THE DUALITY OF SUGGESTING THAT ADVAITA CAN BE BOTH A RELIGION AND A PHILOSOPHY, Part One

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR YESTERDAY: It seems to me the consciousness which you say is the cause of nonsense is also the cause of all that is accomplished in the relative. like Steven was saying we have to work if we don’t have someone to pay our bills. We have to contribute if we want to have some sense of purpose and meaning and betterment. You have said Christ was an Advaitin. I am combining Advaita Vedanta and Christianity to live by. My religion lets me serve others. What is wrong with that? what’s wrong with trying to live like Christ and help others. That is not nonsense. Jim

F.: [Continued from the last series] First, before offering any further pointers regarding a topic that can inspire billions of persons to enter into a state of emotional intoxication (namely, religion), let a pointer offered in the past be restated here:

the assumption of religious or spiritual personas is one of the steps along the “path” to Realization, but such role assumption cannot be the end of the “journey” to knowing the True Self since that would be in direct conflict with identifying with a false persona.

Ever since the Vedic scriptures were interpreted in a manner that would come to be called “Advaita Vedanta,” many persons have taken Advaita to be a form of religion. Some persons have seen it as a “set of spiritual teachings.” Some see it as “a philosophy.”

In the latter case, the term does not apply to Advaita if one takes “a philosophy” to deal with some intellectual pursuit of wisdom and morality. It does apply if “a philosophy” points to “a process that encourages the use of logic and reason to conduct an investigation into the nature of reality.”

While “philosophy” is the more accurate pointer of the three, Advaita is actually a step-by-step methodology whereby persons—domesticated and acculturated by use of programming—can be freed from the blindness that results from having been conditioned to believe what they have been told without questioning, leading persons to behave as perversely as those Pavlovian dogs that were trained to salivate over sounds rather than smells.

The Advaita process invites seekers to question all concepts that persons blindly accept as truth, eventually allowing seekers to see clearly, to see all that is false, and then to see and understand Reality. Some consider the teachings to be a means by which persons can be restored to sanity;

others take the teachings to be a means by which persons can be freed of their false beliefs regarding personas/personality and thereby be free of the relative effects of the many personality disorders that subconsciously and unconsciously control the thoughts and words and actions of persons who think, erroneously, that they are making choices.

No matter how persons try to classify the teachings by using terms such as “religion” or “spirituality” or “philosophy,” the fact is that the Advaita understanding has its roots in an original understanding that preceded religion, religious or spiritual writings, and even words and language itself.

That same understanding can still be tapped into via the inner guru or the “inner resource”; however, Jim, that original understanding has been lost to most. Moreover, it is that institution which you mentioned in your e-mail (namely, organized religion) that now blocks most of the persons on the planet from being aware of that original understanding.

Today, there are some six billion+ persons who claim to be members of one of the three sky-cults that evolved from the words of Abraham. His words were merely adumbrations of the dualistic (so-called “pagan”) sky-cults, but the magical thinking popularized by him and adopted by billions today results in people trying to live in a supernatural fashion that in the end results in their living in a most unnatural fashion.

Thus, rather than abiding in their natural state, they knell, chant, hum, sing “special” songs, ring “special” bells, wear “special” hats, worship the words in their “holy” books, wear their hair in a “special” way or shave their heads completely, adorn themselves with drapery-style robes, burn this, ring that, fight those who have differing beliefs, ad infinitum. All very unnatural.

Yet understanding that, ironically, religious and/or spiritual persona-playing is the third of seven steps on the “journey” to Realization, there cannot be any suggestion that the phase be skipped.

That point having been made clear, your claims about religion will be discussed as long as you understand that religion and spirituality are stations on the “path” that are only meant to be a stop along the way, not the end destination.

Religious and/or spiritual roles that are assumed by persons must be played for a time but eventually they must be transitioned if the full “journey” is to be completed. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

NOTE: Moving Tuesday from the south side of the lake to an even quieter location on the north side of the lake. Postings will continue when service is available at that location.

POINTERS OFFERED BY AN ADVAITIN TEACHER SHOULD BE LEVEL-APPROPRIATE FOR EACH SEEKER, Part Three

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: The writing yesterday touched on the dilemma I face. I have to work to earn money for food and shelter, etc. I’m not paid to stack blocks and knock blocks over and stack them again. I have to use my mind. Another thing--previous readings from other teachers seem almost to praise the consciousness but you seem not to respect it at all. Even Maharaj urged some to stay with the “I Am,” and you have done that sometimes but other times tell people to go beyond the I Am. Do you see why some of us are confused? PS I’m not trying to be argumentative—just seeking clarification. Thank you. Steven

F.: [Continued from yesterday] Is it not of at least a fleeting interest that seekers come here for a retreat, many seeking to “find who they truly are,” only to find when they leave that all identity has been destroyed? More exactly, they find that there never was an identity in the first place, only words…words…words, used to try to identify the identity-less.

Are you seeing that all nonsense and all insanity have a prerequisite, namely the manifestation of consciousness? What a futile exercise in nonsense and insanity, trying to create and sustain an identity.

What a futile and nonsensical effort it also is to try to go to where You already Are or to search for that which You already Are. You Are already where You want to be, and You already Are that which you seek. You need but Realize that/THAT.

FROM A SITE VISITOR YESTERDAY: It seems to me the consciousness which you say is the cause of nonsense is also the cause of all that is accomplished in the relative. like Steven was saying we have to work if we don’t have someone to pay our bills. We have to contribute if we want to have some sense of purpose and meaning and betterment. You have said Christ was an Advaitin. I am combining Advaita Vedanta and Christianity to live by. My religion lets me serve others. What is wrong with that? what’s wrong with trying to live like Christ and help others. That is not nonsense. Jim

Jim, you will not understand this, but nonsense is exactly with it is. The content of your e-mail will be addressed tomorrow since it requires more space than is available in today’s post, but suffice it to say that you are currently identified with body and mind and personality and thus out of touch with Reality.

If you and Steven (and all persons) would be free, then you must realize that this consciousness is the source of all bondage and all ignorance and all nonsense. You must see that each concept you hold dear forms one of the bars of the prison called “the mind.”

To be free and to transcend your current “level” on “the journey” the pointer is this: consider casting aside everything “learned” since the coming of this consciousness. How? Begin by questioning all that you have accepted with faith and without questioning.

Continue by discarding once and for all your belief in individualization as well as all notions about personal attributes. If you move step-by-step through the process that can shift the consciousness from identifying with the body to knowing the Absolute, you might understand these pointers that are level-appropriate for the more “advanced seekers”:

Before this manifestation, I AM. Before this manifestation, You Are. Before pain, You Are. Before fleeting moments of happiness, You Are. Before instability, You Are. Before nonsense, You Are. The invitation is to know THAT and be done with “this.”

In that original state, there is awareness but no awareness of…no sense of consciousness at all. If awareness without conscious of-ness happened pre-manifestation, it can happen now, and if it happens now, peace and stability will also happen now. Please enter in the silence of contemplation.

POINTERS OFFERED BY AN ADVAITIN TEACHER SHOULD BE LEVEL-APPROPRIATE FOR EACH SEEKER, Part Two

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: The writing yesterday touched on the dilemma I face. I have to work to earn money for food and shelter, etc. I’m not paid to stack blocks and knock blocks over and stack them again. I have to use my mind. Another thing--previous readings from other teachers seem almost to praise the consciousness but you seem not to respect it at all. Even Maharaj urged some to stay with the “I Am,” and you have done that sometimes but other times tell people to go beyond the I Am. Do you see why some of us are confused? PS I’m not trying to be argumentative—just seeking clarification. Thank you. Steven

F.: [Continued from yesterday] Thus, Steven, it should be clear why the message offered to one seeker might vary from the message offered to another seeker. Here are three pointers that Advaitin Dennis Waite has offered regarding the issue:

“It is the perennial problem of the teacher to be able to judge where the student currently is in his or her understanding and lead them onwards from there. This is why a living ‘guru’ is really needed, so that questions may be asked and answered face to face.”

“As ever, in the philosophy of Advaita, the teaching is graded to suit the level of understanding of the student - and it is no use trying to ‘jump levels’ if we have not yet grasped the lower level principles.”

“All levels of identification must be transcended and this should be done in a controlled and stepwise manner that has been validated through millennia of teaching. Attractive though it might seem, it is not possible to jump straight to the end.”

Thus, what is told to one may well differ from what is told to another, dependent upon where on the “path” their words or comments or questions reveal they “are.” Next, to your question regarding whether the consciousness should be “praised” or offered no “respect” at all.

There can come a time, if you continue along the “path,” when liberation from this consciousness (which you seemingly value) can happen, even prior to its un-manifestation. All this “experiencing” and all these “experiencers” can then be seen as the fiction that they are, no different from characterizations being played out on a stage.

The point offered earlier regarding the body’s plant food/friction roots should have made clear that neither the body nor the consciousness presently associated with the food essence body is anything to praise or adore.

Chronic lung damage is being suffered by the physical body as a result of the incompetence of an anesthesiologist during a surgery required after an accident. Similarly, this Amness was generating chronic suffering of the mental and emotional varieties prior to Realization, peppered with some fleeting periods of happiness.

This part of the response, though, is not for those identifying with anything relative; nor is it for those playing games involving kindergarten spirituality. Persons can play the part of a spiritual giant or a religious giant or an avatar;

They can play the part of some incarnated “this” or some reincarnated “that” or a guru or any of the other roles they might aspire to. But for Me, the consciousness was frequently a nuisance as well as a continuing source of a variety of pains. It has been gladly transitioned and happily forfeited.

Were you to see how entangled you are in all the nonsense that can only happen via the manifest consciousness, You would also gladly transition it and forfeit it and abide as that natural, Absolute “state” that You Are. It is, in fact, the only state. Please enter in the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

POINTERS OFFERED BY AN ADVAITIN TEACHER SHOULD BE LEVEL-APPROPRIATE FOR EACH SEEKER, Part One

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: The writing yesterday touched on the dilemma I face. I have to work to earn money for food and shelter, etc. I’m not paid to stack blocks and knock blocks over and stack them again. I have to use my mind. Another thing--previous readings from other teachers seem almost to praise the consciousness but you seem not to respect it at all. Even Maharaj urged some to stay with the “I Am,” and you have done that sometimes but other times tell people to go beyond the I Am. Do you see why some of us are confused? PS I’m not trying to be argumentative—just seeking clarification. Thank you. Steven

F.: I see why all who are “confused” are in that baffled state. Furthermore, with a pre-warning to the ego that may not want to read beyond this point, nothing that you will ever do—or that any other persons will ever do—will ultimately amount to anything that is any more significant than stacking blocks, knocking blocks over, and stacking blocks again.

But first, to the “mind” that you think you must use. All “creatures” that live naturally function via the auspices of the brain and the unblemished consciousness.

If, on the other hand, the only way you can see it is that you must use your “mind” to earn money, so it is. How about employing that “mind” to that end alone for now? Make the living, and then leave the “mind’s” input alone after that. Eventually, you might transition beyond body and mind and personality completely, but this might be a beginning.

As for praising the consciousness, understand that any attachment to it at all will generate misery and unhappiness or instability. Were the consciousness not manifest, how could there be any experiencing of pain or suffering or misery or instability?

Here, there is no praise of the Amness. Dealing with it was a tiresome misfortune, one gladly forfeited eventually. The temporary state is not a fit state. My Eternal State, which was the state prior to conception, is the so-called “state” wherein I dwell.

Seekers want labels for everything, including themselves, so the label “The Absolute” can be used as well as anything, but understand this:

All terms used when the consciousness speaks, as well as all words generated by the impure or blocked consciousness, are nothing more than thorns.

Man created words and language, yet before words and language, I Am. Thus, that Eternal State, THAT Which I Am and have been eternally, is prior to words and language. It cannot be named, only pointed toward.

Thus, nothing that you can identify or label with words is You. This is not for the beginner. This is only for the so-called “advanced seeker.” Yes, the novice—the seeker at the “wet charcoal stage”—can focus on the I Am to try to break the training that drives persons to always follow the words “I am” with a variety of descriptors or labels.

Note: One e-mail received this week was from a person who does not understand that there are seven steps from body identification to Realization. Nor does he understand that the steps must be completed in an exact order. Nor does he understand that none of the steps can be skipped.

Nor does he understand what it means when it is reported in the banner above that the Direct Path Method of teaching is employed here, not the neo-Advaita method. Thus, he ordered that the neo-Advaita method should be used on this site (though he likely does not know what the Neo-Advaita method is and as likely does not understand the difference in the Direct Path and Neo-Advaita methods).

He has a belief that the only pointers offered should be to “advanced seekers” alone. His concept is that everyone should be told, basically, “You’re already enlightened…I have nothing more to tell you. Now go away.”

Instead, those responded to on this site will be addressed in the appropriate fashion, meeting them on the “path” where they “are,” not at the end of the “path” as neo-Advaitins advise. Therefore, the suggestion to some will be to begin with the “I AM” and to “stay with the ‘I AM’ for now.”

Others will be advised that they are ready to move beyond the “I Am.” That, Steven and others, is why some pointers from Marahaj, as well as some which you referenced here, might seem to be contradictory but are not. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]