Question: Sir, While watching thoughts occuring in the mind even if the thoughts cease the emotions caused may remain . So we start watching the emotions. When we are depressed the sad thoughts occurring in the mind can be easily watched. We don't get identified with the thoughts . But in the case of thoughts connected with happiness we get identified with it soon and we fail to watch the thought . Is it because of our desire for happiness that we get identified with the thought ? That is one question.
The second question is...If that is so., Are sad or depressing thoughts more helpful in knowing oneself?
Krishnan Kartha: As you have realized our interest in pleasure is the reason for us to get identified with those thoughts. We have fear in the other case. We don't like misery. It is a lifeless state. We classify life as the period of pleasure and death as a period of pain. When we are in great misery we yearn for life because life is a great pleasure . We have gained this body with great pain which is the reason for our immense attachment to life. Nobody can be blamed for that. Now why has this body been gained with so much difficulty? This is because the attaining of life itself is a pleasure.
There was a free wandering state before that with no bondage . There was the possibility of travelling forward and backward of time. Space and land are limitless. But a pleasure not attained in any of these states is there in life. A big price is paid for this. You should understand this. It is in this context that I said body is a pleasure and a bodiless state is pain.
Now please don't come up with the idea that death is a pleasure. I don't mean Syam. Someone may come up with such an idea. One who has experienced death. Is it clear?
There is a story of a king who went to a Zen master. He asked the master what happens after death.? Guru said "I don't know" But people say you are a great guru . The guru replies "But not a dead one".
Similarly someone with an awareness of death may argue.
Hence what will be the affinity of the mind while in a body ? It will be for pleasure. Not for pain. The main concern of the mind will be its perpetuality.
Mind, Intellect, Ego, consciousness - All these function to remain in the body- So in order to drive the body active, the mind will always welcome favourable thoughts'
If a person enters the Palace of a king or the residence of the president with a bouquet of flowers he will be welcomed but if I carry a bomb I will not be let in.
The case of the mind is similar. Mind does not show interest in inviting unnecessary thoughts and being miserable. Hence to have an affirmative attitude for life it is essential to be always happy .We deny pleasure and welcome pain.
The purpose is not b negate pain in life , Pain has a purpose of its own.
But life will become miserable if we encourage misery taking it to be better for us. Persisting disappointment may lead one to suicide . what will be the outcome then? There will be no further opportunity to negate misery. When there is a body it is easy to negate it. Once it is lost what is left to negate?
so, what is it that pushes the negation of body . It is the misery caused by the dejection in life. Mind never likes that misery.
So the innate quality of the mind to be happy, the capacity of the mind intellect and ego to welcome happy thoughts are lost due to the chemical actions in the brain due to the continuous sad state of mind, Even when the ability to accept is lost we develop a tendency to accept things as such. Misery recurs leading to depression
Syam: My doubt is why is it easy to watch thoughts while in a sad state ?
Krishnan Kartha: Yes I am coming to that. It should be explained from the basic level. This was the answer to the first question. You wanted to know the reason behind the tendency to welcome sad thoughts.
If a tooth is lost casually
In my case since I am 56 yrs old this will not be an issue
But if Syam loses a tooth there will be a concern since he is young. You may try to find the cause .
Similarly the basic nature of mind is to accept happiness. Only such an awareness will help us escape the vagaries mind .
Now for the second point.
You talked about watching and awareness. This is a trick played by the mind. Labels such as Inquiry consciousness Truth etc are highlighted. Mind will advocate some thoughts as ideal . Mind is very tricky. Realize that.
This is a drama for curtailing the journey to truth. Hence to stop the journey the mind will give the impression that pain is more suited in the path of self inquiry .
This is similar to the situation where criminals side track the enquiry by destroying valid proofs. We come across such instances in crime reports
ultimately one gets trapped in misery ending in death the eternal misery.
The Semitic religions refer to this as Satan.
Hence the prophet has included the line "Audu Billahi mina Shaitwani Rahim" which means that "Let not Satan prompt me into wrong paths . This is not included in Quran.
why this is changed maybe because even while reading a holy book we might be sidetracked.. who is behind this? The inner Satan. The Satan remains only till God is illumined. The continuous
presence that we experience
is that of Satan .our present discussion is not about the existence of God or Satan. We need not go in to that. What is meant here is the wrong inner prompting.
what is essence of prayers in India It is | Let there be a prompting .Let every one be prompted .
so ,prompting is important
That is the important fact.
The feeling that these thoughts generate awareness is wrong . Pain always relieves no doubt about it.
But this has to be comprehended in another dimension. Not this way
Just as Syam said misery gives us the ability to watch mind and create awareness
When we say this what should be realized is,
A metal detector is placed in a temple or a Gurudwara. Why is this? It is to watch people who may come to attack, But do they come as attackers. They come as devotees. They come as devotees. The the same way the mind has the power to generate ways to induce many thoughts in the mind in the form of so called good thoughts , These are just projections of the mind. Hence mind has to be watched with caution, otherwise it may choose wrong paths
I told earlier that pain relieves whereas pleasure binds . There is another dimension to this .we should not try to run away from pain. We should reach a state of mind where there is no abstaining from pain. A state where the mind does not go into depression. This should be developed through consciousness. Then the mind can travel through any misery and come back.
So when the character of Sri Rama is portrayed as sad or distressed it is due to their own decision to travel through it. They don't try to escape. They face it. They can easily climb back.
Hence what I have to say is that man should develop this quality and attain a blemish less character.