Hello James,
I am almost near the end of your seminar of 1/2020 that I bought from your website and have gone through about half of your Book that came with the purchase.
My understanding over past year or so has grown to a realization that there is no individuality in awareness and the one reality has the freedom to show appearances of multiplicity just because it can/wants. The more I have zoomed in on your talks and writings, the more I get the feeling that the Causal Body is the nearest experience to pure awareness (or being the background of perception, which is not a thing). You defined the Causal Body as “an impersonal power of awareness that creates, controls, regulates….”. I have a couple of questions/comments stemming from my understanding so far that I would like your input on if you will please.
(1) Causal body is still an object of perception and as such is still a dual experience, correct? So is the universal thinker, doer, controller idea still candy for the human mind ?
James: No. The Causal Body is not an object of perception. Perception is an effect of the Causal Body. An effect cannot experience its cause. The effect is gross, the cause is subtle. The Causal Body is an object of knowledge, which is gained in two ways: (1) it is inferred by the intellect and (2) is it witnessed by Awareness. Awareness does not have organs of perception so the word perception is wrong. Probably you mean known, not perceived. Inference produces knowledge. Awareness knows because it “sees.” Awareness does not need inference so it’s knowledge is “direct,” meaning no thought process is required to arrive at the knowledge. And awareness only perceives indirectly though the sense organs when Maya is operating, which do not give it access to itself. It is also completely unaffected by what it sees.
Secondly, if you mean Awareness knows the Causal Body, you are not correct that Awareness and the Causal Body, which produces the perceiver and the perceived objects, are opposites i.e. duality. Awareness is real and the Causal Body is unreal. Because they are in different orders of reality they cannot be compared. You cannot compare carrots and computers because they exist in different categories, although you can compare apples and computers. 🙂 The apparent reality does not cancel reality. You, Awareness, and experience, which is produced by the Causal Body, are the same but different. This is the meaning of Maya, which is the key to freedom. It usually takes some time for a person to get his head around this idea.
Finally, yes the controller idea is “candy for the mind” but only someone who is established in Awareness as Awareness can make this statement. If an individual who has not completed his or her sadhana makes such a statement, he or she is probably “bypassing,” to use the popular term.
Bypassing is skipping the necessary preparations for assimilating Self knowledge, which always causes the skipper a lot of spiritual heartache.
(2) “I am awareness” is more like “ I am awareing” and in awareing there is no I or other that is experienced, and IT IS NEVER OFF and is choiceless.
James: Yes. It is like that but we don’t use that word because we have a scientific terminology and nomenclature.
(3) My hickup remains on deep sleep STATE , where there is no sense of I that seeks, thinks, etc. so it must be just related to the manifested, as Awaring/awareness never sleeps. But I feel there is more to this experientially unless you think I am confusing my view point from which this question comes.
James: Deep sleep is experiential non-duality. It is the experience of freedom and bliss. But it is limited because it doesn’t transfer to the waking state. The duality of Subject and Object, Awareness and experience, reappears when you wake up and you experience bondage to action i.e. no freedom. If it was liberation, they we are all liberated because who hasn’t slept?
(4) Being knowingly in mediation most of the waking hours has basically taken away any meaning from my meditation” practice”, though when I do sit in quiet “meditation” a strong presence is there that nothing more can be said about it ( at least with my words).
James: The ‘strong presence’ is you, Awareness, reflected in the mind. It will be present when you are not meditating if Self knowledge is firm, the doer has been negated and the mind is pure.
So, I am sorry for the lengthy email and perhaps somewhat seemingly random questions, I know I am new to your circle but your words resonate deeply hence this email and questions. If you think a zoom call is more appropriate I would be happy to proceed according to your required steps/protocols. Clearly my knowledge/understanding needs to grow further so I hope to be able to join a retreat of yours if you plan to have one anytime soon.
James: You are quite advanced in your understanding but you are limited because you are trying to formulate the teaching in your own words. You need to start at the beginning with Tattva Bodh and work though the steps, once you finish my book. Once it is finished go to the ShiningWorld.com home page and click the second link on the left on the header that says “Start Here.”
I answered these questions to encourage you to stick to Vedanta. Yes, you need a teacher but I can’t teach from scratch each of the hundreds of people that come to Vedanta each year. You have to do your homework. Most of your questions will be answered as you follow the program but there will also be times when you will need help, which one of our teachers or myself can give. If you want to have a Skype chat that’s fine. I can give you a lot of help in a short time. But it is not my duty to teach everyone from scratch, as I said. I did that for years. It is my job to focus on the advanced people who know the teaching and the terminology. Once you have the terminology and are clear about the big picture, you will grow very quickly. You can also benefit from the webinars. I do a major text every three weeks and weekly Q&A sessions for two hours on Sunday evenings. I also encourage you to read the satsang section of the website religiously, at least once a week.
Love,
James
