31. Do not Undervalue Attention

My actual experience is not different. It is my evaluation and attitude that differ. I see the same world as you do, but not the same way. There is nothing mysterious about it. Everybody sees the world through the idea he has of himself.

As you think yourself to be, so you think the world to be. If you imagine yourself as separate from the world, the world will appear as separate from you and you will experience desire and fear. I do not see the world as separate from me and so there is nothing for me to desire, or fear.

The diversity is in you only. See yourself as you are and you will see the world as it is - a single block of reality, indivisible, indescribable. Your own creative power projects upon it a picture and all your questions refer to the picture.

At the root of all creation lies desire. Desire and imagination foster and reinforce each other.

The fourth state is a state of pure witnessing, detached awareness, passionless and wordless. It is like space, unaffected by whatever it contains. Bodily and mental troubles do not reach it - they are outside, 'there', while the witness is always 'here'.

Both the subjective and the objective are changeful and transient. There is nothing real about them. Find the permanent in the fleeting, the one constant factor in every experience.

First purify your vision, learn to see instead of staring. Also you must be eager to see. You need both clarity and earnestness for self-knowledge. You need maturity of heart and mind, which comes through earnest application in daily life of whatever little you have understood. There is no such thing as compromise in Yoga.

If you want to sin, sin wholeheartedly and openly. Sins too have their lessons to teach the earnest sinner, as virtues - the earnest saint. It is the mixing up the two that is so disastrous. Nothing can block you so effectively as compromise, for it shows lack of earnestness, without which nothing can be done.

You are neither honest nor dishonest - giving names to mental states is good only for expressing your approval or disapproval. The problem is not yours - it is your mind's only. Begin by disassociating yourself from your mind. Resolutely remind yourself that you are not the mind and that its problems are not yours.

Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention.

Don't look for quick results; there may be none within your noticing. Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change, there will be more clarity in your thinking, charity in your feeling, purity in your behaviour. You need not aim at these -- you will witness the change all the same. For, what you are now is the result of inattention and what you become will be the fruit of attention.

So far your life was dark and restless. Attention, alertness, awareness, clarity, liveliness, vitality, are all manifestations of integrity, oneness with your true nature. It is in the nature of sattva to reconcile and neutralise tamas and rajas and rebuild the personality in accordance with the true nature of the self. Sattva is the faithful servant of the self; ever attentive and obedient.

Do not undervalue attention. It means interest and also love. To know, to do, to discover, or to create you must give your heart to it - which means attention. All the blessings flow from it.

Give your undivided attention to the most important in your life - yourself.

Of your personal universe you are the centre - without knowing the centre what else can you know? All your life is connected with it. Your past and future, your desires and fears, all have their roots in the world. Without the world where are you, who are you?

And I am telling you exactly this: find a foothold beyond and all will be clear and easy.