REMOVING FALSE CONCEPTS – HOW POINTERS PURIFY THE MIND AND CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR YOUR TRUE NATURE TO EMERGE. PART 4– SITE CO-HOST: LOUISE STERLING

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.)

Realization is not something external that has been lost and must be found, or a state that must be discovered or attained. This state is your own nature, but it is hidden from your view with layer after layer of false understanding. There is nothing to acquire, but everything to lose. You do not seek because you wish to gain; you seek because you must get rid of the weighty baggage you have accumulated.

How is this baggage eliminated? The Advaitin approach is radically different to any method or practice or teaching you may encounter in the relative world.

The tendency in the personal development, psychotherapeutic and religious/spiritual circles is to engage with the false. Usually attempts are made to take a false element and transform it into something better, kinder, more spiritual, or more evolved.

In Advaita Vedanta, the understanding is that the false is constantly being generated by the mind. For this reason, to engage with the false in any way is futile. It is like trying to remove yourself from sinking sand by digging yourself deeper into the mud. Instead, the stance is to be still and silent, and to withdraw attention from the false. One pointer for withdrawing attention from the false is to stay with the sense “I Am” (as discussed in yesterday’s post.) Another pointer is using the negative statement: Neti, Neti – Neither this nor that am I.

Anything that can be perceived or experienced is not Who You Are. This is plain logic. You cannot perceive yourself. You cannot experience yourself. If you could, you would be the object and not the subject. The eye cannot see itself.

How then can your own nature shine unobstructed without the obscuring clouds?

By negating all that is perceived and experienced as the “not you”, you back away from the false. Neti, Neti. There is nothing in this relative world to which this negative statement cannot apply, no object or thought or concept or belief or desire or fear or experience which cannot be discerned as the “not you” using the criteria established.

What is the effect? Perhaps the analogy is that it is like walking up a mountain backwards. In the beginning, there is a vast storehouse of phenomena that must be named and backed away from. This tree, this house, this body, this brilliant idea, this desire for eternity, this extraordinary meditation experience…

Eventually the stance becomes automatic. With any perception or experience, the recognition that this is not who you are comes simultaneously. Before you were interwoven with everything that is manifest; now you have a sense of yourself that is outside of the realm of phenomena.

When you begin backing away from the false in this way, you will likely focus on what is physical and tangible. When the understanding that all that is physical is “not you”, you will notice a more subtle range of perception and experience in thought and feeling. These mental and emotional clouds are also simply noticed and named – Not this. As the field clears, you may notice a pattern to the thoughts and feelings which are often an expression of a desire or fear.

Through observation, you may notice that when a particular life role is played, a related set of desires and fears; and a web of related thoughts and feelings emerge. For example, the Neglected Spouse may generate a desire for attention and understanding and a fear of not being seen or valued or worthwhile. These desires and fears may in turn generate a mess of neurotic thought and feeling: why is he not home, he does not care about me, I am unhappy …etc, etc.

As the view clears, instead of simply being driven reactively by these fears and desires – the entire ego-complex is perceived, and rejected. This is not who I am. Neti Neti.

Like developing the “eye” for spotting a rare insect in the forest, once one ego construct is perceived, it is a relatively easy task to spot the others.

At this stage, with the heady freedom of being free at last from the slings and arrows of body, mind and personality identification, it is common for the seeker to believe he has “arrived”. This sense of vast limitlessness, the freedom from reactive programming, the sense of being beyond mere physical individuality may give rise to a spiritual persona.

That spiritual persona identifies at the level of the body – but identifies as having a cosmic or spiritual body rather than a physical body.

The spiritual persona identifies at the level of the mind – but the ideas and concepts and beliefs are spiritual. For example, I have incarnated to bring the world out of darkness.

The spiritual personal identifies at the level of the personality, but the net of desires and fears are still present. Labels are still present; labels like: I am omnipotent; I am God.

Can you see how for a time the seeker may employ the pointer Neti Neti systematically and accurately, but then become trapped on a false summit. The new spiritual persona feels so vast and powerful and helpful to humanity – that it is not seen as a new persona with yet another net of identifications.

The Advaitin Teachings do not discriminate. The identification with a physical body and the identification with a cosmic body are both still identifications. The thought “I am Joe Soap” and the thought “I am God” are both still thoughts. The persona of the Obedient Worker and the Spiritual Transformer are both still personas.

Many seekers become trapped at this stage. Many will settle comfortably into this false summit and write the books, give the lectures and create the organisations – all promising transformation and the experience of realization. The stage is characterized by accumulation and retention of false ideas, not total elimination.

However, if it is pointed out by a teacher or teaching as yet another false role, the earnest seeker may have sufficient detachment to see this with clear sight and toss it as well. Neti Neti. Neither this nor that am I.

To recap, your true nature is covered over with layers of false conditioning. You cannot remove these layers by delving amongst the false. The only possibility is to retreat from what is untrue through systematically rejecting all that is perceived and experienced.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – and the 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

REMOVING FALSE CONCEPTS – HOW POINTERS PURIFY THE MIND AND CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR YOUR TRUE NATURE TO EMERGE. PART 3– SITE CO-HOST: LOUISE STERLING

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.

L.: This morning, a bee is observed buzzing around a glade of wild nasturtiums. The bee gathers pollen, the nasturtium flower is propagated – such complex activities unfold so naturally, so spontaneously. The nasturtium just is. The bee simply functions effortlessly. What is this natural state?

What is the egotism of human beings that we believe we can only function through self-created and directed systems of thought and organization? Surely the pointer of the nasturtium flower and the bee (or any equivalent model from nature) must prompt the question: What is the natural, spontaneous functioning of humans?

Non-realized, human beings are out of touch with Reality. They function unnaturally (driven by ego-led desires and fears) or supernaturally (driven by a spiritual ego and a myriad of spiritual concepts, beliefs and practices). With these active attachments, there is no possibility of spontaneity and natural living.

All non-realized action is reactive, motivated by programming and conditioning. For example, the impassioned Christian may believe he or she is acting purely and righteously. In reality, the actions stem from the beliefs and practices imposed by the religion and which prescribe behavior as well as the roles adopted in relation to it: the Good Christian, The Helper, The Rescuer, etc, and the movement to fulfill the desires and assuage the fears of these roles.

Surely it is possible to see that in the natural state there is no imposition of ideology or belief. Did any human being appear from the womb with a matrix of beliefs impregnated in the already present consciousness? Of course not – these were imposed, just like water is corrupted by adding additives and chemicals. The popular additives and chemicals (beliefs and concepts) today are different from 500 years ago. In 500 years hence the popular flavourings will be different again. We do not see it – we are so blinkered.

How does the seed grow into the Yellowwood tree? How does the fertilized ovum grow into the human being? It happens naturally and spontaneously.

Self-realization simply means being yourself, your true nature beyond the limits and constraints of thought and identification. Maharaj describes the natural, spontaneous functioning of Realization like this:

Having realized that I am with, and yet beyond the world, I became free from all desire and fear. I did not reason out that I should be free, I found myself free, unexpectedly, without the least effort. This freedom from desire and fear remained with me since then. Another thing I noticed was that I do not need to make an effort; the deed follows the thought, without delay and friction. I have also found that thoughts become self-fullfilling; things would fall in place smoothly and rightly. The main change was in the mind; it became motionless and silent, responding quickly, but not perpetuating the response. Spontaneity became a way of life, the real became natural and the natural became real. And above all, infinite affection, love, dark and quiet, radiating in all directions, embracing all, making all interesting and beautiful, significant and auspicious.

Again and again, the primary pointer offered by Maharaj is to stay with the sense “I am”. Why does Maharaj insist that this is the primary pointer? Just as the knowledge of the oak tree is contained in the acorn, the seed consciousness “I am” contains all knowledge of your true nature. From this stance, the pointers to freedom will arise or be recognized and understood.

To return back to the source, the sense “I am” must first be separated from the hundreds of additives. The sense “I am” must also be discerned as separate from the physical body and its functioning. Until you know for sure, let go of the taught idea that that the “I am” was born with the body. You are searching for what is prior to the birth and death of the physical body. At present, your identity is entangled with so many false identifications. It is like trying to find the milk in the cake – although the milk now has a different consistency through combination with other ingredients, being subjected to heat that changes the molecular structure, etc.

To return to the theme of this series, the pointer to stay with the sense “I Am” removes false concepts by withdrawing the attention from them. Essentially, this stance disentangles the consciousness from the myriad of changing labels, forms, and phenomena in the relative world. This is the seed consciousness – prior to conditioning. Stabilized at the point prior to conditioning, it is possible to turn away from the false and turn towards what is true.

(The movement towards the final understanding and the pointers for removal of the remaining false layers in the particular order required are outlined in the book “From the I to the Absolute”.)

This self-knowledge you seek is not unique. It is impersonal. The understanding of your own nature is the discovery of the nature of all phenomena. For this knowledge to unfold you must let go of the limited sense you have of yourself and your attachments. The nasturtium and the bee function naturally and spontaneously. There is no possibility of functioning unnaturally or supernaturally; no possibility of the extremes of happiness and suffering, although both are subject to the natural cycle of manifestation and decay.

For the seeker, realization is the end of all that is unnatural and supernatural. It is a return to that simple natural state.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – and the 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

REMOVING FALSE CONCEPTS – HOW POINTERS PURIFY THE MIND AND CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR YOUR TRUE NATURE TO EMERGE. PART 2– SITE CO-HOST: LOUISE STERLING

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.

The mirror can do nothing to attract the sun.

It can only keep bright.

As soon as the mind is ready, the sun shines in. – Nisargadatta Maharaj

Imagine a vast room – enveloped in darkness. It is impossible to actually see the room, to examine what it contains. All is black. If a single candle is lit, the room will be partially illuminated. In the faded light, another candle may be discerned and lit, then a lamp, then another lamp, and so on. Slowly, more and more light will fill the room. While there is now more light in the room, it still has the character of darkness or night. Perhaps the artificial light in the room reveals heavy curtains covering every window, and these curtains are drawn back. Eventually, the sun rises, and the sunlight pours into the room through those unobstructed windows. The room is completely illuminated with natural light.

In this analogy – the room of course is the fiction-filled mind. The candles or lamps illuminating the room are pointers to truth. The sun that floods the room with light is the final understanding.

In this relative life, seekers attempt to empty that dark room by removing the darkness teaspoonful by teaspoonful. If each drop of darkness is a concept, how can that vast room be emptied by this method? A few ideas, concepts, beliefs may be discarded, but usually they are replaced with other ideas, concepts, beliefs. The room is too vast, the darkness too overwhelming. It is a hopeless exercise.

The Advaitin approach does not focus on the darkness – which is really just false understanding. Why search through what is false to find what is true? This is like looking for a pear on an apple tree. A futile pursuit.

As Maharaj explains: What you see as false, dissolves. It is the very nature of illusion to dissolve on investigation. Investigate - that is all. You cannot destroy the false, for you are creating it all the time. Withdraw from it, ignore it, go beyond, and it will cease to be.

These words are like lighting a candle in the darkened room. They are a pointer to truth. In other words, they are not themselves true as they are conceptual – and pitched towards a particular level of understanding; however they point to or direct AWAY from the false and TOWARDS truth.

Bound at the level of mind-body-personality, the seeker is entranced by the darkness. The person is hooked into the desires and attractions of the glittering experiences of the relative world and pushed and pulled by the fears and anxieties and troubles of the negative experiences.

At this level, the seeker will search for light within the darkness – looking for opportunities to grow, transform, find happiness, uncover truth, escape suffering, stabilize happiness; usually through attending courses, seminars, reading, devouring, and acquiring, or through adopting practices. All that is experiential is the false – so these activities are meaningless.

Most of the people vegetate, but do not live. They merely gather experiences and enrich their memory. But experience is the denial of Reality, which is neither sensory nor conceptual, neither of the body nor of the mind, though it includes and transcends them both. (Maharaj).

How can you find what is beyond experience? See, once and for all, that this question points outside of the playground of experience – there will never by a technique, book, course, or practice that takes you there, for these are themselves at the level of experience. This is not a logical conundrum – it is a pointer to freedom.

So – a pointer to truth is not a technique or a practice. It is a light that shines so that what is false can be seen and ignored or dissolved, creating the conditions for your true nature to be revealed. It is not something to be grasped on to, and repeated endlessly. All that is required is to take the pointer into silent consideration and allow it to have its effect. When the light is cast, the darkness evaporates. The false is no more, and the pointer is superfluous. Both are discarded.

Take for example, the pointer “I am not my personality”. This pointer, in silent reflection, will shine a light on the ebb and flow of desires and fears that are bound up with personality identification. You will see that while desires and fears may arise, they are not who you are. In this way, they lose their power to entrance and hypnotize you and draw you into the experiential maze of everyday life.

Remember, Maharaj explains that what is seen as false dissolves. When you know with complete certainty that you are not the personality – those false labels are seen as false and become irrelevant. Their power as ties that bind evaporates. In other words, the truth of the pointer persists – and those false notions that once imprisoned you are abandoned. You will never be fooled by them again.

In the absence of these false beliefs, what need is there any longer for their antithesis via the pointer: “I am not my personality”? No need at all. You are stabilized beyond the mind/body/personality construct. The pointer is discarded as it has no function. When you have reached Paris, do you need the directions to Paris? Of course not. The map can be thrown out.

The Advaitin Teachings are freely available to all who seek. However, most seekers are not ripe or ready. They are still entranced by the world of experience and do not wish to let go of it.

This is why those who are drawn to Advaita are often veterans of the spiritual / mystical game. They are not pushed and pulled by attraction and aversion to other teachers, methods, paths. They have tried the other methods and given up hope. They have stopped accumulating the false, and the mind is relatively stable and calm. The pointers are recognized – and therefore there is more chance they will have an effect.

Let’s end with some questions:

· Do you understand that the mind is filled with false concepts?

· Can you see how all false concepts block the understanding of your real nature?

· Do you understand how pointers to truth cast the light of understanding so that false concepts dissolve?

· Can you understand the effortless effect of the pointers to truth – no effort is necessary?

· Do you see how in the absence of the false, “reality can rush in”, and who you are can be known?

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – and the 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

REMOVING FALSE CONCEPTS – HOW POINTERS PURIFY THE MIND AND CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR YOUR TRUE NATURE TO EMERGE. PART 1– SITE CO-HOST: LOUISE STERLING

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.

No particular thought can be mind's natural state, only silence. Not the idea of silence, but silence itself. When the mind is in its natural state, it reverts to silence spontaneously after every experience, or, rather, every experience happens against the background of silence. – Nisargadatta Maharaj

In the non-realized state, there is a mind that is a conceptual storehouse. These concepts are acquired through a systematic process of conditioning and domestication. The Advaitin teachings point to the false understandings that prop up the non-realized, personality-led, subject-object view of reality -- and offer pointers to neutralize these false beliefs.

Let’s examine here some of the basics about pointers and how a pointer to truth can appear in the mind of the apparent “seeker” and neutralize false understanding, allowing truth to emerge.

A thorn is used to remove thorns

An example of a true idea is that “you were not born and will never die.”

Take the idea "I was born". You may take it to be true. It is not. You were not born, nor will you ever die. It is the idea that was born and shall die, not you. By identifying yourself with it you became mortal. (Maharaj)

An example of a false idea is that you are a mortal person who was born on a particular day to particular parents, and that you will die.

In this scenario, the true idea or pointer can be taken into silent consideration. Since it is “true”, ultimately it will have the effect of eliminating the false ideas that are linked to or contrary to it.

The true idea is not real. It is a thorn. All concepts are false. However, the thorn or true concept is used to eliminate the false concept.

Eventually, when all false concepts are eliminated, the true concepts are also discarded. Non-duality is a concept-free understanding. The objective is the elimination of the concept-filled mind in its entirety.

Pointers may arise spontaneously or be provided by a teacher/teaching

Pointers to truth may arise spontaneously in the mind. However, most often the pointers are offered by the Advaitin teacher through writing or verbal instruction. Often the pointers may be offered but not taken.

Maharaj asserts that the primary pointer is to stay with the sense “I am” without attributes. This is like simply focusing on the seed from which the tree emerges, rather than examining the tree’s every leaf, branch, twig, flower or fruit. To find the source, return to the source. From this seed, Maharaj explains, the knowledge will unfold spontaneously.

Pointers must be level appropriate to be effective

While the egotism of the seeker often creates a compulsion to seek advanced pointers, this will not work. The clouded mind consists of layers of false concepts that must be eliminated in a particular order for the final understanding to occur. When “louise” began studying with “floyd”, despite years of spiritual seeking and meditating, the pointer “you are not your physical body” had not been offered, and this was the initial pointer that was required for silent consideration. In the case of “louise”, while much that was false at the level of personality, egotism, ego states had been eliminated, there was still a false belief of being a separate physical person in a world of objects. Until that preliminary “mind cloud” was eliminated, there could be no possibility of liberation.

The mind of the seeker must be ripe for the pointer to have its effect

A pointer can only be “metabolized” and have its purifying effect when the mind is ready. Later, when the student is “ripe”, the pointer may appear to arise spontaneously in the mind; in reality the pointer has often been offered by the teacher at an earlier time, but only now can it be directly understood.

The mind of the seeker must usually be relatively calm for the pointer to have its effect

The message offered on this site, is that there is no such thing as peace of mind. The mind being a storehouse of learned ignorance is false and unstable. While this is the case, it is also acknowledged that for a pointer to take root and be understood completely, the mind needs to be still and calm. If you toss a pebble into a still, clear pool of water, the pebble is easily seen. On the other hand, if you toss a pebble into a turbulent, murky pool, it will not be easily discerned. The mind filled with racing thoughts, conflicting ego personas with a myriad of agendas, and competing desires and fears is not calm. Instead, it is chaotic and troubled. To introduce a pointer into a turbulent mind like this is pointless. First the mind of the seeker must be relatively still, calm and untroubled. This is why advanced seekers may naturally enter the forest dweller stage (which does not require leaving a home, family and work but does require elimination of the “noise” and “busyness” and “drama” of the ego-led relative life.) This stage can be equated with the still, clear pool referenced above.

Pointers must be reflected on in silent contemplation

A pointer is like a tablet of detergent. When tossed into the pool of the mind, it naturally cleans and purifies. There is no particular need to “do” anything. This is contrary to the goal-driven, accumulation-orientated society that strives to gain and get.

Maharaj explains:

"These moments of inner quiet will burn out all obstacles without fail. Don't doubt its efficacy. Try it. Silence is the main factor. In peace and silence you grow. In peace and silence, the skin of the "I" dissolves and the inner and the outer become one."

"Your hope lies in keeping silent in your mind and quiet in your heart. Realized people are very quiet. You must realize yourself as the immovable behind and beyond the movable, the silent witness of all that happens."

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – and the 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