Mindfulness

சளத்திற் பிணிபட் டசட்டுக் ரியைக்குட் டவிக்குமென்ற

னுளத்திற் ப்ரமத்தைத் தவிர்ப்பா யவுண ருரத்துதிரக்

குளத்திற் குதித்துக் குளித்துக் களித்துக் குடித்துவெற்றிக்

களத்திற் செருக்கிக் கழுதாட வேல்தொட்ட காவலனே.

We are caught in pain and pleasure, and we are bound to action and its fruits by our sense of identity, by the trust we place in the reality of a world that lies outside consciousness.

This world is supposed to be an illusion. Whether objects exists as themselves or they are not seen to be what they are, but projected in the image of our biases, is a question for which there can be no answer unless one meditates and finds out for oneself.

But however, it is obvious that there is some psychological distortion in our perception. It can even be claimed that the brain itself, in encoding and decoding information, and projecting a three-dimensional world in which the knowledge of such process is absent, indulges in distortion, and the faith in the veracity of projected image is an illusion.

However it may be, we can accept that our sense of being, our sense of presence, is in essence, wholesome and unfragmented in the absence of thought. To vest divisive thought with reality over the evidence of the unfragmented nature underlying consciousness, is nothing but delusion.

I think the least we can accept is that consciousness is non-dual in nature, and we are that.

The feeble minded, through imagination, find multiple objects in the empty sky. Likewise is the effects of Maya, which imposes many names and forms on the whole, unfragmented Atman. ( Guru vachaka kovai, 541)

Liberation from illusion is not achieved by copping out of all actions, because activity is inevitable concomitant of existence. Instead true liberation consists in the knowledge that Consciousness is whole and activities do not pertain to it. It is by identifying ourselves with our activities, that we open ourselves to their effects.

Rather, we should be mindful of our true nature, the existence that precedes and underlies all names and forms, and is unaffected by pain and pleasure.

Whether they be evil deeds or noble, they but yield pleasure and pain as they should. With the mind suffused in the knowledge of your true form, overcome the rampant powers of cause and effect. (Guru Vachaka Kovai, 693)