December 13, 2024
When you observe yourself doing japa, you are aware of the mantra being repeated and heard within yourself. These two, sound and hearing, are inseparable, the distinction being one of polarization . If "you" distinguish yourself from these, another “pair” is "born"; the self and the non-self. Another polarization!
In the words of Patanjali you discover that "desire follows the pleasure-sense" and "an experience of pain is accompanied by dislike". If you can learn to observe these, without being caught up in their coils, you will discover that hope and anxiety, the ambition to succeed and the fear of failure, craving and frustration, security and slavery, domination and revolt, all of these come in pairs.
In fact everything you wish to have comes along with everything you wish to avoid. You cannot possibly break up these pairs and have them singly. Even to attempt to separate the self from the non-self can therefore lead to constant in conflict and frustration, until in pure awareness even this distinction disappears, and all contradictions are seen to be polarization and thus no contradiction at all.