The Pursuit of Meaning

While attending Satsang one day, I had this question -- If things are just happening on their own, and change is fluid and ever present, and the Self is not affected by anything, does anything really matter in the long run?


I was in my head the whole time, my question was answered, that indeed things mattered but I was still confused,  in truth the first few sentences my Teacher uttered flew over my head.  I mulled it over, it felt like I was a lab rat dropped in the middle of the maze, so disoriented and running around with no direction.  Then a few days after, I woke up and stopped thinking why why why, and just observed.


Answering from the Self, everything is just happening, it has no concerns about this happening or that, not bothered by what, why, where and how.  The Self quietly observes everything as it always has.  Has there been an experience when the Self says - wait hold on! What just happened and did we learn something from it?  And for that matter, has the Self even said something?  Yep, the answer is a resounding no.  The Self witnesses everything happening, not applying a label to any experience, since they are all just that, an experience.


But which one is taking note of everything?  It is the mind, like a recorder it is remembering everything.  So going back the the question -- experiences matter to the mind, lessons are for the mind, the path is for the mind, all intellectual pursuits are for the mind, heck going through the path of knowledge is a dead giveaway!  The path of knowledge is the direct path because the mind is the one in need of the liberation, and it will be liberated through knowing and knowing we get through experience.  Through experience, the mind gets stripped of everything it thought was true, the false identification, beliefs, breaking all afflictions it has.  The only way is through experiencing, this is how the mind gathers knowledge. 


All of it is for the mind, how about the body then?  We all relieve ourselves of this armor sooner or later, and it knows its weaknesses.  This body is changing every moment, until it cannot go on anymore, this inevitability we have somehow come to acknowledge.  The body does not seek for meaning, it works biologically and mechanically.  But the mind is the perceiver, experiences had in this life are essential to the mind, all the lessons help in the realization, until the perceived path dissolves as more knowledge is had, and not before.  The unnecessary thought processes are dropped, seen for what it is - unimportant.


But this only happens when the mind takes a practice, some start meditating, then join ashrams and attend satsangs, and as more knowledge is acquired, realization dawns, we lose more and more false things.  We strip ourselves of the masks, the identifications, the untrue melts.  Until we find ourselves bare and at the same time complete, understanding ourselves, realizing that we have been in this state of completeness since the start of the journey.  So, all the experiences matter to the mind, it is its path to remembering.  The Self sees and goes along for the ride, cause,, why not?  Seems like fun.