An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, and domesticated to believe so that you can be free, period.
(Please note: The Annual Fall Book Sale is now under way. Most Non-Duality eBooks at floydhenderson.com are on sale at 30-50% off regular price.)
The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused. Just like gold made into ornaments has no advantage over gold dust, except when the mind makes it so, so we are in being - we differ only in appearance. We discover it by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery. – Nisargadatta Maharaj
You are already Your True Nature. How could it be otherwise? You cannot not be Yourself. The eagle may believe it is a pigeon; but it is still an eagle despite its false beliefs about itself.
Why then does the seeker feel separated from this Natural State? Why does the seeker experience suffering and the endless ups and downs of the relative existence? Why then the exhausting quest?
The seeker is the victim of programming, conditioning and enculturation that have resulted in a mind filled with false concepts and beliefs about the Nature of Reality. As a result, the seeker functions from a limited and personally bound sense of self-identity. In this way, the layers of false understanding create sheaths or barriers which prevent simply being one’s True Self.
Imagine the seeker is in Cape Town, but believes she is in Houston, Texas. This false belief will prevent her from simply and effortlessly being in Cape Town. She may buy map books or use street directories for Houston, Texas, and then become hopelessly lost because she cannot find her way around. Can you see that she is in Cape Town – but she might as well be anywhere else in the world, as she simply cannot see where she is located with clear sight?
How might the seeker be “cured” of her false ideas about location? She will have to be systematically de-programmed, so that her false notions about where she is located are removed. Can you see that she does not need to be taken to Cape Town – she is already there. All that is required is the removal of the false ideas she has. Without these false notions, she will be able to look around her and see for herself that she is in Cape Town.
The seeker is already free. However, it is useless for the teacher to simply present this fact. The conditioning is too deeply engrained. The mind is too entrained in particular lines of thinking and identification. Each false concept, belief or identification creates a bar of a cage in which the seeker is imprisoned. The seeker is not really in prison, but she may as well be, since she thinks, believes and behaves just like a prisoner.
However, there is hope. Since the prison bars are false or the “not real” – these falsities can be pointed out to the seeker. Each false layer of understanding that creates a veil or sheath that separates the seeker from Reality can be removed in a step-by-step manner, until the seeker as an identity dissolves and the True Nature of Reality shines without obstruction.
There is a pre-requisite though. The seeker must accept that she is lost in a sea of false ideas, and she must wholeheartedly want these false layers to be removed. As Maharaj explains:
It may seem arduous, but it is easy if you are earnest. And quite impossible if you are not. Earnestness is both necessary and sufficient. Everything yields to earnestness.
Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment. Co-operate with your destiny, don’t go against it, don’t thwart it. Allow it to fulfill itself. All you have to do is to give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind.
This series has examined the mechanism by which the false is removed and the mind of the seeker de-programmed. The Advaitin pointers are these false-exploding devices – when the mind of the seeker is ready and they are taken into silent consideration. Often seekers find this mechanism too simple. They want techniques and mantras, and postures and visualization. Maharaj himself explains that these types of activities are only used to keep the body-mind busy when the seeker is hopelessly bound in misidentification. When there is stability and clarity, all that is required is to take the pointers into silent consideration. Just as bubbles blown by children burst and disappear when touched, the false concepts dissolve in the light of true understanding.
Understand then, the inexpressible value of each Advaitin pointer. You need not read and study endlessly. Simply follow the step-by-step instructions for removal of all that is false. As each layer is removed, there is a lightness and freedom and stability not felt before – so the benefits even during the process of de-mystification are apparent.
Follow the Teacher’s advice, however. Don’t get stuck on some pleasant, grassy false summit. Complete the journey you have started. Be Yourself – unconditioned and limitless. As Maharaj describes:
To me nothing ever happens. There is something changeless, motionless, immovable, rock-like, unassailable; a solid mass of pure being-consciousness-bliss. I am never out of it. Nothing can take me out of it, no torture, no calamity.
Find the stability he describes, by stepping out of the prison of relative life and its slings and arrows. Use the Advaitin technology. Be free.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
(For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – and removal of the false that obscures Your Real Nature, see the links on the right hand side of this blog.)
Comments / clarifications may be sent to louise.advaita@gmail.com
