FROM A SITE VISITOR: In my so far endless quest for enlightenment, my employment and my limited finances mean the quest is done only by reading books or free websites such as yours. I keep reading abpout people who have gone to India and been enlightened, people who have literally gone to a mountaintop and been enlightened by someone there, or people who went to the jungle and did exercises there and been enlightened. I can’t do any of that, so is there really any hope for those of us who cannot travel around the world in our search for Self? Margaret
F.: Yours is the second e-mail this week to ask that same question. Consider: the title of Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd is taken from Thomas Gray’s poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. There is a natural appeal for the natural, the result of which is an archetypal drive among most to find a geographic place with some very specific traits for retreat and re-treat and that is far from the crowd. That innate drive will support the belief that there is a place (or places) that people must travel to in order to find Self and freedom and peace and happiness.
Over a period of thirty-three years, nearly 5000 persons were polled during discussions concerning the movement away from the madding crowd. (Most of those polled, like you, did not have the option of arranging a permanent retreat from society.) Prior to the polling, the participants were told that most people have in their imagination a quiet place, a place that they would consider to have all of the attributes of "the perfect hideaway" or "the ideal area for escape."
It was explained that they were not to try to describe a geographical place that they have actually visited but were to tap in the recesses of their consciousness and describe that place which can only be visualized and that has always been within. Next, they were asked to list the words that best described the place and its surroundings.
In 95% of all responses, six common traits were always mentioned:
1. remote
2. quiet
3. a place of solitude because no other humans are anywhere near (meaning one can be alone there without feeling lonely)
4. water
5. the natural sound of the movement of water (waterfall, brook, stream) and sometimes the sound of a gentle breeze blowing through the trees
6. wildlife, esp. birds
The Cherokee grandmother (mentioned in previous posts on this site) used a term employed by the indigenous peoples to describe that “non-place place”: she called it “The Medicine Place” or “The Healing Place,” reached by conducting a “Spirit Journey” (hence, the title of the CD linked on this site).
Do most require at least some time with a teacher to address one-on-one the seeker’s questions? Often that seems to be the case; however, no expensive trip is required for you to reach that "healing place" where the True Self can become known.
After traveling the world on a quest that covered several continents—and that also included, yes, a trip to the mountaintop to sit with a sage as well as 25 months of solitude in the forest, all to no avail—the light came while reclined on a small sofa in the corner of the same house from which each of those futile trips had began.
Yesterday, this e-mail was received from a seeker in Iceland:
I try to make the best of the situation I am in. Advaita is in some way beneficial in seeing the false via insights. You once told me that you sat in silence and watched the light hit the darkness in you and it disolved. It´s like that when I read clear Advaita texts. Sveinn
As for “hope for those of us who cannot travel around the world in our search for Self,” note that enlightenment is about touching that Original Understanding which predated both language and world travel. There is an “inner guru” or “inner resource” that can be tapped into; however, programming and conditioning and domestication and enculturation have created such a barricade of blackness that more light is required to penetrate the barriers than most will ever muster alone.
Next, in order for Realization to happen (and for peace and happiness to continue thereafter), must one travel to a geographically-remote area and reside there in order to be removed far from the madding crowd? Of course not. Post-Realization, all is seen for what it is, and the madding crowd is recognized to be as grand an illusion as everything else that is misperceived by the non-Realized. A mirage in the road ahead can only be troublesome for those who are deceived and who believe that illusions are real.
Instead of having to take endless trips around the planet, yours must be a “non-journey journey” to the “non-place place” where the no-thingness awaits. The no-thingness? Yes. To understand that it is the nothingness that is found at the end of this “path” prevents most from ever even starting an Advaita-based “journey” that is marked by annihilation…not gain; by elimination of all of the learned ignorance that has been collected…not acquisition of more knowledge; by de-accumulation…not accumulation.
If all that awaits at the “end” of your quest is understood, you will know that there is no benefit, no one to benefit, no purpose, and no meaning. Know that and your quest will lose that frenzied drive that might be characterizing your current efforts. That will allow a calmer state to manifest, which is the only kind of state in which Realization can happen. Best regards on that "non-journey journey." Please enter the silence of contemplation.
MATERIALS RELATED TO TODAY’S POSTING:
A NON-DUALITY CD:
F.: Yours is the second e-mail this week to ask that same question. Consider: the title of Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd is taken from Thomas Gray’s poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. There is a natural appeal for the natural, the result of which is an archetypal drive among most to find a geographic place with some very specific traits for retreat and re-treat and that is far from the crowd. That innate drive will support the belief that there is a place (or places) that people must travel to in order to find Self and freedom and peace and happiness.
Over a period of thirty-three years, nearly 5000 persons were polled during discussions concerning the movement away from the madding crowd. (Most of those polled, like you, did not have the option of arranging a permanent retreat from society.) Prior to the polling, the participants were told that most people have in their imagination a quiet place, a place that they would consider to have all of the attributes of "the perfect hideaway" or "the ideal area for escape."
It was explained that they were not to try to describe a geographical place that they have actually visited but were to tap in the recesses of their consciousness and describe that place which can only be visualized and that has always been within. Next, they were asked to list the words that best described the place and its surroundings.
In 95% of all responses, six common traits were always mentioned:
1. remote
2. quiet
3. a place of solitude because no other humans are anywhere near (meaning one can be alone there without feeling lonely)
4. water
5. the natural sound of the movement of water (waterfall, brook, stream) and sometimes the sound of a gentle breeze blowing through the trees
6. wildlife, esp. birds
The Cherokee grandmother (mentioned in previous posts on this site) used a term employed by the indigenous peoples to describe that “non-place place”: she called it “The Medicine Place” or “The Healing Place,” reached by conducting a “Spirit Journey” (hence, the title of the CD linked on this site).
Do most require at least some time with a teacher to address one-on-one the seeker’s questions? Often that seems to be the case; however, no expensive trip is required for you to reach that "healing place" where the True Self can become known.
After traveling the world on a quest that covered several continents—and that also included, yes, a trip to the mountaintop to sit with a sage as well as 25 months of solitude in the forest, all to no avail—the light came while reclined on a small sofa in the corner of the same house from which each of those futile trips had began.
Yesterday, this e-mail was received from a seeker in Iceland:
I try to make the best of the situation I am in. Advaita is in some way beneficial in seeing the false via insights. You once told me that you sat in silence and watched the light hit the darkness in you and it disolved. It´s like that when I read clear Advaita texts. Sveinn
As for “hope for those of us who cannot travel around the world in our search for Self,” note that enlightenment is about touching that Original Understanding which predated both language and world travel. There is an “inner guru” or “inner resource” that can be tapped into; however, programming and conditioning and domestication and enculturation have created such a barricade of blackness that more light is required to penetrate the barriers than most will ever muster alone.
Next, in order for Realization to happen (and for peace and happiness to continue thereafter), must one travel to a geographically-remote area and reside there in order to be removed far from the madding crowd? Of course not. Post-Realization, all is seen for what it is, and the madding crowd is recognized to be as grand an illusion as everything else that is misperceived by the non-Realized. A mirage in the road ahead can only be troublesome for those who are deceived and who believe that illusions are real.
Instead of having to take endless trips around the planet, yours must be a “non-journey journey” to the “non-place place” where the no-thingness awaits. The no-thingness? Yes. To understand that it is the nothingness that is found at the end of this “path” prevents most from ever even starting an Advaita-based “journey” that is marked by annihilation…not gain; by elimination of all of the learned ignorance that has been collected…not acquisition of more knowledge; by de-accumulation…not accumulation.
If all that awaits at the “end” of your quest is understood, you will know that there is no benefit, no one to benefit, no purpose, and no meaning. Know that and your quest will lose that frenzied drive that might be characterizing your current efforts. That will allow a calmer state to manifest, which is the only kind of state in which Realization can happen. Best regards on that "non-journey journey." Please enter the silence of contemplation.
MATERIALS RELATED TO TODAY’S POSTING:
A NON-DUALITY CD:
A TRILOGY FOR ADVANCED SEEKERS:
ADVAITA RETREATS:
