Dear James,
First, I want to say that after 24 years of searching I’m so grateful that I found Vedanta and your teachings. This is exactly the missing piece I was looking for. And thank you so much for connecting me to Dave, he is a great person and he helps me a lot.
I’m really dedicated to the teachings and I won’t stop until I reach moksha (I know\have seen that the self is already free, my Jiva still needs to assimilate the teaching and align itself with them. It has many vasanas but with practice they start to lose their grip. I’m writing to you because there is one obstacle I want to overcome, and you may know what I’m talking about. When chanting mantras such as “Om Namah Shivaya” or other Hindu Mantras or names of Hinud Gods, I feel really scared and worried because I’m Jewish. I’m not religious but I respect Judaism since it’s my heritage. Since you are Jewish as well, you know The 10 commandments., “You shall have no other Gods but me.” Rabbis always say that chanting mantras about Shiva or Krishna or Brahman is walking out on Judaism.
I understand there is only one God. I understand God/Ishvara is not an old man sitting in the sky with a stick. I also understand that Vedanta is not about India or Hinduism: it represents universal truths: God, The Self, the world, freedom etc… Still, I don’t know how to overcome this problem. My late grandfather was a Rabbi My other late grandfather ran away from Poland before the Holocaust. I don’t want to feel like I’m betraying Judaism yet, since I know Vedanta is the correct path for me: I want to honor it and follow it the way it should be (pure). I once read somewhere a very long time ago that Ram Das, who was Jewish, also struggled with it but after he met his Guru in India, the Guru took away his fear/anxiety.
So please help me if you can, tell me what I can do to overcome this. Did you struggle with this as well? Have you met “others” like me who struggle?
Hi Sarah,
Here’s a question. Where’s the evidence that you are a Jew? I’m not a Jew, a Hindu, a Christian. These are stories cooked up Jewishness by someone other than you. Why does thinking like this appeal to you? It causes confusion and conflict. The only verifiable story that makes sense is Vedanta, which isn’t a story.
Here’s another question. Where is your story when you are not thinking about it? It’s only in your mind. Neither God’s nor man’s laws forbid thinking what you want. Plus, man’s law gives you the right to not testify against yourself. If I had the thought that I was anything other than existence shining as whole and complete ever-present unborn ordinary unconcerned awareness, I would not be happy. Think about this: Who cooked up the Jewish/Christian/Muslim stories and why? They are some of the dumbest stories I’ve ever heard.
The implications aren’t pleasant. For instance, it includes a lot of anxiety and excludes loving Palestinians, Arabs and Persians as human beings. When I was in Israel almost every Jew I met told me I was a Jew and I needed to move to Israel. I told them I was a WASH, a White Anglo-Saxon Hindu just for laughs, but religion isn’t a laughing matter in the “holy” land.
If Christ was alive, do you think he would call himself a Jew? He had an opportunity to claim his Jewishness, but he chose a more inconvenient but reasonable story, “I’m the son of God.” He even went one step further and claimed he was non-different from God! It seems torture on the cross was preferable to the idea that he was a Jew. If you’re worried about what your friends and family will think keep your mouth shut and let them think what they want. None are lying awake night worrying about your Jewishness. Tell yourself the truth and your confusion will vanish.
Here’s a story that you should enjoy that applies to your situation.
There was a man named Gregor Samsa who was firmly convinced he was an insect. Perception though his sense organs does not reveal him as a human being because the senses are controlled by the mind and the thought that he is an insect causes the senses to present him to himself as an insect. He sees his skin as chitin and his body as the exoskeleton of an ant. He likes leafy vegetables, which confirms his mistaken conviction. For fear of being eaten, he crawls along on the floor and hides under a couch when a bird looks through the window for fear of being eaten, so he can’t infer his humanness because he is completely focused on survival.
Perception and inference don’t solve his problem. However, he has a doubt because his hidden human self is always subtly informing his mind, so he concludes that he needs another opinion and goes to a psychiatrist, who says he is not an insect but a human being. He has serious doubts but is so tormented that he provisionally accepts the psychiatrist’s statement. It does not help, however, because he still sees himself as an insect.
So, Gregor needs to do a lot of work to get his mind ready to see himself as he really is. Using various psychological techniques—basically cognitive behavioral therapy— he works hard because he is industrious like the ant he thinks he is. One fine day his therapist sees that he is ready for human knowledge, so he starts with the only means of knowledge available, the words, “You Are a Human Being,” which will reveal what is already present and always experienced—his Humanness. His insect-ness is a projection from his Humanness, his fundamental self. It is superimposed and needs to be negated with the steadfast understanding “I am a Human Being.”
Similarly, our perception of ourselves as people is a projection from our fundamental Self. It is superimposed and needs to be negated by the hard and fast understanding, “I am existence shining as whole and complete ordinary unconcerned unborn consciousness.” Consciousness is primary (satya) and cannot be negated; personhood (mithya) is secondary and can be negated or “canceled.” When you cancel a person, he or she doesn’t die; he or she is simply no longer “real” for you. When you look at the sky you see blue but know it is clear. When the words of Vedanta are fully assimilated, you know you are existence shining as whole and complete ordinary unconcerned unborn consciousness appearing as a human being and your humanness is automatically canceled.
Everyone in Gregor’s family thinks they are insects, as do his neighbors, acquaintances and fellow citizens. In fact, insectness is the norm throughout the whole world. Every country schedules events large and small on all levels to celebrate insectness and protect insects from predators, particularly birds. The pharmaceutical industry makes bug spray capable of killing every type of creepy crawly stinging and biting insect and militaries constantly spray noxious chemicals on Mother Earth world-wide, not to mention that the global food chain has been treated to toxic chemicals for decades. Insect species compete day and night and kill each other in diabolical ays. Even Olympic gold medalists achieve superstar insect status and are worshipped fanatically. Insect religions abound aswell. The transcendental ANT and BEE Gods are propitiated daily by quintillions of ants and bees.
For secular insects, who are known as insectarians, an army of psychologists, psychiatrists, and their ilk—life coaches for instance—toil day and night to help resolve insect-related issues too numerous to mention and return them to society. Most insects want high insectesteem. Naturally, anyone who has an inkling of their humanness is considered abnormal and may be persecuted, ostracized, and punished for thinking differently. In some states their books are burned, and their children bullied. In others humanness is a serious felony and convicted criminals are incarcerated in large prisons with re-education facilities where loudspeakers blare the truth of insectness day and night.
Once he is qualified, Gregor listens diligently to his mentor, and one fine day he is told that he is ready to go outside as the human he truly is. He thanks his shrink and walks out into the sunny afternoon. A robin sitting on a branch hears a worm munching earth underground near Gregor, who is savoring his freedom and flies in his direction. Terrified, he rushes back to the doctor’s office. The doctor asks what’s wrong and Gregor says, “I may be a human being but the birds don’t know it!” The doctor realizes that he isn’t ready and puts him back on his therapies until he can leave his office once and for all.
Unfortunately, the human race, with few exceptions, remains, as always, in the dark about the capacity of the human mind to inquire into the truth of things, and is content to accept the perception of the senses without realizing that it is trapped in a collective web of inadequacy, mortality, vulnerability and insecurity. As the great Buddhasect said millenia ago, “All life is suffering.”
Although it is taken for granted, humanness is not normal. We have been blessed with the capacity to think, which, guided by the perennial wisdom of Vedanta, introduces us to our identity as suffering-free non-dual ever-present ordinary awareness and provides the therapies—karma yoga particularly—that transform our lives into shining reflections of our perfect Creator.
What a blessing for the few who fully appreciate the value of Vedanta, which
sages have chanted since the beginning of time. May we all recognize the reality of our true nature and revel in its ever-present bliss!!!
All I can say is, “It’s a good thing you don’t think you are an insect!”
Love,
James
