John Hunt Publishing’s various imprints have built a series of Made Easy titles. They cover a whole multitude of spiritual ideas and disciplines. It is a collection of brief introductions which reveal alternative spiritual insights, paths and truths to new and experienced seekers whatever their current faith, practice or creed.
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upadesha sAhasrI part 5
Part 5 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 and part 1 of the new series.
You are the witness—or are you
Today on the beach on Maui my friends and I met a man who had a debilitating stroke that had changed his life completely. He was only 49 years old. His wish was to swim in the ocean, but he and his wife had felt unable to bring that off, and so they had stayed on the shore merely looking at the water. My friends helped this man into the water thus fulfilling his wish.
Later he spoke to us about the stroke that had totally changed his life. He was sad. He was depressed. He said that he no longer liked himself. His story was very touching.
With compassion he was advised to understand that in reality he was not the body, but rather the witness of the body, not only the witness of the body, but the witness of the thoughts which passed through his mind, including those thoughts about himself which were negative. Continue reading
mAyA and Ishvara – Q.325
Q: My understanding of original consciousness, mAyA, Ishvara is follows:
. Ishvara is the reflected conscious.
. mAyA( shudha satva prakRRiti) is the reflecting medium of original consciousness-Brahman.
. Ishvara controls or has full control over mAyA.
My question is how can the reflection (Ishvara) have control over the reflecting medium, mAyA? For example, if I see myself in a mirror how can my reflection (image) control the reflecting medium, the mirror?
Please let me know whether my understanding is correct and throw some light on this. Continue reading
The Dream Problem (Part 2)
Part 2 of the New Book Serialization!
Change In The Dreamer’s Dream. The Dreamer meets the sage Vasishta and begins a dialog about the nature of the waking and dream states. Found in the library of the Theosophical Society, Adyar, in the 1960′s.
Does practice make any difference? (Q. 315)
Q. Dennis–I have read your books( and appreciate them) and many books and tapes from many teachers on advaita and “neoadvaita” . There have been glimpses and experiencing here in the last 15 years resulting in much lightness in this life. The real freedom came when it was realized there was no more need to “decide” “who to listen to or follow” and “I” have followed them all. I have one question which seems to separate your views from Parsons yet he, you and the others all state that “the bottom line is “nothing matters” and whether or not an apparent person “gains” self knowledge makes not the slightest difference to reality-oneness. The question is this:
If the truth is ultimately only oneness always present, what difference does it make whether “I” as a separate individual meditates or doesn’t, “prepares myself for awakening or doesn’t etc, etc or does whatever “I” thinks it is doing??. If I rob a store which seems to be out of the nature of this ‘I’, why do you( or the traditional Advaita scriptures) say this is “dangerous” if not prepared??. Whatever apparently happens is going to apparently happen anyway with no “doing” by “me” The freedom here has come from having intuitive trust and let life guide. Continue reading
Living rightly with others
Have you ever wondered why it is people find it so difficult to get on? From the outside it seems we are rigged for war. There is conflict between husbands and wives, parents and children, teachers and pupils, bosses and employees, fellow workers. So much friction and so much unhappiness. Is there something innately wrong in people that they can’t learn to live happily with one another?
According to my past training, I would have gone along with the common orthodoxy which tells us that that the cause of this friction and unhappiness is that we are suffering from low self esteem, lack of love, deep psychological problems, mental illness or the absence of the right kind of drug which is supposed to restore our brain chemistry to right functioning.
Since being introduced to the teachings of Vedanta, however, I now see that the root cause is that we are suffering from a misguided UNDERSTANDING of what is important in living a happy and satisfying life with others. As a consequence we have insufficient PRACTICE in living in a WAY which, in itself, brings about a quality of mind which is happy and is directly the result of a certain way of associating with others. Below is an extract from a longer article of mine entitled ‘Living Rightly With Others’. Continue reading
Book Extract
New extract added to this section of the website:
Anatomy of Desire: How to Be Happy Even When You Don’t Get What You Want by Gina Lake