THE MESSAGE OF NON-DUALITY, From India and Asia to the “Americas,” Part Seven

[These discussions of the Asia-India-“Native American” use of Advaita pointers are in response to an e-mail regarding the May 27th HBO presentation of “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” You may visit http://www.hbo.com/films/burymyheart/ if interested in details.]

CASE STUDY: A First-Hand Account of the Advaita Message as Transmitted by One of the Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. (Continued from yesterday)

F.: In sharing a description of the means by which a foundation was laid by a “Native American” grandmother for a search that would end with Full Realization and abidance as the Absolute, do not assume that you are at a disadvantage in completing the “journey” to Realization if you did not have a similar background. It is not a requirement because it is likely that somewhere along the way, you were also exposed to a taste of Nirvana, if only for a moment.

You were afforded the opportunity to see the lie of timelines that claim to mark “birth,” “life,” “death,” “judgment,” and “eternal reward or punishment” and the lie of body-mind-personality continuity. You had the opportunity to observe the reality of the cycles. You are looking for that taste again or you would not be searching the internet engines that brought you here. It matters not where either of us “were.” It only matters that you clicked on a link to this site and that those sharing in this reading today are all now on the same page.

There is no place that is "more spiritual" than another; there is no “best place” to realize; there is no "one place" where one must reside in order for what happened at Grandmother’s to happen for you.

During the long and trying and tiring search for Self—when it was not even known exactly what was being searched for—trips were taken around the world and always, eventually, back to Grandmother’s old home site, again and again. The same red-dust lane was walked; the stone walls around the old water well seemed shorter than in the days when it was a major effort for a small boy to use a rope to draw up the heavy water bucket and pull it over those high stone walls that framed the well.

The four stones on which the legs of a black kettle had rested were all that remained in the area where Grandmother boiled water, washed clothes, and made soap. The same trails through the woods were followed, to the degree that new growth allowed. The vision that would come years later and described at http://www.floydhenderson.com/article1.htm would be set in that forest. But none of that brought back in a lasting way that elusive peace, that elusive calm, or that sense of loving (and being loved) unconditionally.

So many efforts to “change” were undertaken: change locales, change religions, change partners, change myself. Change…change…change. It was not understood that those “changes” could avail nothing. Seeking out Grandmother-like teachers led to shams instead of a truly enlightened shaman; led to remote places across the planet; led to “holy” books and to “holy people” and to “holy” places; and then led to “spiritual” books and to “spiritual people” and to “spiritual” places.

In all of those places, "floyd" was told that (a) he had to change and that (b) they knew the ways I needed to change and that they knew (c) the means by which I could change. The venues of religion and spirituality sustain themselves by claiming that “they can lead you to change and to a better life.” They never offer to guide anyone to find that which does not, and cannot, change. They never offer to purify the consciousness by eliminating the garbage of programming and conditioning. They never realize that all they are passing on is the ignorance that they have been taught.

After trying it all and visiting so many venues and studying so many of the "holy or inspirational writings," and just when it seemed that all searching was futile, and just when a “hell with it all” attitude manifested, a chance search led to the words “Advaita Vedanta.” That chance happening would finally lead to Realization and to the end of the search.

It was seen why the searching had been futile to that point: more and more and more was being sought and acquired and accumulated and learned. So much effort went into trying to be “this” or to be “that.” Wealth had been accumulated, yet that was not fulfilling. Then it was seen that it was actually de-accumulation that was being called for. After so many summers at Grandmother’s, and during so many visits back to old home place, the most obvious elements that had provided those first tastes of Nirvana has been overlooked: the joy of simplicity, the lightness of “less-ness,” and the freedom of minimalism...all of which had been modeled.

It was also seen that the programming in the city obscured in a child all his later efforts as an adult to find truth, truth that had been available to any observant witness during those summers that were passed in a natural way in a natural setting. Eventually, the path to realizing the truth that cannot be stated began not with any discovery of who I AM but with the understanding of all that I am not.

Once the manifestation called "Grandmother" ended, the remaining childhood years and all of the adulthood years were passed in a white, Anglo-Saxon, Christian culture. Enculturation led to the acceptance of one role after another, of belief in one lie after another, of a sense of separation from Self...and therefore a sense of separation from all. Via the Advaita Teachings, it was seen that I am not white, I am not Anglo-Saxon, I am not Christian, I am not Buddhist, I am not a Taoist, I am not an Indian, I am not a Cherokee, I am not anything that “they” have been telling me that I am, not anything that was definable by non-Realized persons who want to label and differentiate. And neither are You.

It was revealed that I was not “bad” or “evil” or “immoral.” It was revealed that I Am not “good” or “spiritual” or even “Realized,” really. It was seen that I am not anything that persons name with the thousands of false identifiers that they use after the words I AM. It was seen that anything which follows the I AM as a label, labels that are all dreamed up by persons, is a lie. It was seen that not only did I not need to change but that I could not change from THAT Which I Truly AM.

Then, the pure voice of the eternal consciousness spoke again, and this time it was heard, and this time it was understood:

If in doubt, be still and wait.

That which is inhaling and exhaling is an illusion; truth can only be found in the empty space of the absolute quiet and the empty moments in between.

Peace can only be found in the silence; once found, it can remain under any conditions.

It is possible to be alone and truly like the company kept in the empty moments.

Only excursions into that which is natural (never excursions into dogma) can reveal truth.

Even the seasons form a great circle, but they always come back again to where they were.

The life of a human is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where energy moves.

There is no birth. There is no death. There is no creation. There is no destruction.

There are only the cyclings of elements, air, and energy; there is no body-mind-personality continuity.

Harmony with all things is possible, but it cannot manifest in the presence of inner turmoil or in the absence of Full Realization.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be concluded tomorrow)
FOR INFORMATION ON A BOOK TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE SEVEN STEPS:

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

ONENESS, PERCEPTION, LIFE, DEATH, CYCLES, AND CLARITY, Part One

[First, a message to site visitor Gerard. Your e-mail system in returning mail sent to your new address. If you correct the problem, the information requested will be sent.]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Here’s what I’ve read or heard throughout my study of Advaita: “Everything is one. Any difference you think exists is just your wrong perception. All just cycles—no death, no life. Do not take the form you see to be what is real.” When I was in college, the more I studied, the clearer the lesson became. The more Advaita lessons I study, the less clear things are. Help! John

F.: Hello, John. Consider the following passages from an Advaita novel that was published in 2003. In this exchange, the seeker called “Kirk”—who is actually only seeking peace at this point in the novel—is being visited by a chieftain with the Advaita understanding. This excerpt addresses most of the pointers in your list. The exchange begins with a discussion of the “death/life issue” you raised as Chief Two Hawks guides Kirk through certain Advaita lessons. (The “two” part of Chief’s name is used ironically, as in I AM and I AM THAT, so he could have been named more accurately Chief Not Two Hawks.) While floating on the lake in Kirk’s boat, Chief continues with the dialogue which had been on-going:

“…There is no ‘death’.”

“No death?” Kirk asked.

“No death.”

“Why?”

“Because there is no life. There is only this moment of ‘I-Amness.’ Should you come to know the Real, then the knowingness of That which is beyond the ‘I Am' can happen. And in the moment when the realization happens, you will know That which is forever, and then only shall the peace you seek actually manifest. All the movements of your thinking, conditioned 'mind' will stop. The 'mind' will dissolve. Dis-ease shall disappear. You will know the Real You, which is ‘THAT.’ And nothing will ever appear the same to you again, for you will know that all which is observable with the eyes is illusion, nothing more than movements in consciousness.”

Kirk realized that he might be getting more than he had bargained for from this visit. How could an old Indian, reservation-schooled, come up with this? Without any formal education, the Chief certainly didn’t get this from any advanced academic training. Kirk sensed it coming from within him, or from some wise teacher, or from beyond. But Kirk realized something else about the Chief. Shakespeare had concluded that what might seem like madness can have method to it. Kirk knew the ways of Far Easterners, and he knew Chief’s roots could be traced back there for as many as 35,000 years or more. And he knew that those Easterners and their “Native American” counterparts used a similar technique to the one which Kirk was now witnessing. They seldom came right out and made a point. Rather, they tried to allow their listeners to have an experience with the truth of the point being offered. That indirect, experiential method is the same one Jesus had been schooled in when he studied under some advaitic teacher; thus, like other teachers schooled in the method, he used parables and indirect tales to allow the listeners to come to Awareness.

Still wary, Kirk looked toward the shore, touched the Chief lightly on the arm, and pointed toward the heron standing there. Chief’s head turned. The heron was shaking its head about energetically, trying to maneuver a small fish trapped between its upper and lower bill into a position more favorable for swallowing. In that act, Kirk felt he had found an example to impugn Chief’s ‘no life-no death’ remarks.

“OK, Chief—you see the fish in his mouth? The heron is going to swallow that fish, and eventually in the acids of my buddy’s stomach, that fish is going to die, is it not?”

“Oh, as far as most can see, yes.”

Kirk sensed that the Chief could see farther than most.

“But what, if not the eventual death of the fish, do you see happening?”

“I’m glad you used that word ‘happening,’ for it is accurate. All just ‘happens.’ What is going to happen is that certain combined elements, once exposed to the acids of the stomach of the heron, will un-combine. The LifeForce, which you take to be a rotting fish and which is considered heron food by you, will actually manifest in the space of heron cells. The fish does not ‘die.’ That which it Really is will cycle via another manifestation, wrongly perceived by you as a new 'form' of something ‘living’ as it cycles from ‘living’ fish cells into ‘living’ heron cells. Now that which is ‘living in' the space called 'fish' will be that which is ‘living in' the space called 'heron,' but heron cells and fish cells look enormously different under a microscope. What is Real you cannot see, and it is one and the same in all; what you can see, the form or the cells, is not the real but is an illusory figment of your imagination. Consider, for example, that what looks like a door to you, the scientist with an atomic microscope could prove is instead something quite different, without the slightest similarity to what you think you are seeing and labeling as ‘door’.”

Kirk’s expression told the Chief that more explanation would be required. He continued, “Do you see now, Kirk, that in reality no ‘conversion’ or ‘change’ or ‘living’ or ‘dying’ is taking place with the fish? That force which enables ‘life’ in the fish will now enable ‘life’ in the heron. It is not different, that aspect; it has not changed as it shifts from manifestation in the space of the fish body to manifestation in the space of the heron’s body.”

Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]