An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Quotation from John Warren: “If I’m the one talking, I’m the one not learning.”
F.: Several e-mails have been received in the last 24 hours from seekers admitting that they were able to see “themselves” as a result of a recent series that was cancelled.
This response was sent to one site visitor:
Of course an Advaitin that invites questioning must be open to questioning in a satsanga setting; it is altogether different when a “seeker” writes every day within minutes of the postings to defend and debate when he has been invited three times to stop responding and to consider in the silence instead. Such evidence of egotism shows clearly that the readiness is not there. The teacher moves on to the next seeker that might be ready. And yes, this can only happen without attachment if no one is “here” to be bothered. Many think they can handle it, but they cannot. They end up with burnout that reveals that they were as attached to outcome as the persons coming their way. So it is.
While
Yet they are not even awake enough to see that; instead, their “minds” and mouths are on autopilot, grinding out thoughts and then the words that follow.
This weekend, a visitor that has arranged a one-on-one retreat will be here for several days. Pointers will be offered, but most of the visitor’s time here will be spent in meditation and contemplation and silence.
Compare all of this with the process used by Maharaj: He offered one session of satsang in the morning and one later in the day. He generally allowed a seeker to visit the sessions for seven to ten days. In a week, a seeker might be exposed to 12-14 hours of pointers but would have over 100 hours available for silent consideration of those pointers.
As noted, that speck called “my Cherokee grandmother” shared the methodology of the indigenous teachers who required seekers to wait “three moons” before responding or asking further questions.
How many people today can keep quiet for three minutes, much less three moons? How much talking are you engaging in that is not required by employment?
The intent of meditation is not to reach a temporary state of samadhi, though millions think so. A few minutes of still mindedness is still followed by mind-ness for the rest of the day. Once Realized, there is no going into and coming out of samadhi. To the contrary, the natural no-mind state becomes the fixed state.
The purpose of meditation is, in fact, not to reach a state of no awareness but to stay in a state of heightened awareness in which pointers are received and then taken into the silence for contemplation in order that the understanding might manifest.
An ego-state, however, cannot be sustained in the silence. If “The Helper” (who has a hidden agenda to be loved by many) is in the presence of five other people, that persona cannot possibly be quiet. Why would the other five like him or love him or be impressed if he merely sat in their presence without saying a word?
He (that false persona) believes that it must talk to impress, and the drive to do so is not even registered in consciousness. Personality’s drives are subconscious instead. Talk-talk-talk is the province of the ego that manifests alongside every assumed ego-state / false identity / assumed role.
The irony is that the silence cannot manifest unless ego-states are forfeited but that the continuing belief that an ego-state is real prevents the silence from happening. The challenge of the seeker is to see all false roles for what they are. When those are discarded, so too is the supposed “need” to talk and defend and respond in three seconds rather than in three moons.
Liberation involves liberation from personality. If that does not happen, then liberation from the desire to generate noise will never happen. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
FOR MORE ON TODAY’S POST AND TO BE LIBERATED AND FREE OF PERSONALITY AND THE “MIND”:
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