Mountain Wisdom

The Amazing Grace of STOP!
By Kosi

The animal instinct to fight back, attack, and destroy is an aspect of the genetic mind that is perhaps the greatest nemesis of your natural happiness. This powerful movement of the genetic mind is based on primitive ideas of right and wrong or good and evil. It lives in the dualistic perspective of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ or one perspective versus another. Just take one small glimpse of the horrifying images of human suffering unfolding every day in the news and you can see for yourself the heartbreaking consequences of this primitive aspect of human consciousness. In fact, the Neanderthal perspective of the genetic mind is the great nemesis of the entire world—one that threatens the total extinction of the human race.

Whatever you perceive is filtered through your mind and five senses. The filter of your body and mind generates a kind of invisible fog or veil. In other words, your perception is not just clouded by what you think, but also by what you feel as well as your mind’s lightning fast ability to imagine, remember, and project based on your past experiences and cultural conditioning. Due to this thick multisensory fog you are not seeing what is actually occurring. The extremely strong impulse to react emerges from this biological fog of perception. In other words, what you perceive is not clear in the mundane or relative sense and totally blind to your natural joy and peace alive in your heart in the absolute sense.

Naturally, from the perspective of ego, your perspective is right and the other person's perspective is not just wrong—it is totally idiotic. Sound familiar?! This powerful movement of mind to judge and attack someone else shows up in obvious ways as a fight or conflict on a personal level, or a micro-scale, and also on the national or international level, or macro-scale. But this powerful movement of mind does not always show up as an outer conflict—it can be very stealth or subtle. It is not uncommon to look as cool as a cucumber on the outside, while an epic battle is raging inside as you plot your revenge in the hidden recesses of your mind. 

Any time you follow the powerful movements of mind outward toward the world you are caught in one of the greatest tricks of your ego and genetic mind. After all, you must fight to protect whatever you perceive is your turf or protect your perspective—right? This is the collective human agreement—you must fight, not only to protect yourself, but also to prove you are right and the other person is wrong. The movement of your mind to justify, scheme, judge, and attack is the supreme illusion generated by your own mind and deep feeling that you are your body.

The root of all this insanity is the genetic mind and ego—the origin of all human suffering. The ego is not bad or wrong—it is simply performing its biological function of survival, but if you want to directly experience the lasting happiness of your being, it is essential to break free of this powerful aspect of the genetic mind to react and all of the negative consequences this movement generates.  The natural question is; How? The answer lives in a single word: STOP! 

If you look at a mountain it is absolutely still. Just in a single day it is faced with violent changes—covered by fog in the morning, clouds in the afternoon, pelted by rain, snow, and ice in the evening, and yet it remains perfectly still. To be the freedom you already are, you must realize on a deep level that you are the mountain—one who remains still in the midst of what can be a very strong impulse to react.

Mind your own business, pay very close attention to what is unfolding inside of you, and stop thinking and reacting to whatever everyone else around you is thinking and reacting to—and more importantly you must stop reacting to whatever you are thinking and feeling. You really have to stop. You have to stop fixing yourself, your circumstances, and other people in your life. Whatever anyone is doing is their prarabdha karma—destiny of the body. Is the prarabdha karma—whatever someone else is doing or not doing—really any of your business? Don't play God—be still!

Stillness is not at all easy in the midst of these powerful movements, but you have decide what is more important—do you want to be free or do you want to endlessly struggle, fight, and judge? If you keep following the movements of your mind, you will be happy for a moment and then angry, frustrated, and sad for days on end—is this what you really want for your life? It has to be a firm decision—a bone breaking strong decision—to stop and discover the eternal spring of freedom, happiness, and peace alive in your own heart

Stillness is the holiest blaze of self-inquiry—a raging sacred fire. It is essential to burn unflinchingly in this sacred blaze. Lasting happiness requires that you don’t move past the tip of your nose. If the impulse arises to move—stop and burn in the impulse, but do not react. No matter how strong the impulse is or how clear your justification—STOP—DO NOT REACT. Be still and give your full attention to the source of the feeling ‘me’ inside of you—discover directly what is always still and always at sublimely happy. This burn of stop is the fiery path of self-inquiry.

Forget the mind and its endless justifications and reasons why you are right—forget it! Nobody gives a damn what you think and whatever you think today will change tomorrow. Even if you are right—who really cares except you? Stop messing around in the mess of your mind and mind your own business! This might sound harsh, but this is the sacred gift of stillness—it contains the great invisible power to set you free—FOREVER! What are you choosing?!

If you want to be fully self-realized the only job you have is to stop, be still, be quiet, and find the source of the deep feeling of ‘me’ inside of you and give your attention to That! Allow your body do whatever it came here to do, but do not allow the karmic destiny of your body to distract you from the eternal salvation alive in your Heart.

It is that simple and that difficult. Mountain wisdom is stillness, as stillness, the omniscience alive in your own heart. The great challenge is to be still in the midst of the furious current of life. Eventually, this fire of grace will remove the veil of ignorance that clouds your perception—the dawn of the clear awareness.

If something or someone triggers a reaction in you—do absolutely nothing—simply stop thinking. Really, you most stop to simply be. Don’t move past the tip of your nose. Wait and see. 

Be the omniscient mountain that you are and eternally will be—this is the amazing grace of STOP.

Tat Sat
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