Stilling The Mind

Written by Michael Tsarion

The desire to end desire, is still a desire - Chuang Tzu

Who first propounded the doctrine, still popular among seekers today, that spiritual enlightenment demands “stilling one’s mind?” Was it Shankaracharya, Patanjali, Guatama Buddha, or some forgotten swami? Historically, it's a doctrine dating back to the seventh century in India.

Maybe it was just some deluded priest. Nay, not one priest, rather a priesthood, intent on misinterpreting old-world sages. Yes, that’s definitely more likely.

There’s a lot of corroborating evidence for this theory. If one reads Mircea Eliade, Alan Watts and other informed orientalists, one is shocked to find that well-known practices, such as "zazen," were not heard of, and not part of Buddhist practice until centuries had past, and priests had gained dominance. One can't count the number of rival Buddhist sects that sprung up over the centuries. Division rather than unity is the hallmark of human devilry and priestly intrigue.

The same goes for Hinduism and Sikhism, etc. For example, orthodox Sikhs do the very opposite of what their holy book, the Adi Granth, explicitly and repeatedly states. It's no different with other traditions and religions. Contradiction, divisiveness and absurdity are the rules rather than the exceptions. In the mid-eighteenth century, the founders of Sikhism formed their breakaway sect partly due to their opposition to the infamous Hindu caste system. Before long, however, Sikhs simply imposed on their own people their version of the caste system. They are as obsessed by hierarchy as Hindus and Muslims - rotten hierarchies in which corrupt types easily reach the top and good men are heaved overboard. Despite the warnings of their "good book," Sikhs are monumentally and compulsively materialistic. They are one of the most sanctimonious and hypocritical sects on earth.

The few scholars who have made an unbiased study of Pre- and Post-Vedic texts and customs are aware of the degeneration of profound prehistoric philosophies and customs. The odd text, such as the Tao Te Ching and Srimad Bhagavatam, preserve something of the antique Aryan philosophy later corrupted by devious self-serving priests.

In fact, most of the rites, rituals and ascetic practices endemic to Eastern traditions have little antiquity and less legitimacy than might be imagined. Famous texts such as the Vedas and Puranas are also of relatively late date, and do not faithfully express the ways of the ancients. In fact, they often grossly misrepresent the beliefs and outlooks of elder races and of the East’s foremost sages.

The cult of the individual! What is a priesthood? Why do priests exist? Are they really the dispensers of enlightenment? Does their talk of karma and reincarnation have any basis in fact? Or is it cunningly manufactured to secure an acolyte's submittance? Can one clean their dirty linen by scrubbing the suitcase they're carried around in? Can one cleanse their karma by bathing in the Ganges? So did a famous mystic regale the many swamis and sannyasins who gathered in multitudes in Haridwar, Rishikesh and other important Hindu centers of worship. Their many bizarre customs and antics attract bamboozled onlookers from all over the world.

When it comes to duplicitous priesthoods - especially in the East - division is the rule. Why so many to choose from? Hundreds infest India and surrounding countries. If truth is “one,” why so many antagonistic denominations?

And what of the paths to truth offered by each of them? Why do most of them advocate a life of renunciation and asceticism? What compels the average seeker to belong to a Hindu or Buddhist monastery or community? What prompts one to lose their personal identity and serve a guru in a large collective? Why sign on for and embody antihuman and anti-natural doctrines without question? Why despise one's own psyche and senses? Why submit one's will to that of another?

But, is it really so terrible, comes the response? Well, one look at the state of most Eastern countries gives us the answer. The appalling state of affairs - the poverty, filth, disease, corruption and animal cruelty, etc - stands as the most powerful indictment of predatory priestly organisations and their inhuman beliefs and teachings. For centuries they've made passivity and otherworldliness into virtues. Look at the result. Look at the misery people have endured because of it. Is it holy? Are the perpetrators held responsible?

After all, as the great scholar Alvin Boyd Kuhn pointed out, at the heart of Eastern paths are the absurd doctrines of Gnosticism and Asceticism, which demand the rejection of the physical body and natural world. It was deranged men with a Gnostic mindset who propounded what we now recognise as the theories of karma, reincarnation and malignancy of matter. It was Gnostics, the world over, who demonised sexuality and the senses. Their expertise was and is construing the perfectly natural into the unnatural.

The great writer Alvin Boyd Kuhn (1880-1963). Like Sri Aurobindo, he severely critiqued asceticism, which he said gave rise to many a "Cult of Mortification." This includes most Western religions and monastic orders, as well as most Eastern schools. Before Kuhn, Swiss scholar Johann Bacofen warned of the baneful influence of Eastern spiritualism on European culture. (Here for more...)

Where did ideas of this kind come from, and are they wholesome and good? Why do millions of men and women so eagerly buy into it? How did such exotic ideas and practices take hold in the West?

Clearly, it does not take long for one to see that priests are indeed benefitted by a person’s thoughtless obedience. It is clearly they who profit by way of a false doctrine insisting that one’s mind must be “stilled” before the attainment of enlightenment. Who but a Svengali-like priest gets converts by telling them to avoid suffering by ceasing to think?

If I am to take instruction from this or that spiritual leader, must I not be able to think? Must I not be able to decide which teaching suits me, and must I not pay close mental attention to the rules laid down by the leaders of my chosen path? What benefit do I get by suspending my intelligence and rational capacities? Can't I see that doing so benefits others who profit handsomely from my subservience?

Surely, the mind cannot and should not be stilled. Why imagine this to be something holy? Mental function is a quite natural process and cannot benefit in any way by cessation. Mental activity is the means by which we negotiate the Reality Principle and challenges of life. It's the way we engage with others and know ourselves as Selves. It's the way we attend to nature's ways that we may learn how to sanely and productively occupy this planet and complex world.

Of course the average priest has already renounced the world. It's no longer his concern, although his personal survival is. However, he and his fellows must maintain some link with the culture they abjure. That relationship is more often than not parasitical in nature. Priests attracts their victims with all sorts of rhetoric about the evils of material existence. They do so to perpetuate their own material existence. A priest doesn't sell trinkets. That would at least be an honest trade. No! He preys upon one's desire to avoid suffering. He knows full well that one is not really interested in seeking truth. He couldn't help with that anyway. No! His spin is altogether different. He sells attractive lies. He justifies his "bull," saying that what he teaches has been believed since the dawn of time by thousands of previous priests and spiritual leaders. He's elated when he sees that you believe it.

The wily priest maintains that the road toward nirvana is blocked by “mental chatter.” It’s a declaration that can’t be falsified. And he knows it. One would need to still their minds to prove the contrary. How is that to be achieved? If I go in search of the answer, my mind is clearly not inactive. Does my desire to still my chattering mind bring me any closer to ending desire itself?

No matter that the practice of “stilling the mind” is a relatively late teaching, what does it imply? Does it facilitate a state of all-knowing awareness? Why is this state not, rather, facilitated by enhanced discernment, acuity and reasoning?

Allegedly this is the means by which one attains spiritual enlightenment. And millions of people can't be wrong, right? Modern psychologists would warn that, despite surface appearances’s, ascetic doctrines and practices simply derive from the so-called death drive or wish. The same goes for Gnosticism, which is becoming increasingly fashionable again in the West. However, one may question whether this need is legitimate. Is it due to a sincere quest for truth, or simply the result of our sensual exhaustion and craving for new kicks and "high?" Escaping my mind doesn't necessarily mean I'm more "free" in any sane and legitimate sense. It's more likely to make me dissociated or schizophrenic. However, if I live in an insane deluded culture, my personal derangement doesn't stand out at all. I might be considered super-normal, even holy. All the more so if I display an antic disposition and deliberately act like a circus freak - rolling in mud and popping out my eyes. (Here for more...)

A deep study of the subject reveals that the vast majority of Eastern religious and spiritual paths - and associated yogic systems - excel at purveying the techniques of autohypnosis. It is this that enables thought-processes to be suspended and a state of cognitive blankness to be achieved.

However, as said, this is by no means a natural experience. In fact, it is most unnatural, and therefore cannot lead to any lasting state of perfection. Although extreme mental passivity may result from chanting, reciting mantras, or from concetration, it's wholly induced and artificial. In fact, it really amounts to the suppression of organic feeling. Yogic techniques are for the most part based on the embodiment of a master versus slave dynamic within, and amount to tyrannous acts of oppression. They are rooted in self-loathing, which is one of the foremost pathological syndromes found in most people.

Although it's a particularly conspicuous syndrome in the East, it's found in anyone who nonconsciously thinks of themselves as imperfect and sinful for breathing, thinking and being happy. Strange as it sounds, many people feel guilty for living.

For many centuries this underlying malignant condition of autophobia has been exploited by the world's priesthoods. It has not abated despite the vehement warnings of men such as Sri Aurobindo, Gerald Massey, Alvin Boyd Kuhn and, above all, Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), was the foremost opponent and critic of Eastern religions and so-called "spiritual" paths. Having renounced orthodox paths and practices himself, he insisted that truth is a "pathless land." One must accept no authority whatsoever and vigilently keep one's mind from being colonized by the will of others. Should a phenomenon such as "enlightenment" actually exist, it surely will not be attained by anyone who enslaves their psyche to the will or direction of others. The person whose mind is filled with wonder at the mystery and miracle of life and infused with gratitude for existence has no interest in stilling their mind. Only the hater of existence is preoccupied by such a morbid idea.

How easy it is for the fiendish priests to get the power they want by telling followers that the gods are angry at them for sins committed, and that to have incarnated in the flesh means one is already marked a sinner. The body is corrupt as is the mind. So are the senses. However, sitting on a bed of nails is a way back to God. Begging from hard-working folks, eating a bowl of rice a day, and giving up all worldly interests saves your filthy degenerate soul.

All the time, the real sin is believing this hogwash.

Who tells me, and why do I believe, that something perfectly natural, that exists due to natural processes of growth and evolution, must do completely unnatural things? Stilling the mind isn't just unnatural, it is anti-natural. Why sign on for it? Why believe it leads to anything real, true or sublime?

Westerners and others are frequently attracted by silly ascetic paths instructing them to still their minds largely because they’ve spent years voraciously glutting themselves on the tawdry sensations of the world, and are feeling extremely unwell doing so. Consequently they are sullied and discontented. There is, however, nothing “spiritual” about it. This type has not wilfully renounced the world, they've just run out of kicks and highs.

Like children in a candy store, they incessantly gorged on the stuff of the world and filled themselves to the gills with too much junk. Eventually they find the trough bone dry. After banging their spoons for “more,” they are enraged to find themselves unsatiated. Now what?

Someone must be to blame. Why was I not told that the pleasures of the world are finite and don't go on forever? Why was I not warned that before I reach age thirty my guts will be shot with all the lifelong hedonism?

Frustration is mixed with gluttony, guilt with discontent and animosity. In anger the hedonist eventually puts on a new hat and waves his fists at the very world that once plied him with distraction and gooey pleasure.

At this point the priests appear with their smug, knowing smiles. The gormless Westerner, jaded after the party’s end, gets to hear about spiritual sweetmeats to fill his empty soul. Now, it’s spiritual powers, special insights and dialogue with God that dominate his faustian will. He denies the world and looks instead to supernatural realms for comfort and fulfilment. He simply transfers his mundane appetites and desires to an extramundane source. He exhanges material cravings for spiritual ones.

Characterologically nothing actually changes at all. It is still all about finding something to fill one’s nagging emptiness. I’ve got a wife, car, yacht, house, tennis-court, swimming-pool, bank account and three garages full of expensive toys. They were the "must haves" that don't matter too much anymore. Now I want a place at God’s right hand. I want eternal life, spiritual powers, and a sense of being “above” the mundane world. I’ll submit myself to anyone in an orange robe who promises me access to all of it. Oh, and of course they’ll free me from desire, even though I get to grovel at their feet in a state of overwhelming desire.

In a supreme act of self-deceptiveness I don't allow myself to realize that what I really need is for my grinning guru to free me from myself. They know every trick in the book assisting me in this holiest of desires.

Throw them a bone...Rishis need to eat too...

Rishis, sadhus and swamis flock to mass gatherings to show off their supposed siddhis or powers. Admiring crowds never guess that it's all achieved by the techniques of autohypnosis, perfected in the East by a thousand cults.

All yogic techniques invite one and the same gesture, to do exactly the opposite of what human nature forces one to do - Carl Gustav Jung

No priest can make a greater fool of a person who has so expertly fooled himself. No diabolical priesthood has a chance of survival without the imbeccility of its affluent self-hating followers.

The obscene body-hate and world-hate exemplified by Eastern yogis is simply the more conspicuous version of what most Westerners harbor more privately and subconsciously. This accounts for why Eastern religious modalities attract so many Westerners. Body-piercing, tattooing and excessive weight-gain are all signs of nonconscious autophobia.

Becoming jaded with the same-old-same-old isn't difficult. It’s a problem built into the order of things. Not that one chooses to go “cold-turkey” after finding the trough empty. It’s a confusing moment when one finds that the world only has a limited amount of sensual gratification to offer. We usually believe it goes on forever, and are shocked to find out we are wrong. Thank goodness there’s a remedy for gluttons on withdrawal. Whew!

Stilling the mind isn’t the only bizarre, irrational and fraudulent doctrine found in Eastern and New Age circles. It is, however, the most sinister and dangerous of them. It’s a concept that couldn’t possibly exist independently of gnostic and ascetic outlooks which deem the physical body and world dirty and low.

Orientalists of the first rank, such as Micrea Eliade, Alan Watts and Albert Pike, make it clear that nothing of the sort was believed or taught in ancient times, before the advent of the many Post-Vedic priesthoods. There was no supernaturalism among the early Arya, the world’s eminent sages. Although their profound wisdom came from primordial times, it was eventually appropriated and cannibalized by later priesthoods, whose only concerns were their own survival and dominance over human minds. Fashioning the techniques of autohypnosis took centuries but proved most profitable.

Eastern priests originally had no idea that Westerners in their millions would also succumb to these methods of thought and body control. They stood back in awe as hordes of Western Discontents flocked to their temples and ashrams.

A humble American rishi in action. Millions of Western Discontents flock to the east in search of enlightenment. They cluelessly follow any guru with a million followers. Although they may be alert to the frauds of Western deceivers, they have far less discernment when it comes to the comparatively exotic and alluring traditions of Eastern climes. And there's so much to choose from. India is chock full of yogic paths. There is raja yoga, hatha yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, kundalini yoga, tantra yoga, karma yoga, siddha yoga, surat shabd yoga, and that's just for starters. Let's not forget the dear old Hare Krishnas. (Here for more...)

The first major figure to head West was Swami Vivekananda. Disciple of Swami Ramakrishna, he brought the philosophy of Vedanta to America and the West. His mission was aided and abetted by the dark cats behind the so-called Parliament of World Religions. During his first speech, at the Institute of Chicago, he famously opened with the line "Dear sisters and brothers of America..." Clearly, this was to attract the attention of American women to his brand of Hinduism. After successfully paving the way, the wily Vivekananda was followed by many other guru-types from India, such as Parmahansa Yogananda, Ramana Maharishi, Maharishi Mahesh, Swami Prabhupada and Sai Baba, etc.

Western Discontents and haters of freedom couldn’t wait to bow before these newly arrived holier-than-thou fakirs. Spiritually bankrupt Westeners - deliberately ignoring their own profound mystical tradition - laid out red-carpets for the many advocates of Eastern yoga. It soon became a major industry, and remains so today.

Swami Vivekanada (right) was the first prominent yoga master to enter the West and open ashrams and yoga centers. These were dedicated to the teachings of his master, Swami Ramakrishna. Upon his arrival, in America, in 1893, Vivekanada cleverly directed his remarks and teaching toward women, giving the impression that women are inherently more spiritually inclined than men. It was a ploy that paid off royally. The idea quickly caught on and spread like wildfire. Men cringed in shame, while women glowed with pride. The sales rep of Vedanta had done his job and won the day. Ironically, in Eastern countries women are treated as second-class citizens, or lower.

Sadly, many unthinking Westerners buy the false idea that their culture is narrow, imperfect and materialistic. They eagerly want to be instructed on how to control body and mind and kill off their egos. Many eagerly customize rooms in their plush homes in which they can retire to “meditate.” Donning shawls, they burn incense sticks, roll mala beeds, read exotic scriptures and fall hook, line and sinker for any bunk handed to them by those raking in the loot.

The whispering "Svengali" Eckhart Tolle talking with his major promoter Oprah Winfrey. They spend millions promoting the antihuman doctrines of neo-Gnosticism among the world's most affluent Discontents. They work to regress millions of people back to the Pleasure Principle. They expertly employ many talismanic terms and womb-metaphors to lure gullible seekers into their shiney cult. (Here for more...)

The entire fiasco has the direst consequences for Western culture. Each deluded soul heading for Eastern climes rejects the Western Mystical Tradition, and does so with disdain. Who wants to study that heady obscure stuff; all that dreadful German Mysticism, Romanticism and Idealism? God forbid! To hell with Bohme, Eckhart, Goethe, Hegel, Steiner, Freud, and the rest of them. They've all been refuted, right?

Too bad that the junkies of Eastern jive don’t realize that the endgame of their beliefs and practices amounts to a womb-metaphor. It’s a case of nihilism or nirvana, or maybe both.

Actually nirvana or emptiness is exactly the end one will realize. If one convinces themselves they want permanent states of bliss, obviously the experiences sought will not be juxtaposed to opposite sets of experience. The deluded seeker forgets that pleasure and joy can only be what they are when experienced in contrast to their opposites. The man who seeks the one without the other will find that the experiences he seeks elude him forever. He'll be left in a void. There simply cannot be eternal peace, pleasure and bliss. It's pure illusion. Experiencing something without its opposite occurs due to editing not enlightenment. It occurs only via altered states of consciousness brought on by autohypnosis.

In reality all experiences are fated to be ephemeral. It's natural, so get used to it. Whether I gain pleasure from eating or sex, one thing is absolutely certain; those and other pleasures are bound to fade and pass quickly. This does not lead sane people to abjure fleeting worldly pleasures and go in search of permanence. The void is all one can hope to find in the end. It's what inevitably comes from defying nature's inviolable laws.

So beware the man who wants anything to last eternally. There is no greater fool on earth. Such a person is greedy, demanding and insatiable at heart, an empty bucket who can never be filled.

Of course nothing will change for infatuated self-absorbed seekers of this kind, who don't think things through carefully, or take advice. Apparently, a hundred Chuang Tzus can appear to show such fools the error of their ways - in a matter of seconds - but nothing changes. A million new Discontents bang their spoons as I write, in deep frustration that the bread and circuses are not eternally on tap.

The highest in the land lend their endorsements to fakirs of every kind. It's always a case of the autocrat working with the theocrat, of crown and gown or, as philosopher Ayn Rand put it, of the choice between Atilla the Hun and the Witchdoctor. Usually both gleefully collude with the same agenda in mind.

No, no, retorts the believer. My infantilism must be perpetuated at all cost. But if the world fails to keep me functioning in accordance with the Pleasure Principle, I’ll find a more efficient means of regressing. Just direct me to the nearest New-Age spinner-rack.

I'll renounce the West, and delude myself as to the reasons why. I'll abjure Western ways and buy a ticket for the Ganges. How high I feel shrugging of the evil West. The wise one's await!

Actually, history lessons aren't really required. In many spiritual traditions, it is said that the final block on the path of enlightenment is vanity (ahankar). That's rather odd, since the primary expression on the faces of most Indian rishis, sadhus and sannyasins is pure unadulterated arrogance. A trained observer has little trouble discerning it. It's horrid but quite unmistakable.

A face radiating holiness. Those trained to read faces are not fooled by the cunning get-up and antics of Eastern malingerers and charlatans. Rather than being liberated from desire, these vile creatures are saturated by it. Some of the most prominent gurus in the east have been exposed as charlatans and worse. Sai Baba, one of the most famous and illustrious spiritual leaders was a proven pedophile and molester. The Dalai Lama has long been accused by other Buddhist orders of sanctioning mass murder. He is also accused of being a CIA operative. Leaders of the Moonies, Falon Gong and Hare Krishna movements have repeatedly been found guilty of serious crimes. All in the name of God, of course. As J. Krishnamurti stated so many times, the man who sets himself up to lead and control others violates their ultimate freedom and is therefore evil. (Here for more...)

The childish yogis…can never find out their true natures…one has no need of Tantra or Mantra, or of the images or the Dharanis - all these are causes of confusion. In vain does one try to attain Moksa (liberation) by meditation…all are hypnotised by the system of the Jnanas (mediations), but none cares to realise his own self - Mircea Eliade

The priestly Cults of Mortification must be exposed and brought down. Why has it taken so long, and why are they on the rise again? Our poor planet aches under their predatory presence, and with that of their infantile West-hating followers.

Yogic practices are deadly because they attract those tired of being hoodwinked and shaken-down by sanctimonious Western charlatans. Regrettably, instead of working to expose and destroy Western cheats, the average Discontent simply falls under the spell of the Eastern variety.

One gets a star or two for finally working out the deceptiveness of Christianity in all its diabolical modes. Great! But freeing oneself from this pestilence doesn't prevent one tumbling for the even more hoary and ridiculous bunk of the east. It looks so exotic and mysterious. One can waste a lifetime finding out that it's just the same old poison in a different cup.

The feature was written by Michael Tsarion who kindly gave Eternity permission to republish his feature which can be found on his website : https://www.michaeltsarion.com/stilling-the-mind.html