RETREATS OR SATSANG w/ floyd ONE-ON-ONE, by TELEPHONE, by INTERNET CHAT ROOM, and via THE ADVAITA COURSE BY INTERNET (see link to right)
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FROM A SITE VISITOR: Stopped by your site -- it does not adhere to the Advaita Vedanta teachings that my guru offers which are based in the sacred texts which you might want to study.
FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: Just finished reading the series on doubt. Believing I was farther along the path, but not even sure I’ve passed what you called obstacle one. Any suggestions? Thx.
F.: To the first comment: if you have a competent guru, why are you stopping by this site? Furthermore, if you believe that any texts are sacred, then indeed there will be nothing here for you. As for “my possibly wanting to study,” there is nothing I want, I being the unblocked consciousness that has seen and understood the functioning of the totality and can guide those seekers that are ready to the same. There are four methods of teachings (five if you count pseudo-Advaita). Possibly you are not aware of what method your guru is using as opposed to the method employed here. If you were, you might conclude that one method “works for some,” that another method might “work for others,” and that—most often—no method is likely at all to “work for the masses.”
And that pointer leads to the question from the second visitor. The Traditional teacher (à la Shankara / Upanishads) will tell you to study the scriptures. The Neo-Vedantins (à la Vivekanada) will promote what some consider a "weakened version" of the Traditional method.
The Neo-Advaitin teacher might tell you that “there is no seeker, nothing to seek, realize that, and goodbye—go have a good life.”
But here, the Direct Path Method and nisarga yoga are offered. Why? Because that is the way Realization happened for this speck. It is not to say that it is “the better method” or “the right method” or “the only method that works.” It is simply the one that “worked” for this speck.
In order for full disclosure to happen, the method and yoga are both identified in the banner, but that reveals nothing to the seeker who does not know what all of the methods are. So it is.
To the second visitor, one pointer offered is that “You cannot know Who/What You Truly Are until You know All That You Are Not.” However, that cannot apply in the case of a beginner trying to understand that he/she is not a body.
First, truth cannot be stated, so the scriptures that some believe to be statements of truth cannot be. Truth can be known but not told (as in, “The Tao that can be told is not the Tao” and “The unnamable is the eternally real”). So no attempt here will be made to guide you via a Traditional method to understanding that you are not the body by referring you to any “holy writing.”
Next, you will not be offered here the flowery but often appealing talks that attract seekers who are attached to their especially romantic bent, so no Neo-Advaitin pointers will be offered.
Third, you will not be told, “You are not the body. I tell you that, and because I tell you that, you should now know it. Now leave.”
Here, instead, the Direct Path Method is used, which employs thorns to remove thorns. Yes, learned ignorance must go, but, yes too, certain awarenesses are required before all can be discarded.
Here, it is understood that untruths block You from being aware of What You Are and from knowing why You are not the body. The method here attempts to remove by logic and reason and argument all belief in the untruths that block you from being aware of all that You already know.
Here, Self-Inquiry is one tool used, but what is not used is worship (of either a god or a guru), what is not use is bhakti, and what is not used are any of the many sets of disciplines that are “out there.”
Here, the method used is based in the understanding that there is no do-er but that there are many beliefs that must be discarded in order for the Realization of truth to manifest. Here, there is never an invitation to seek without (to seek via an external god or gods, writings, texts, dogma, etc.) Here, the pointing is to the inner guru, the inner resource.
When Realization happens via this method and this yoga, then the remainder of the manifestation will happen spontaneously and naturally. There will be no required continuation of practices and disciplines and on-going work or spiritual exercises.
Here, the attempt is to shine the light of awareness onto the illogical and unreasonable and often insane belief systems that block the seeing of truth and that inspire unnatural living or efforts toward supernatural living.
Now, for those seekers that sense this method might finally provide the understanding that they have been seeking, the teaching can now begin at the beginning as the discussion centers on the second visitor’s request for suggestions that will guide that seeker to understanding why he/she is not the body...a prerequisite for moving farther along the “path” to Full Realization. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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RETREATS OR SATSANG w/ floyd ONE-ON-ONE, by TELEPHONE, by INTERNET CHAT ROOM, and via THE ADVAITA COURSE BY INTERNET (see link to right)
For details click ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREATS & SATSANG
or contact floyd by clicking CONTACT floyd
