My guide to Sanskrit, for seekers who do not want to learn the language but would like to be able to look words up in the dictionary, is now available in Paperback or Ebook format.
For the paperback: Buy from Amazon US – Buy from Amazon UK.
And for the Kindle Ebook: Buy from Amazon US – Buy from Amazon UK.
I believe other Ebook formats are available but you will need to search.
More information and extracts available here.
You may recall my earlier Post on “Two Genres of Thought” in Dec 2013.
A just published research study says:
Spontaneous thoughts, intuitions, dreams and quick impressions — we all have these seemingly random thoughts popping into our minds on a daily basis. The question is what do we make of these unplanned, spur-of-the-moment thoughts? Do we view them as coincidental wanderings of a restless mind, or as revealing meaningful insight into ourselves?
A research team from Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard Business School set out to determine how people perceive their own spontaneous thoughts and if those thoughts or intuitions have any influence over judgment. Published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, their research found that spontaneous thoughts are perceived to provide potent self-insight and can influence judgment and decisions more than similar, more deliberate kinds of thinking — even on important topics such as commitment to current romantic partners.
“The timeless non-state cannot be achieved because the mind cannot evolve towards it. The mind can only bring you to the threshold. Awakening comes unexpectedly when you do not wait for it, when you live in not-knowing. Only then are you available.”
~Jean Klein
Realization is beyond words and, ultimately, beyond the mind, though it (and what is referred to by its equivalent terms, awakening and enlightenment) first occurs in the mind, an apparently individual mind. Mystery of the timeless descending, as it were, into time, of the unmanifest becoming manifested, of the limitless appearing to be limited. Words, concepts, are unavoidable and, in this context, ‘experience’ and ‘knowledge’, are irreplaceable (experience-knowledge as one description of the ‘event’ – chit?). Consciousness, being the ultimate witness, sums it all up and, in itself, is not a concept. It does not admit of a description and is not relational.
क्वभातिदिक्कालकथाविनाऽस्मान्
दिक्काललीलेहवपुर्वयम्चेत्।
नक्वापिभामोनकदापिभामो
वयम्तुसर्वत्रसदाचभामः॥१८
Kva bhAti dikkAla kathA vinAsmAn
dikkAla lIleha vapurvayam chet
na kvApi bhAmaH na kadApi bhamaH
vayam tu sarvatra sadA cha bhAmaH —18
asmAn vinA dikkAla kathA Kva bhAti = without us where does the saga of space-time shine?edikkAla lIleha vapuH vayam chet = when we identify with the body, the play of space-time begins; na kvApi bhAmaH na kadApi bhamaH = we do not exist in a place; we do not exist at a time; vayam tu sarvatra sadA cha bhAmaH = we exist everywhere at all times.
Where does the saga of space-time shine without us? When we identify with the body, the play of space-time begins. We do not exist in a place, we do not exist at a time. We exist everywhere at all times.
Atma is not localized at a place or time. Space and time are appearances in the self. Yet, due to ignorance we find ourselves localized in the space time framework. On gaining knowledge we know that it is only the body which is limited by space and time. The self is limitless spatially and temporally. Continue reading
I have a few questions on the concept and origin of the term akhaNDAkAra vRRitti. Will be grateful for any contribution and thoughts on my dobuts.
1. Does the term “akhaNDAkAra vRRitti” appear in any major upanishads or Bhagavad-Gita? If so, where (citation)?
2. Where and by whom was the term “akhaNDAkAra vRRitti” introduced for the first time in Advaita?
3. Is the concept “akhaNDAkAra vRRitti” an attempt to extend the process of ‘Object cognition’ by the mind as explained in Vedanta Paribhasha to the stage of Self-realization?
4. Does it occur prior to (and hence causal to) Self-realization or is the term “akhaNDAkAra vRRitti” a post hoc explanation of a presumed process that might have occurred in the mind on Self-realization?
5. Does the term have a practical utility for a seeker as a sAdhana tool? If so how?
Thanks and regards,
There is a very evolved state of realization that can easily be mistaken for the final realization brought about by akhaNDAkAra vRRitti. I do not mean the often mentioned state of samAdhi that also tends to be mistaken for enlightenment. What I am talking about is less spectacular than samAdhi. In my experience with Western students and friends, there is one moment in which an almost complete recognition of the true nature of oneness takes place. From that moment onwards, the general outlook of the person will change: suffering is going to diminish considerably and the person knows what it is that is actually sought by people asking the question “Who am I?”. He/she recognizes what is talked of in the scriptures as Truth. Continue reading
VEDĀNTA the solution to our fundamental problem by D. Venugopal
Part 8 looks at the role of the Vedas in providing knowledge of the Self.
There is a complete Contents List, to which links are added as each new part appears.
Akhandakara vritti is, in psychological terms, the certainty that ends all doubts, the moment of realization which happens in timeless time. Ontologically, reality irrupts, as it were, into unreality, whereby the mind is transformed, or re absorbed, into consciousness unalloyed. Prior to that atemporal moment there may have been momentary sparks or instances of awakening or clear vision, anubhavas. But the realization that akhandakara writti consists of is definitive, irrecusable. Three aspects of reality combine in that ‘moment’: power-will-fearlessness (sat), Knowledge (chit), and liberation, freedom (ananda). A symbol of it would be spacelessness (or wide space).
Part 19 of the serialization of the presentation (compiled by R. B. Athreya from the lectures given by Swami Paramarthananda) of upadesha sAhasrI. This is the prakaraNa grantha which is agreed by most experts to have been written by Shankara himself and is an elaborate unfoldment of the essence of Advaita.
Subscribers to Advaita Vision are also offered special rates on the journal and on books published by Tattvaloka. See the full introduction