Sam: This is living proof of the teaching and as James once reflected to me years ago about something my mind was hung up on – “it’s just Mithya” and I thought I was looking at a magician: “how does he do that? How can he do that? but I saw it was true in him 100% at the same time, I think that is where it cannot be done by books alone. The evidence, if one is fortunate to meet a qualified teacher, is so important. in retrospect, even if at the time “it feels” impossible. Iswara does not ask much in return – just persistence, faith and self honestly. For me I was a late comer to Karma Yoga – for whatever reason – it was probably getting over the stubborn idea that God = religion = can’t be true.
Sundari: So true. To find a qualified teacher that truly lives as the Self is about as rare as anything gets in this life. This cannot be faked or imitated. James’ great gift to everyone is that he demonstrates how to live as the Self, how ordinary that is, and extraordinary it is to live without fear, even fear of the inborn nature of the jiva. Which is what it is. He is totally transparent and never tries to hide anything or pretend that his jiva is perfect – quite the opposite.
Sam: As James points out in the brilliant Carbondale 2018 Bhagavad Gita (files 3, 4 and 5) – you can love God without the religion part, or the rejection of religion plus God he says there “throwing the baby out with the bathwater!”
Sundari: This is a big one, and there is no skipping it. We have both taught the three stages of God worship extensively, James Yoga of Love is probably one of his most sophisticated books.
Sam: You can hear breaths being drawn in the group as he takes them gently but firmly through the one way door of logic. I feel the spiritual atheist “me” jumping through the door and then, the door itself disappears. “what? where’s the door gone?!”
It’s like that film “Time Bandits” where this crazy bunch of tiny thieves have stolen God’s map and jump through these time doors that just appear in the middle of history – they jump through – steal things – then jump through the next one with a hoard of gold from Agamemnon, or Napoleon’s hat- and God is chasing them to get the map back. I loved it as a kid and thought how amazing these doors were and how no one, not even God, could open the doors again. That is very similar to Carbondale Audio.
Sundari: I haven’t seen that movie and neither has James, but yes. Vedanta’s logic is the ultimate map, and it destroys all doors, if you follow it. The God in your movie may not have been able to open or reopen doors, but inasmuch as there is such a thing as a door, it would not stand up to Isvara. Once Self-knowledge has done its job, there is no more Maya in your mind. So, no walls and no doors.
Sam: Once seen the logic cannot go back – but it is not permanent – my mind would dig up the “yes but monster” now, that is where I just stop walking, really pause and go “nope, I saw it” and it’s wriggling like some homunculus in a sci-fi film, it knows as a reflection- I know, the game on this one is up. With time, this reflex of fear relaxes and I feel even this will pass for sure. Once this phenomena has repeated enough it no longer gets lost in the weeds of details – like a hacker, we are now down in the kernel of the operating system itself, not just today’s virus.
Sundari: You will not need words to describe ‘it’ when Self-knowledge is permanent. Nothing changes but everything is different because though the jiva still exists, nothing binds. Love is always there, the only constant.
Sam: I watch the recordings of Video on a phone / laptop – but I get distracted visually – it is so entertaining and very helpful to begin with but in later for me precision came and comes from shutting out the visuals (no disrespect to James’s theatre – it’s just something I have observed in my mind) – it is like the video really helps with the logic and inference, but the audio forces my mind to focus, it’s more deliberate as a sadhana at least for me. I know before clicking play and I go hunting. Like solving a puzzle intentionally with a solution literally in my hand, that is for sure out there – one that the lineage solved millenia ago and I am blessed with the roadmap. At any time if you can let me have those four links (just audio) would be wonderful, At any time if you can let me have those four links (just audio) would be wonderful,
Sundari: I think most people find that assimilation is more powerful aurally than visually. I find watching distracting too.
I sent you a bunch of links to sift through, I hope you find some of them useful
much love to you too,
Sundari
