicate with the listener for there is no non-dual language available in an illusory world consisting of dual thoughts. A deep connection between the listener and the Master is needed to avoid misunderstandings on the level of language. If the connection is lacking the Master’s words are bound to be perceived as intellectual concepts only, and this superficial understanding leads to even more illusory confusion instead of a spontaneous revelation of real Clarity.
The Master uses words by giving them a different meaning than the ego. He uses them to explain why the world of thoughts man takes to be real is in fact illusory. This is not an act done by a real man called a Master, it is how life manifests the illusion of a Master to make the illusory individual understand the illusoriness of the mind, man and the world. Only the illusory could be understood, not the real. If the illusory is understood to be illusory, the real reveals itself - as its illusory reflection.
For example, the word Happiness means to the ego a feeling which is the opposite of Un-Happiness. For the Master Happiness means: to be free of the thought of Happiness and the thought of Un-Happiness. This means that the ego‘s belief to be able to make itself happy and to avoid Un-Happiness is seen through as illusory because man is not the doer, speaker and thinker. If man were the thinker, he would never allow an unhappy thought to appear. This is proof enough that man is not the thinker.
However, being free OF thoughts does not mean that they cease to appear, the mind is always present as long as man is alive, but the mind is perceived as just sound instead of real words with real meanings. Then the mind has lost its power to appear real forever. So enlightenment is not about being free FROM thoughts, and the attempt to get rid of thoughts is just as illusory as every other apparent deed, just another thought which is nothing but sound.
The communication between the Master and the listener functions through a redefinition of the ego‘s meanings in a manner which reveals the illusoriness of duality projected through language as the mind. In fact the mind is nothing but thoughts, as is the ego. Thoughts are sound which appear as words with meanings, in short: language.
Therefore the understanding of the illusoriness of the mind is based on the redefinition of language through a real Master. This leads to more awareness in daily life about how Life makes the mind appear real, because man becomes more and more aware that the ego “(mis-)uses” language to maintain the illusory world as real, and this is the function of the ego, albeit illusory.
For example the word Love normally doesn‘t mean unconditional Love. Love for the mind has to do with expectations about what the other should or should not do, speak or think. The ego is conditioned by this belief. If the Master explains this deception and the real meaning of the word Love is understood, even though it may just be intellectual in the beginning, in daily life the word “Love” becomes a powerful reminder for man to be aware of what Love is not, meaning: that real Love has nothing to do with expectations, because man is not the doer, speaker and thinker.
The function of the mind, that the Love of the ego is just minimal hate and hate is just minimal love, becomes more obvious in daily life, if it happens that the listener becomes aware of the meaning the Master has given the word by redefining it. On the other hand, for someone who is not used to the redefinitions of the Master‘s words it could be very confusing in the beginning because to the listener‘s mind the Master‘s words appear to be used wrong.
For example if the Master talks about Wisdom, it might not be clear what is meant. Wisdom is one of the many words which are misused by the ego for which it means for example “wise actions, words or thoughts done by a clever mind” or “knowledge which leads to wise actions”. In the scriptures of the mystic traditions Wisdom of course does not mean that. If the Master uses this word, the listener‘s mind just understands its own conditioned meaning.
And if for example the mind has learned that enlightenment has nothing to do with being wise and is not aware of the redefinition of Wisdom the Master shares to point out, it will not even listen to this Master because he talks about Wisdom and Wisdom is assumed to be “NOT IT”. But just because certain mystic keywords are misunderstood by the ego they should not be discarded! Instead of dismissing them, the original meaning has to be redefined so that a deeper understanding of the mystic scriptures may happen to man.
If the listener is open to this process of re-establishing the mystic keywords through apparent redefinition without clinging to its own knowledge and beliefs about what a certain word means, an understanding could happen which leads to Wisdom instead of remaining just superficial knowledge.
And because every Master has his own way of defining words it is helpful to listen patiently for a while to every Master instead of just listening to the interpretations of one‘s own mind, wherein the danger of misunderstanding is contained: If the Master‘s words fit with the meanings given by one‘s own mind and if it strengthens one‘s own concepts and beliefs they are well adopted and the Master appears “wise” to the ego. What is not understood or what seems to be contradictory to the ego‘s beliefs is just ignored, and this is the normal function of the mind.
However, this is a just a superficial, intellectual understanding and prevents a deeper understanding from happening, because in this case the mind just listens to itself instead of listening to the Master AND to itself in order to understand the differences of understanding and therewith growing into the Master‘s timeless understanding instead of remaining superficially in its own belief-system which is based on the ego‘s use of language.
So words could be used and understood to strengthen the belief that the world, man and mind were real, and on the other hand they could be used and understood as an antidote against the conditioned mind to reveal their own illusoriness. The words of the Master invite their own demise. The Master‘s words are as illusory as the ego‘s words and yet they reveal that the mind, man and the words are illusory, what a miracle!
After a deep, timeless understanding of the illusoriness of the mind has happened, words are of course not needed to live life as it is instead of taking the mind’s beliefs about “how my life should be” for real. So meeting a Master, the listener should be totally open for the Master's use of language and not just listen to his own beliefs about it. The listener who is willing to really understand - if it happens to him! - will always try to find out what the Master really means with his words instead of believing to have understood him somehow.
Of course the ego will often feel “corrected” by the Master about how it “should” use and understand language, but the Master is not interested in correcting anybody but shares an understanding of Life which is much deeper than the understanding of the conditioned mind.
After a while the listener will notice - if it happens - that the redefined meaning of the Master’s words like Understanding, Wisdom, Love, Happiness or God are much more adequate to describe the illusory world as it really is than the ego‘s conditioned beliefs about the meanings of words.
Listen to the Master AND to your mind, not only to your mind!
© Copyright 2010 Marcus Stegmaier, M.A.
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