THE FOUR METHODS FOR TEACHING ADVAITA VEDANTA, Part Two

FROM A SITE VISITOR: I’m lost. I’ve read every book I can get my hands on about Advaita Vedanta. I’ve studied the words of Adi Shankaracharya, Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekanada, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and now you. And it all seems like one contradiction after another. That was the whole problem with everything I tried before Advaita Vedanta--one contradiction after another. Some teachers say I have to love everyone. The next teacher doesn’t even mention love. Some talk poetically. Others talk in what I would call a realistic way and delivery their points in a hard, smack you between-the-eyes style. So what’s the deal? I got involved with AV because I was looking for sanity but I’m going nuts in the process. Greg.

F.: Today, the fourth method of teaching Advaita will be discussed:

TEACHING METHOD: The Direct Path
First, all of the following pointers about the Direct Path Method come either from Dennis Waite or from Advaitins quoted in his book BACK TO THE TRUTH: 5000 Years of Advaita, (including pointers from Atmananda Krishna Menon, Francis Lucille, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Gregory Goode, and John Wheeler). These are the basic principles of the Direct Path Method which distinguish it from the other methods:

· This method provisionally acknowledges "the seeker" and "the guru" though proclaiming unambiguously that there is only the Self.

· The Direct Path provides a means by which untruth is removed via arguments.

· The teachers that use this method understand that once Realization happens, life carries on with itself, by itself, without our intervention.

· Self-Inquiry—not bhakti or worship or disciplines—is the principle means of Realizing.

· There is no do-er.

· Beliefs must be deconstructed for Realization to happen.

· Rather than seeking without (via god, gods, or “holy” writings) the Direct Path Method emphasizes seeing directly that truth which can be known from within, via the inner guru or the inner resource. (NOTE: The gurus/teachers that use this method always eventually invite the seeker to go within but only after the obstacles which block seeing with clarity—namely, obstacles such as concepts and beliefs—have been removed. fh]

· After Realization comes about via an understanding of the pointers offered via the Direct Path Method, the natural freedom of one’s true nature prevails for the remainder of the manifestation (hence, the connection with the nisarga yoga, or natural yoga, approach).

· The Direct Path Method is not goal-oriented or prescriptive (as is Neo-Vedanta, for example) and attempts to simply point out the way things are.

· Often using present experiences as data or examples, the Direct Path Method deconstructs the existing body of presumptions, the belief systems, and the psychological structures—all of which make persons feel separate, vulnerable, and cut off from reality. [NOTE: What persons call “problems” all arise via the warped consciousness, the bogus “mind,” the ego-states assumed as identities by persons, and the personality disorders that result; therefore, the teacher that uses the Direct Path Method must have some advanced understanding of the principles of psychology. fh]

· When the illogical, unreasonable, and irrational nature of psychological structures are held up to the light of awareness for a seeker that is capable of being logical and reasonable and rational, the psychological structures peacefully dissolve.

· An awakening happens that is marked by sweetness, by an immediacy, and by a gapless clarity which is awareness itself. And quite often, there’s laughter!

· The Direct Path Method actually does not prescribe a “path” or “journey” as such since You Are already That Which you seek; however, a student-guru arrangement is usually required since the understanding must be delivered in a series of progressive “steps” that must be taken in an exact order. The advanced steps are built on the foundation of the preceding steps, so each step must be understood completely before a seeker can move to the next.

· Rather than practicing disciplines and adhering to esoteric paths and preachings, this method attempts instead to deconstruct persons’ everyday view of “the world” and “themselves” in order to guide protégés to an understanding of what they are not in order to understand That Which They Truly Are. [NOTE: With Realization, Consciousness, Awareness, the beingness, the non-beingness, and the Absolute are all understood; thereafter, the relative existence happens spontaneously for the remainder of the manifestation of consciousness.]

So that is the take on the Direct Path from several Advaitin teachers as offered in Dennis Waite's book. Others aspects of the method will now be offered.

This method does not try to “give” seekers anything since Direct Path teachers know that, ultimately, there is no seeker and that there is no “one” to “gain” and that there is nothing to be gained; conversely, the Direct Path teachers know that too much has been given to seekers already (namely, all of the false dogma and concepts and ideas and beliefs which now block seekers from seeing reality and from Realizing truth). Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” The Conclusion

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: It has been shown that the “mind” supports the assumption of personality and that personality is at the root of most relative existence problems. It has been asked, “Doesn’t all this talk about the mind and personality and personality disorders deal with the relative, and isn’t the relative an illusion?” The answer: Of course; however, if one believes in mirages and continues to suffer from automobile accidents that result when the driver takes evasive action to dodge mirages that seem to appear in the road, then mirages have to be discussed. They also have to be understood by the person driving and swerving and suffering if that destructive behavior is to end. Thus, this discussion.

FINAL SUMMARY

· For millions of years, humans survived and functioned well enough with a small, primitive brain and with no mind.

· Over the last four million years, human brain volume has increased from about 400 ml to about 1400 ml. Only recently during the evolutionary period did the brain develop the capacity to store memories and to retrieve memories, allowing for the formation of a “mind” which could store and retrieve information which could help avoid potentially-dangerous situations.

· After languages developed, persons with personal agendas began programming and conditioning the minds of persons, and the corrupted “mind” began overriding the brain, motivating foolishness and/or dangerous conduct (such as the brain saying, “Alcohol poisoning is killing the body and making it feel ill” but the “mind” overruling the brain and saying, “It will be used anyway since it will make me feel better”; or the brain saying, “This dogma is self-contradictory nonsense” but the programmed “mind” saying, “I have to believe all of my religious and spiritual teachings or my body will be tortured with fire forever”).

· When one has been programmed and conditioned, freedom does not exist since the power to choose does not exist.

· Once persons began storing in their “minds” the memory of ideas and beliefs and concepts that are taught by persons with agendas, then memories became dualistic in their nature.

· As human “minds”—and therefore human behavior—became more abnormal as a result of dualistic beliefs and concepts, children began forming personalities in an effort to adapt to abnormal family situations.

· With its belief in personas, the “mind” became more corrupted and warped and personas were attached to as identities. Personality then began to generate a variety of personality disorders, and personality disorders now generate most of the insane-like thinking and behavior of humans.

· Some claim, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste?” Nowadays, it would be far more accurate to say, “A mind is a terrible waste.” As Dennis Waite puts it, “The purpose of j~nAna yoga is to remove the obstacles to Truth.” The content of the “mind” has become the obstacle to seeing the Truth. Maharaj advised: “Go to zero concepts.”

· Adults, unconciously driven by memories and programming and personality, behave more and more in childish and nonsensible ways.

· Personality now generates the majority of the “problems of the planet” as personality disorders determine how persons emote and think and, therefore, determine how they behave.

· Billions of persons are blindly and unquestioningly doing what their programmers would have them do.

· The solution to "the problem of the planet" is Realization, including the discarding of all body-mind-personality identifications.

· Anything offered by Advaitins can only have “applicability” during the relative manifestation.

· Post-Realization, AS IF living can happen. When the ego dissolves via Realization, then happiness begins because fear and desires end.

· Full Realization will result in complete freedom…even freedom from believing in power or free will or choice. Seeing clearly, it becomes understood that the “problems of the planet” are illusory and that there is no “you” that has any problems.

· Only post-Realization can persons be free of the insane-like condition of not even knowing Who/What They Truly Are…and what they are not.

· It is “the direct path approach to Realization” that is offered on this site. Following the direct path requires no worship, no practices, no sacrifices, no giving or taking, no adherence to rules or dogma, no daily or weekly meetings, no fund-raising, no special buildings or special clothes, no robes, no special haircuts, no physical posturing, no holy texts, and no accoutrements. (It is because of the “no holy texts” part of this path that some suggest “vedanta” is not even applicable.) Pointing to the Original Understanding, which is the same understanding attained via Realization, makes the approach vary from other methods. That said, there is no suggestion that any path is “superior” to any other.

· The direct “path” that is being illuminated here allows a seeker to remove misperceptions via an objective investigation of all personally-held concepts; allows the continuation of the “journey” once it is understand that the highly-valued “mind” is to be devalued and discarded; and allows the seeker to advance along the way by removing the obstacles on the “path” (specifically, the psychological abnormalities) which support the erroneous belief in personas and which enable a childhood set of tools called “personality” to control the entire relative existence of adult-age persons across the face of the planet.

· Moreover, the direct path as expounded here is the path to natural—rather than unnatural or supernatural—living. Rather than “setting a goal” to worship god(s) or to know the Self, the direct path allows an awareness of the no-self, the no Self, the no-Being, the non-beingness, and the no-concept, non-dual Reality.

· If the content of the “mind” (which is a conglomeration of distortions and misinformation) is discarded, then the effects of personality can be discarded. If both the “mind” and the “personality” are discarded, then the remaining steps of the Seven-Step Journey to Reality can be completed and abidance as the Absolute can happen. Only then can freedom during the manifestation also happen. But it all begins with questioning and then discarding attachment to the illusions of the body-mind-personality triad. Please enter the silence of contemplation. For additional information, click

here
TOMORROW: A RIVER THAT FLOWS INTO THE OCEAN OF REALITY

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