An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
As for Maharaj, you will find here some of his early pointers for beginners but some of his later pointers that are for seekers father along the "path." During his last years, he said of I AM THAT: "That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today" and am "emphasizing different aspects." What he offered later differed considerably from his earlier talks, making clear that the pointers in I AM THAT will take you to the midpoint of "the race" but that his final talks point the way to "the finish line."
F.: During the first week of June, this four-book anthology,
which is available for pre-ordering now, will ship. (You may click the picture for more details.) In anticipation, certain excerpts from the four books in the paperback collection will be offered.
The following is from the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality), which is included in the anthology:
Questioner: "Do thoughts create our reality? I’ve played with this for years and watched how ‘my’ thoughts seem to create my so-called reality."
F: “Wise of you to write ‘my’ thoughts and ‘so-called’ Reality, indicating that you already suspect the fallacy of that notion. ‘I create my own reality’ is a popular statement nowadays, and once again we see that what is popular is often in error. I would ask those believing in that concept, ‘How can there be a “your reality” and a “my reality”?’ Reality duality? They just ‘created’ a seventh system of yoga!
Reality is Reality, period. Some might want to bring the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ concept into the discussion with you, but even if something results from that, it does not create Reality. What is Real we do not create. The Real has always been, always is, and always shall be.
Suppose a male and female engage in an act of friction and then earth elements cycle during a nine-month period and consciousness manifests. At the moment of what is called ‘birth,’ a child ‘appears,’ air is introduced, and breathing cycles begin. The question is, ‘Was anything really created?’ The answer is, ‘No.’ Everything that regrouped into that ‘new’ space existed already: the air existed already; the conscious-energy existed already; the earth elements all existed. Nothing was created—things merely cycled.
Consider again the ice cube metaphor that we’ve been using. If I fill an ice tray with clusterings of two-hydrogen-and-one-oxygen-atom groupings and place the tray in the freezer, can I rightly proclaim that I have created ice? Did I create the basic elements? Did I create hydrogen and oxygen? No. Though the clusterings took the shape or appearance of something ‘new,’ no appearance is ever the real.
Since matter / energy cannot be created or destroyed, nothing about the cube was created. The form of the cube cannot be real since it is changeable. The Real is permanent, was not created, and cannot be destroyed. So it is with our imaginings that appear to be ‘our reality.’
Raise a child while telling him that white is black and black is white and then send him off to school after six years of that programming. When his belief system around black and white is challenged in the classroom, he’ll be certain that those who know the truth are fools.
How much of what we were told as a child is fiction? How motivated are most to seek the fictional non-truths and challenge those belief systems? Not very motivated at all, in most cases. People love to take credit for ‘creating’ when, in fact, cycling is merely happening.
To understand that no creating has ever occurred, please consider this: Have you have ever been invited to realize ‘infinity after you die’? Is so, why have those extending that invitation not also invited you to realize ‘infinity before your (so-called) birth?’ Infinite is infinite, and the Real has been the Real infinitely.
Recall: ‘In order to be sane, you must be out of your mind.’ What the thinking mind comes up with is fiction. What the brain understands can be fact. So, you cannot create Reality, but your ability to know Reality is within you already; however, it will never be known with the thinking mind.
One can discard the false ‘realities’ once assumed to be true, sanity can be restored, and then one can know Reality. Again, your reservations about what you have been told about ‘creating reality’ are valid and are an excellent sign of your capacity for realizing the truth and the True Self.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. The following is from the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality), which is included in the anthology:
Questioner: "Do thoughts create our reality? I’ve played with this for years and watched how ‘my’ thoughts seem to create my so-called reality."
F: “Wise of you to write ‘my’ thoughts and ‘so-called’ Reality, indicating that you already suspect the fallacy of that notion. ‘I create my own reality’ is a popular statement nowadays, and once again we see that what is popular is often in error. I would ask those believing in that concept, ‘How can there be a “your reality” and a “my reality”?’ Reality duality? They just ‘created’ a seventh system of yoga!
Reality is Reality, period. Some might want to bring the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ concept into the discussion with you, but even if something results from that, it does not create Reality. What is Real we do not create. The Real has always been, always is, and always shall be.
Suppose a male and female engage in an act of friction and then earth elements cycle during a nine-month period and consciousness manifests. At the moment of what is called ‘birth,’ a child ‘appears,’ air is introduced, and breathing cycles begin. The question is, ‘Was anything really created?’ The answer is, ‘No.’ Everything that regrouped into that ‘new’ space existed already: the air existed already; the conscious-energy existed already; the earth elements all existed. Nothing was created—things merely cycled.
Consider again the ice cube metaphor that we’ve been using. If I fill an ice tray with clusterings of two-hydrogen-and-one-oxygen-atom groupings and place the tray in the freezer, can I rightly proclaim that I have created ice? Did I create the basic elements? Did I create hydrogen and oxygen? No. Though the clusterings took the shape or appearance of something ‘new,’ no appearance is ever the real.
Since matter / energy cannot be created or destroyed, nothing about the cube was created. The form of the cube cannot be real since it is changeable. The Real is permanent, was not created, and cannot be destroyed. So it is with our imaginings that appear to be ‘our reality.’
Raise a child while telling him that white is black and black is white and then send him off to school after six years of that programming. When his belief system around black and white is challenged in the classroom, he’ll be certain that those who know the truth are fools.
How much of what we were told as a child is fiction? How motivated are most to seek the fictional non-truths and challenge those belief systems? Not very motivated at all, in most cases. People love to take credit for ‘creating’ when, in fact, cycling is merely happening.
To understand that no creating has ever occurred, please consider this: Have you have ever been invited to realize ‘infinity after you die’? Is so, why have those extending that invitation not also invited you to realize ‘infinity before your (so-called) birth?’ Infinite is infinite, and the Real has been the Real infinitely.
Recall: ‘In order to be sane, you must be out of your mind.’ What the thinking mind comes up with is fiction. What the brain understands can be fact. So, you cannot create Reality, but your ability to know Reality is within you already; however, it will never be known with the thinking mind.
One can discard the false ‘realities’ once assumed to be true, sanity can be restored, and then one can know Reality. Again, your reservations about what you have been told about ‘creating reality’ are valid and are an excellent sign of your capacity for realizing the truth and the True Self.
