Dear James,
I watched Atma Nivritti from the full Vedanta set. I liked the discussion on the relationship between the subtle body and the gross body very much. The text argues that thoughts don’t correspond with material objects. So, if you are thinking a thought about your body, that thought has no relationship with your body. It is just a thought appearing in awareness and it stems from awareness. Objects don’t trigger thoughts. Thoughts just appear and disappear with awareness as their source.
It also argued that thoughts change the material body.
For example, if you think of losing a loved one, this may trigger certain material processes in the material body, like an increased heart beat. I loved this dicussion and would like to hear more in how vedanta stands in this.
James: It seems you understand very well, Kevin. Good for you! What you say is exactly what Vedanta says about the relationship between the body and the mind and the mind and the Self, awareness. The Self is the cause of the mind in so far as there is no mind without consciousness although consciousness can’t cause anything because it isn’t an agent. As you point out, the body doesn’t cause the mind because it is an effect of one’s thoughts. A gross thing can’t cause a subtle thing. So the thoughts one has about one’s body are caused by the causal body, one’s conditioning. The body is just inert food apparently made alive by the presence of awareness reflecting in the mind. Dislike of one’s body is purely a mental issue that can be removed when you understand how Isvara has set up the world.
