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.
F.: In the queue of e-mail to be answered are Gerald,
It is the task of the Advaitin teacher that understands every step on the “path” to Realization to be able to take the spoken or written words of a seeker and determine within minutes (or sometimes seconds) where that seeker is on the “path” as revealed by those words.
Then, the teacher will offer level-appropriate considerations that might allow an understanding to come to that individual seeker which can, in turn, allow that person to break free of the bondage of the beliefs that have the seeker stuck at that step.
In his book Back to the Truth, Dennis Waite explained in the following words this process of a teacher recognizing a seeker’s “place on the path,” determining what that seeker should hear next, and then offering the specific responses that are level-appropriate:
“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.”
Of the exact steps required to complete the “journey” to Full Realization, Maharaj said, “…You should go back, reverse, to the source” and “Follow the same path by which you came.”
Every one of the seven steps that moved the consciousness away from an understanding of the Absolute and into a limited identification with the body must be taken in the exact reverse order to return to an understanding of THAT.
If the pointers offered here are taken into careful and conscious consideration, the seeker might be freed from being fixated at one of the early steps on the “path” and shift to the next step.
Yet far too many seekers now either fail to understand the process or they allow egotism to drive them away from following a clear-cut direction to use a tool that had been shown for thousands of years to be effective in bringing about the understanding.
Instead, more and more are arriving with a propensity to ignore the direction of the teacher to focus on ONE point for “three moons” (to use the term of teachers among the indigenous peoples) and to talk or write or respond immediately even though having been directed to consider for seventy-two hours nothing except the pointer(s) offered.
At play is what was once a trait that was unique to Westerners, especially the “go-do-zoom Anglo-Saxon / Aryan-types,” who have taught for millennia that workaholism is a “good” thing, that inactivity is a “bad” thing, and that “work will set you free” ( as they warned via their signs at Auschwitz).
Originally, those types touted the value they assigned to “freedom of speech” and the right to say whatever came to one’s “mind”; by contrast, Easterners showed that they valued “freedom from speech” and the ability to be free of the corrupt “mind” that activates the mouth and that generates noise and response.
Now, as their economic desires are driving the East to become more and more Westernized, the tradition is being lost there as well. Modelling the West, Easterners are turning their backs on the silence which is anathema to the ego (the false “I”).
Easterners, too, are now televising “talk shows” and “news talk shows” and “entertainment talk shows” while offering a host of “radio talk shows” while breeding a crop of “talking heads.” The ego loves the noise and hates the silence. Ironically, the silence is one treatment that can be effective in eliminating what has become a global addiction to noise and talk and a focus on nonsense (and the unremitting discussion thereof).
The original purpose of meditation (to go into the quiet and to be fully awake and fully aware in order to use a period of silence to consciously consider the meanings behind certain pointers) has been lost. Now, those engaged in their spiritual workaholism boast of “the fifteen minutes of complete mental stillness” they experienced during their “morning meditation time”).
What of the rest of the day? Once fully Realized, there is no going into or coming out of any samadhi state. There is a fixation in the peace and quiet of the Absolute.
So the ancient “ground rules” will be presented once again: when a teacher invites you to focus on a pointer or a set of pointers for seventy-two hours, there are proven reasons for making that assignment.
For anyone to write back immediately and say, “I’ll do exactly what you said and focus only on that, but I also am wondering about this, this and that as well” is to reveal a self-contradiction that most persons cannot see.
It is tantamount to saying, “I will follow your instructions and only focus on one thing, but I’m also going to reveal to you all of the other things I’m focusing on.” These teachings are about, in part, being restored to sanity…to functioning naturally rather than under the auspices of a warped “mind.”
One Advaitin said, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” To claim that one is focusing on one thing while focusing on many things is evidence of the blocking or the bastardization of consciousness that is the very reason these teachings are offered.
Thus, when the assignment to focus on one pointer is abandoned to raise all sorts of other “issues” and “thoughts” and concerns (which are only concerns to some ego-state) then understand why all of subsequent issues raised in subsequent e-mails will be ignored.
Realization requires the following of one exact “path” with one exact step to be taken before the next, and the Realized teacher will not participate in the randomness of dual-mindedness that drives some seekers to try to “jump all over the place” rather than follow the directions offered along the “path.”
The self-contradictory nature of ego-states will drive certain seekers to (A) sign on with a guide that knows the exact way along a “path” and that has completed a “journey” that the seeker would complete and
(B) will drive those same seekers to say that they will follow the directions offered along the “path” while (C) claiming that they are following directions while (D) walking off on their own and ignoring every direction offered.
Be not surprised when the guide departs to point the way for other “travellers” who are truly willing to follow the “path” per directions. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
