An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: The writing yesterday touched on the dilemma I face. I have to work to earn money for food and shelter, etc. I’m not paid to stack blocks and knock blocks over and stack them again. I have to use my mind. Another thing--previous readings from other teachers seem almost to praise the consciousness but you seem not to respect it at all. Even Maharaj urged some to stay with the “I Am,” and you have done that sometimes but other times tell people to go beyond the I Am. Do you see why some of us are confused? PS I’m not trying to be argumentative—just seeking clarification. Thank you. Steven
F.: [Continued from yesterday] Thus, Steven, it should be clear why the message offered to one seeker might vary from the message offered to another seeker. Here are three pointers that Advaitin Dennis Waite has offered regarding the issue:
“It is the perennial problem of the teacher to be able to judge where the student currently is in his or her understanding and lead them onwards from there. This is why a living ‘guru’ is really needed, so that questions may be asked and answered face to face.”
“As ever, in the philosophy of Advaita, the teaching is graded to suit the level of understanding of the student - and it is no use trying to ‘jump levels’ if we have not yet grasped the lower level principles.”
“All levels of identification must be transcended and this should be done in a controlled and stepwise manner that has been validated through millennia of teaching. Attractive though it might seem, it is not possible to jump straight to the end.”
Thus, what is told to one may well differ from what is told to another, dependent upon where on the “path” their words or comments or questions reveal they “are.” Next, to your question regarding whether the consciousness should be “praised” or offered no “respect” at all.
There can come a time, if you continue along the “path,” when liberation from this consciousness (which you seemingly value) can happen, even prior to its un-manifestation. All this “experiencing” and all these “experiencers” can then be seen as the fiction that they are, no different from characterizations being played out on a stage.
The point offered earlier regarding the body’s plant food/friction roots should have made clear that neither the body nor the consciousness presently associated with the food essence body is anything to praise or adore.
Chronic lung damage is being suffered by the physical body as a result of the incompetence of an anesthesiologist during a surgery required after an accident. Similarly, this Amness was generating chronic suffering of the mental and emotional varieties prior to Realization, peppered with some fleeting periods of happiness.
This part of the response, though, is not for those identifying with anything relative; nor is it for those playing games involving kindergarten spirituality. Persons can play the part of a spiritual giant or a religious giant or an avatar;
They can play the part of some incarnated “this” or some reincarnated “that” or a guru or any of the other roles they might aspire to. But for Me, the consciousness was frequently a nuisance as well as a continuing source of a variety of pains. It has been gladly transitioned and happily forfeited.
Were you to see how entangled you are in all the nonsense that can only happen via the manifest consciousness, You would also gladly transition it and forfeit it and abide as that natural, Absolute “state” that You Are. It is, in fact, the only state. Please enter in the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
