Dear Ram,

Your next paragraph is great. I’ll repeat it. “There is a certain happiness in a clear mind, a certain ego, because one feels that one has finally figured things out. But it is not pure non-attachment because the view depends on a reaction to the needs for security by insulating oneself from change. Pure non-attachment is the state where both change and changelessness, the Self and the not Self, are known to be the same. So there is no mental attitude at all…..no caring or not caring.”

Indeed. This mind is illuminated with much of this knowledge as it is. But the distinction you make is subtle and brilliant. Just as I was beginning to think there’s nothing more to be striven for. Nothing left to attain, you present me with this one. Great……I won’t forget this. The absolute clarity of such a state doesn’t just happen overnight. I think this is a state that comes about by the grace of God and in a mind as clear as crystal only. Please help me here.

Dear Mary,

You’re not thinking about it correctly. Who illumines the mind? You, the Self. In this case you are thinking of yourself as Cathy, a person with a mind that needs illumination. But, as I have been carefully pointing out there is no Mary, or if there is she is not the one who will gain this pure illumination…unless she takes herself to be the Self without qualification. The pure illumination you think you need you will only get by knowing beyond a doubt that you are non-attached to everything. Clarity has happened. You got the idea. It will not come gradually. It is simply a matter of seeing whether or not it is true. If you look at Mary it will never be completely true. If you look at you, it will be obvious that it is. You are the crystal. Don’t devalue yourself by thinking there is something to gain. Take this clarity and apply it. It will work because it applies.

Love,

Ram