From a site visitor: [Received November 23, 2006] Hey, Floyd, thank you for the information (pointers?) on your site. Your posting today really struck a cord with me. When you talked about the frustration of looking for what you called “The Answers” sounded exactly like what I’ve gone through for years. Then, months ago when I was out of the country on a business trip, I went shopping for something to read at night and found a book on Advaita Vedanta. By the time I finished reading it, I was hooked. This is the strange part--I have finally found something that makes sense, even though there is still so much that I don’t understand yet. But I know the big part of my search is over--now I just need to stay with this until I understand all of it. So, anyway, this is the question. I’ve been reading a lot on the web and came across the phrase the ultimate medicine several times. Can you tell me what that means. I really do thank you for the site. Russ.
F.: Hello, Russ. Thanks for writing. First, a caution that may or may not apply: guard against obsessing over Advaita the way that you’ve seemingly obsessed over the rest of your search. If your seeking experiences truly paralleled those described in the earlier posting, then you have likely been conditioned in those other venues to attend, meet, work, serve, sacrifice, study “holy” writings, give, obsess, etc. To Realize and grasp the Original Understanding, none of those activities will provide assistance. They are actually obstacles to Realization. Instead of engaging in all of that busy-ness, take certain Advaitan pointers into the quiet (in solitude rather than in groups) and contemplate upon their meaning.
Next, a second caution: change the direction of your focus, if you have not already done so. In the past, it seems you responded to programming and sought answers. The Advaita approach begins with questioning, not with answering. Have you truly begun to question it all, or is there still something inside Russ’s “mind” that wants answers? Any accumulating is a hindrance to Realization, including accumulating more spiritual knowledge (which is merely more learned ignorance).
If neither caveat applies, so it is, but in observance of the precautions, this is offered: rather than giving you more answers at this point, how about if you ask a question instead and then ponder that question in the silence? Instead of seeking the answer to “What is the ultimate medicine?” ask first, “What is the ultimate sickness?” What is this sickness of the planet? Would you join millions and offer some or all of the following as your answer?
“Separation, anger, arrogance, conflict, misery, greed, suffering, dis-ease, murder, disharmony, destruction, chaos, religious wars, civil wars, and political wars?”
If so, your answer would be incorrect. That inventory is not a cataloguing of the ultimate sickness. That listing merely registers the symptoms of the ultimate sickness, not the sickness itself. So, what might the ultimate sickness be that is always accompanied by those symptoms and that requires the ultimate medicine for treatment? Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: Hello, Russ. Thanks for writing. First, a caution that may or may not apply: guard against obsessing over Advaita the way that you’ve seemingly obsessed over the rest of your search. If your seeking experiences truly paralleled those described in the earlier posting, then you have likely been conditioned in those other venues to attend, meet, work, serve, sacrifice, study “holy” writings, give, obsess, etc. To Realize and grasp the Original Understanding, none of those activities will provide assistance. They are actually obstacles to Realization. Instead of engaging in all of that busy-ness, take certain Advaitan pointers into the quiet (in solitude rather than in groups) and contemplate upon their meaning.
Next, a second caution: change the direction of your focus, if you have not already done so. In the past, it seems you responded to programming and sought answers. The Advaita approach begins with questioning, not with answering. Have you truly begun to question it all, or is there still something inside Russ’s “mind” that wants answers? Any accumulating is a hindrance to Realization, including accumulating more spiritual knowledge (which is merely more learned ignorance).
If neither caveat applies, so it is, but in observance of the precautions, this is offered: rather than giving you more answers at this point, how about if you ask a question instead and then ponder that question in the silence? Instead of seeking the answer to “What is the ultimate medicine?” ask first, “What is the ultimate sickness?” What is this sickness of the planet? Would you join millions and offer some or all of the following as your answer?
“Separation, anger, arrogance, conflict, misery, greed, suffering, dis-ease, murder, disharmony, destruction, chaos, religious wars, civil wars, and political wars?”
If so, your answer would be incorrect. That inventory is not a cataloguing of the ultimate sickness. That listing merely registers the symptoms of the ultimate sickness, not the sickness itself. So, what might the ultimate sickness be that is always accompanied by those symptoms and that requires the ultimate medicine for treatment? Please enter the silence of contemplation.
