The question I have now is that I’ve been studying some of your books and videos, and started with the translations of some Upanishads. Through nididhyāsana I intellectually accepted the logic sequence of the Vedantic system of knowledge. I mean, I’ve accepted it since I’ve started studying because studying Vedanta for me was like a confirmation of the very conclusions about the identity and the reality that I get without knowing about Vedanta. So, everything I read and study was spontaneous assimilated.
James: Yes, Vedanta confirms something that a person already knows but has been “hidden” because the mind has been focused on getting and keeping objects (experiences) in the world.
But, how can this cosmovision, that knowledge, be reflected in the everyday life? I mean, the practical side of the knowledge and not only intellectually. Of course, knowing the real nature of myself and of the desires gets for logic sequence to a cessation of the anxiety for the objects of desire and an internal peace with no-cause. Is this the end of the path? Is that what Vedanta means?
James: The knowledge “I am unborn existence shining as whole and complete consciousness” removes ignorance about one’s true identity, but it doesn’t change an individual’s experience.
Experience itself is value neutral but it becomes meaningful in a positive or a negative way because of an apparent jiva’s likes and dislikes, which are produced by self ignorance. So if you want the knowledge of what you actually are to reflect in the jiva’s life, you need to relate to your likes and dislikes differently, because you are consciousness. Consciousness has nothing to gain or lose by any situation so it is completely indifferent to experience. Any doubt about what to do isn’t taken seriously because it is known to come from the previously ignorant jiva. The path only exists because there are choices in the apparent reality. But the apparent reality is as good as non-existent for you, consciousness.
Your jiva wanted information about relationships and Vedanta, which is good. However, it shows that the jiva is still there and still confused, so the path continues. But it is a different path.
Everything that happens is the same as before but it is different because the jiva now has the benefit of an alternative point of view which happens to set it free. Freedom from what? Freedom from the need to choose. Why? Because consciousness is choiceless. One outcome is as good as another.
Having said that, what kind of choice would consciousness make as a jiva? It would see the jiva as itself and love it as it loves itself so it would make choices that actualize the highest value, non-injury, which is to say choices that promote harmony, peace and love in the world. So a self-actualized jiva would be endowed with the spirit of renunciation. It would happily give up what it wants if a given situation demanded it. Why? Because freedom and non-dual love is the innermost desire of everyone whether they know it or not. So if you loved someone who wanted to leave you, you would be happy to see them go because it is God’s will. What happens is always fine because things can’t be anything other than what they are. If they could, they would. This is hard for people to understand because they are never completely satisfied with themselves or the world, wheras consciousness always is.
Love,
James
