This Delusion of Separation is a 3-D System (Ashtavakra Gita 8.1-8.4) - 9th November 2016

That is why the sage Ashtavakra says in Chapter 8, Verse 1: 'When the mind desires or grieves things, accepts or rejects things, is pleased or displeased by things—this is bondage.' The delusion of separation is actually a folding system. It's a folding system for the delusion of separation. The mind uses three things: desire, doership, and duality. Desire is: 'What's in it for me? What's in it for me?' Doership is: 'What should I do?' or 'What should the other have done?' These times, the relationship is so much doership. 'What did everyone do? How could they do such a thing?' So, desire, doership, and duality. Duality is the sense of separation, meaning another, constantly telling us the story of duality of separation. Which is this: desire—'What's in it for me? What's in it for me?'—used with doership, pretending as if this appearance of the body is in some way with this appearance of energies or thoughts. And it is neither. Assumably, a body-mind complex out of these energies can presume that it has some individual personal free will and doership. So that is dancing now. The body is just dancing on its own. These thoughts are just dancing on their own. But it's clear that these thoughts are telling us that this one unit called 'me' is doing or not doing. And there is a set of these units; we set up individual 'me's everywhere which are deciding to do this or not do this. This doership is basically the idea that there is an individual to go on, and this relies on this concept of duality. All of the desire relies on this idea of duality: there is a 'me' and there is another as 'me' in the world.

Then we accept that everything is God. When you say everything is God, God is doing everything, very quickly the next question is: 'But why is He doing this to me?' If God is doing everything, there is no 'me'. The doer is the one, the experiencer is the one; both cannot be two. So this way, we roll about between desire, doership, and duality, and seem to get caught up in this delusion of personhood. So what does the sage say? He says: 'When the mind desires or grieves things.' He's talking about saying that something should be 'mine'. When the mind is taken away, then you can suffer because of that. It was 'mine', now it is not there. The sense of desire and the manifestation of a seeming loss—the suffering because of it—is the trick of the mind.

Then he says: 'Accepts or rejects things.' What does this mean? The rejection is clear: 'I have an aversion to something. This should not come in my appearance. Only these things should come.' And life shows that that which you try to avoid, that keeps showing up. That is a test of our opinions. Or we can say: 'Look at this, I want only more of this. Every day should be like this.' We feel like we can create a plan about how life should appear for us. So when the mind desires or grieves things, accepts or rejects things, is pleased or displeased by things, this is bondage. Why? Because it relies on the presumption that the story of the mind is true—that there is a separate 'me' that is a victim to this world, has some separate control over this world, that is an individual experiencer of this world. Because we accept this premise of the mind, we are slaves to something. And it must be this way. It must be this way because if the lie did not even lead to suffering, then you would just lie all the time. If this lie that there is separation could happen and you could just believe this lie, there would be no suffering as a result of it, and it can seem like the play can go on for much longer. So suffering is God's own alarm clock which God has set to wake us up and see what is real. What are we still attached to? What delusion of control are we still believing?

So when the mind desires or grieves things, accepts or rejects things, is pleased or displeased by things, that is bondage. But when the mind does not desire or grieve, accept or reject, become pleased or displeased, liberation is at hand. This is the openness that we've been talking about. What is, just is. It is not good, it is not bad; it just is. So the Buddha said that everything is perfect, and in this you are free. He did not mean that everything is perfect even phenomenally; he just meant that everything is just what it is. If you are open, then we are not bound, then we are not pretending. And if you are open, naturally you will see that all of this appearance is a play in your own light. Your own life as consciousness is telling you that you want to die; you have to hold on to some independence. But this is not where the truth is leading you. The truth is pointing you to your pristine existence, your pristine reality. And as the dissolution of this 'me' will happen more and more, you will see for yourself that there is nothing to be scared of. If you let go of this branch of the 'me', if you let go of this identity, you fly. Not even fly—you see that everything is contained within you. Therefore, what to do? Just let go. How to let go? Just remain open. Allow everything to move on its own. How to resist? How not to open? It is only to go with your thoughts.

If the mind is attached to any experience, this is bondage. So we looked at this: 'We want only this. This should be my appearance, or should appear to me. It should be just like this.' We feel like 'I' can decide. When the mind is detached from all experience, this is liberation. Can it be as simple as this? The mind is detached from all experience. You can say: 'When all experience ceases to happen?' No, experiences can still come and go, and if you are not desiring or becoming averse to them, then when you are not becoming averse to anything, nor are you saying 'I want only this,' this simple openness is liberation.