- Let the skin of the “I” dissolve. – Maharaj
- The Real is permanent; the not real is transitory. – Floyd
- You are already in your true state. Because of the mind, duality comes in and therefore you are afraid. Fear not. Know your true state—your natural state—and be free of all of this. – Maharaj
Embedded in the words is the clear instruction. When the ears are open to hear, the intuition open to understand, the LOVE that whispers to You in each of these quotations is crystal clear. Like waves washing against a sandstone rock, these words will eventually wear you down. The sandstone rock appears solid, steadfast, unshakeable. Yet, the waves will ultimately break the bonds of cemented-together sand which give the temporary appearance of stone. This corrupted consciousness – I AM infiltrated with your billion ideas and opinions about yourself – create this rock-solid entity you call yourself. Are you so stable and intact? The sandstone rock is constantly in motion despite its appearance: fragments of rock break off, chemical bonds form and break, old sand washes away, new sand sticks. Looking at time lapse photography over a thousand years, the shifting, changeable nature of that “rock” will be seen. You gaze at the rock with such a small and limited perspective: a week, a year, 20 years, a hundred years. Open your perspective – look from the gaze of eternity. What is fixed and solid then? Where is that rock in a million years?
Now you cling to your limited perspective and see your body and sense of self-identity as firm and fixed. Look clearly. Just like the sandstone rock, the human being is constantly changing: cells are dying and growing; the air is circulating; the consciousness comes and goes like a table lamp that is switched on and off. At the level of mind and personality – this is constantly in flux. The thoughts and opinions change. Where is the boyfriend or girlfriend you thought you would love forever when you were 18? Where is the political ideology or world view that you formed 20 years ago? What views about God, religion and spirituality did you once have and how have they changed? See once and for all that the thoughts and ideas are so fleeting and temporary, they can never define you. The body is always in flux, and in any event has built-in obsolescence. The longest you may expect it to go on for is 80 years or so – then it’s back to the elements. Yet, you want to create stability from this flimsy bunch of twigs with a perspective of a few hundred years. Just because you have been conditioned to wear these blinkers does not mean you cannot take them off.
Before it formed, the raw ingredients that make up the sandstone rock were present: sand, organic materials, various mineral deposits. A particular combination of factors , geological and environmental, resulted in these raw materials coming together to create that “rock”. Later, these geological and environmental factors will shift and the raw materials will come apart again and the “rock” will no longer exist. We can complete the same deconstruction with the raw ingredients themselves: the sand and the minerals that cement the grains together; perhaps we will find calcium carbonate, clay, etc. If we adopt a microscopic perspective we can see the chemical building blocks themselves: silica; carbon; calcium. Elementary physical science explains the instability of these elements – how they combine and uncombine. All the elements - everything - cycles into and out of manifestation in this temporary shifting scene.
What about the chemical elements that combine to form what you call your physical body – and will uncombine when this physical form comes to an end? Can you see the castle of sand that you have built and labeled as yourself? In reality, this temporary clustering together of elements you call "you" has far less staying power than that chunk of sandstone rock.
The phrase “the LOVE whisperings of Advaita” may appear evocative and romantic. In reality, it is neither. When what is logical, impersonal and scientific is nakedly pointed out, when all that is false is removed, what remains? LOVE remains. LOVE with no opposite is the natural state. This is what the teachings whisper to You again and again. Listen:
- To abide in your true nature, prior to consciousness, you must go to the source of your beingness. – Maharaj
- I am beyond beingness and non-beingness, beyond consciousness and non-consciousness, and so are You. – Floyd
- Know that in this world nothing is permanent; search out what you were before this temporary state came and what you are after it goes. – Maharaj
- Liberation or awakening, then, is nothing other than understanding profoundly...
that the seed of all manifestation is the impersonal consciousness...
that what is being sought is the unmanifested subjective aspect, and...
that, therefore, the seeker himself is the sought. – Maharaj
Like waves washing against the sandstone rock, these pointers, these whisperings, will wash away all that is false, all that is impure, all that binds this temporary, false sense of identity. Rest in the empty silence; in the dark blue shade. Allow this gradual erosion to reveal the truth of Who You Are.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
(For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – that guide You from the temporary fluctuating relative stance to abidance as Your Real Nature, see the links on the right hand side of this blog.)
Comments / clarifications may be sent to louise.advaita@gmail.com
