An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling in your natural state, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: you might want to discuss the 13th Floor and what Realized lessons one could draw from it. The bartender was "ok" with his life until he found out he was nothing more than a computer program; bits; 1's and 0's. He ran up against a defined, artificial boundary. He couldn't handle that. He couldn't just "be," though he was fine before he knew he was just bits, or energy. And, the irony of it all is that the "real" world he wanted to escape to turned out to be nothing more than another world of 1's and 0's. And, who is to say that that world wasn't programmed? Leads one to say, "Are we just bits, energy; are we just "actors on a stage"? Yes, I know, how many ways can you say it. Still, you might use the movie in one of your series.
F.: The Thirteenth Floor has been mentioned before as a movie that some seekers might enjoy, as they might enjoy any of the parts of this “dance” that is really offered for entertainment. Other movies with an Advaita message that have also been mentioned are The Matrix (Part One), The Truman Show, Dark City, and more.
One pointer that is common to all those movies and to all venues that offer the Advaita teaching is that, while this relative existence is highly sophisticated in terms of available technology, persons attached to the relative are still functioning like backwards, irrational savages…reacting to the emotional intoxication generated by superstition and myth-based beliefs and by their overall confusion regarding the functioning of the totality. Thus, the reason that few will ever understand their original nature or live as their natural state. Instead, most will try to live supernaturally (driven by all the magical thinking that brings) or will live unnaturally (allowing others to dictate the “right way” to think and feel and speak and act). So it is.
Yet consider the way the relative existence could change if persons could grasp even part of the Advaita message: there are seekers who admit that they have never understood the unicity completely, have never understood the beginninglessness completely, and have never understood the endlessness completely
Yet they have been freed of the majority of their misery and suffering as a result of at least abandoning the duality of playing the false roles assigned by their cultures (that is, by abandoning all culturally-"defined artificial barriers" to truth). In the wake of such abandonment, those who must deal with prideful egomaniacs on a daily basis are relieved of at least one part of their misery and suffering too, relatively speaking. Thx for the e-mail.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Good morning. I trust you are drinking coffee and watching the blue heron. After you finish explaining "love", pride might be worth a comment or two. I am not well-read, but finally got around to a book about a year ago on the 7 deadly sins and how pride was the worst. The more I thought about that, being initially shocked, I did realize how pride can't but make you feel better than other people and make your life pretty miserable. I used to always think of and refer to people by level in my company and didn't really realize how stupid that was until I was downgraded. Even among those seeking and thinking they are Realized, you have noted how many pride themselves on their knowledge. Truly, “pride goeth before the fall.”
F.: It is the recurring theme on the site—egotism/pride which cannot manifest until an ego-state manifests. For example, “Top Manager” manifests. Then, egotism/pride manifests as a result of assuming the new position, the new identity. Thus, what follows is a false sense of separation from all those others “below” (thus, arrogance manifests). Soon, however, the joy of a “higher” position fades and a sense of frustration manifests as a result of the fact that there are still all of those “others” who are “above” (hence, a sense of inferiority).
It is that assumption of ego-states which results in the insanity of each person (each of the non-Realized) on the planet being (a) an egomaniac but (b) having an inferiority complex. Talk about duality. Talk about insanity. Talk about the incongruity of backwards persons staggering about in a technologically-advanced environment like savages without the slightest clue at all about the functioning of the totality. Again, so it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
