Sundari: Thanks for the update, it’s always such a pleasure to read the elegance of your thoughts, even though they are just thoughts and you are not the thinker. Observing what manifests in the mind, holding the position of the uninvolved witness, and curating it with Self-knowledge is the key to a sane life for the jiva. Especially given that only 5% of what drives the mind is consciously accessible. This is quite something to wrap one’s head around, to use a rather inept expression to describe a very complex idea. I attached two satsangs I recently posted about this, which barely scratch the surface. They are called “Are You the Candle or the Sun?’ and ‘A Guna Cognizant Mind is A Mind Like God”. 

However, even though as the Self, the conscious and unconscious levels of the mind (which all originate in the Causal body) do not affect you in any way, it certainly behooves us to get a grip on the complexity of the mind if we want freedom from it. Self-knowledge bestows upon the mind the most subtle and sophisticated understanding of everything concerning *mithya*; when nondual vision is firm, nothing is beyond our understanding. The Vedanta pramana literally explains everything.

But that doesn’t translate to moksha being the default position of the mind—where it is no longer capable of wavering due to the fluctuations of the gunas.  The gunas still fluctuate and the body/mind remains subject to syntropy and entropy, but Self-knowledge never fluctuates.  This is a work in progress for most inquirers. It’s tough being a jiva, and even tougher getting rid of the notion that you are one.  Isvara does not make it easy, as I explain in the attached satsangs.

Have you heard of the ‘Red Queen’ hypothesis? It was coined by evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen positing that a species must constantly adapt and evolve not just to gain an advantage, but to survive. He named it after the character in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’ who tells Alice that in her world, you have to keep running just to stay in the same place.

Well, that’s an apt description of mithya if there ever was one. Everyone’s running after or away from something, but they are always in the same place.  We are born, we grow up, old age comes and soon ‘we’ are gone.  But did anything happen?  It’s a blessing to be born with a good mind; some worldly people mature, gain wisdom and knowledge, and perhaps even become great souls.  But unless ‘you’ as an ego identity have been blasted away by Self-knowledge, you never got anywhere.  

This applies to most intellectuals, and most of the smartest thinkers who ever lived, are alive now, or who will ever live. It’s quite amazing how Isvara can develop the mind to be capable of such complex brilliant thinking – and yet. Still ignorant. 

As an inquirer, the mind poses the biggest obstacle to Self-knowledge because it is not only indoctrinated by duality, or beginningless ignorance. It is incredibly difficult to access most of its content, 95% of which lies in the personal unconscious and the macrocosmic unconscious, as explained in the attached satsangs.

Much love

Sundari

Dear Sundari,

After our last communication Isvara has had an elegant, precise way of repeatedly teaching me what I had prayed and pray for – knowledge. I am more grateful than ever for both your work and teachings – I listen every day first thing to a chapter or two and at night when walking. While I met James many years ago, it seems like the blink of an eye now.

Recently it’s been 4 months of “forced” reflection – but this does not describe it accurately.  I as the Self asked for it and received – it is not like I as the Jiva am sitting down to “meditate” or “work on myself” or “reflect”. Quite the opposite!

It happens in bursts – old vasanas, still unconsciously seeking a result – now don’t get the result at all….until I see “ah ok I see now I was looking for a result” and then this “jester” Isvara hands it to me – in a different form, in fact “better” – by often realising, well after the fact, that no result was indeed better in hindsight – for work, health, friends, whatever.

Crucially only when “I” as miserable Jiva have thoroughly grieved over not getting the expected result. Only then, does the entire trace become conscious and I can see in stark reflection what caused it – apparently for the first time – but I end up laughing knowing now – again – it was that old thing and can make the discrimination.

I think many of the more “intellectual” types attracted to Vedanta (who may have rejected dualistic religion, God even in that form, perhaps bounced like a pin ball into spiritualism, “God free Buddhism” or even a cult and bounced out again) – don’t realise that at some point, being dispassionate about results means giving it up, actually want to give it up, to Isvara. This is new. 

Karma yoga now means to me admission, true admission, that I as the Jiva am not in charge, not even in a small sneaky way. To be liberated means handing over to Isvara – but this is the case anyhow – my Jiva just needs to learn this, repeatedly, there is nothing there in Mithya (anyhow) which liberates anything, quite the reverse.

Many years ago a girlfriend had a small kitten who was shitting everywhere and she was told by the vet that she had to take the kitten and rub his nose in it, then it would learn. I do not know if she did (nor do I particularly agree with the method nor know if it works) – but this is how my Jiva feels and it is a blessing. The Self “asks” (somehow), Isvara responds but my Jiva feels like that kitten, all the time – mentally, emotionally and paradoxically it definitely makes “life” far easier, with real hope and faith.

If anyone ever needs 100% concrete proof of Vedanta I find it is not in any amazing temporary spiritual experiences (of which I have had few…I think I have…but forgot!)  – but for me its knowing what the Self is not from a non-dual standpoint. Vedanta allows me as the (Jiva, mind, complex) to allow light to shine on all that the Self is not, this is the proof I take home.

It is pretty tiring and oddly like a trap – I as the Self realise there is no “out” for the Jiva or any Jiva. If I only saw that it would be like being buried alive (mentally or emotionally), truly depressing and terrifying even – but that is not all there is – there is being alive itself which is existence, even if “I” don’t feel it, this is glorious. 

I find I am naturally more compassionate with both people I know and don’t, knowing this is the same for all as for me. I know the entire merry go round will keep going forever, for all Jivas and oddly that is ok. Karma yoga is indeed the saving grace which keeps me, as the Jiva, sane even if it’s like a sorry kitten with a tough owner at times.

In myself I feel great. Reading about Rory’s passing and incredible journey makes even “health issues” shrink to the tiny pinpricks they are.

much love to you both,

Sundari: This love is the truth of who you are, the direct experience of the Self when the attachment to the body is finally lessened. Unguarded, unconditioned. You, the Self, shine forth. It’s powerful stuff. Anyone coming into contact with you will feel it and know it because it does not belong to ‘you’ as the person. We feel this love very strongly in the ‘heart cave,’ located physically in the human heart, but it is not actually located anywhere because it is the non-local bliss of the Self.  This is the love you are, and are experiencing. As are those coming into contact with you.

Every major religion and spiritual tradition—Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam—identifies the heart as the seat of the deepest human knowing. The heart is an organ science is only recently fully understanding. Yoga calls the heart the hrydaya, the essence—that without which a thing is not a thing—like sweetness is the essence of sugar. Sugar cannot be sugar without sweetness. Meaning the true essence of everything is Consciousness.  You as a discreet ‘you’ or jiva, are ‘melting’ into this all encompassing bliss of the Self.

Whether the body lives or dies, you are very blessed to be having this experience, as it is rare. Some NDE’S have it, but usually not when they are still very much compos mentis, as you are. It’s the high everyone is chasing in the spiritual world, not realizing that the experience is not the aim. It is the recognition of your true identity, which is not an experience. Just the truth of who you are, without anything obstructing that knowledge.

Q: Paradoxically, I am also in love with living and would love to be here ‘in a body’ longer. I have so much to live, and to die, for. So is fighting my sentence fighting Isvara? My question is not coming from fear but the opposite. 

Sundari: As with any question that can be asked regarding nondual thinking, it all depends on who is asking it. Or rather, who wants a different result. If you were asking as a fear-filled jiva, the answer is probably yes. You are fighting your fate and therefore fighting Isvara.

There is nothing wrong with death. I am pretty sure it will be the most incredible experience one can have in a body will be leaving it. After all, as beautiful as it is to be alive, it is also pretty hard to be in a body, especially if you believe that is who you are. That you are born and die. Which I know you don’t. So I know you are not asking as a fear-filled jiva.

But even so, life is not easy on the body/mind even when you know who you are. Maya does not disappear when avidya does. The push and pull of duality, the gunas is relentless. Things fall apart and hurt. Gravity still pulls, entropy still marches us steadily back to dust from whence we come. After all, that is why we all start inquiry.

We want freedom from and for the jiva. It is the bondage we want to be free of, not life itself. Life is beautiful and it is a privilege to be ‘in’ a body. So yes, as you are asking as the Self, there are times it is appropriate to say no to Isvara and ‘fight your fate’, even as you love it.

So, the first thing is to be certain that you have cleaned out any anger or unfinished business attached to your life story—people who have hurt you, situations gone bad, etc. If you haven’t, you are not free even if you know that none of it is about you. Which it is not, as the Self. Since we incarnate to resolve our karma, and Isvara is karma phala data, then we are here in a body to do that, and realize the Self. That’s the main purpose of life.

All of our conflict/friction dynamics are driven by the unconscious minds (personal unconscious and macrocosmic unconscious—Causal body) which contain our conditioning and our past. Most of who we are as conscious beings is driven by it, whether we like it or not.  Our conditioning and our past weaves its way into our psyche like a parasitic vine wrapping itself tightly around the host tree, slowly suffocating, distorting it, changing its shape. And sometimes totally deforming, even killing it.

The scientific consensus is that the conscious mind—the part of you that reads these words, deliberates, and believes it is making decisions—controls approximately 5% of your cognitive and emotional activity. The remaining 95% is conducted by the unconscious mind. The vast, silent, invisible machinery that operates below the threshold of conscious awareness.

It generates the thoughts you think are yours, producing the decisions you believe you make, generates the feelings you think are yours, and runs the biological systems that keep you alive. All without ever asking your permission or reporting its activity to your conscious awareness.

The mind is truly an awesome and potentially terrifying thing. There be angels, but also, dragons, there. And they can only be slain when it’s their time. So much potential for freedom, expansion and joy. And for imprisonment, limitation and pain. Amazing and scary, being human. Especially when you are convinced that is all you are, which I know you do not.

One has to see it all, understand it, to cut the root of that parasitic invader, to ourselves free of its grip. But because it has no actual substance, you can’t see it until you see it. When you do, it is only knowledge and love that have the power to cut the ties, for good. To burn those ropes so that they no longer have any power to bind. Vedanta gives us that power. Without it, the ‘you’ you think you are is not in charge.

Whether you live or die, now is the time to take a fearless inventory. If there are remaining samskaras, Isvara sends us many messages that we often don’t hear. They have probably been there for a long time. If we don’t heed the whispers, we get the shouts and then the final kick in the butt from Isvara. The cancer itself may well be a manifestation of a deeply buried samskara. Or maybe, it is just the time for you to leave the body. Isvara must find a way to end the game for all of us. Either way, you cannot lose.

Q: I am told to think positively and would like to know what to make of it’?

Sundari. Forget about positive thinking. It only applies to people who think they are the body and have no other option. If you want to fight it, and if you know that there is stuff to resolve in the unconscious, as mentioned, that is where you have to look first.  Visualization is the best way to access the that content. See it in your mind’s eye. Paint it, draw it, write it, burn it. Whatever it takes. Drag it out from the unconscious and bring it to the conscious level.

Carl Jung argued throughout his later work that images access the unconscious more directly than language does. What a person responds to visually, before constructing a verbal rationale, reveals something truer about their inner life than what they say about themselves. There is much truth to this, so explore it.

The next step is to talk to Isvara as the Self, NOT as the jiva. Give Isvara a list of instructions. Jobs to do, meaning, reasons why you want to stay and make a contribution to life.

Be very specific and clear about what you want. As the Self you are the boss of Isvara because you know it’s all zero sum anyway. You are the sum of all things. It makes no difference if you stay or leave because you never arrived and can’t go anywhere. You have nothing to gain or lose either way.

Q: Many people, including doctors, seem to be interested in my story. What to make of that?

Sundari: As Vedantins we know that ‘our’ story, while very meaningful to us personally, is not really personal in the big picture. There is only one jiva appearing as many, life is the story of life and death for all. Death is in everyone’s karma stream.  No-one gets off the hook!   Whether we die now, next week or in 20 years, what’s the difference?  There is no time for the unborn Self.

For the jiva, living or dying shining as the Self is the greatest gift we can give to the whole, which is non-separate from us. All for one, and one for all.

Who lives and who dies?  

Much love

Sundari

Sundari:  Your mind does ‘belong’ to God, but it does not know what that means.  When it does, it will think like God automatically. This  means you have nondual vision, you see no separation or difference, anywhere.  In other words, the three gunas have no power to obscure your vision. It means that the control the unconscious mind has on your conscious awareness is under the management and control of Self-knowledge.

 It’s the Self ‘seeing’ only itself, the ‘I” in the eye that ‘sees’. Vedanta dissolves the identity between the human, God and the Self by negating the non-essential variables, revealing the one and only, non-negatable and common identity between all three, is Consciousness. When we stand firm in Self-knowledge and understand our true and primary identity as undifferentiated Consciousness, Satya, we can safely say ‘I Am Existence’. I am non-different from God as the Self and the human. Then, I think like God thinks, and see only God. Because that is the only option.

Our Secondary Identity Does Not Disappear

But as we all know, this does not mean that the human and the world it experiences disappears, or that as a human I have the same powers as God. Though we may be convinced that our primary identity is the Self, we still exist as a body/mind with its inherent limitations, subject to God, even if we relate to our secondary human identity from the nondual, or God, perspective.  This is the tricky, counter-intuitive part of living the teachings, for everyone, and it’s why moksa, nondual vision, is so hard to obtain. It is not easy to overhaul the mind’s natural, inbuilt tendencies when the conscious mind is under the control of the unconscious mind.

As an inquirer, the mind poses the biggest obstacle to Self-knowledge because it is indoctrinated by duality, or beginningless ignorance. A mind under the hypnosis of duality has very limited ability to manage the powerful unconscious mind, as I pointed out in my last email to you.  The causal or unconscious mind is in control of most of our seemingly conscious drives until we understand what it is and how it operates

Hence, the necessity for qualifications. Beyond or along with developing the qualifications, we have nididhysana or Self-actualization, the lengthy process of Self-knowledge purifying the mind of the remnants of mental/emotional binding vasanas and doership which ‘survive’ Self-realization. This is no walk in the park for all but the rarest souls.  

Isvara Does Not Make it Easy

Isvara, the field of experience, does not make it easy for us. Even though the mind only really feels good when it is progressing and growing, the human ego likes comfort and what’s easy and safe. It resists doing anything that’s hard. Just think how much energy is required to learn anything new, let alone be objective about our mental/emotional projections. And who wants to face up to the less than fabulous part of their personality?

Even those who are seated in Self-knowledge can slip up at times because it is easy to get sucked back into ‘jiva-mode’.  We are handicapped from birth because the body cannot be separated from the mind, and the entrenched ego identity makes identification with the body, which is the ultimate symbol of duality, of change and inconstancy, automatic, ‘ natural’ and instinctive. This is a big impediment to the assimilation of nondual knowledge.

The body is the most ‘there’ thing in existence for us humans, who are self-conscious and aware that we ‘have a body’. Though the body/mind can be negated as a non-essential variable with Self-knowledge, which is the absolute key to moksa, it never goes away. Until the body dies, of course. Self-realized or not, the body is still subject to the gunas. It may not be real from the nondual perspective, but ignoring the body/mind is virtually impossible. It is ‘in your face’ at all times, other than in deep sleep.  Which is why deep sleep is such a blessed relief and so essential.

The Body is On Loan to Me

The body is on loan to us from Isvara; it does not belong to us. It is part of the field of existence, and never the same from moment to moment. The intricate processes that go on every minute of every day to keep us alive, and at the same time, move us toward the death of the body, are mind-blowing.  In the eternal big Maya picture, there are no winners or losers, syntropy and entropy are equal forces because birth and death are one and the same. But in our one finite little picture, entropy or death, always wins in the end.

Our lives take place in a sea of constant, relentless change moving us inexorably to that end. The field of experience is full of things that bite and bless. The gunas are cycling constantly, producing and maintaining our vasanas, especially if they are binding, as they are for most people. It’s a case of respect, adapt and die, because you cannot live or die well if you do not honour, accommodate to and let go of life.

Thus, the body causes so much trouble for most people, either because it is going through inevitable changes that come with entropy and aging, or it is unhealthy through lack of respect and knowledge of how to look after it. Or it is a prisoner of mind that is run by fear and denial, rajas and/or tamas, and deep binding samskaras.

The Only Solution to the Mess is Moksa

The only solution to the body/mind conundrum is to manage the mind with Self-knowledge. But even with Self-knowledge, the body can be such a drain, especially when in pain or deep discomfort, which happens to everyone ‘in a body’, sooner or later. It is not hard to see how things can and do become very difficult for anyone, even dedicated inquirers, to stay focussed on the Self as the witness of the body and the gunas. Sattva is always present, but not always easy to access when the body is ill, in pain or discomfort, for whatever reason.

Discrimination Is Our Saving Grace

When the mind gets duped by Maya, even for a short while, it feels horrible.  Especially if you are an true inquirer. But when ignorance momentarily blocks access to Self-knowledge, our saving grace, and what always matters most, is discriminating satya, the Self, from mithya, the body/mind.  If the nondual teachings are put into practice, they work instantly. To get to where the secondary identity as the person, the body/mind, is handled, no matter what is going on with the body requires fully understanding mithya, the apparent reality.  The apparent reality is not real because it is always changing and not always present. 

Life in the apparent reality is extremely complicated because nothing in it ever stays the same, not in the body or the mind. To negate mithya as an object known to me that has no power to manipulate my intellect and emotions, we need to understand how everything is governed by the gunas. That is where self-inquiry matters most. It is impossible to jump straight to satya without first understanding and negating mithya.

Aka, objectifying ‘your’ body/mind and the field of life it exists in. Your story and how you/it relates to every moment of your existence. Not to make a bigger deal of your story, but to determine if your Existence is defined with a capital ‘E’, i.e., that which makes all experience and knowledge of experience/objects possible and objectified. Or is it existence as in ‘I as an ego keep getting sucked into the experiencing entity, and believe that is who I am’, with all the trauma being a body/mind entails?

If we are putting self-inquiry into practice, we know that the body/mind is an object known to me, the Self. From here, you can do a lot to manage the mind, especially if we are dedicated inquirers. We should know the importance of the qualifications for self-inquiry, as well as be impeccable in the application of karma yoga and guna management.  But even so, there is nothing to be done about the body’s natural changes, except taking appropriate care of it, and remaining the witness. You are not the body/mind. You are eternal and cannot change, are never born and cannot die. Have deep compassion for anyone who does not know the truth of who they are. Mithya is a cruel master. 

An Mind/Intellect Overhaul

Moksa, Self-actualization, requires a complete non-dual mind/intellect overhaul to develop the ability to think like God would think, if God was a person. We need a highly refined intellect and mind that has not only surrendered to the scripture as the boss, but is instantly capable of dissecting what’s going on with the body/mind objectively. Mind-management is the name of the game, which requires understanding of how it works. And where all the trouble it creates originates from – the unconscious mind.

Please note that a nondual overhaul is one step up from meta-cognition, which is the ability to think about and objectify what you are thinking/feeling about, but there is still a doer involved. Non-dual vision negates the thinker/feeler/doer altogether, and is simply the witness who ‘sees’ only itself, because that is all there is. If we are qualified inquirers in whom Self-knowledge has obtained, we know that we share the same identity with God/Isvara, but our intellects and emotions are totally purified of doership and binding vasanas. I.e., the person is there but in abeyance, managed. The gunas are always known and managed, and therefore, no longer cause trouble or get in the way of permanent access to the bliss of the Self.

Much love

Sundari

Dear Sundari, apologies for taking so long to reply to your last email on the difference between the cause and effect and non-origination teaching.  It is a difficult and subtle teaching, as you point out.  I am still trying to assimilate it.  I ‘get it’ intellectually, but am constantly tripped up by repetitive patterns. Things happen that trigger ‘me’ that I seem to have no control over. This causes so much conflict in my personal relationships, not to mention my state of mind. Could you shed some light on this?

Sundari: It is very difficult being a ‘human’ being, and it is even more difficult to disidentify with being a human being. We tend to think of  preferences, our likes and dislikes, as something we’ve reasoned our way toward over time. Vedanta says the opposite. How and when we respond to outside stimuli is shaped, in predictable and measurable ways, by our dominant motivational drives, our likes and dislikes.

The same could be said of most of our cognitive analyses. Or thinking patterns.  Most of these mental and emotional patterns, especially the ones that cause the most trouble for us, are based in the unconscious mind. Vedanta explains this perfectly in its teaching on our likes and dislikes, vasanas and samskaras, and what gives rise to them—the three gunas, which I know you are familiar with.

The (Four) Major Drives

Evolutionary psychology and behavioral science have long recognized that human motivation organizes around three primary and sequential imperatives. The first is oriented toward security and physical nourishment: safety, comfort, the body protected and at rest. The second is oriented toward social belonging: group membership, collective relationships, and one’s position within a community. The third is oriented toward intensity and deep connection: peak experience, charged aliveness, full engagement with whatever matters most.

Vedanta adds the fourth, and most important drive, which is virtue or spiritual growth, which sometimes, but not always, comes after the first three are taken care of. These are not personality types in the traditional sense but something more primary, even primal. These biological imperatives operate below conscious choice, organizing what each of us pays attention to and finds meaningful. When we have not dealt with the first three motivational impulses, especially security, we are unlikely to be qualified for self-inquiry.

The Cause of Friction and Conflict in Relationship

All of our  conflict/friction dynamics are driven by the unconscious mind(s), which contains our past. Most of who we are as conscious beings is driven by it, whether we like it or not.  Our conditioning and our past weaves its way into our psyche like a parasitic vine that wraps itself around a host tree, changing its shape. And sometimes totally deforming, even killing it.

The mind, whose deeper unconscious content makes up 95% of what propels it, is truly an awesome and potentially terrifying thing. There be angels, but also, dragons there. And they can only be slain when it’s their time. So much potential for freedom, expansion and joy. And for imprisonment, limitation and pain. Amazing and scary, being human. Especially when you are convinced that is all you are.

One has to see it all, understand it, to cut the root of that parasitic invader, to ourselves free of its grip. But because it has no actual substance, you can’t see it until you see it. When you do, it is only knowledge and love that have the power to cut the ties, for good. To burn those ropes so that they no longer have any power to bind. Vedanta gives us that power. Without it, the ‘you’ you think you are is not in charge.

Who Is In Charge?

What or who is in charge sounds like a spiritual or philosophical provocation, and it is that.  Humans have been trying to answer that question since we became aware of time, and starting wondering who we are and why we were here. Most religions are based on this and have their versions of the answer to the question. It is a question at the heart of self-inquiry as well, relating to the investigation of who the person is, what drives them, how they relate to and transact with their environment, and what creates, sustains and destroys the whole creation.

The 5% You

But it is also a scientific question with measured, replicated and findings published in the most rigorous journals in psychology and neuroscience. The consensus is that the conscious mind, the part of you that reads these words, that deliberates and believes it is making decisions, controls approximately 5% of your cognitive and emotional activity. The remaining 95% is conducted by the unconscious mind.

The 95% is the vast, silent, invisible machinery that operates below the threshold of conscious awareness. It generates the thoughts you think are yours, producing the decisions you believe you make, generates the feelings you think are yours, and runs the biological systems that keep you alive. All without ever asking your permission or reporting its activity to your conscious awareness.

In other words, the person you think you are is just the very tip of the iceberg.  The rest is mostly unknown. But not unknowable, if you have the right means of knowledge. Vedanta tells us upfront that reality is not what we think it is – that our sensory perception is vastly limited, and the information coming from it is biased and therefore, flawed. Though we relate to the idea of a conscious and unconscious mind, there is much more to reality than that. A whole level below our own personal conscious and  unconscious, the macrocosmic unconscious or Causal body.

Science has  named the three orders the three orders: 1) the personal conscious, 2) the personal unconscious and 3) the impersonal unconscious—the explicate, implicate and super-implicate orders. In Vedanta this is the triumvirate of jiva (Subtle body/System 3), Isvara (Causal body or System 2), and the knower of both, Pure Consciousness (System 1). We have written extensively on these three systems.

Are You the Candle or the Sun?

The person we take ourselves to be is only aware of a small spectrum of stimuli coming in from the senses at any given time. Whereas the personal and impersonal unconscious, the two levels of the Causal body, is processing millions of bits of information per second. The conscious mind is a candle, and the unconscious mind is the sun. But the candle believes it is illuminating the room. If we had to compare the conscious and unconscious minds to a computer, the conscious mind has a computational ability of 40 bits per second, and the unconscious mind 400 million bits, per second.

This finding is not new.  Freud proposed the existence of the unconscious mind in the 1890s, arguing that the conscious self is the tip of an iceberg, with the vast bulk of mental activity occurring below the waterline, invisible and inaccessible to ordinary awareness. Freud’s metaphor has become so familiar that it has lost its power to shock.

But the shock is deserved, because Freud was not merely proposing that some mental activities are unconscious. He was proposing that most mental/emotional activity is unconscious. That the conscious self is a thin veneer over a deep, powerful, autonomous system that has its own goals, its own logic and its own agenda. That is a scary thought for most. Is it any wonder that freedom from and for the jiva is so difficult?

The unconscious  is vast, powerful—and it is running your life. Modern sciences’ view of the unconscious begins not with Freud, but with Benjamin Libet, whose experiment on free will demonstrates that the brain initiates actions approximately half a second before the conscious mind becomes aware of the decision. The readiness potential or electrical buildup in the motor cortex precedes voluntary movement—it begins before consciousness arrives. The decision  to act is made ‘in the dark’. Without your knowledge.

The conscious mind is notified after the fact.  John Dillon Haines extended on this finding to 7  full seconds of unconscious brain activity, detectable by MRI pattern classifiers, preceding the conscious experience of choosing which button to press. In the investigation into free will, this puts things into very sharp focus.

Is There Free Will?

Who is really doing the choosing? What is weighing alternatives, committing to a course of action before the conscious mind has any awareness that a decision is underway? That something is the unconscious, the micro and macrocosmic causal body. And it is not merely fast and automatic. It is highly sophisticated and intelligent.

The unconscious does not merely decide before you do. It perceives subliminally before ‘you’ do. This framework suggests that our conscious awareness is like a small spotlight, illuminating a tiny fraction of the brain’s activity. While the vast majority of processing occurs in the regions outside the spotlights beam. In the unconscious systems that the (superficial) global workspace cannot reach.

The topic of freeway will investigates the relationship between the conscious and unconscious minds. Libet’s readiness potential, the unconscious initiation of action before conscious awareness, is the unconscious mind generating a neural template. ‘Free will’ is the conscious mind’s ability to veto the stimulus before it morphs into automatic action generated by the unconscious.

Standing Up to Your Vasanas

This is what Vedanta means by ‘standing up to your vasanas’. Start with identifying the low hanging fruit – your likes and dislikes. Track them and that will lead to the deeper samskaras in the uncosncious twhere hey originate from. Knowledge of our likes and dislikes and what drives them, affords us the power to select the  options generated by the unconscious. Mature worldly people without non-dual knowledge and the tools it offers, such as karma yoga and guna yoga, often manage a high degree of self-management and control. But this does not equate to freedom from and for the person.

For this you need Self-knoweldge, and there is nothing to beat it.  Only by applying the nondaul teachings to our lives do we gain the freedom from the person without the pressure to become a different or ‘better’ person.  Though that will happen because when you understand who you are you will never break dharma and cause injury to yourself or others in thought word or deed. 

But becoming a better person is a benefit of Self-knowledge, not the aim.  You are told upfront that there is nothing wrong with you other than ignorance of your true identity as the unborn, unchanging, whole and complete Self.  Knowing that gives you the power to discriminate between the two orders of reality, duality and non-duality. And like David going up against Goliath, the power to slay the dragons in the unconscious.

Self-knowledge is your super power.  Dedication to your sadhana and commitment to clearing up the repetitive patterns with it are the only way forward.  Take it easy, love yourself, and trust that the scripture has your back. You are on the right track.

Much love

Sundari

S:  Yes. Any dealing with the jiva persona is at the mithya level because you are the Self, Satya, the one who knows the child and its history, and the ‘adult’ and its story of psychological/physical suffering. To have and maintain  ‘sweetness of heart’ requires compassion for the entity that was/is trapped in the suffering that mithya—the hypnosis of duality—imposes on the mind. When the heart is open and the sweetness is there, it broadcasts a frequency just like a radio does. 

The human heart is much more than just a pump. It is not a passive receiver of instructions from the brain and central nervous system. It is an independent processing centre that makes its own decisions, modulates its own behaviour, and sends far more information to the brain than it receives from it. When the brain is injured and the connection between the brain and the heart is severed, the heart does not stop beating.

It is the first organ in the human embryo to form – at three weeks it is already there, long before the brain or any other organ forms. It is the only organ that  starts to function so early in gestation.  The heart is its own authority, and does not wait for the brain to tell it to beat, there is no brain at that early stage. As our scientific instruments for measuring these subtle wave lengths improve, strong emerging evidence suggests that the heart can and does perceive events that haven’t happened yet. In addition, many credible accounts are emerging of heart transplant patients who have vivid experiences that have no context or bearing in their prior life history, and  can only have ‘belonged’ to the heart of the person who donated it.

Though  the heart is co-dependent on the brain and the functioning of the whole system, it is actually, a ‘mini brain’ on its own.  It has its own neural system called the intrinsic cardiac nervous system. In fact, it has 40 000 neurons, its own independent nervous system that can learn, sense, and remember without input from the brain. It is the heart that broadcasts 90% of the conversation between the heart and the brain.

 It has an electromagnetic field 5 000 times stronger the brain’s—a field measurable up to 3 metres from the  body and detectable by other brain waves in the vicinity. We are always broadcasting what is going on in the heart/brain axis, positive or negative, whether we like it or not, want to or not. Just as someone with a dark and impure mind and heart makes us feel instantly uncomfortable, when you are around someone who has a pure heart and mind, you are strongly attracted to them. These people can substantially shift the frequency of an individual, or a room. It feels good to be on the receiving end. It gives people ‘shaktipat’, which in Sanskrit means ‘transfer of energy’.

Unfortunately, this is often associated exclusively with people who are gurus, or ‘enlightened’, another spiritual misnomer. While it lifts your frequency for a while, it will not last as you cannot hold onto someone’s else’s purity of heart and mind. You are the Self regardless of the state of your heart or mind, but anyone who has a pure heart and mind will radiate a higher frequency because their minds are so sattvic. Lower frequencies are the domain of rajas and tamas in control of the mind. All the same, being more sattvic does not make anybody special.

This is why  every major religion and spiritual tradition, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam—identify the heart as the seat of the deepest human knowing. While they may be speaking metaphorically or metaphysically, like the brain, the heart is an organ science is only recently fully understanding. Yoga calls the heart the hrydaya, and although we like to think that it is located physically in the human heart, it is really not located anywhere. 

 It appears in the ‘heart cave’, ‘located’ in the Causal Body.  It means the essence, or ‘that without which a thing is not a thing’, like sweetness is the essence of sugar; sugar cannot be sugar without sweetness. It means that the true essence of everything is Consciousness. So when you bring the mind’s attention to it, you are focussing on the bliss of the Self. The trick is not to objectify the bliss but to know it as your true essence.

While the heart, whether we are talking about it physically or metaphysically, is an object known to you, the Self, it needs to be purified and prepared for self-inquiry, much like the mind. We tend to equate the heart with feelings, and while there is truth to that, purity of heart is not about feelings per se.  A pure heart is necessary for a pure mind, and to have either requires cultivating sattva.  We do this by applying vigilance to every thought and feeling that takes up residence in the heart and mind, and negating negative thoughts and feelings as they arise.  We must be ruthless about this because uncontrolled tamas attracts more tamas very quickly, as does rajas.

Cultivating ‘sweetness of heart’ which always includes gratitude, makes us feel good because we like ourselves (and everyone else) more. Life becomes grim when there is no sweetness and no gratitude available.  A pure heart also gives rise to peace of mind, sattva. And while feeling good, peaceful, sattvic, is not moksa, it is the springboard for it.  Freedom from those voices of diminishment and the whole jiva program, will not occur in a heart or mind run by tamas and rajas.

So yes, pay attention to your heart as much as your mind, from the perspective of the Self. Do not allow those voices to be your judge and jury. Press the OFF button, one thought at a time. Vigilance is the price of freedom. When a bad thought or feeling pops in the mind, disidentify with it, do not hesitate. Apply karma yoga and it over to Isvara to take care of.  Do not let it take hold. It may be hard work at first, when it comes to hardwired bad thoughts and feelings.  They will tend to keep coming back.

But every time apply karma yoga, take a stand as the and in the Self, the witness, and disidentify with the experience and experiencing entity, we reduce the pressure of the vasanas, and those awful inner demonic voices, a little bit more each time.

What price freedom?

Much love

Sundari

S: Never feel bad about writing, we are always here to help if we can.

G: Anyway, I’ll get to the point: my mind is overwhelmed by voices of diminishment and the resulting depression. It happens when I’m alone, and I’m often alone. You told me, in our Zoom meeting, that it’s fortunate that I’ll soon be moving closer to my family, and I agree with you. But it takes a lot more to defeat those negative and depressing voices… right? 

S: Yes, indeed.  I spoke about this in my last email to you. Maybe you missed it, but it was actually the most important part of my reply to you:

The first thing to keep in mind is that you are not unique in this. Everyone in the grip of Maya has some version of this tape recording on repeat running in their mind. Shame—the idea that we are unworthy, unlovable, bad or whatever else—is a universal samskara. It is what we call ‘free-floating anxiety,’ and it comes with the idea that you are a person. The only solution to this agonizing mental/emotional fragmentation is to follow the steps above. 

These are:

1. See the pattern objectively; accept it for what it is without blame or shame. Do not deny it. It will be the same version of what has been playing in the mind for a very long time. 

2. See the gunas at work – rajas and tamas. Apply the guna teaching – see how each guna plays out in your story and which one (or ones) dominate. Discriminate between Consciousness, YOU, and the jiva.

3. Recognise that this is just a recording your mind made up based on ignorance that is simply not true. Not from the relative point of view as a jiva, and certainly not as the Self.  These are the voices of rajas and tamas, fear and denial, and you do not have to listen to them. 

4. Say NO to them!  You can do it – there is no law against it because the voices speak in the words that seem to describe you personally, but they are not personal!

5.  Ask yourself: Am I the witness of these voices, or am I these voices? Which one am I?  You cannot be both. Visualize yourself switching the recording OFF. And keep doing this for as long as it is necessary. Aim for sattva with determination.

G: Grounding oneself in the Self, of course, and then using the tools of Vedanta.

Sundari:  Yes, take a stand as Awareness, the witness of the one who apparently has a story of shame, low self-esteem, guilt, and the voices of diminishment.

G: 1) I ask you something: when you recommended to me – in addition to No skipping and No shortcuts – also Sweetness of the Heart, did you perhaps also mean something at the “mithya level”, that is, an attitude of clemency, of forgiveness of the jiva towards that child who grew up with so many voices of Diminishment in his head?

S:  Yes. Any dealing with the jiva persona is at the mithya level because you are the Self, Satya, the one who knows the child and its history, the ‘adult’ and its story of psychological/physical suffering. To have and maintain ‘sweetness of heart’ requires compassion for the entity that was/is trapped in the suffering that mithya—the hypnosis of duality—imposes on the mind.

We repeat over and over that the essence of moksa is the ability to discriminate between satya and mithya, that which is real, meaning always present and unchanging—the Self, and that which is only apparently real, meaning not always present and always changing—the jiva. And to never confuse the these two orders of reality again. It is not about perfecting the person, though following dharma requires the cessation of all self-insulting habits and tendencies. Heeding the voices of diminishment is one that definitely must end.

Remember that as the Self, there really is only one reality as everything resolves/dissolves in you, Satya. The satya/mithya teaching is a tool to explain what mithya is—only apparently real—and to negate it with Self-knowledge.  Not deny it.  Just see it for what it is, and know that you are always the witness—purusha/Satya—of prakriti/the jiva—mithya. Whatever the jiva is experiencing, as hard as the karma may be, it is not who you are.

G: 2) Another question: to “drive” those voices out of your head when you can’t read, listen to, or contemplate Scripture, what should you do? Chanting mantras… singing… listening to pleasant music… 🙂

S:  If you find you just  cannot put karma yoga into practice and nothing else works, chanting identity mantras is a very good option, for several reasons.  On the physical level chanting/humming (even if it is just OM) stimulates the vagus nerve, which runs through your vocal chords, and this stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system.  But most importantly, chanting identity mantras is employing  words in the service of truth about your true nature, at a frequency that stimulates sattva.

G: Luckily, Ishvara recently allowed me to download the Shiningworld satsangs in PDF format. It’s very important to me, as I can’t read the paper version. I’ll try to tag it to find Diminishment or something, but anyway, thank you so much for your attention to this email. 

S: I will ask James to send you the files of his audio books.

G: I’ll add – regarding the company and relationships I’ll have living close to my family – a doubt I always have regarding the social life of a seeker.

Pros: Being close to them will ease my mental suffering.

Disadvantages: They are samsari, I won’t be able to share conversations about “satya”.

S: Spending time with family can be tedious at times, but look at it as an act of love. Don’t label them. See your family as the Self. You don’t need to converse with them about the Self. Just be who you are, they will see/feel/know it because the Self knows itself. When the heart is open and the sweetness is there, it broadcasts a frequency just like a radio does. 

A pure heart is necessary for a pure mind, and both are necessary for self-inquiry to produce Self-knowledge. To have either requires cultivating sattva.  We do this by applying vigilance to every thought and feeling that emerges from the Causal body and takes up residence in the heart and mind.  Apply the process mentioned above. We must be ruthless about this because uncontrolled tamas attracts more tamas very quickly, as does uncontrolled rajas attracts more rajas. Before you know it, these two troublemakers are in the driver’s seat of the mind.

Cultivating ‘sweetness of heart’ which please note, always includes gratitude, not only makes us feel good because we like ourselves (and everyone else) more. Life becomes very grim when there is no sweetness and no gratitude available.  But it also gives rise to peace of mind, sattva. And while feeling good, peaceful, sattvic is not moksa, it is the springboard for it.  Freedom from those voices of diminishment and the whole jiva program will not occur in a mind run by tamas and rajas, enslaved to those inner demons.

So yes, pay attention to your heart as much as your mind, from the perspective of the Self. Do not allow those voices to be your judge and jury. Press the OFF button, one thought at a time. Vigilance is the price of freedom.

G: Thank you so much, dear Sundari. It is truly a great fortune to have met you and Ramji, and also the Shiningworld sangha that I had not sufficiently recognized and appreciated before.

S: I am happy to be of help. It is indeed grace that you found Vedanta, appreciate it’s value and being properly taught.  Give yourself a pat on the back, you are doing far better than you give yourself credit for.

Much love

Sundari

Hello dear Sundari, thank you for your understanding.

Finally—six years after my first encounter with Shiningworld I began, just a few weeks ago, to think seriously about *sadhana*.

And yet, then I had immediately realized that Vedanta was exactly what I wanted in my life—that I no longer needed to search for anything else. (It all clicked, and I could stop seeking.)

Sundari: This often happens when inquirers first encounter Vedanta – there is the immediate ‘rush’ and excitement of hearing the truth of who you are for the first time. As the Self always knows itself even when the mind is under the spell of ignorance (duality), the recognition – literally ‘seeing again’ – is immediate. However, unless you are very highly qualified, which most are not, what stands in the way of Self-knowledge instantly removing all ignorance is the stubborn hypnosis of duality. 

The idea that you are a person with karma who lives in and transacts with the world, is hardwired.  The tricky part is that moksa is freedom from and for the jiva. Unless Self-knowledge translates into your life without having to consciously think about it, Self-knowledge is not direct.  Indirect knowledge, knowing about the Self, is not moksa.  That is why we say that Self-realization is where the ‘work’ of self-inquiry begins, not ends.  The process of freedom takes as long as it takes, depending on the dedication and commitment to freedom from the jaws of duality the inquirer has.

GF: For six years—through the Shiningworld website and channel—I read texts and listened to numerous videos almost every day; I even lit candles and incense, participated in webinars, and so on. But! I realized that the practice and study of Vedanta were *not* my daily priority. I lacked the desire to change my life, to resolve my suffering… I lacked the desire for liberation.

Sundari: As I said above, if you are not dedicated and the desire for freedom is not your strongest motivation, duality will always win.  You may still long for freedom but the fruit of self-inquiry eludes you. That is why all the qualifications are so important, but particularly mumuksutva –the understanding of being trapped in limitation and the overriding desire for freedom from it. The first part of that last sentence is very important. If you don’t understand that you are trapped and why you are trapped in the jaws of Maya, you will not have the drive to be free of it. A typical samsari or worldly person is like that. A prisoner in a cage believing they are free, railing against the unfairness of life, afraid of their inner demons, afraid that ‘others’ will see that they are unlovable, worried, afraid of life, afraid of death, afraid of everything. Yet normalizing this as ‘the way it is’.

And that is the way it is if you are trapped in duality. But Vedanta gives you the right kind of glasses – the nondual ones that work even if your human eyes do not – to ‘see’ that game as the hypnosis of duality. To ‘see’ that you are the witness of it, that it is a dream appearing in you. To see that there is nothing wrong with the world or with you other than the fact that it is only Maya that separates you from knowing and living as the Self, appearing ‘here’ in human form.

GF: I  read, studied, and listened to a great deal of Vedanta, yet without truly wanting to *know* the Self (Self-Knowledge)… I was merely learning things *about* the Self (knowledge *about* the Self)—or about Karma Yoga, Dharma, and so on. I knew—or perhaps feared—that only greater suffering would compel me to undertake *sadhana*; and, indeed, that is precisely what is unfolding in my life right now.

Sundari: Indirect knowledge about the Self is better than none, but it does not remove ignorance.  However, this is part of the process, so do not be hard on yourself.  Everyone goes through this stage, and for how long depends on qualifications. The mind is inherently lazy and looks for shortcuts because the ego does not want freedom.  It wants to maintain its hold on the mind and the identification it has with being ‘a person’. There is nothing to gain for the ego to commit to moksa – it fears its own demise.  This is why many people fear powerful teachings because of the change they will bring to their lives. 

Committing to self-inquiry entails hard work and giving up not only your egoic comfort zones, but also the ego’s fantasy idea about who you are.  To ‘do’ self-inquiry properly means being willing to investigate and have revealed EVERYTHING about the jiva persona.  It must all come to light, not because it is important and definitely not because it is ‘true’. Because it is hidden and denied. 

I repeat: only ‘stuff’ that is buried and denied causes pain. But seeing it is not pleasant at all for the ego; in fact it can often be excruciatingly painful as most egos are very fragile entities.  You see this in the way we all have to go out of our way to be ‘nice’ and PC in our interactions with others. It is so easy for people who believe they are people to get offended. ‘You bad person, you ‘hurt’ my feelings’!!  While it is polite and kind not to hurt people’s feelings or they yours, feelings are not you. You would be much better served to investigate why you feel what you feel, what samskaras your feelings come from and where those truly originate. Beginningless ignorance, the gunas, of course.

The ego will avoid objectifying its feelings and really seeing what is behind them like the plague. Best keep that bad stuff buried, who needs to know about it! This is why people are so terrified of facing their ‘bad’ shame-filled side, and so afraid anyone will ‘see’ it! So desperate is the ego to be trusted, liked and accepted. without having to ‘go there’.

The biggest problem with not being committed to self-inquiry and what that really entails is that you will never make progress with your sadhana until you make peace with the fact that both dharma and adharma are woven together in mithya. They cannot be separated. And the only way to step out of that whirlpool is with Self-knowledge. I expand on this in the satsang I posted recently,’ The Angel and Demon in Me’. Read it if you haven’t already.

Additionally, if you have the karma of an inquirer, avoiding ‘doing the work’ and not committing to self-inquiry will lead to more suffering, as you know. Toxic ideas do not go away because they are buried. They only get stronger and more toxic. When the time comes for you to grow, you are sitting in the hot spot. You can be sure Isvara will keep turning up the heat until you face what needs to seen.

GF: At first, I didn’t know where to begin; I didn’t know how to “structure” my day around the Self. Sure… there was Dharma… Karma Yoga… devotion… the core values… the prerequisites (qualifications)… How many times had I read and listened to Vedanta teachings from Shiningworld? Many times—so very many! Yet, I still didn’t know—in concrete, practical terms—how to “structure” that practice within the context of my daily life.  

Sundari: Again this is a normal part of the process of learning how to surrender to the teachings and committing to trusting that only they – not the ego – can lead to freedom. It involves putting all your ideas aside and allowing the scripture to re-train the mind, which has been entrained by duality, to think completely differently. It is not easy and the ego finds many ways to sabotage this. But the teachings work if you persist.

GF: Fortunately, I remembered Rory Mackay’s “Enlightenment Protocol” and began practicing the Morning and Evening Rituals. This proved to be very important. The simple act of placing my hand on my heart—and then radiating love—was a game-changer in terms of truly *feeling* what Devotion is, as well as the spirit of Karma Yoga. It was a beautiful experience. I realized that (correct me if I’m wrong) the fourth requirement—the burning desire—can be cultivated by starting from the heart.

Sundari: Most definitely. In Italian there is such a lovely term for this – ‘dolcezza di cuore’, literally the sweetness of the heart. Yoga calls the heart the hrydaya, and although we like to think that it is located physically in the human heart, it is really not located anywhere.  It appears in the ‘heart cave’, ‘located’ in the Causal Body.  It means the essence, or ‘that without which a thing is not a thing’, like sweetness is the essence of sugar; sugar cannot be sugar without sweetness. It means that the true essence of everything is Consciousness. So when you bring the mind’s attention to it, you are focussing on the bliss of the Self. The trick is not to objectify the bliss but to know it as your true essence.

GF: On the other hand, what I find very difficult is knowing how to deal with the psychological suffering of the *Jiva*… Is it *Prasad* (a sacred offering) for *Ishvara*? … What should I actually *do*? … Should I simply observe it? … Should I try to manage the *gunas*? 

Sundari: As Vedanta points out at every opportunity – with all things, and particularly psychological suffering – the first and most important question is to ask: ‘ to whom does this suffering belong’? If you are the knower, it cannot be your suffering.  Yet, that still leaves the question of what to do with the jiva’s suffering, which can be intense.  The only reason applying the guna teaching to ‘your’ psychological suffering is important is to have the tools to disidentify with it as ‘yours’.  

While it seems to come from and belong to your life story, actually all suffering is an eternal principle because it comes from and belongs to the Causal body, beginningless ignorance.  It is caused by the hypnosis of duality, resulting in the misapprehension of your true nature to be the jiva instead of the Self. This is behind all psychological suffering, no matter what the story is.

A true inquirer and karma yogi sees what is there to see in the play of the gunas and the vasanas they create, understands where it comes from, that it is not the truth and not real, discriminates between satya, Consciousness and mithya, the jiva, and offers it to Isvara as a sacrifice on the altar of karma yoga. So yes, to deal with ‘your stuff’ is essentially a three part process:

1. See it objectively, accept it for what it is without blame or shame. Do not deny it.

2. Apply the guna teaching – see how each guna plays out in your story, which one (or ones) dominate. Discriminate between Consciousness and the jiva.

3. Manage the mind with karma yoga by surrendering ‘your’ stuff to Isvara. Really surrendering, not lip service.  And trust Isvara to render all binding vasanas non-binding with the removal of ignorance.  Though Vedanta gives you the tools, it’s not an easy or simple process for the mind, and it may take a long time before deep samskaras let go and dissolve in Self-knowledge.

GF: Lately—even when I am reading or listening to teachings on Vedanta—I am often assailed by fear, guilt/shame, and a desperate sense of loneliness… Consequently, I find myself unable to read or listen to material regarding topics such as “qualifications,” “values,” and so on; rather than offering me comfort, they only make me feel inadequate.

Sundari: The first thing to keep in mind is that you are not unique in this. Everyone in the grip of Maya has some version of this tape recording on repeat running in their mind. Shame, the idea that we are unworthy, unlovable, bad or whatever else, is a universal samskara. It is what we call ‘free floating anxiety’ and it comes with the idea that you are a person. The only solution to this agonizing mental/emotional fragmentation is to follow the steps above. 

Recognise that this is just a recording your mind made up based on ignorance that is simply not true. Not from the relative point of view as a jiva, and certainly not as the Self.  These are the voices of rajas and tamas, fear and denial, and you do not have to listen to them.  You can simply say NO! Visualize yourself switching the recording OFF. And keep doing this for as long as it is necessary.

GF: My question is this: for instance, if I choose to focus solely on *other* topics within Vedanta—bypassing the more challenging ones—am I engaging in “spiritual bypassing”?

Sundari: No, you cannot skip this part because it is fundamental to the whole process of self-inquiry. Many inquirers try this and they simply get stuck. See why above.

GF: Or is this actually a beneficial approach, in that these more “comfortable” topics at least keep me connected to the Scriptures, while perhaps simultaneously allowing me to attend to the *gunas*?

Sundari: It is more pleasant and convenient to skip this part of course. And reading the Scriptures is always a good thing.  You can definitely skip the work of cleaning up the jiva if you are 100% seated in the Self. Then, and only then, you can rightly claim that the gunas and all vasanas are not you so why bother with them? Anything less than that is simply a spiritual bypass and qualifies as enlightenment sickness.

So, again, the simple answer is: NO. There are no easy cuts or shortcuts to freedom. As stated, to skip this part, which makes the ego happy, simply means ignorance is more powerful and more entrenched. To benefit from the fruit of Self-knowledge, you must face the inner demons and see that they are just paper demons.

At the same time, you do not need to wallow in mind vomit, as Chinmayananda called it.  You do not have to psychoanalyse yourself to death.  Just see things objectively, taking a stand in Awareness. Objectify, objectify, objectify.  The fear and reluctance you feel is just rajas and tamas trying to stop your progress.  Don’t let them. Hear this again: there is nothing whatsoever wrong with you. The only problem is ignorance of your true nature.          

GF: Perhaps I overdid it with the psychology at the end of the email…

Be patient, I’ll summarize the Jiva’s problem…
…to sum up the Jiva issue of feeling his heart in pain, what to do?
1. Just always taking a stand in Awareness/the Self;
2. Just always crying as long as needed by the body;
3. Managing the gunas until the mind is back to “normal” efficiency;
4. What else?

Sundari: See above.  Patience is important because ignorance is the hardest thing to eradicate from the mind. Be kind to yourself, nurture and allow the dolcezza di cuore to grow.

Keep at it dear friend, you are always supported

Much love

Sundari

 This week was a momentous, intense and sacred week in Bali as the predominantly Hindu population prepared to celebrate en masse the ceremony of Nyepi, their New Year. A three part process, first is Melasti, a communal cleansing ritual to purify humans and the universe they inhabit of negative influences, sad and bad thoughts or karma, and past misdeeds. 

Then there is the parade of the Ogoh Ogoh, literally hundreds of incredibly artistic though frightening and imposing effigies crafted primarily by the youth in their villages over many months, are paraded throughout the island. They are created not only to symbolize the demonic aspect inherent in humans and nature alike but also to absorb all the negativity from humans and the environment.  After being paraded through the streets, despite the artistry, time, cost and months of work that goes into making them, most are taken to the cemetery and burned. This symbolizes the purification and release from the negative influences in preparation for Nyepi, the official Balinese New Year.

On Nyepi, for 24 hours the island observes complete silence, no-one is allowed on the streets, to work or to use electricity. It is a blessed day in Bali! What is so interesting about this is not only how very different it is from the typical pleasure seeking way most people in the West observe New Year. The contrast could not be more stark! What is so evident is the humility with which the Balinese recognize and honour the inherent forces, good and bad, that operate in the field of experience, and the necessity to purify the mind and the field of the imbalance they often cause.  They are fully aware that dharma and adharma are woven fine into the fabric of life. Unlike most Westerners, the Balinese Hindu people have lives dedicated to God, and sacred ceremonies to honour that are a way of life for them.

What is important about this for us as Vedantins is to recognize that these forces, positive and negative, angelic and demonic, sacred and profane, are all guna generated, eternal and universal. They are not personal though they play out in our personal and global lives in seemingly personal and constructive and often highly destructive ways. Because of the nature of mithya (duality), which is a zero sum, there will always be angels and demons in manifest and unmanifest form. The names, forms and stories change, which we call our history or world history, but they are always the same forces in micro or macrocosmic form. I.e., rajas and tamas out of balance with sattva.

Most of us would prefer to think that we do not have a ‘bad’ side to us, that the only true demons are ‘other than’ and outside of us, a conveniently erroneous idea for the ego. As humans, we all know we have demonic side, but we are all so afraid of revealing it for fear of not being trusted, liked or loved.  Ironically, the most likeable and trustworthy people are those we who are transparent about their human failings.  Ramji’s great gift to us as his students is that he models this fearlessness for us. He is completely unafraid to exhibit his shortcomings (along with his ‘longcomings’!) for all to see!

To unconditionally love, accept and disidentify with our personal identity, the jiva or ego persona, we have no choice but to face the demonic aspect in ourselves. It comes with the program of being human. Unless you are born a bona fide saint, which is highly unlikely, you are not exempt. As humans, we all know we have demonic side, but we are all so afraid of revealing for fear of not being trusted, liked or loved.  Ironically, the most likeable and trustworthy people are those we who are transparent about their human failings.  Ramji’s great gift to us as his students is that he models this fearlessness for us. He is not afraid to exhibit his shortcomings (along with his ‘longcomings’!) for all to see!

There is no escape from the fact that life in the field of experience is a dance between dharma and adharma; both forces are operating in mithya at all times. There is no changing this or turning mithya into nirvana as the idealist hopes for. That is a pipe dream and will never happen.  Ultimately, the only real protection from the vicissitude’s of life, the ego’s fantasy dream identity, and the solution to zero sum, is Self-knowledge. It is knowing that no matter what, you are the sum. The total. You are not in the dream, are unaffected by it, and the knower of it. Yet, for peace of mind for the jiva, we need to understand, objectify and de-personalize these forces, live dharmically and serve life as God.  We need to purify the mind of the negative aspects of all three gunas, while aiming primarily for the upside of sattva.  Not as a destination or identity, which is a big trap called spiritual arrogance, but as the springboard for Self-knowledge to shine forth and remain our default and primary identity.

While the Balinese Hindus are not non-dualists, we see how the acceptance of and respect for the nature of life plays out in their lives.  They are almost unfailingly unguarded, warm, friendly, dharmic and naturally kind. They are not neurotic. While they are not exempt from the usual human tendencies and failings, they are for the most part, refreshingly positive and healthy human beings. Their culture and faith is something they fiercely maintain despite the price they pay for allowing hedonistic mass tourism to flourish on their little island. Quite inspirational!

The lesson here for us is that to live free of the jiva and free as the Self, it is very healthy to have a ritual or object that symbolizes and objectifies the angel and the demon within. Something to remind the ego of it’s true status, and keep it humble. This is why the Balinese have so many demonic like symbols in their environment. Do it, even though you as the Self know full well that the jiva persona/ego is an object known to you, and ‘good and bad’ are just thoughts appearing in you.  Moreover, if you do not already have one, begin a daily devotional practice, no matter how small.  Give thanks and give back. It matters because you will be a happier jiva.

Sundari

Sundari: Managing the gunas well is dependent on understanding what they are and how predictably they work. There are times when there is no way to say no to tamas, though for those of us who tend to run on rajasic/sattvic fuel, that is not always easy to surrender to, especially if the balance tends toward rajas. But Isvara will then simply load up more tamas, and if you keep resisting and trying to avoid it, burn out or worse is in inevitably in store. 

On the other hand, if you don’t manage tamas with rajas, sattva will become inaccessible. A deeply tamasic mind is not a good place to be – and this is reflected not only in a dull sluggish mind.  People often miss recognising tamas, sometimes even confusing it with sattva, because rajas is not strong. It can give the illusion of being peaceful., sattvic Like the feelgood of a drug like dope, among others. Tamas makes the mind stupid and blind to what is really in front of it.  The effects of excessive tamas take longer to manifest, but they are every bit as destructive to peace of mind as excessive rajas.

If tamas and rajas are controlled by sattva, they are both very efficient energies. Sattvic rajas is behind discipline, focus and clear eyed (NOT manic) efficiency. Sattvic tamas, especially working with sattvic rajas,  provides endurance, a focussed, disciplined but unworried mind. You are a disciple unto the Self. And of course, tamas is essential for sleep.  The brain runs on electricity, and unless the neural pathways switch from beta, which is the fast alert energy we need for activity, thinking and planning, to alpha, a lower frequency which sattva and tamas induce, you won’t be able to slow down, meditate or sleep.

So if rajas or tamas consistently overpower sattva, beware. Your mind will fragment and your life will self-destruct very fast. But getting stuck in sattva can be the most insidious of all because it seems like such a desired end goal.  While peace of mind is the goal, it’s not moksa. Spiritual specialness is a definite pitfall for the mind, and when it is entrenched, is as nasty as too much tamas or rajas.

CC: Now, after rest, my mind has the guna’s more evenly spread again, although still a bit tamasic. But that is nothing new either and a good part of my mind is pretty tamasic; more so then I once thought. It’s ok, it’s jiva’s make up – mentally sattva/tamas.

Sundari: As long as sattva is in charge most of the time, tamas has a lot of upsides aside from sleep, as mentioned above.  It gives endurance, patience and accommodation far more bandwidth and staying power.

CC: Mostly I feel rajas physically more than mentally, which makes it easy for physical work. But this time around it was both physical and mentally – lot’s of thinking, writing and faster than usual and full of internal dialogue. 

Sundari: Rajas is the high energy guna, and it is great to use when it does not take over the mind/intellect.  It is good as a servant  when needed, but a very bad master. More like a neurotic race horse out of control. It your neaural ciruits are firing mostly on rajas – you will be stuck in stress, hypervigilance and mental looping. Burnt out is guaranteed.

CC: So, yes, from Self’s perspective there isn’t a difference, but from jiva’s there is and here the fun also came; two visions simultaneously, cracking jokes with Ishvara. Ishvara has a bit of a different voice then jiva has and if I write it down they aren’t that funny, but while painting, Ishvara goes like ; ‘ Ah, so you think I need to be whitened up, again? ‘ Jiva; Yes, you cannot seem to stay white on walls, only when you are snowing you seem to get it right.’ 

Ishvara; ‘How so? The paint is white like my snow! ‘ 

Jiva; Sure, but it doesn’t remain white! So now I have to ‘wash’ you up; some job you gave me, remember?’

Ishvara ‘ That is not my fault, people mess up my wall’s white…’ 

Jiva ‘ Whatever, here you go Ishi ! ‘ and I rolled the walls all white, smiling all day long. 

Sundari:  It’s fun to personalize if you objectify and understand the difference and the sameness between Isvara/Jiva.

CC: It was a positive ride, and I wondered how someone like Chinmaya, who had quite a lot of rajas, had no problem with it whatsoever. What I mean to say is; this rajasic episode I took, more than usual, to tackle the idea that it extraverts which isn’t helpful per se. But, no guna stands in the way really and so 

Sundari:  Chinmaya absolutely had no problem with rajas but used it to great and maximum effect for the purpose Isvara gave him to complete. His was a very large life, and he had a big job to do. Like anyone who uses rajas a great deal, it wore him out.  He did what he had to do and to accomplish it he needed a lot of rajas. I’s that simple. But he still paid the price physically, though you can be sure he never identified with any of the three gunas being the Self.

CC: I had a chance to step out of a kind of bias towards rajas. A sense of sattva remained in all stages it seemed, or I was easy enough to not be bothered by the whole ride. In fact it was full of joy 🙂 Once tamas ‘kicked in’ I didn’t change, of course, and neither was I unhappy. Just dull, and fine. 

Sundari: By “I” you refer to the jiva.  The Self is never involved either way; just the witness. I sometimes get the feeling that James is biased towards rajas as he tends to sattva/tamas as well.  But he is not really because he is fully aware that all the gunas are mere objects that can be manipulated with knowledge for the jiva to achieve certain ends, and to have a good life.

CC: But if one is fine and actually feels this, while tamasic, then I thought, it must be that there is also sattva present or it is like deep sleep, which is tamas but not at all a problem: that is my question.

Sundari: Sattva is the true nature of the mind and never not present, just not accessible when rajas or tamas dominate and obscure it.  How would you know that ‘you’ (as a jiva) are happy/unhappy/unaffected unless sattva is present? Sattva is not the Self but it is the guna for intelligence and clarity, and the springboard for Self-knowledge.

Deep sleep feels good because the mind/intellect is subsumed into the Causal body. ISleep is needed so that the body/mind can rest and repair, which is essentail. However, the feelgood feeling from sleeping comes from the fact that the Subtle body is resting in bliss – beyond the reach of vasanas/gunas. But deep sleep is pure tamoguna because there is no knowledge at all that the mind is resting in the Self. 

As we all know, without enough sleep the mind destroys itself and the body would eventually fall apart and die.  The mind just cannot be ‘on’ all the time. The weight of the gunas/vasanas on the mind, the force and wear and tear of duality, is just too much

CC: I see the guna’s a bit like a fractal function. And sattva can also be quite extraverted, it seems. Is that true? 

Sundari: Yes, indeed. Take Chinmaya – his rajas was entirely in the employ of sattva, and look what a dynamo he was! It’s a very fine line though, without Self-knowledge.  Both rajas and tamas have very positive aspects, but all three gunas have serious downsides too.

CC: It reminds me of satyaloka, but in my case not so ‘holy’, although all is. Or the Sattvic bliss. It depends, I suppose, in what way any experience is interpreted, and to what degree Self-knowledge is boss.

Sundari: As stated above, sattvic bliss is very desirable but can be as much of a prison as any of the gunas out of balance.  Still, you want sattva to dominate rajas and tamas or you have big trouble. When you manage the gunas accordingly, ALL experiences are seen through the lens of Self-knowledge. Though circumstances make them seem to change, they always play out in the same predictable ways. It’s not rocket science, but it is very subtle and tricky to stay objective because Maya is so powerful.

CC: Also, after resting and to my surprise, I suddenly saw my attachment to Vedanta together with the ‘throw away’ of it. Now both are true. 

Sundari:  You can only throw away Vedanta when you know what it is – a means to an end.  When you realize you have always been the beginning, middle and end, that there was nothing to ‘get’ only ignorance to lose, what’s the big deal? You don’t need crutches when you don’t have a broken leg. But that doesn’t mean you ever stop enjoying the scripture because it is known to be the Song of the Self.

CC: It is – to my mind – always an amazing matter; how not-knowing leads to so much trouble and/or speculation while knowing is so real and normal that I need not think at all. 

Sundari: Ah, yes.  Maya is the ultimate illusionist, and very good at deception – normalizing the abnormal, and abnormalizing the normal.

CC: I hope I make sense … 🙂 My mind isn’t perfect but it doesn’t need to be, and I like to think, align all thoughts with the Vedanta, for it always makes sense. 

Sundari: You always make perfect sense 

Much love

Sundari

ShiningWorld.com

Sundari:  How can you disappear?  You are never not present …

CC: The ‘crash’ came with a sort of ‘knock-out’ but was just a nice landing really. After so much energy output, physically and mentally, it had to happen 🙂 – which also resulted in a clear settlement in what these guna’s do and don’t do. 

Sundari: Guna knowledge is the game changer in living an intelligent sane life, and they work predictably so once you know, you know. Rajas and tamas cannot be separated – though what is interesting is that excess rajas inevitably ends in excess tamas, but not the other way around. Yet, once tamas gets hold of the mind, it is very hard to get out of it, but the only way to do so is with rajas.  Sattva is just not available.

Conversely, the most effective (but not easy) way to get out of excess rajas before it becomes entrenched tamas, is with sattva, again, not easy but possible but requires discipline.. Though sometimes, tamas is the first or only option, if only to sleep. Excess rajas extroverts the mind so much that the nervous system becomes fragmented, in permanent fight or flight mode.

As Ramji has been teaching the last two Sundays, sattva can also pose a big problem. It  so easy to be seduced by the idea that you are somehow special or different when the knowledge first dawns that you are the Self, the witness and not the experiencing entity. It is akin to waking up from a very deep, very long sleep and seeing clearly for the first time.  What most don’t realize is that whether you run off to India and get high immersing yourself in the sattvic peace of ashram life, which is very common, or whether you just think knowing who you are makes you different from everyone else, that is enlightenment sickness.

The golden cage of sattva traps most inquirers at some point. Luckily, there is a cure, but only if the ego is prepared to accept its demotion, and the reality check that being the Self is ordinary. That is the tricky part, and it is where ‘the rubber meets the road’ in the real meaning of moksa. It can be a tricky balancing act managing the gunas, but Self-knowledge does the job. 

As you know, a true jnani is simply the witness of the gunas, just observing the play without being disturbed.  But it is very unpleasant for the mind to be overrun by either rajas or tamas, as it is to get unwittingly caught up in the illusion of spiritual specialness. So taking the appropriate knowledge based approach to managing the gunas may be required.

CC: I often don’t know the difference anymore between Ishvara and jiva, in some sense, but they are funny – it’s all free. 

Sundari: There is no difference from the Self’s perspective. But there is a big difference from the jiva’s perspective in that their abilities are vastly different.  It’s only ‘all free’ if you truly know that.

CC: It’s like seeing jiva and Ishvara as the same, and me and making jokes amongst each other also, talking beautiful nonsense. 

Sundari: Yes, if by ‘me’ you mean the Self

CC: I mean to say that a refining of mind is going on and that this is very much like a celebration and very quiet. I would like to check some things with you on this but it isn’t in word-mode yet. But the sheer joy to be, and to not apply it to circumstance reflexively, or subconsciously.. phieuw… 

Sundari: As always, you are doing a pretty good job of it! Alway here if you need any clarification.

Much love

Sundari