Advaita Vedanta: QUESTIONS FROM ONE RECENTLY INTRODUCED TO ADVAITA, Part Eight, The Conclusion

[Continued from yesterday: a follow-up to Raja’s original e-mail]

R.: your explanation of birth … is also a concept given by you. So should I use this knowledge(thorn) to remove my knowledge(thorn) of birth or should I discard both? Please answer in brief.

F.: All concepts used by a teacher to remove a seeker’s concepts are tools (thorns) to be used at certain points along the “path” but are to be tossed at the end.

To clarify the “body/birth” pointers you referenced, understand that body attachment and body identification are to be expected, especially among those only beginning to consider the Advaita Teachings and even more among those exposed to religious dogma.

(Why? Religions focus on upgrading the natural birth process to a "supernatural process," on celebrating human birth, on "saving the body" or "eating body" or "beating the body" or "sacrificing the body" or "pleasuring the body with virgins and/or whores after death," ad infinitum.) Thus, you too are attached to the idea of "being your body...and more" as well as the idea of “your birth” and to all of the supernatural associations that have been assigned to that event as well.

The point was that you are like most seekers who require an understanding of some basic biology lessons before there is any chance that the Advaita teachings can be understood. Biology and science can explain “where” you were prior to conception, how elements come together to form temporary spaces, how energy functions, and how very natural all of the processes are that become very confusing when religious or spiritual persons claim that natural events are supernatural events.

The discarding of identification with body and with “a body born” is the starting point of the Advaita “journey.” You cannot skip that first step and focus on “loftier” issues if Realization is to happen. Realize also that the Nisarga Yoga approach provides an understanding of what is natural and removes false beliefs that all-natural happenings are “supernatural.”

Too, what is “natural,” by definition, is not special (which the ego hates to hear). It is egotism that clings to the belief that something ordinary and natural must surely have some supernatural significance. Those are points that were being addressed:

you are not the body, you were not born, no person is special and unique (all being “the same”), and some understanding of basic science is required to continue beyond step one of the "journey" to Full Realization.

R.: And u said the concept of birth as After death, the elements will rejoin the universal pool of elements; the breath shall rejoin the universal pool of air; and the consciousness shall rejoin the universal pool of unmanifested energy. So many different pools, where is the "ONE" here? Please explain.

F.: As mentioned in the December 28^th post:

Whatever you think you are seeing on this planet and taking to be "numerous, different things," and all of these "pools" of elements, air, and energy, and all of the planets and galaxies as well, can be traced to the manifestation of … one, single atom.

As mentioned in the Dec 25^th post:

What is taken to be “everything” is really ONE thing, and any differences in appearance are due only to the variances in the rates of vibration of the energy/matter involved.

R.: I have read the blog, "Die" now to live now. In that there's a statement : Don’t wait to “die” to be at peace. It would be useless to wait because once the consciousness unmanifests, you’ll not know that the peace exists. Who is the "you" in the above statement?

F.: The “you” is the “you” (your false identity and all false identities) and the “You” (THAT which You Truly Are). Manifested, the warped consciousness cannot know itSelf but will take its false, assumed selves (false identities) to define “self.” Manifested, the pure consciousness can know itSelf. Post-manifestation, the Absolute is beyond beingness and non-beingness, so there is no “one” and no “thing” to know or be aware of anything.

The point is, allow your belief in the false “you” to “die,” to go away, to end. All ego-states assumed as identities generate egotism and the dualistic belief that “I am special and different.”

Now, it is time to end this dialogue. It is time to cease submitting questions about the teachings that are in no particular order. It is time to follow a “path” in an exact, precise order, if you would be free of all of the misconceptions you have been taught and thereafter Realize.

The current state of the consciousness called “raja” is in no condition to reach the understanding (which is available only by completing all of the seven steps to Realization…in order). Why is that speck of consciousness not ready?

Because you are dominated by a “mind” that is trying to reconcile philosophical, no-concept teachings with an overabundance of the religious, conceptualized teachings which you have accumulated as a result of programming and conditioning and enculturation. This pointer was offered earlier this month:

It has been left to philosophers to point toward THAT, to scientists to explain what THAT is, and to religious and/or spiritual persons to distort the truth regarding what THAT is.

Non-reconcilables cannot be reconciled, and religious teachings—which are all rooted in duality—cannot co-exist with the non-dual understanding. In the non-dual Reality, there cannot be “this truth” and also “that truth.” Religion can be a stepping stone to Full Realization, but it cannot provide the total “path” that leads one to the understanding of the no-concept, non-dual Reality.

The suggestion, if you would continue to seek to understand this philosophy, is to find a Realized teacher you can sit with, or find readings that will explain exactly what must be understood at step one in order to move to step two, what must be understood at step two to move to step three, etc.

The “path” must be traveled in an exact order, which is the reverse order that began when consciousness manifested and was soon corrupted to the point that it came to believe that it is the body (and the mind, and the personality). Regards, f. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

For more information on books that address all of the seven levels of the “journey” offered via the Advaita Teachings or that discuss in detail each of the seven steps, visit:

ADVANCED

http://floydhenderson.com/nothingness.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/consiousnessawareness.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/iamabsolute.htm

INTERMEDIATE

http://floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/whenidie.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/liberation.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/peaceofmind.htm

BEGINNERS

http://floydhenderson.com/spiritualsobriety.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/bullshit.htm