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] Is it not of at least a fleeting interest that seekers come here for a retreat, many seeking to “find who they truly are,” only to find when they leave that all identity has been destroyed? More exactly, they find that there never was an identity in the first place, only words…words…words, used to try to identify the identity-less.
Are you seeing that all nonsense and all insanity have a prerequisite, namely the manifestation of consciousness? What a futile exercise in nonsense and insanity, trying to create and sustain an identity.
What a futile and nonsensical effort it also is to try to go to where You already Are or to search for that which You already Are. You Are already where You want to be, and You already Are that which you seek. You need but Realize that/THAT.
FROM A SITE VISITOR YESTERDAY: It seems to me the consciousness which you say is the cause of nonsense is also the cause of all that is accomplished in the relative. like Steven was saying we have to work if we don’t have someone to pay our bills. We have to contribute if we want to have some sense of purpose and meaning and betterment. You have said Christ was an Advaitin. I am combining Advaita Vedanta and Christianity to live by. My religion lets me serve others. What is wrong with that? what’s wrong with trying to live like Christ and help others. That is not nonsense. Jim
Jim, you will not understand this, but nonsense is exactly with it is. The content of your e-mail will be addressed tomorrow since it requires more space than is available in today’s post, but suffice it to say that you are currently identified with body and mind and personality and thus out of touch with Reality.
If you and Steven (and all persons) would be free, then you must realize that this consciousness is the source of all bondage and all ignorance and all nonsense. You must see that each concept you hold dear forms one of the bars of the prison called “the mind.”
To be free and to transcend your current “level” on “the journey” the pointer is this: consider casting aside everything “learned” since the coming of this consciousness. How? Begin by questioning all that you have accepted with faith and without questioning.
Continue by discarding once and for all your belief in individualization as well as all notions about personal attributes. If you move step-by-step through the process that can shift the consciousness from identifying with the body to knowing the Absolute, you might understand these pointers that are level-appropriate for the more “advanced seekers”:
Before this manifestation, I AM. Before this manifestation, You Are. Before pain, You Are. Before fleeting moments of happiness, You Are. Before instability, You Are. Before nonsense, You Are. The invitation is to know THAT and be done with “this.”
In that original state, there is awareness but no awareness of…no sense of consciousness at all. If awareness without conscious of-ness happened pre-manifestation, it can happen now, and if it happens now, peace and stability will also happen now. Please enter in the silence of contemplation.
