Topics: Standing as awareness. Vedanta, a school of thought? Sound and silence.
Prakriya literature. Testimony of a Self actualized person.
Hi, I recently saw your video with Rory Mackay. It’s my understanding that Self actualization involves going beyond intellectual understanding and engaging in deep, sustained contemplation on the basis of the implied meaning of the nature of reality by speaking directly to the intellect using Vedanta, the means of Self knowledge.
James: Yes. Many people think that just knowing “I am unborn existence shining as bliss/consciousness” is the end of seeking, but Vedanta says that Self knowledge without Self actualization – living every day AS the Self – is useless. People seek freedom because they are dissatisfied with themselves and their lives in the first place. They think that the dissatisfied self will be replaced by a satisfied self, which is possible. Who doesn’t want a satisfied self?
Inquirer: I see a lot of other schools of thought that teach a “stand on awareness as awareness” meditation like Bob Adamson, John Wheeler, Candice Owens (resting in pure viewing-awareness). Even Nisargadatta seemed to teach the idea of just meditation on one’s “awareness”, “beingness”, “isness” – which implies that they did not meditate on the knowledge but on the pure “silence” of being. In other words, one says contemplate on the knowledge and the other contemplate standing on awareness as awareness … one on knowledge and the other on the silence. Which is right or are they both right or valid???
James: First, Vedanta is not a school of thought, a set of beliefs or opinions about existence shining as consciousness. It is an independent means of Self knowledge that any qualified person can employ to get rid of the ignorance that apparently obstructs one’s appreciation of the always satisfied Self.
But in terms of this discussion, they are both right because both have the same result, instant identification with awareness, if you define silence as the
silence not opposed to sound. The only “silence” that fits that definition is existence shining as awareness. Physical silence is not non-existent, but it is not real. Belief that it is real prevents assimilation of the fact that there is only one awareness, or “silence” if you prefer. Self realized people don’t think physical sound is real sound.
If there is only one self and if you are aware, you are it. You don’t need to be informed that you are aware because it is self-evident. With Vedanta’s method of Self inquiry backed by numerous scriptural assertions, you realize you always “stood AS awareness, are standing AS awareness and will stand AS awareness.” Time be damned.
However, simply claiming “I am awareness” only sets you free of the notion that you aren’t awareness if you understand that awareness is unaffected by whatever thought appears (by Isvara’s grace) in it, including the thoughts “I am awareness” and “I am not awareness.”
Practically, however, nearly everyone needs more than the words “I am awareness.” One of my teachers assimilated it in thirty minutes but he was a rebirth yogi, so all the necessary physical factors to keep the knowledge firm were already in place when he met his teacher. It took Ramana about 20 years. It took me about two once I met Chinmaya swami, but I already had a conforming lifestyle in place, and I had completely rejected all samsaric solutions, so it was enjoyable and more less effortless.
The prakriya literature supplies supporting logic (tarka) that evolved to make Self actualization easier. Prakriyas are logical workbooks that define Self inquiry and remove the ignorance that generates the knowledge “I am unborn existence shining as whole and complete bliss full awareness.” Atma Bodh, Vivekachoodamami, Panchadasi, etc. are typical Vedanta workbooks. I’ve rendered all the important prakriyas in straightforward English. My latest, “I am ordinary awareness” subtitled “The World is Too Small to Disturb a Wise Person,” is very popular. I recommend it. It is Sanskrit free and is actually Shankara’s Aparokshanubhuti disguised. The raft of “Gitas” like the Avadhut Gita and the Astavakra Gita are ineffective without tarka. The intellect deserves more than a mere verbal assertion of non-duality.
Here is a testimonial from one of our people who has completed the Self actualization phase and stands AS awareness. Obviously, there is no subtle or gross “standing” involved because the only awareness has no body-mind-sense complex. Standing just indicates hard and fast Self knowledge.
Dear James,
I read ‘I Am Ordinary Awareness ~ The World Is Too Small To Bother A Wise Person”. It is great, a beautiful rendering of Aparokshanabhuti! In fact, it’s an improvement on every commentary of Aparokshanabhuti that I have ever studied. The actual comments are absolutely wonderful, easy to sign onto and realise. When we get to a certain stage, we start to see that as we soar into the spiritual heights we simultaneously understand things – especially Vedanta – with ever-increasing clarity.
The outside and the inside become one and the same splendour. As long as sincere inquirers – even occasional readers – have Karma Yoga in place, then simply by signing on to the logic of each sutra, one will see that matter, thoughts, feelings and perceptions are non-separate from Awareness and that oneself – Awareness – stands alone with or without the material principle. I must say that your talent for teaching and writing is reaching its zenith.
James: Well, it’s not just me. I get better because people in our satsang are evolving. Such people always demand subtler and subtler teaching. Isvara supplies what is required, and I pass it on, hopefully growing as a teacher in the process. So, all glory to God. I am just an instrument.
A very wonderful aspect of Vedanta brings up long-hidden childhood memories – beautiful reminiscences of vivid Self-experiences which prove that when we were children, we were actually free. We just didn’t realise it, because unfortunately we lacked the mental capacity and strength to withstand the onslaught of our so-called “adult” environment, our biological caregiver’s insistence that we must move on from the guileless wonders of a bliss-filled now and enter future imagined selves.
It’s all too obvious when seen from the complete being we all are. As nature intended, I perceive from the diamond-like splendour of the infinite. It is wonderful. As the Yoga Of Love rhetorically states, “how can a thing and its opposite be just one thing, Myself”? When I rediscover my unmodifiable identity, I also realise that – as the Bhagavad Gíta says at the end of Chapter 18 – Maya is my own creation! As Maya, the creative principle, I make all creatures “go around and around as if they were mounted on machines”. This knowledge disappears as it destroys Self
ignorance leaving me pure as the driven snow. As you say: “I am one up on Isvara/Maya, the creative principle, aka the three gunas”. It is my nature to perceive whilst simultaneously being everything. Sight is a charade actually, because I am already all things.
Aparokshanubhuti (direct experience/knowledge) has long been my favourite scripture because it’s just so beautiful. It is a simple auxiliary text along with the equally beautiful Atma Bodha. When we met in Reigate, Surrey back in 2017, you were teaching Atma Bodha. Om Namo Bhagavaté Sri Ramanaya!
Here’s funny story cooked up by Maya, the creative principle. I dreamt that a lovely young lady was selling blotter tabs of LSD in two strengths, ordinary ignorance and strong/non-dual ignorance. She said, “You need to be sure because non-dual ignorance will turn the world into a dream, whereas the weaker version leaves the status of the world unchanged.” I chose non-dual ignorance. When the acid reached its peak and my tamasic fog lifted I didn’t wake up as awareness I realized that I awareness was missing the apparent me! Well, the conditioned mind was present, but very far away, let’s say it was too small to disturb me in any way.
Isvara is such a jokester. All roles are God acting in God’s play of consciousness!
