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CONSIDERATION NUMBER SIXTEEN
No More Books !

In every true spiritual treatise it is said that for attaining spiritual emancipation it is necessary for us to restrain our mind. After knowing that this restraint is the ultimate intention or purpose of such treatises, there is no benefit to be gained by studying without limit a countless number of treatises.

For restraining our mind it is necessary for us to investigate our self in order to know who we really are, but instead of doing so how [can we know our self by investigating in treatises?

It is necessary for us to know our self only by our own eye of jñana [true knowledge], that is, by our own inward-turned consciousness.

Does a person called Raman need a mirror to know himself as Raman?

Our "self" is within the "five sheaths" with which we seem to have covered and obscured our true being, namely our physical body, our prana or life force, our mind, our intellect and the seeming darkness or ignorance of sleep, whereas treatises are outside these sheaths.

Therefore investigating in books, hoping to be able thereby to know our self, whom we should investigate with an inward-turned attention after having removed all the sheaths, is useless.

Having investigated who is our false individual self - that which is bound within the imaginary confines of our mind - and knowing our own real self or essential being, is emancipation.

The term "self-investigation" is truly applicable only to the practice of always having placed, and kept seated, our mind in atma [our own real self], whereas dhyana [meditation] is imagining our self to be the absolute reality.

At one time it will become necessary for us to forget all that we have learned.

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CONSIDERATION NUMBER SEVENTEEN
Take out the Papers and the Trash !

Just as no benefit is to be gained by a person who should sweep up and throw away rubbish while scrutinizing it, so no benefit is to be gained by a person who should know his or her real self while calculating that the elements that are concealing our real self, are this or that many, and scrutinizing their qualities, instead of gathering up and rejecting all of them.

It is necessary for us to consider the world [which is composed of these elements] as a dream.

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CONSIDERATION NUMBER EIGHTEEN
Dreamin' - I'm always Dreamin' !

Except that waking is long-lasting and dreaming is short-lasting, there is no other difference between these two imaginary states of mental activity.

To the extent to which all the activities that happen in waking appear to be real, to that same extent the activities that happen in dreams also appear at that time to be real.

In dreams our mind takes another body to be itself.

In both waking and dreaming, thoughts, names and forms - the objects of the seemingly external world - occur at one time [that is, simultaneously].

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CONSIDERATION NUMBER NINETEEN
Thou shalt not "should" on thyself or others !

There are not two classes of minds, namely a good mind and a bad mind. Only impulsions or latent desires are of two kinds, namely good or agreeable and bad or disagreeable.

When [a person's] mind is under the sway of agreeable impulsions, it is said to be a good mind, and when it is under the sway of disagreeable impulsions, it is said to be a bad mind.

However bad other people may appear to be, disliking them is not proper. Likes and dislikes are both fit for us to renounce.

It is not proper for us to let our mind dwell much on worldly matters.

It is not proper for us to enter into the affairs of other people [a way of saying that we should mind our own business and not interfere in other people's affairs].

All that one gives to others one is giving only to oneself. If everyone knew this truth, who indeed would refrain from giving?

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CONSIDERATION NUMBER TWENTY
Get back to where you ought'a belong !

If our individual self rises, everything rises; if our individual self subsides or ceases, everything subsides or ceases.

To whatever extent we behave humbly, to that extent there is goodness or virtue.

If we are restraining our mind, wherever we may be we can be, or wherever we may be let us be.

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Addendum

1. Discover for yourself the apparent position of the point in your brain where thoughts arise.

2. Develop in yourself a Will of Destruction, even a Will of Annihilation. It may be that this shall be discovered at an immeasurable distance from your physical body. Nevertheless, this you must reach, with this you must identify yourself even to the loss of yourself.

3. Let this Will then watch vigilantly the point where thoughts arise, and let every thought be annihilated as it is perceived.

- extracted and modified from Liber Tvrris

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