Sunday, November 20, 2011

The wheel.................

11.  Our subconscious tendencies depend upon cause and effect.
       They have their basis in the mind, and they are stimulated by
       the sense-objects.  If all these are removed, the tendencies
       are destroyed.

     Karma can only operate and produce tendencies as long
as certain causes are present.  These causes are ignorance,
egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life.
The effects of these causes are rebirth, a long or a short life,
and the experiences of pleasure and pain.  Basically, karma
is rooted in ignorance of the Atman.  Remove this ignorance,
and you destroy karma.
     "This vast universe is a wheel," says the Swetaswatara
Upanishad.  "Upon it are all creatures that are subject to
birth, death, and rebirth.  Round and round it turns, and
never stops.  It is the wheel of Brahman.  As long as the
individual self thinks it is separate from Brahman, it revolves
upon the wheel....But when through the grace of Brahman it
realized its identity with him, it revolves upon the wheel no
longer.  It achieves immortality.

-How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali
Chapter IV, Verse 11

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