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FROM A SITE VISITOR: Any tips for somebody who is pretty new to Advaita Vedanta? Trying to wrap my mind around the idea of dissolving that some of you are talking about is boggling Thank you Kent
F.: Hello Kent. Welcome. For you and all site visitors who are only now looking into the teachings of this philosophy, understand what it means when a “disclaimer” reports that a particular posting is for those far along the “path” or “near the end of the path.”
This is not the appropriate time for you to consider "dissolution." The "path" must be followed in an exact order, and you cannot start at the end. You must start at the beginning and be guided by a teacher so that the exact order required is followed.
“The path” is a term used to refer to the route that is to be followed on the “journey” beyond identification with the body and the mind and various personas (which can also be called the “false you” or the “false yous”) and to an understanding of what the “Real You” is. Don’t be concerned at this point if that makes no sense. Just read it several times and consider the possibilities and move on whether it makes sense at this point or not.
Various teachers employ a variety of yogas (or teaching approaches, most involving disciplines and meditations, though neither disciplines nor the widespread but erroneous ideas about “meditation” are not involved in the approach used here).
Also, there are at least five teaching methods used by teachers of this philosophy, those methods focusing either on Advaita Vedanta principles or more on Advaitin pointers or more on Vedanta-based teachings.
[Since this is all new to you, it might be that you’ll want to study the various methods and find if one might “resonate” with you more than the others. Never will you be told that the method and yoga employed here is “the right one” or “the best one” or “the only one” that works. What is offered here is what worked for Me and is therefore what is offered to seekers who visit this site or who visit Me for a retreat.
For an explanation of the methods, you may use the "Search Blog" tool at the top of this page in combination with the “Find” tool on the top of your screen to search the blog for “methods.” A brief explanation appeared in the 2 February 2009 post and more detailed explanations are available in earlier postings.
Here, the focus is on the Advaita “not-two,” non-duality method and the nisarga (natural) yoga. The intent of that yoga is to guide seekers to freedom from all of the effects of programming, conditioning, adulteration, domestication, acculturation and other nonsense now stored in “the mind” in order that the remainder of your relative existence might be lived out in a natural, unencumbered manner.
A natural manner is one that is free of belief in distortions, belief in lies, the tendency toward excessive accumulation, and the burdens of maintaining what you accumulate—be that property or false identities or a plethora of concepts and ideas.]
If you choose to use the next twenty-four hours to research the methods available and are still interested, then send an e-mail to that effect. For now, understand that the “path” is a multi-step route and that each step must be taken in an exact order. Again, this in not the time for you to consider “the dissolution of any and all identification.”
Instead, this is a time for you to consider the possibility that maybe there is more involved than has been seen so far with the answers to such questions as “Who am I?” or “How did I get here?” or “What is the meaning of all this?” or “What is my purpose?” or “What Happens When I Die?” or “What in the hell is this all about?”
You might also give some consideration to the Advaitin pointer that the answer to the first question—“Who am I?”—is not “I am my body.” Nor is the answer, “I am a composite of the contents of my mind, defined by my beliefs and values and principles.” Nor is the answer, “I am a man” or “a husband” or “an employee” or anything else you can name.
That’s enough for now. Regards. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
FOR AN IN-DEPTH TREATMENT OF THE SUBJECT:
