Seeing Death, Seeing Life (Commentary of Katha Upanishad)

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The Way of Ignorance

 

The Two Ways

 

Yama, the King of Death, praises Nachiketa, saying: “Far from each other, and

leading to different ends, are ignorance and knowledge. Thee, O Nachiketa, I

regard as one who aspires after knowledge, for a multitude of pleasant objects

were unable to tempt thee.â€1

It is interesting to note that the concept of Two Ways of human life are to be

found in all religious traditions. Jesus spoke of the Broad Way and the Strait

Way, and when they met in Jerusalem and issued a joint spiritual letter,2 his

apostles began by saying there are two Ways in this world. Long before that, the

Katha Upanishad spoke of the Way of Ignorance and the Way of Knowledge.

 

The Way of Ignorance is the subject of the three verses we will be considering,

but first Yama tells us the key trait of one who aspires to knowledge: he cannot

be tempted by the pleasant. This is because he sees its nature and its results.

The pursuers of the Way of Ignorance are not such as Nachiketa, and Yama now

tells us about them and the results of their walking in that Way.

 

The Way of Folly

 

“Living in the abyss of ignorance yet wise in their own conceit, deluded fools

go round and round, the blind led by the blind.â€3 That certainly is plain

speaking! Let us go through this verse bit by bit.

 

Living in the abyss of ignorance. This word “abyss†is very disturbing in

this context. It indicates that the condition of ignorance is profound–not

something than can easily be removed or escaped. Rather, the person is sunk deep

into the darkness of ignorance, so deep that he cannot see anything but

darkness, so deep that he can hardly be extricated from it–at least in this

life. It is not that his condition is utterly hopeless, but that he simply has

neither awareness nor interest. If that dawns, he is on his way out of the

abyss. But most of the time it does not happen.. In a routine of the Firesign

Theatre, a disease is described with the concluding words: “The only cure for

which is death.†In many (actually most) cases of abysmal ignorance this is

the truth. The individual requires another birth before he can arise from the

depths. Until then he should be left alone.4

 

Yet wise in their own conceit. Somewhere I read the words: “The problem with

ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.†Since ignorance is

a by-product of ego, as ignorance increases so does egotism. Increasing in this

alternating cycle, invincible arrogance and invincible ignorance arise, take

hold and consume the ignorant person. This is really an ugly picture; but an

accurate one. Thinking themselves wise, how can the ignorant ever see the truth

about themselves–both the higher and the lower selves–and try to rectify

themselves? They cannot. Not content to revel in their private kingdom of

ignorance, they then set about to aggressively expand it through influence of

others. And if they cannot influence they will dominate and bully until they

have extended their sphere of darkness. Again: ugly but accurate. Living in the

fantasy-land of ego, they sink deeper, believing that they are rising.

 

Deluded fools go round and round. Cycling in confusion, the foolish spiral

downward, seeming to go up and down but really only going down and down. In

their minds they veer back and forth, up and down, agitating themselves and

others, but in actuality they just keep on sinking. Because of this they

continually go round and round in the wheel of birth and death, perpetually

bound to the torture wheel of samsara–and reveling in every moment. They have

discovered the secret of happiness in this world: unconsciousness.

 

The blind led by the blind.5 Ignorance as well as misery loves company, in fact

needs it desperately and thrives on it. Supporting each other they stumble

through this world until death claims them and they get to do it all over–and

over and over. When they are not being the leader and the led, they are the

pusher and the pushed, the dominating and the dominated, the victimizer and the

victim–alternating in these two roles, they reel onward and downward.

 

Blind to eternity

 

“To the thoughtless youth, deceived by the vanity of earthly possessions, the

path that leads to the eternal abode is not revealed. This world alone is real;

there is no hereafter–thinking thus, he falls again and again, birth after

birth, into my jaws.â€6

Rendered heedless of the truth about his condition through involvement with

materiality–both his body and objects in the world–and deluded by what he

thinks is going on, the ignorant never sees the way beyond the abyss in which he

dwells. He simply cannot see it, just as we cannot hear frequencies beyond the

range of our hearing or see things beyond the range of our sight. He is deaf and

blind to spirit in all its aspects. Even if by some chance he should seek the

way, if he finds it he will not know it, nor if he come face to face with the

way will he realize it. Just the opposite. He will despise and deny it, even

denouncing it as delusive or evil. On the other hand, he will exult in devilish

religion, teachers, and practices, seeking them out and devoting himself to

them. Let me give two examples I know of personally.

 

A great master used to plead with a young man to learn meditation, assuring him

that his progress would be rapid and he would be liberated in this life. But he

did not get initiated. When the master was about to leave his body he told his

disciples that if the man ever came to the ashram and expressed an interest, one

of them was to initiate him immediately. He never did. But a dozen or so years

later one of the biggest frauds the “yoga world†has ever produced came to

town charging money for a worthless technique. The man was in poor financial

condition, and could not really afford it, but he immediately slapped down the

cash and got initiated into nothing.

Two Buddhist friends of mine visit a prison and instruct the inmates in Buddhist

philosophy and spiritual practice. They are practicers of the Pure Land School

of Buddhism. Whenever they try to get the prisoners to chant the liberating name

of Amida Buddha they refuse and insist that they chant Tibetan “power

mantras†instead. They love bondage and lust after control. They belong where

they are.

“This world alone is real; there is no hereafter†is thought by many of the

foolish, but there are many more who do not actually think it but live as though

they did. Denial of spiritual realities is done more by deeds than by words. It

does not matter how devoutly or spiritually we may think, if we live carelessly

and materially, as centered on our ego as any ignoramus we would regard as

“unspiritual.â€

This is the real test. Thinking the material world alone is real, the ignorant

return to it again and again, living in the jaws of death. If we do the same,

then we are fools. If we do not, then we are wise.