Alfred: Since I last wrote to you, I adopted the Nididhyasana stage as the work that the jiva must have from now until his last day. I understand that for me as the Being nothing is needed, but it is clear that there are still delays of binding vasanas that, despite not being distracting, do have an impact in some way on the happiness of the jiva.
Sundari: I understand what you mean by using the term ‘the Being’, but that is not the correct terminology if by that you mean Consciousness, the Self, which is not a ‘Being’ – that implies it is an entity. The Self is who you are as formless Existence, with a capital ‘E’. It is that which knows all beings, entities and objects. All beings/objects depend on Consciousness, but it is free of all beings/objects. In Vedanta, we need to be very specific about terminology, which I know is difficult because you are translating what I write into Spanish with Google. There are bound to be important differences that can cause confusion.
Alfred: This has been a complex year economically, the hardest I can remember but, paradoxically, one of the most blessed in self-knowledge. I resumed my position as a Being, something I had left behind due to gaps in knowledge and everyday life, and I thank Isvara for allowing me to have the blessing of recognizing myself as unlimited, unborn and ever-present Consciousness.
Sundari: Again, your terminology here is a problem – you cannot ‘resume’ your position as “a Being’ because you never left it. The Self is not something that comes and goes – it is always present and unchanged by the comings and goings of our personal identity. The only thing that can block access to Self-knowledge is ignorance – the hypnosis of duality. I.e., re-identification with the body/mind/world, doership and binding vasanas.
Alfred: The issue of material abundance is a matter of another analysis, but today I am writing to you for a specific question about a topic that I have been questioning for years:
As a Being, I understand that I am present in all three states: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. That I can never deny that I Am, since everything appears or arises in me and likewise dissipates. I am Satya and all I perceive is mithya. Although in the end, I realize that everything is Me.
Sundari: “As a Being’ is incorrect., as stated You are Satya, the Self, Consciousness, which is not a being. It is that which is the knower of and makes all states of the jiva’s personal consciousness possible, waking, dreaming, deep sleep. Without Pure Consciousness shining on the mind, no state (mithya) is possible or knowable. Everything resolves in you, the Self, Satya.
Alfred: I read in a satsang on the web that deep sleep is only known by inference since at that moment the intellect turns off, dissolves and only tamas is present in the causal body, therefore there is nothing for me to illuminate, consciousness, that is clear to me.
Sundari: Correct.
Alfred: I have had meditations where it seems that I am aware of myself, that is: I am and I know that I am, while at the same time I listen to how the body sleeps (even snores). For me that experience must be a kind of intermediate moment between sleeping and being awake, since if deep sleep were total, there would be nothing to observe or feel. I don’t know if you’ve experienced it.
Sundari: It’s not unusual. The question is who do you identify with – the sleeper/snorer, or the knower of the sleeper/snorer? You cannot be both.
The idea of conscious sleeping is based on the fact that sometimes the jiva, whose nature is Consciousness, observes sleep. It happens occasionally to most people for no apparent reason and lasts until the experience becomes a thought. The problem is conscious sleep is thought to be evidence of some sort of spiritual attainment but it is only Isvara delivering what should be food for thought i.e. I am the knower of sleep. But when the experience ends the jiva makes an absurd story about the desirability of ‘conscious sleep’ and turns this idea into what is always a futile practice; trying to be awake while sleeping. Sleep has a valuable function in the overall economy of consciousness and the attempt to make it conscious serves no purpose whatsoever.
Alfred: But beyond that, my doubt is about what happens after physical death. When it occurs, we are no longer talking about the previous three states, because the dense body ends its function and with it also the ego or small self.
What happens to me, the Being? If my knowledge is firm, it is obvious that I am not going anywhere, everything arises or appears in me, but what will appear?
Sundari: I am surprised you asked this question, Alfred, because you should know the answer. If you don’t, then you have missed a lot of the nondual teachings. Firstly, you are unborn, undying, ever-present, unchanging nondual Consciousness, you were never born, and you are not the body/mind, which will die. Though ‘you’ as a personal entity or ego seem to exist as a body/mind – you as Consciousness never entered the body/mind. The body/mind is a thought in you, an idea created by Maya, beginningless ignorance, the hypnosis of duality. The body/mind seems sentient and ‘alive’ (capable of experience), because you, Consciousness, shine on it. So how can you, Consciousness, possibly be affected by the body/mind, alive or dead? You are present before, during and after, unchanged.
Nothing happens to you or changes you, ever, not in birth or death. You don’t go anywhere when you are born or when you die because there is nowhere you are not, regardless of the presence or absence of the jiva – body/mind. Upon the death of the gross body, the subtle body (mind) is subsumed back into the Causal body, or Isvara, perhaps to ‘return’ as a seemingly new and different person with a new story to live.
Who knows for sure? The only thing we know for sure is that this world and everything in it is a dream world. The whole thing exists as a thought in you, Consciousness. It is not real – meaning, not always present and always changing. You as the Self are always present and unchanging, the knower of the apparent dream and unaffected by it.
Alfred: I propose two ideas of which I would like your appreciation:
1) If my knowledge is firm, I know that I am the Self and I position myself as the Self, but despite nididhyasana, Isvara did not grant me Moksha in this incarnation, so I die even with vasanas to resolve.
Sundari: You know intellectually that you are the Self, Alfred, but you only have indirect knowledge of this. You do not know what it means to be the Self because you still have ignorance clouding your understanding. Isvara will facilitate the removal of ignorance from the mind if you are qualified and dedicated to self-inquiry, which I believe you are.
But there are no guarantees that moksa will obtain ‘in this lifetime’. All the same, moksa is not an object to obtain because you were never not the Self. So what if moksa does not obtain in this life? It is only the conceptual ego identity that requires liberation (moksa) from bondage to ignorance, the hypnosis of duality. As the Self, you have always been and always will be, free.
Alfred: Would that cause one of the 14 lokas to appear in me instantly and live that experience for a certain amount of time until it is time for a new human experience?
Sundari: Who do you mean when you ask if one of the 14 lokas would appear in you? The jiva and all lokas are part of the dream world, Alfred. They are mithya – only apparently real. See above
Alfred 2) If Moksha occurs in this incarnation, Isvara grants freedom to my jiva and I become Jivanmukti, upon completion of the vasanas that support this dense body, since I am Brahman, do I have total freedom from the experience or non-experience of anything? That is, can I dissolve into union with Brahman, or sustain a subtle individuality for help and engagement with the All? Sri Sivananda’s Moksha Gita says something about it.
Sundari: You cannot ‘dissolve’ into Brahman, because that implies that you are something other than Brahman, meaning the nondual Self. What dissolves is ignorance of this fact when Self-knowledge oobtains. If moksa obtains in this lifetime, you are free of the idea that you are a limited person or jiva. The jiva then lives a life free of worry, anxiety, stress, knowing it is not the finite personal entity but the unborn undying Self.
It no longer walks the path of death, but of the one eternal life. The jiva or personal identity continues to experience life through the five senses, as ‘before’ moksa until the body dies, but it is not troubled by the mind and the habitual thoughts/emotions that occur in it. You know that all mind fluctuations come from the gunas, and the mind (jiva) is known to be an object appearing in you, Consciousness. It no longer causes you trouble. I have attached a recent email I wrote on this topic, please read it.
Alfred: I would like to have your vision of this. It is something that I have asked myself for a long time, I have read, I have analysed and meditated, but I never had the opportunity to ask a Guru before, so now I dare to ask it.
Sundari: This is not ‘my vision’, Alfred. The nondual teachings of Vedanta do not come from or belong to anyone, and they are definitely not a ‘vision’. The teachings of Vedanta are a means of knowledge capable of producing Self-knowledge with the removal of ignorance, duality, from the mind. Once ignorance is removed, you ‘see’ (experience) life as nondual – meaning, nothing other than you, the Self. The subject/object split is no more. The teachings are the perfect Science of Consciousness, totally independent of me or anyone.
When they are unfolded correctly, the knowledge they impart removes ignorance in the mind of the sincere inquirer. The guru has nothing to do with this. We simply facilitate the dissemination of these infallible teachings; we cannot make you qualified for them or help you to apply them. If the nondual teachings are not working for the inquirer, it means that there is residual ignorance in the mind standing in the way.
Which means they either have not developed all the qualifications, or they have not assimilated the teachings and/or they are not putting them into practice. Vedanta works to remove ignorance and suffering if the inquirer has all the qualifications, is very motivated, correctly taught and puts the teachings into practice.
Alfred: I thank you in advance for your patience and time. I know that language is a barrier, here in Ecuador, in Latin America, touching on these topics is completely strange, it is very little known and almost all the literature is in English (I would love to have the book Yoga of Love by James but there is no Spanish for example. That’s why I appreciate your help so much despite those limitations.
Sundari: I know you struggle to read the English versions of the books on this topic, but you really need to read James’ books Inquiry into Existence, The Mandukya Karikas, and also, the Power of Know. They are all available on our website. Unfortunately, I do not know a reliable Spanish speaking person to help you with translation, but I can do my best to try to find you one.
Much love
Sundari
ShiningWorld.com
