An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality / nonduality, your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: The way you laid out the advaitan pointers 1-7 was helpful. How about doing the same for those of us new to A.V.? I mean sort of a simple, straight forward 1-2-3 overview. Also do you have any mantras or meditations for beginners? Thank you. Thomas
F.: Hello, Thomas. Of course the only mantra that my teacher assigned was the “I AM”—stay in the I AM. Break the habit, the programming, and the conditioning that inspire the non-Realized to add labels after “I am”—labels that reinforce false identifications. So if it’s a mantra you want, use the “I AM” only for now.
But Westerners want “more,” correct? To “do a mantra” or to “do a reading each day” or to “do meditation” is all early-stage activity, undertaken when there is an erroneous belief that there is a do-er and that doing is required. Early on, those are typical activities among beginning seekers.
Eventually, when you move through the wet charcoal stage and the dry charcoal stage and reach the gunpowder stage, then a key pointer or two might explode away all of the few remaining beliefs and will bring all doingness to an end. Then, the “beingness only” happens.
In the meanwhile, here’s something that was sent to a seeker back in the year 2000 who made a request similar to yours. (He happened to be seeking “the bliss of Realization.”) The response was what came to be called “Advaita, A to Z” which will be shared with you now.
A. The only way to experience bliss is to see Truth.
B. Those who claim to be telling The Truth—religions, programs, spiritual movements—all contradict themselves. None of them know the Truth, none of them know the Real Self, and none of them have ever shown anyone how to get into touch with the True Self.
C. Admit this: I cannot answer the question “Who Am I, Really?” In the beginning. I can only answer the question, “Who Am I NOT?” I am not this false self, my false images, my ego-states. Only if I first find who I’m not is it possible for Who I Am to be Realized.
D. Admit this: When I find all the roles I’ve thought I am, and when I eliminate belief in all of those illusions, then I AM only what is left after seeing all the false. That is Truth—that is the Real Me.
E. Admit this: So there is a Real Me, a Me that is beyond—that is forever. I AM THAT only.
[SEE IF YOU CAN RELATE TO THESE TYPICAL RELATIVE SCENARIOS]
F. Awareness of the True Self was suppressed when I was a child.
G. I was never more than a potentiality.
H. I fixated emotionally and mentally as a child.
I. The residue of traumatic events became suppressed in my subconscious and in every cell of the body.
J. They will trigger reactions that throw me into egotistical over-reactions and that generate emotional intoxication.
[REALIZE THE FOLLOWING]:
K. Ego-states (A.K.A., mental states, false selves, states-of-being, roles) are illusions.
L. When I go into ego, egotism materializes to protect the image.
M. If I can see the illusion, I am the observer, seeing the false image.
N. I can become the witness of thoughts that are false, and eventually the Pure Witness only for the remainder of the manifestation.
O. If it is bliss I seek, then I must understand that relative problems will diminish to the degree that identification with the body and the mind and the personality are diminished.
P. Admit this: I am not my body. It will decay, but I will not. I am not my body, because if you cut off my arms and legs and even transplant another heart into me, I AM still “Me.” So what I Really AM is something beyond my body.
Q. Realize this: The Real Me is forever; the body is a temporary housing…a temporary space. Just because I move about in a car does not mean that I am the car.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS TOPIC:
>Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT
and
>Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY
and
>Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
and
>Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)
and
>Click LIBERATION
>Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT
and
>Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY
and
>Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
and
>Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)
and
>Click LIBERATION
