REFLECTIONS on ADVAITA: PART 6– GUEST WRITER: LOUISE STERLING

The Deep Silence of Reality

Let’s apply a teaching metaphor to the red geranium from the wild, natural garden scene explored yesterday. (Thanks to Dennis Waite for this teaching device). Imagine holding the red geranium. Remove the petals one by one until they lie in a heap. Pick the stalk and tear it into pieces. Observe the individual pieces. Is it still a flower? Is it still a red geranium? The answer of course, is “No”. “Flower” or “Red Geranium” are just labels used to describe the temporary form. Later, even the flower fragments of “red geranium” will decay, the natural elements will uncombine and return to the pool of energy. What remains?

Advaitans use a similar teaching metaphor to unhook the seeker from the myth of body identification. You are invited to remove limb after limb, organ after organ until nothing physical remains. Are you a body? “No.” Just like the red geranium, the words “body” or “louise” are simply labels used to describe the temporary form. These labels and this temporary form is not Who You Are. What happens when the disparate body parts, the flesh and bones decay? The natural elements uncombine and return to the pool of energy. There is no death, simply a recycling of energy into and out of manifestation. Yet, even without the body, the sense “I am” is still present. The question repeats: In the absence of the body, Who Are You? What are YOU? What remains?

You are invited to read the words of Maharaj below with this question in awareness:

“By knowing what you are not, you come to know your Self. The way back to your Self is through refusal and rejection. One thing is certain: the real is not imaginary, it is not a product of the mind. Even the sense 'I am' is not continuous, though it is a useful pointer; it shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Just have a good look at it. Once you are convinced that you cannot truthfully say anything except 'I am', and that nothing that can be pointed at, can be your Self, the need for the 'I am' is over -- you are no longer intent on verbalizing what you are. All you need is to get rid of the tendency to define yourself. All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions. Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly. ... . We discover it by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one's life to this discovery.”

What You are is beyond understanding by the mind; beyond descriptions in words. You are already THAT, but this direct knowledge is covered over with the fog of misunderstanding.

“Try not to see with eyes that have only looked at things through a mask of darkness the things that can only be seen in the unmasked light.” – Floyd Henderson

Can You see that the red geranium, if lost in a dream or fog of love for its “redness” or “specialness” or “great location” is caught in the bondage of the limited temporary form? Can You see that the brown dog, if enraptured with becoming a “better dog”, or “an enlightened dog”, or “a more abundant dog” is caught in the bondage of the limited temporary form? Can You see that a human being if preoccupied with stabilizing good qualities and eliminating bad qualities, praying to a God for safe passage into an afterlife, and raising children who are special and different is caught in the bondage of the limited temporary form?

[Note: Fortunately red geraniums and brown dogs are free from the suffering of an evaluative mind that would create these pointless desires and attachments. Not so humans.]

So – what are You? What are You when every attribute is removed? What are you when every desire and every fear have dissolved to nothing? What are You outside of the bondage of the temporary human form? What are You when You are manifest? What are You when You are unmanifest? Listen to the pointers the Teaching offers again and again. You are not who You take yourself to be. You are beyond Being and Non-being. Fall in love with the questions, the Unknowing Mystery that will take You home.

"In reality only the Ultimate is. The rest is a matter of name and form, and as long as you cling to the idea that only what has name and shape exists, the Supreme will appear to you non-existing. When you understand that names and shapes are hollow shells without any content whatsoever, and what is real is nameless and formless, pure energy of life and light of consciousness, you will be at peace -- immersed in the deep silence of reality." – Nisargadatta Maharaj

Any attributes that are attached to this temporary human form are untruths; fleeting descriptions of a temporary form that is not Who You Are. Every label, every attribute, every fear, every desire, every attachment, every false identification is a rope that binds You; a strip of cloth that blindfolds and suffocates. Be free. Nothing that you cherish is worth anything – mere writing in the sand that will be washed away in the next tide. Let go of it all.

Accept the invitation offered via “ginny” in this haiku:

Rainfall on ocean.
See unicity, no form.
Come, dissolution.

(For extended teaching on the removal of the attributes and conditioning that cloud pure awareness, see the ebook: From the I to the Absolute.)

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Comments / clarifications may be sent to louise.advaita@gmail.com – a temporary email address available for the duration of these guest postings.