Full Video: Beware the cult of 'The present moment' and 'mindfulness' || Acharya Prashant, archives (2018)
Link:
• Beware the cult of 'The present momen...
Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 26.08.2018, Mandu, India
Context:
~ Is living in present moment mean anything?
~ What is mindfulness?
~ Can we live in present moment?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Link:
• Beware the cult of 'The present momen...
Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 26.08.2018, Mandu, India
Context:
~ Is living in present moment mean anything?
~ What is mindfulness?
~ Can we live in present moment?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 The question was how can we in daily life go closer to the truth?
00:07 Is that through sitting, walking, talking, meditation, through living mindfulness in
00:12 the present moment?
00:17 Isn't mindfulness taught by the Buddha himself?
00:20 Really?
00:21 Seeker Shireen tells.
00:23 Which Buddha are you referring to Shireen?
00:28 The Buddha of the West's construction?
00:33 The Buddha of the new spiritualists and new Advaitins?
00:45 The nowness movement, the mindfulness movement, which Buddha are you referring to?
00:52 Show me where is Buddha talking of mindfulness?
01:03 It is a cult, it is an extremely foolish but dangerous cult.
01:13 The cult of mindfulness.
01:15 Please be very very cautious of it.
01:29 In the name of mindfulness, at worst, you can get caught in a universe projected by
01:46 your own mind and at best you will start concentrating on the things that your mind likes or dislikes.
02:05 No scripture ever talks of the present moment Shireen.
02:25 Never, never.
02:32 It is a fake spiritual philosophy emanating from industrial roots.
02:51 It is driven by nothing but escapism and consumerism.
03:01 It is both ineffective and impractical.
03:21 And it is dishonest to boot.
03:27 If you are the one who has been living a debauched life, how will the burden of your past not
03:45 haunt you?
03:47 Because you are still that same person.
03:52 But in the name of present moment and living in the now, you are taught to disown the past.
04:02 In the name of disowning the past, you try to disown all the bills that you owe.
04:18 All the bills that you need to settle.
04:24 All the dirt that needs to be cleaned.
04:29 You can try to disown but that would not happen.
04:31 That is why I am saying it is ineffective and impractical.
04:34 And because you do not want to settle your bills, so I am calling it dishonest.
04:48 The only way to disown your past is to not remain the same person anymore that you were
05:00 in the past.
05:02 But that is not what mindfulness or present momentists talk of.
05:12 They will never talk of surrender or devotion.
05:14 They will not say give yourself up.
05:17 They will just say live in the present moment.
05:21 How can you live in the present moment?
05:27 This very body is a carryover from the past.
05:34 All that you are carrying in your pocket is coming from the past.
05:37 Give it up.
05:38 Why don't you?
05:43 If you want to live just in the now, please empty the pocket.
05:50 But even the founding patriarch of the nowness movement would not empty his pockets.
05:58 In fact his pockets are bursting from the seams.
06:02 So much of royalty he has earned from nowness.
06:04 You cannot give up the past.
06:28 There are only two ways, either settle all the bills that you owe or die completely.
06:41 No third way is possible.
06:42 The third way is of dishonesty.
06:44 The third way is of living in the now.
06:52 When you say I want to live in the present moment, why do you want to discard the past?
07:00 Were the past great for you, would you want to discard it?
07:06 Why do people want to live in the now?
07:09 Because the past haunts and if the past haunts, surely there are bills to be settled.
07:15 That's why it haunts.
07:17 The only honest way is settle the bills or die because if you are dead then nobody would
07:23 come to you with the bills.
07:26 But neither do you want an honest settlement of the bills nor are you prepared for a spiritual
07:34 psychological death.
07:36 That spiritual psychological death is called freedom from the ego.
07:41 You won't be prepared for that.
07:43 Instead you just want to deny yourself the memories.
07:47 It's selective amnesia, selective and obviously fraudulent amnesia.
07:55 As someone who forgets only the dislikable things, the creditors, oh I am so forgetful.
08:16 But I don't forget the ones I have to extract money from.
08:21 I only forget the ones I have to pay money to.
08:26 That kind of forgetfulness is the nowness movement.
08:31 And there are so many roaming around.
08:34 Just live in the now man and chill.
08:36 Why do you have to worry about the future?
08:39 You must worry about the future.
08:40 Why must you not?
08:45 Given what you are, you must worry about the future.
08:47 The saints have kept singing of death and how the buffalo man will take you away.
08:55 Are they not referring to the future?
08:58 Tell me.
08:59 You must know what the future of your bodily organism is.
09:06 And why must you worry about the future?
09:07 Because you do worry about the future.
09:10 Since you do keep thinking of the future, so the saints tell you in the future lies
09:14 death.
09:17 But here are the nowness people.
09:20 Shirin, it is the credit card industry.
09:27 Forget the future, just swipe it man.
09:32 And forget that you will have to settle the bill.
09:36 Only the credit card companies will benefit.
09:40 As I said, it is driven by industrial and financial concerns.
09:56 They want you to consume.
09:58 And a lot of consumption is happening in the name of nowness.
10:11 Enjoy the moment.
10:12 Go with the flow.
10:15 What is that flow?
10:16 Where is it coming from?
10:19 Why should I go with it?
10:22 Why don't you just pause and ask, which flow are we talking of?
10:26 Go with the flow.
10:30 The tsunamis are coming to take you away.
10:35 And the great master is teaching you, go with the flow.
10:48 And so much of it is happening in the name of Buddhism.
10:52 A lot of these Southeast Asian Buddhist monks and so many of them are teaching only this
11:03 thing.
11:04 Mindfulness, go with the flow, present moment.
11:16 Shaven heads, Kabir Sahab had some generous advice for these shaven heads.
11:36 What was it?
11:40 He said that if by shaving your hair, you could attain liberation, then the sheep would
11:52 have been liberated long back.
12:00 Why don't you rather shave off all the nonsense that is there in the mind, not over the head?
12:27 Be very cautious of these fads.
12:54 Sometimes they present you naked falsenesses and sometimes they present you half truths.
13:02 And the half truth is worse than falseness.
13:07 A monk who sold his Ferrari and bought a private jet, that's what they'll not tell.
13:20 Beware of the private jet monks, Shireen.
13:31 I have recounted that horrible incident not less than five, seven times and it still haunts
13:39 me.
13:40 You know I am not free of the past.
13:41 It does haunt me.
13:42 I was in Pondicherry and it's morning time and there was this external lady and she was
13:57 walking on the grass, the lawn and she was taking one step at a time.
14:05 She'll take one step, then pause and then very slowly she'll raise her leg and keep
14:11 it on the grass and then she'll again raise her leg and keep it on the grass.
14:17 Like this she was trying to walk.
14:19 I watched for five, ten minutes.
14:24 Then with very ignorant curiosity I approached and said, "Ma'am, what are you trying to do?"
14:32 She said, "I am practicing mindfulness.
14:37 I want to keep each step mindfully."
14:40 I said, "This will make you go mad.
14:45 What all will you do mindfully?"
14:48 She said, "No, all these things happen in a flow.
14:51 We must break the flow.
14:55 Mindfulness means you must be aware of every bit of the action.
14:57 So you break it.
15:00 All those things that happen in a flow must be stopped and broken down into their tiny
15:06 bits."
15:07 I felt like asking, "How about urination?
15:10 Will it now happen drop by drop?"
15:15 But that would have been against spiritual decency.
15:26 It's strange.
15:27 What is this?
15:35 Be mindful.
15:36 There are those who say, "When you are eating, take it in slowly and then focus on each and
15:44 every movement of the jaw."
15:46 I said, "To hell with you.
15:48 Here is my golgappa and in it goes."
15:51 They have never come to India.
15:56 In Indore they never went to Sarafa Bazaar.
15:59 They do not know the sheer pleasure of just devouring it in.
16:07 Can you take in a golgappa like that?
16:17 Mindfully.
16:23 All that they are teaching is concentration.
16:29 They are not saying, "Please see who is walking.
16:33 Please see why is she walking at all."
16:38 That they will not teach.
16:39 They will say, "When you are walking, focus on each step.
16:43 Even if you are walking towards the graveyard.
16:47 Even if you are walking towards your own end, keep each step mindfully."
16:55 The one basic spiritual question that there is, that they will never ask.
17:02 Who?
17:03 What?
17:05 Why?
17:07 That they will not ask.
17:14 And it gratifies the ego greatly.
17:18 "I am sipping this."
17:22 Mindfully.
17:23 And you know, "I experience the water go down my throat and then reach the stomach."
17:33 Why not after that?
17:34 Why are you stopping?
17:35 "It is all about the pleasure."
17:36 It is all about the pleasure.
17:37 "It is all experiential."
17:46 You want to prolong and deepen the experience.
17:51 "Mindfulness and being conscious."
17:57 Same, same thing.
18:00 And quite closely related to this is the practice of tantric methods.
18:08 A lot of that is also just about mindful sex.
18:13 Be very mindful.
18:20 They will not say, "Why the hell does this thing exist?"
18:26 They will not say, "Who is the one eager to copulate?"
18:32 They will not say, "What does it do to the one who is eager?"
18:37 Those things are not to be asked.
18:39 They will just say, "You know, when you are doing it, be mindful."
18:45 And what does being mindful mean?
18:47 Be more conscious.
18:51 Spirituality is the transcendence of consciousness.
18:58 Spirituality is to see that all elements of consciousness are in the same dimension and
19:07 are not to be taken seriously.
19:10 Mindfulness makes you take everything seriously.
19:15 Even a simple act like walking is now being taken very seriously.
19:30 Spirituality gives you freedom to fly in abandon.
19:35 Fly without any mindfulness.
19:37 Zero mindfulness.
19:40 What is happening is just happening.
19:42 I don't need to be mindful.
19:44 Mindfulness is such a curse, such a burden.
19:47 Am I mindful as I speak?
19:49 Not at all.
19:50 In fact, my being is the biggest proof against mindfulness.
19:54 I speak, Shireen, as I do right now to you with zero mindfulness.
20:00 I do not know what I am speaking or whether I am barking.
20:10 I have no mindfulness.
20:14 My hands do not move on my command.
20:21 What is this thing about doing it rightly?
20:25 I am not a doer.
20:28 What is this thing about walking carefully?
20:30 I have no cares.
20:32 I only have abandon.
20:37 I am not mindful about anything.
20:43 And this is mysticism.
20:45 And Shireen, the West is mighty scared of mysticism.
20:52 Their spirituality is just timid psychology.
20:59 Psychology that is so very afraid, it cannot step out of its sanitized enclosures.
21:16 I come from India and my spirituality is that of the Himalayan jungles.
21:28 No enclosures there, no safety there, no promises there, no sanctuary there, no mindfulness
21:38 there.
21:41 Pure fearless wandering without bothering to inquire what is going on.
21:50 Mala phiru na jap karu, muh se kahu na Ram.
22:04 Sumiran mera hari kare, mai paun vishram.
22:08 Where is mindfulness in this?
22:11 Where is mindfulness?
22:18 Neither do I practice with the rosary, the beads, nor do I practice remembrance, jap.
22:39 I do not even utter the name of Ram from my mouth.
22:44 I don't bother to remember anything.
22:46 Not mindfulness.
22:53 I am not mindful of anything.
22:56 The Lord takes care of me.
22:58 I don't remember the Lord.
23:00 The Lord remembers me.
23:01 I just relax.
23:02 This is spirituality.
23:06 Spirituality is relaxation.
23:07 Mindfulness is taxation.
23:12 It burdens you.
23:17 Very good.
23:25 Breathing mindfully.
23:37 What else?
23:43 Why limit yourself to only one bodily process, breathing mindfully?
23:49 I dared.
23:50 How about urinating mindfully?
23:57 Especially when the bladder is about to burst, try holding it.
24:03 Hold it, then drop it, hold it, then drop it.
24:06 And then you will realize what a pain this mindfulness thing is.
24:09 It should happen drop by drop.
24:13 Try.
24:15 Or ejaculating mindfully.
24:18 Half a drop by half a drop.
24:24 Try.
24:27 I suspect the hidden motive is to pain the practitioner so much that he just drops out
24:36 of himself.
24:48 Then this mindfulness is a great practice.
24:50 If you just want to trouble the practitioner, then this is great.
24:56 You know, bathing mindfully drop by drop.
25:00 One drop at a time, then another drop.
25:03 All the women should practice this, especially with the ones with long hair.
25:08 One drop at a time you will get.
25:10 And be mindful.
25:11 Now one drop is coming.
25:12 One more drop.
25:18 That will be the last bath you ever take.
25:21 Now you are liberated from all kinds of purification.
25:42 I repeat, in the greatest traditions of spirituality, the saints have always asked you to remember
25:57 your past and also never forget the future.
26:00 Kabir Sahab goes to the extent of reminding you how you were when in the mother's womb.
26:07 He said, you remember?
26:09 In the mother's womb, your head was pointing downwards.
26:16 In the sense that you were a little humble.
26:18 Your feet were up and the head was down.
26:20 And now that you are born, your head is so stiff.
26:27 What is he asking you to remember?
26:30 If not the past.
26:34 In fact, you talked of Buddha Shireen.
26:38 What are the Jataka tales?
26:42 What are the Jataka Katha?
26:44 Tell me.
26:45 What are they?
26:46 They are the stories of the hundreds of past lives of the Buddha.
26:49 He remembered not only his past years of this life, but also all the previous lives.
26:59 Surely he was not mindful.
27:02 Surely the nowness movement would not have agreed with the Buddha.
27:09 He not only remembered all the past lives, but also narrated them, got them chronicled.
27:18 And now they are of tremendous use to everybody.
27:25 I am not advising that you must stick to the past.
27:30 But I am telling you that you cannot escape away dishonestly from the past.
27:35 There are, I would repeat now, only two ways to unburden yourself of the past.
27:45 Settle your bills, close the loop, which are the same thing, or die.
27:54 Die not in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense.
27:58 Die to the past.
28:00 And if you want to remain alive to the past and still act as if the past doesn't exist,
28:06 then you are just being crudely dishonest.
28:09 It won't work.
28:10 [music]