Part 3 of the New Book Serialization!
Committing suicide in the dream. The Sage asks the dreamer if he can drown himself, since he claims to know that it is only a dream.
Vision Of Truth (sad darshanam) – 1
Ramana Maharshi was one of the greatest philosophers India has seen. One does not need an introduction as much has already been written about him.
He used to direct people to the nature of I, not as the body mind individuality but the very aware-full being. He would relentlessly ask his followers to enquire into the individuality by probing into the innermost recesses with a ‘Who am I’ thought.
This ‘who am I’ should not be taken as a mental, mechanical repetition. Knowledge will not dawn on a person, by forcefully exterminating thoughts and contemplating on ‘Who am I’. Man has become habituated to identifying with the body mind and ‘who am I’ enquiry by an unprepared mind will lead one nowhere.
It can provide a temporary tranquility which can be got even through listening to good music or visiting a hill station. This ‘who am I’ is nothing but claiming the content of our very being as the only truth by negating all that one is not. Once the non self is negated, there is nothing to do. The truth is apprehended as one’s own self. His advice hence was not to get lost in unnecessary thoughts and questionnaires but know oneself, as the truth behind the very ego, the individuality which he thinks he is. One is not the ego, but the very truth behind it.
Understanding the Mind
A mind is the complex of cognitive faculties that enables consciousness, thinking, reasoning, perception, and judgement — a characteristic of human beings, but which also may apply to other life forms. (Wikipedia)
(in a human or other conscious being) the element, part, substance, or process that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, judges, etc.: the processes of the human mind. 2. Psychology. the totality of conscious and unconscious mental processes and activities. 3. intellect or understanding, as distinguished from the faculties of feeling and willing; intelligence. (Dictionary.com)
It is generally agreed that mind is that which enables a being to have subjective awareness and intentionality towards their environment, to perceive and respond to stimuli with some kind of agency, and to have a consciousness, including thinking and feeling. (Wikipedia)
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Advaita vedanta is frequently criticized by Western advaitins for its intellectual approach. Many things can be said about this but I would like to clarify here what Advaita Vedanta means by mind.
In the West quite a number of functions are subsumed under this one term ‘mind’. From the point of view of vedanta the above definitions are a bit of a mumbo jumbo. Two flaws in particular need to be pointed out. The first is to do with the use of the word ’consciousness’. Whereas Wikipedia says mind enables consciousness, vedanta states the opposite: consciousness enables mind. The other flaw is that there is no differentiation between all the various functions listed: ‘thinking, reasoning, perception, and judgement ‘.
I would like to take up this latter point here. Continue reading
Tattvāloka at Advaita Vision
Advaita Vision is proud to announce a new collaboration with this prestigious journal from Sringeri Sharada Peetham, one of the four centres established by Sri Adi Shankara in the 9th century. Its principal objective is to spread the traditions and values taught in the scriptures. The journal is issued monthly and showcases Vedic knowledge and wisdom, with articles written in simple style by well-known authors from India and overseas. It has a readership of over 100,000.
Initially, we will be serializing a presentation 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. This presentation is compiled by R. B. Athreya from the lectures given by Swami Paramarthananda in Chennai.
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.
The Karma Yoga Attitude is One of Worship
The other night I saw a film titled ‘One Track Heart.’ It is the story of the evolution of the kirtan singer, Krishna Das, from hippie, to seeker, to devotee of the Indian saint, Neem Karoli Baba, to lost soul, to family man, to drug addict; and then back to devotee and kirtan singer again. It is very much the story of redemption, a theme with which so many of us resonate.
After the movie Ram Dass gave a beautiful and eloquent talk about his own relationship with his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. Ram Dass indicated that it is Maharaji whose messenger he is. Ram Dass’s talk reminded me of the teaching of Karma Yoga that Lord Krishna gives to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Continue reading
Am I awake yet? – Fred Davis
So, am I awake yet, or what?
by
Fred Davis
I edit Awakening Clarity, a Nondual blog, and as a result of that I get emails from the four corners of the worlds. A fair number of them express confusion. The writer has had some sort of spiritual experience. And now they want to know where they are on the spiritual map. One response that arises here when someone asks me something along the line of, “Hey, am I awake, or what?” is exactly this:
“If you’re concerned about whether you’re awake or not, then you’re not–at least not right now.” Such a question simply would not occur to conscious awakeness. Generally, in fact, given the nature of the situation the person is writing in about, and their choice of language their letter contains convincing evidence that they are not awake right now–at least not in the way they are asking about. In truth, everyone is always equally awake, so all we are ever talking about is whether or not we are consciously awake, knowingly awake–right now. If we can get clear on this we can see that there’s no room left for higher or lower, better or worse, more spiritual or less. All of those things spring from beliefs, opinions, and positions (BOPs), which conscious awareness simply doesn’t have. The apparently separate being it’s working through will certainly have a broad array of BOPs–that’s essentially what a separate being is–but not the awakeness behind it. You will understand, of course, that language is failing us here; we do what we can. Continue reading
Self ‘knowing’ the Self (Q. 317)
Q: Nisargadatta Maharaj (especially in his later books) emphasises that the “I am” or Consciousness is not the final Reality which he calls Parabrahman or Awareness. He goes on to state that Awareness is “unaware of itself”. However, others such as Francis Lucille and Rupert Spira seem to disagree. Francis Lucille, for example, specifically states that Awareness (in the sense Nisargadatta means) is aware of itself as itself.
I am not exactly clear what Nisargadatta was meaning. It could be interpreted as the Final Reality being essentially almost a nihilistic eternal stupor rather than the more appealing (at least to this body/mind) satchitananda. I rather suspect not, and that he was merely indicating the essential non duality of reality perhaps along the lines of Ramana Maharshi’s comment : “Although (the Self) is consciousness, since there is nothing for it to know or to make itself known to, it is said to be different from the sentient and the insentient.”
Nevertheless, it perplexes me that if Awareness is not aware of itself as itself as Francis Lucille suggests then do we not have the situation whereby an enlightened sage such as Ramana Maharshi is before his “death” not only aware as the Self but conscious thereof and in a better position, so to speak, than Final Reality which is not so aware? Continue reading
Who is the teacher? – Patrick Dunroven
I call myself an Advaitin, but lack the rigor of scriptural or linguistic (Sanskrit) study attained by other writers on this site. When I feel “left out”, I call myself a mystic or perhaps a Zen Buddhist. I am reminded of a recently told joke of a cowboy who sits down in a bar next to an attractive lady and is asked what he is.
“I am a cowboy. I rope and brand cows, fix fences, and break horses. Who are you? What do you do?”
“I am a lesbian. I dream of women, of running my hands all over them, of having ecstatic sex.” 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.
Inspire Me Today
Just a brief announcement.
My publisher asked me to write something for this website – Inspire Me Today – to promote my new book (Advaita Made Easy). The site is actually all about inspiring people with personal recommendations about how to be successful, happy, realize your (material) ambitions etc, so I didn’t really think it appropriate. But I wrote something anyway, pointing out that this sort of thing was never going to make you happy, whereas realizing the truth pointed out by Advaita would put you forever beyond such petty concerns! I didn’t expect them to want to publish it but they did!
It is a 500-word essay (the recommended limit) and it appeared on 27th July. Here is the permanent link to the article.