Advaita Vedanta enlightenment, realization, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality, nonduality, your original nature, and the means for dwelling in the natural state per Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Just “found” Advaita and just found your site. Been reading some recent entries. Have dealt with the fallacy of the body idea. All these years, looking for peace of mind—never considered there’s no such thing, as you say. Makes sense now. Problems with personality though I don’t get yet. Can you give me in a nutshell something that would help me understand that and the Nisarga yoga you mention? Thx. Frank.
F.: (Continued from yesterday) At the end of yesterday’s post, this pointer was offered:
If an awareness of all non-truths were to explode into consciousness one day, the light given off by that explosion would be so intense that it would burn away all personality.
Then, this question was received yesterday:
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Why all the discussion about personality being “burned away”? Keep it simple. Tell them it’s all illusion and it’s all relative and that’s that. End of story. Gerald
So, Gerald, how many Advaita readings did you read before coming to that simple conclusion? Were you introduced to the Advaita teachings by a neo-Advaita teacher who said, “You’re already enlightened, Gerald. That’s it. I have nothing more to tell you…now go”?
The banner at the top of this site makes clear that the “Direct Path Method” is employed here. In July of 2007 when the various methods of teachings were discussed, this was offered:
Contrary to the Neo-Advaita Method that says, “Why don’t you just get it? Understand it’s all illusion. Now you can go,” the Direct Path Method teacher offers other pointers and guides seekers through the steps that most require in order for Realization to happen.
Interestingly, in an e-mail in which you claim that personality is illusion, evidence of the Type Eight “Boss” persona is revealed and shows that “Gerald” still lives under the influence of personality. Yet your comment is shared in case Frank might well be a candidate for reaching the understanding via the neo-Advaita approach.
On the other hand, the Direct Path Method might provide the key, so the discussion here will continue.
And yes, these Direct Path teachings really are quite simple on a certain level. And yes, the effects (of believing in that figment of the imagination called “personality”) certainly are limited to the relative.
In terms of the Absolute, all of this—all of this dance, all of the discussions, all of the false identifications—all of it is admittedly meaningless. So why not dismiss it all with the point that “the results of believing that personas are real cannot occur in the Absolute…end of story”?
The answer is, “Because it is only post-Realization (and post-belief in personality) that the relative existence which you thought was so complicated is seen to be so simple. Pre-Realization, persons know so little about their true nature—about their true and simple condition—that the relative existence certainly appears to be quite thorny and convoluted and problematic.
It is only after the original nature is understood that dwelling in the peace of the natural state can happen for the remainder of the manifestation.
As long as a person such as “frank” or “gerald” has been (and remains) trapped in personality identification, the odds are that he will have been “a good boy” at times, “a bad boy” at times; “the lover” at times, “the abandoned one” at times; “the spouse” for a time and the divorcé at times; “the employee” at times and “the unemployed person” at times; ad infinitum.
It is that kind of relative existence that appears to be so complicated, not these teachings. All of those duality-inspired fluctuations will certainly seem highly complex and difficult as a person shifts from believing “I am this” to “No, wait—I’m not that anymore. Now, I’m something else.”
Such is the relative curse of personality assumption, and that is why the Advaitin teacher offering the understanding via the Direct Path Method will provide the exact steps required in order to “go back,” to “reverse to the source,” to “follow the path by which persons come” to be trapped in body-mind-personality identification.
True, it is in the relative only that these teachings have any relevance, but it is only in abidance as the Absolute that the relative existence can be free of “complications” and the misery of fluctuation and instability and chaos.
Again, it is only after the original nature is understood that dwelling in the natural state can happen for the remainder of the manifestation. Then only can peace happen. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
