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Mind
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE NOTION that we may exist beyond mind— that the mind, in fact, may be an obstacle to liberation, or cosmic awareness, is usually mistakenly seen by psychiatrists as a suppression, repression or denial of our basic identity, as being a nihilistic and self-destructive attitude. But the process of detachment, by which we transcend mind, is different from repression or denial, an important point, which I discussed in my
first book.1
Let’s look at spirituality’s attitude and approach to mind through
the teachings of Sai Baba, in order to gain a deeper appreciation of mind’s limitation.
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The study of the mind and the science of perfecting consciousness has not developed because man seeks peace and joy in external things and objective pleasures. The attention all along has been on the outer senses and methods by which they can be used to collect information and pleasurable experiences. The vast regions of inner consciousness have been left fallow; the fact that the mind is the creator of the multiple world of the senses is ignored. When a thorn enters the sole, it has to be removed by another thorn, and after that is done, both thorns are thrown away.
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