NOISY PROSELYTIZING vs. A SILENT VIGIL, Part Four
F.: A surgeon would not try to operate on a patient until the surgeon has a full understanding of the exact order in which each step of an operation must be conducted. Anyone choosing to operate on someone without that skill set would be ignorant, insane, or incredibly egotistical. Similarly, only the ignorant, insane, or incredibly egotistical would try to show someone how to follow a seven-step “path” to Realization without knowing the steps, without having taken and completed all of the steps, and without knowing the exact order in which the steps must be taken.
Ultimately, there is no benefit at all in talking about the Advaita Teachings or in talking about the steps. Realization only happens if the steps are taken and if they are taken in an exact order. That applies to any process, plan, philosophy or program that has clear-cut steps.
Some who find the Advaita Teachings focus on the pointers until Full Realization happens. Many receive guidance from a Realized teacher who then sends them into the silence to contemplate the pointers offered until Total Liberation happens. On this site, a seeker's words are studied to find where on the "path" that seeker is; then, a response is offered that can lead that seeker to the next step. Others, however, find the Teachings and assume the role of “Instant Teacher,” sharing what they think they know while having truly grasped only a fraction of the Teachings at best.
Ultimately, there is no benefit at all in talking about the Advaita Teachings or in talking about the steps. Realization only happens if the steps are taken and if they are taken in an exact order. That applies to any process, plan, philosophy or program that has clear-cut steps.
Some who find the Advaita Teachings focus on the pointers until Full Realization happens. Many receive guidance from a Realized teacher who then sends them into the silence to contemplate the pointers offered until Total Liberation happens. On this site, a seeker's words are studied to find where on the "path" that seeker is; then, a response is offered that can lead that seeker to the next step. Others, however, find the Teachings and assume the role of “Instant Teacher,” sharing what they think they know while having truly grasped only a fraction of the Teachings at best.
Then, they begin to quote or paraphrase what they have read in an effort to impress others with their “pseudo-wisdom” or “deep thoughts.” They are the ones who would look at a guide book on Switzerland and then tell people how much they are enjoying the view from atop Mt. Pilatus even though they have never been anywhere near Luzern.
That is happening among those who wrote to this site and whose words indicate that they have not Realized Fully but have decided that they are going to approach persons and “initiate discussions about Advaita Vedanta.” They have not taken all of the steps to Realization and have no clue at all about how to guide others along the “path,” yet those facts do not curb their ego-driven actions in the least.
No Realized Advaitin teacher has ever told protégés who are on the “path” that they can start sharing “at least the part of the Teachings that you understand so far.” If one wants to try that, he can visit a Sunday school class at a church. The persons there will welcome him to share his religious views in an expert-like fashion that very same day.
Or, one can be a newcomer to a 12-Step group, can join one day, and then will be allowed—even encouraged—to share his “knowledge and experience” with a newcomer the very next day (an act, by the way, that their founders never permitted). Many who have tried religion or “self-help” programs before “finding” Advaita are allowing their conditioning in their former venues to affect the way they function now. The result is that the same type of nonsense is happening among many who are like the three who wrote to describe their attempts to introduce the Advaita Teachings en masse.
Eventually, those ego-based efforts will fail (but only after having muddied the waters for those who might have someday sought the Teachings in the way that they are presented by a teacher who truly understands the Teachings and knows how they are to be presented.) Eventually, the listeners will start ignoring the games being played by the “Instant Teacher.” Why? Because no one with any degree of sanity is going to listen for long to anyone who says, “I can’t help me but I can help you.”
Furthermore, no one with any degree of reason or logic is going to listen to anyone whose words and deeds finally reveal his phony personas and his delusional state since he is really saying, “I cannot swim but I can save you from drowning.” The process of guiding seekers along the “path” to Realization in not a hit-and-miss procedure but is instead one that must follow an exact order. For the non-Realized to expose seekers to their version of the Teachings that do not follow a clear-cut sequence could ruin any chance a seeker might have at grasping the Full Understanding. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (Tomorrow, The Conclusion)
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