FROM A SITE VISITOR: I’m lost. I’ve read every book I can get my hands on about Advaita Vedanta. I’ve studied the words of Adi Shankaracharya, Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekanada, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and now you. And it all seems like one contradiction after another. That was the whole problem with everything I tried before Advaita Vedanta--one contradiction after another. Some teachers say I have to love everyone. The next teacher doesn’t even mention love. Some talk poetically. Others talk in what I would call a realistic way and delivery their points in a hard, smack you between-the-eyes style. So what’s the deal? I got involved with AV because I was looking for sanity but I’m going nuts in the process. Greg.
F.: Today, the fourth method of teaching Advaita will be discussed:
TEACHING METHOD: The Direct Path
First, all of the following pointers about the Direct Path Method come either from Dennis Waite or from Advaitins quoted in his book BACK TO THE TRUTH: 5000 Years of Advaita, (including pointers from Atmananda Krishna Menon, Francis Lucille, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Gregory Goode, and John Wheeler). These are the basic principles of the Direct Path Method which distinguish it from the other methods:
· This method provisionally acknowledges "the seeker" and "the guru" though proclaiming unambiguously that there is only the Self.
· The Direct Path provides a means by which untruth is removed via arguments.
· The teachers that use this method understand that once Realization happens, life carries on with itself, by itself, without our intervention.
· Self-Inquiry—not bhakti or worship or disciplines—is the principle means of Realizing.
· There is no do-er.
· Beliefs must be deconstructed for Realization to happen.
· Rather than seeking without (via god, gods, or “holy” writings) the Direct Path Method emphasizes seeing directly that truth which can be known from within, via the inner guru or the inner resource. (NOTE: The gurus/teachers that use this method always eventually invite the seeker to go within but only after the obstacles which block seeing with clarity—namely, obstacles such as concepts and beliefs—have been removed. fh]
· After Realization comes about via an understanding of the pointers offered via the Direct Path Method, the natural freedom of one’s true nature prevails for the remainder of the manifestation (hence, the connection with the nisarga yoga, or natural yoga, approach).
· The Direct Path Method is not goal-oriented or prescriptive (as is Neo-Vedanta, for example) and attempts to simply point out the way things are.
· Often using present experiences as data or examples, the Direct Path Method deconstructs the existing body of presumptions, the belief systems, and the psychological structures—all of which make persons feel separate, vulnerable, and cut off from reality. [NOTE: What persons call “problems” all arise via the warped consciousness, the bogus “mind,” the ego-states assumed as identities by persons, and the personality disorders that result; therefore, the teacher that uses the Direct Path Method must have some advanced understanding of the principles of psychology. fh]
· When the illogical, unreasonable, and irrational nature of psychological structures are held up to the light of awareness for a seeker that is capable of being logical and reasonable and rational, the psychological structures peacefully dissolve.
· An awakening happens that is marked by sweetness, by an immediacy, and by a gapless clarity which is awareness itself. And quite often, there’s laughter!
· The Direct Path Method actually does not prescribe a “path” or “journey” as such since You Are already That Which you seek; however, a student-guru arrangement is usually required since the understanding must be delivered in a series of progressive “steps” that must be taken in an exact order. The advanced steps are built on the foundation of the preceding steps, so each step must be understood completely before a seeker can move to the next.
· Rather than practicing disciplines and adhering to esoteric paths and preachings, this method attempts instead to deconstruct persons’ everyday view of “the world” and “themselves” in order to guide protégés to an understanding of what they are not in order to understand That Which They Truly Are. [NOTE: With Realization, Consciousness, Awareness, the beingness, the non-beingness, and the Absolute are all understood; thereafter, the relative existence happens spontaneously for the remainder of the manifestation of consciousness.]
So that is the take on the Direct Path from several Advaitin teachers as offered in Dennis Waite's book. Others aspects of the method will now be offered.
This method does not try to “give” seekers anything since Direct Path teachers know that, ultimately, there is no seeker and that there is no “one” to “gain” and that there is nothing to be gained; conversely, the Direct Path teachers know that too much has been given to seekers already (namely, all of the false dogma and concepts and ideas and beliefs which now block seekers from seeing reality and from Realizing truth). Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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F.: Today, the fourth method of teaching Advaita will be discussed:
TEACHING METHOD: The Direct Path
First, all of the following pointers about the Direct Path Method come either from Dennis Waite or from Advaitins quoted in his book BACK TO THE TRUTH: 5000 Years of Advaita, (including pointers from Atmananda Krishna Menon, Francis Lucille, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Gregory Goode, and John Wheeler). These are the basic principles of the Direct Path Method which distinguish it from the other methods:
· This method provisionally acknowledges "the seeker" and "the guru" though proclaiming unambiguously that there is only the Self.
· The Direct Path provides a means by which untruth is removed via arguments.
· The teachers that use this method understand that once Realization happens, life carries on with itself, by itself, without our intervention.
· Self-Inquiry—not bhakti or worship or disciplines—is the principle means of Realizing.
· There is no do-er.
· Beliefs must be deconstructed for Realization to happen.
· Rather than seeking without (via god, gods, or “holy” writings) the Direct Path Method emphasizes seeing directly that truth which can be known from within, via the inner guru or the inner resource. (NOTE: The gurus/teachers that use this method always eventually invite the seeker to go within but only after the obstacles which block seeing with clarity—namely, obstacles such as concepts and beliefs—have been removed. fh]
· After Realization comes about via an understanding of the pointers offered via the Direct Path Method, the natural freedom of one’s true nature prevails for the remainder of the manifestation (hence, the connection with the nisarga yoga, or natural yoga, approach).
· The Direct Path Method is not goal-oriented or prescriptive (as is Neo-Vedanta, for example) and attempts to simply point out the way things are.
· Often using present experiences as data or examples, the Direct Path Method deconstructs the existing body of presumptions, the belief systems, and the psychological structures—all of which make persons feel separate, vulnerable, and cut off from reality. [NOTE: What persons call “problems” all arise via the warped consciousness, the bogus “mind,” the ego-states assumed as identities by persons, and the personality disorders that result; therefore, the teacher that uses the Direct Path Method must have some advanced understanding of the principles of psychology. fh]
· When the illogical, unreasonable, and irrational nature of psychological structures are held up to the light of awareness for a seeker that is capable of being logical and reasonable and rational, the psychological structures peacefully dissolve.
· An awakening happens that is marked by sweetness, by an immediacy, and by a gapless clarity which is awareness itself. And quite often, there’s laughter!
· The Direct Path Method actually does not prescribe a “path” or “journey” as such since You Are already That Which you seek; however, a student-guru arrangement is usually required since the understanding must be delivered in a series of progressive “steps” that must be taken in an exact order. The advanced steps are built on the foundation of the preceding steps, so each step must be understood completely before a seeker can move to the next.
· Rather than practicing disciplines and adhering to esoteric paths and preachings, this method attempts instead to deconstruct persons’ everyday view of “the world” and “themselves” in order to guide protégés to an understanding of what they are not in order to understand That Which They Truly Are. [NOTE: With Realization, Consciousness, Awareness, the beingness, the non-beingness, and the Absolute are all understood; thereafter, the relative existence happens spontaneously for the remainder of the manifestation of consciousness.]
So that is the take on the Direct Path from several Advaitin teachers as offered in Dennis Waite's book. Others aspects of the method will now be offered.
This method does not try to “give” seekers anything since Direct Path teachers know that, ultimately, there is no seeker and that there is no “one” to “gain” and that there is nothing to be gained; conversely, the Direct Path teachers know that too much has been given to seekers already (namely, all of the false dogma and concepts and ideas and beliefs which now block seekers from seeing reality and from Realizing truth). Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
THE 15% OFF SALE ITEM FOR THIS WEEK IS CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS. FOR INFORMATION:
