This is the eighteenth chapter of the book „Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru.“

The whole book will be tokenized as NFTs on Mirror and, as such, published in 20 articles (20 chapters of the book: The Illusion; India, oh India!; The Accurate description of the Reality; The Crown Jewel; Dead Guru; Living student; Who you?; Leaving the room; The Weakness of the Mind; The Archimedean Point; Three Powers of Maya; Viveka - the Sword of Truth; The Cave of the Mind; Language Can Save Us; Searching for Lakshana; Nine Golden Rules of Viveka; Purification Exercises; What to do with all this?; Dealing with Fear; Ekam Evadvityam: Living without a Center).

Chapter Eighteen: What to do with all this?

kiṃ heyaṃ kimupādeyaṃ kimanyatkiṃ vilakṣaṇam |
akhaṇḍānandapīyūṣapūrṇe brahmamahārṇave ||

In the vast ocean of one consciousness, filled with the nectar of continuous bliss,
what is to be rejected and what is accepted, what is different, and what is other than that?

Vivekachudamani 484

I can imagine some of the readers of this book seriously asking themselves what to do with all this? It is not a manual - that much is clear. Vivekachudamani is not a manual, either. There are many good reasons why the manual for viveka will probably never be written. Some of the reasons I already explained, but let's point them out again, with some additional clarifications.

Viveka is about:

• discovering, not learning

• letting go, not doing something

• being not experiencing

• recognizing illusion, not creating or achieving something new

Viveka deals with the structure of consciousness, as it is present within us and within our minds in the form of original ideas. It is based on common sense and the ability to discern, which is already present in the manomayakosha of every human being. You need nothing but what you already have. Since we are used to learning, the natural response to an offering of a „method“ is to master it in a way we learned other skills. However, the viveka „method“ is mostly in discovering the ability we already have, not in learning something new. The existence of a manual (or manuals) would turn the attention of a student to something outside, thus reinforcing the usual way of studying an academic discipline or learning a new set of skills. You can academically study Vivekachudamani, or you can read this book as an interested reader, but none of that is actual viveka practice. What is viveka practice, you'll have to discover by yourself. Besides an elaborate explanation, I can give you some suggestions on how to do that (and I will), but the discovery must be yours.

The next essential thing you should know about liberation (moksha) is that it is a natural, authentic, non-warped state of reality – a true reality. If that were not so, spontaneous moksha would not be possible. But it is possible! It happens to people of every inclination, interest, occupation, class, blood type, race, religion, gender, high, weight, and hair color. Knowledge about the process is helpful, but with it or without it, all people will come to the verge of enlightenment eventually. They are conscious beings; they are made from consciousness. And consciousness is conscious. It can temporarily forget what it is, but it will remember its true nature soon enough. When it does, the illusion of separation will fall, and the miracle of moksha will happen. People can hinder that process; they can make it slow and painful. In an attempt to keep what they were doing until that moment, they usually make things worst. Letting go is too scary for most of them. Unfortunately, there could be no manual for letting go and no answer to the question of how. If you forgot why it is so, you could remind yourself by rereading chapter 7, „Who you?“.

It is not necessary to do something to obtain that which is already obtained. That principle is known under the name of praptasya praptahi, and it is the reason why manuals are looked upon as something misguiding. However, the human mind, especially the western mind, demands a certain amount of information, maybe even a sort of convincing, to accept new ideas like viveka. Hence, Vivekachudamani and hence, this book.

Furthermore, a manual, with systematized steps of mastering a skill of viveka, or even with an empty and wrongful promise of liberation through it, could reinforce the idea that liberation, or enlightenment, is something we will experience at the end of the path. We will not because enlightenment is not an experience at all! (As a reminder, you may reread chapter 2, „India, oh India!“.) It is a state of being, not a state of experiencing. You already are, and you don't need to experience anything to be what you are.

If all that is not enough to explain why manuals are dubious in the viveka universe, I'll give you one practical reason. Viveka is about recognizing illusion, not about creating or achieving something new. It is more or less clear that most of our life is based on illusion. Most of it. Maybe all of it. So, what do you think? How would you react when most or all of your life, things, relationships, people, ideals, and dreams start to disintegrate in front of your eyes?

Depending on how far the spontaneous process of deconstruction of illusion went, you'll have emotional reactions. I can almost promise you, willing or not, you'll have an emotional rollercoaster of your life! What kind of a manual can handle that?

So, let me give you my first answer to what to do with all this. It's simple: nothing. By some play of a chance or by a sudden peak of mumukshuta (a desire for liberation), you came across this book. Hopefully, you had a great time reading it, and maybe you even learned something about viveka and the process of discerning the illusion from the truth. It might be enough for the time being. Let it go now.

Let it go, especially if you are afraid of the emotional turmoil you'll go through if you continue.

Can you do it? Can you let it go and, for a while, forget about the truth and liberation? Can you devote your time to experiencing life, whether it is an illusion or not?

Think about it. The spontaneous process of deconstruction of an illusion will happen. It is ahead of you, somewhere in the future. But, it doesn't have to be now. You can relax for a while and simply wait. When the time comes, everything will happen by itself, or if it doesn't, you'll be more eager and ready to work on it. Your mumukshuta will grow stronger, and there will be no doubt that there is no other path for you but the path of disillusionment.

You still have a choice, or it seems that you have. What will it be?

In case you have doubts, my suggestion stands: do nothing. Wait. Probably, the best thing would be to stop reading this book right now.

However, if you felt loathing or nausea when thinking about giving up and turning your back on the truth for a while... Well, in that case, I am sorry to tell you, there is no cure for mumukshuta, nor will it ever be. You are deadly infected, and you have no choice. Continue reading.

In case you want to do it alone

You'll have to write — a lot. On paper, count on at least ten to twenty notebooks, maybe more. Of course, in the age of computers, a couple of gigabytes of text would suffice. I am not joking. Writing is the only efficient tool if you want to examine your thinking. Talking to yourself or someone else is not recommended. While speaking, people tend to include emotions, defense mechanisms, and behavioral patterns. You don't want that to get in your way. And if you were hoping that you could do it by only thinking to yourself — forget it. The mind is the worst place to examine your thoughts. It is a contaminated place; the place where you are blind and lame, under the burden of so many mental loops, jumps, and turnarounds. You need a clean slate, a new beginning, an empty piece of paper or a blank screen to fill it out with your nonsense. When you do that, you can look at your thoughts written black on white. You can see them squirm and wriggle, breaking in the middle, jumping from one side of the universe to another, stutter, hesitate, mourn and cry, exalt on the waves of hope and collapse into the abyss of despair. You will be able to see yourself in writing, together with all your mistakes and vagueness that governs your life.

Let me repeat: you'll have to write — a lot. Don't think for a moment you can do it without it.

Now, what you'll be writing about?

About everything. Your life, for example. Feelings, doubts, confusions, hopes... But don't make it in a journal style. It should not be your blog or something. It should be an analysis of truth and illusion in your thoughts. You can start with a memory or with something that just happened to you. Try to look at your reactions and always ask yourself – why? Why did you react like that? What was your thinking, and why did you think like that and not otherwise? What was your motivation for making a particular decision?

When you are doing that, keep in mind that it is not psychotherapy. You are not looking for comfort, closure, or dissolution of obstacles. You just want to find out if any of your thoughts, now or before, were true.

How would you know that? The feelings do not measure the truthfulness of a thought. Don't expect an angelic voice to tell you that you finally found something in your life that is not an illusion. Feeling good about something is Maya's trap. But the absence of good feeling is not the proof of truthfulness, either. The success of an action resulting from a particular thought is also not a measure of its truthfulness. Quite the contrary, as you already know, most of our successes are based on lies.

So, write like hell, and try to find something, anything in your life that you can reconcile with the truth. Read and reread what you wrote, think, and rethink the content and the conclusions. While doing that, try to keep in mind some of the principles of viveka you learned in this book. Apply them. Keep your mind free from construction for as long as possible. When you notice that your thinking is based on something you believe, try to see what would change if your belief changed.

You might want to find a criterion for being truthful. It's your discovery, remember. So, make your own foundations. Don't be impatient; that kind of work will take time. Months for sure, but most probably years.

When you get tired of analyzing your thoughts, you may take a recess and sharpen your mind by finding the original ideas. Remember, those ideas are not constructions and represent the fundamental blocks of reality. By repeated examination, establish the fact that those ideas need not be learned. For example, try to deconstruct any concept or thought (draw a deconstruction diagram) until you identify at least a few „eternal“ ideas necessary for the concept you started with. Try to see clearly how you build upon them and how every other derivate or learned idea can not stand without them. Next, compare original ideas to your daily thinking. How often are they present? How often, if anytime, can you clearly follow one original idea to something you think or say?

Practice analyzing all ideas and concepts; see if they are conceptual or categoric constructions. While doing that, pay attention to the subconcepts requiring belief, hanging onto thin air, or the ones that are just plain wrong. Reject such subconcepts and, with it, reject the conceptual constructions they helped build.

After some time, return to analyzing your life, events, crossroads, people, and relationships. Always, always reread what you have written and check if your conclusions were correct. Try to be simple; there should not be maybe or perhaps in your work. True or false, that's it. However, when you decide which is it, you should explain very clearly why you think so. Imagine that the austere viveka master, the one with the stick in his hand, will oversee your work. Your task is to explain to him why you decided that something was or wasn't an illusion. In writing.

Another recess from exhaustive personal autolysis can be the identification of the powers of Maya in the words of other people. Spiritual books or online articles are perfect for this exercise. They are so full of shit that you will have no problem finding fertile ground for developing your newly born viveka abilities. See, for example, if some text or the whole teaching demands a belief in a given axiom (a story, common knowledge) without proof. Or, does that teaching, or a part of it, a sentence or a paragraph, require additional learning or knowledge to be understood? Does that teaching requires faith, hope, or asks you to accept a promise of some future wonders? If you find such things (and you will find them in abundance!), then you'll know what kind of teaching is that. The additional sub-exercise can be identifying the powers of Maya at work. Is it veiling, distorting, projecting, or replicating power?

The interesting side effect of such exercise is that you might find texts, teachings, or people who are not the slaves of the Maya. Or are such just partially using some of the Maya's tools to draw people's attention to their message. In that case, you'll see how the truth peeps through their words, here and there. Of course, you'll never know if that peeping is accidental or if the usage of deceptive wording is intentional for a purpose. In any case, if you find such text or people (and they are few, oh so few!), you'll know that you found a kindred spirit, someone that deserves to be read from time to time.

The next stage of your lonely path could be finding the lakshana for any original idea. Time, space, existence... whatever. What it is, what precise words differentiate one from the other, and everything else?

The quest starts with the question, „What is X?“ Of course, as already written, the answer should not be a philosophical discourse, nor the arguments that justify your opinion. The answer is a clear lakshana – by which X is recognizable among all other ideas in the universe of consciousness.

Ramana Maharshi's vichara (an inquiry) „Who am I“ is a possible example of such a quest. But, you'll probably end up in neti neti situation. You already know how it ends: I am neither this nor that. Some books and teachers would lead you through such a process, sometimes in the form of guided visualizations. Must I write what I think about it? Not only is such practice useless in cleaning up your manomayakosha, but it is also harmful to your conclusions, which should be made by you, not by me, Shankara, or anyone else. My suggestion: avoid „Who am I“. It is overused and worn out.

Try other things like existence, truth, freedom, life, or any other fundamental idea you can find. The purpose is not in the answer; it is in the process. When your mind is purified enough, the illusion will disappear like a face carved in the clouds. In one moment, it was there; you saw it clearly. In the next moment, it is gone. What remains is just a cloud.

That is a short description of a lonely path of a deconstruction of an illusion in your life. The upside of such a process is that it is sincere - you can not fool yourself with anything -and it is entirely yours. Also, you are advancing at your own pace. If you like, you can take a break anytime and continue when you are ready.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of downsides, too. The pressure of the environment can be overwhelming, and the requirements of life disturbing and distracting. Due to that, your breaks may be much longer than you initially wish and could prolong indefinitely.

If you succeed in working on the purification of your mind diligently, that could require occasional or permanent withdrawal from everyday activities. That might not be possible.

Next, disillusionment is an emotionally tricky process. Your mood can fluctuate, and the presence of other people can prove to be challenging, if not impossible.

All in all, your mumukshuta must be enormous for you to endure through that process, stay sane, and finish enlightened.

In case you have a chance for a mentorship

A mentorship? What? Is it possible?

Well, I just described a possible path you will have to walk alone. It is your path, and maybe nothing else should replace it. But, from my own life, I know how winding that path can be. It's not only a matter of time but also other factors to consider. For example, numerous walls you will hit, setbacks that will cost you months, and blind streets you will inevitably enter. Then, don't forget the emotional distress and lack of understanding and support from your environment. Looking back on such a path, I undeniably feel that I often lost my time and energy on unnecessary obstacles. If I add to that what happens afterward when the process is finished, and adjustment to an entirely new way of functioning is required, then I would say that I wish that I had a mentor. Yes, someone to jump in and correct me in critical moments; someone to lean on when the going gets tough; someone who went through all this, if not for anything else, then for the fact and the knowing that it is possible.

Don't mix that with the idea of a Guru. I hope I was very clear in rejecting that thinking, so don't make me repeat it, please.

Let me explain to you what I have done. There is a structure of seven key questions. You should not know what the questions are before starting the process. The reason for that is the innocence of your mind and minimalizing the possibility of spoofing yourself with in-advance-made answers. The questions may be different, but the seven I work with are quite efficient, so I like to stick with them. If someone spoiled your process by telling you which questions I use, then I would have to think of some other questions. It is possible, but I would rather not do it. The point is: don't try to find out in advance what kind of questions you'll face during the process.

So, instead of leaving you to yourself and the influence of the ups and downs of your life, we have a systematized approach. One more change is that you will not be alone. I usually work with small groups of five to ten. We don't have to be in personal contact, at least not live. Online communication works just fine.

The writing part is the same as described before, but this time it will be viewed by each group member, plus by myself as a mentor. Emails are perfect for such a purpose.

So, you'll write like hell, every day, sometimes a couple of emails daily, for at least four to six months. The writings will not be personal (that you can do for yourself). The group will try to find an answer to each key question. Together. We will not move to the next question until each member of the group confirms the understanding of the answer.

If four to six months seems a lot, you are mistaken. It's the shortest time possible. The idea is that during that time, you'll travel the same path that would take you years if you try to do it alone.

The role of a mentor is not to give you explanations or answers; it is to check your progress and correct your thinking in critical moments. I often serve as a burden, adding to the difficulties of mind purification. Since I want you to be a perfect viveka warrior and ensure you are not faking, I'll sometimes have to check if you understand what the group (and you) are writing.

The small group... well, it is nice to have a company. When you see that you are not alone and that others are struggling with the same problems, it is somehow easier to endure. Many times, the group serves as an engine for fast advancement. Any member can be and will be stuck somewhere at any point in the process. If alone, it might take months to keep going again. The group can overcome those standstills in a matter of hours or days.

So, let me repeat, the guided process of deconstruction of illusion can be over in four to six months. It is online work, consisting of everyday writing (a lot of it) and communicating with a small group of people and a mentor.

Until this moment, I mentored around twenty-five such groups going back six or seven years. Are you interested in efficiency?

Around ten to fifteen percent of participants give up the process during the first or second month (the first or second question). With a small percentage of later dropouts, the others finish the process. From those who finished, I can say that twenty to thirty percent are done. Yes, that's right, that amount of people have finished and can be considered liberated. The rest are near the end, but they need more time for the insights to settle in. I am not following those people after the process. From occasional contact initiated by them, I can tell that some finish later when the intensity of a process is over, and they have time to absorb it. Admittedly, some people, despite formally finishing the process, do not cross the final line, at least not in a foreseeable time. However, even among them, the benefit of the purification of the mind is visible and palpable. They are not far from the end of illusion, even if that takes a couple of years or so.

The upside of having mentorship and a guided process of deconstruction of an illusion are: it takes much less time than doing it alone; emotionally, it is more comfortable with the support of the group, and intellectually, it is more challenging due to the interventions of the mentor. The group inspires and enables continuous work; the mentor provides clear directions and fast reactions to mistakes. The process is quick, direct, and without compromise.

The downside is only one: there is a possibility that someone fakes the process. There are spiritual tourists out there, who will apply to this process just from curiosity, and who will go through it like observers. Of course, that is not a concern of the rest of the group. If there is such a faker among participants, he or she is doing that at their own cost.

***

So, there you have it. Now you know what to do with all this. Good luck.

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Next Chapter: Dealing with Fear