The Curtain of Nescience (unknowing)

Lord Siva, in the Tantras, states that the veil of ignorance consists of fear, ignorance, and doubt.  And it is thickened by brooding on these three.  So what should be my sadhana?  To stop brooding.  I will deal with my fear of death, with my doubt, and with my ignorance later, but now I need to stop brooding and thin out the thickness of this veil.

Ganesha is the dispeller of obstacles in our spiritual life.  But will Ganesha dispel the problems of my daily life?  We remain immured in the veil of nescience by thinking that the world is more real than Truth.  But Christ told us to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all else will be added unto us.  If one focuses on Truth, ignorance will fall away and the challenges of life will be easily surmounted.

The curtain of nescience is thick until you bring the light of the teachings in.  Then poof!  Ignorance is dispelled, and you only need to keep your eye single and your mind focused.

A soul gets confused after death, caught off guard because, while embodied, it never studied higher Knowledge, spiritual Knowledge.  In the end, then, people have to say: "I never studied the eternal Subject; I studied the infernal object."

When mind expands, the universe is projected.  When mind contracts the worlds go away.

Swamiji points out: "We say, 'we are great, we are great'.  But we are really idiots!" Why did he say that?  Because we constantly forget our true nature and embody in ignorance.  Well, can we at least remember for the span of this retreat?  But then, will the three worlds go away as soon as you walk out the door?  Poof!  It only proves that you are all concerned with one world only again, the world of gross matter.

Put these teachings (curtain of nescience) in the context of our western world:  People only believe in one life, one world.  They do not know about karma, samskaras, etc.  This is why people fall into darkness and stay there for lifetimes.  The curtain of nescience explains a lot that we have only intuited.

The hound of heaven goes both ways.  It is your Soul coming to find you, or you going to look for your Soul.  Just be sure that it does not turn into Maya trying to trap you.

Morality and ethics lead one to conventional life, heavens, and ancestors.  Dharma leads one to parents that will assist one's liberation.  Dharmic parents are interested in waking their children up from ignorance.  These couples are rare, especially in the West.

If one gets high enough in the Himalayas one can see the curvature of the world.  But Buddha got high up in the Himalayas of True Mind and saw the curvature of Time.  He saw that time is a cycle.  These cycles are so long that people cannot remember that all is based in cycles.  There is nothing like transcendence.

What has all your activity here done for you but route you back to worldliness?  Why not take to dharma and impress your mind with Truth so that you take it up again in your next life?

If one is afraid of something one cannot have mastery of one's consciousness.  Everything has come out of you.  If you fear something you have ignorance of it.