Theos-Talk Archives (August 1996 Message tl00541)

Eldon:
How do we slay the mind? How do we kill out desire? It's not by stopping
thought, nor by stopping wanting to achieve things in the world. We slay by
*withdrawing our attention*, by starving them of volitional energy, by having
our seat of awareness, our first point of action, as arising from deeper within.

The mind is slain when it understands *for us*, but stops pretending to be us,
and stops as well fooling us with the notion that we are separate, independent
individuals, poisoning us with its selfishness and "what's in it for me"
motivations. The slaying comes from the death of it as an entity, the death
of it as the center of volition, the withdrawal from it of being the prime
mover in our constitution. Our thought life is as rich as ever, it's just that
we are no longer identified with those thoughts. We have realized that we
are not what we think, and the mind is "silenced" since it no longer takes
center stage.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith:
I just read this Eldon after I had written my own thoughts concerning not really
"killing" but paralyzing the lower  mind so that it becomes not an active
producer, but a passive receptical (upadhi) for Mind as Voice of the Silence.
This paralyzing can be achieved by Dharana (contemplation according to HPB) and
the eventual shift to a more selfless detachment from selfish desires attached
to the senses and a re-attachement to the inner senses or intuion (the Buddic
level of the Voice of the Silence).

Maybe since everything is reincarnated so to speak, by slaying we don't mean
killing out forever, but transforming to a higher vibration the way mattter is
converted into energy in an atomic blast. Thus death even for the lower mind is
really a transformation and rebirth.  Pluto is the archetype for the transformed
mind.  It can be an atomic blast or a harnessed reactor.

Thus killing becomes a metaphor for transformation and redirection of energies
from the lower to the higher.

Namate
Keith Price