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

James:  All good here.  I marked a few sentences that show that you are assimilating Self knowledge very well.  Or should I say Self knowledge is assimilating you?  Good for you!  I attached a couple of documents on the topics in this email.

Ten days ago, my mother passed away at the ripe old age of 91. She spent her last three months in a nursing home and, due to severe pain, received pain patches (fentanyl). I spent many hours by her side and watched as her mind gradually faded away. This time was truly challenging—having to see a loved one in pain and utterly helpless. Your teachings and personal stories helped me a great deal. I could see that “I” was truly suffering, and then, a few moments later, “I” remembered the teaching that suffering exists but is unreal.

James:  This shows that Self knowledge is a vasana that has become a samskara due to your commitment to the teaching.  Good for you!

This shift had an immediate, and then a liberating, effect. Finally, she fell asleep peacefully. When I learned of her death, I wasn’t really sad that much—I had the impression that she had been released from her suffering and that her last great wish, to be allowed to die, had been fulfilled. Today I think, what a shame she’s no longer here—but she’s still here. So everything is fine.

James: Death is a zero-sum win. You gain the absence of suffering. Of course, it’s nice you “die” before you die, but…hey…she can’t quibble.

Nothing has really changed. Except perhaps my point of view regarding this world. I often notice myself walking through the house or garden, listening to the silence within me.

James:  The only thing that changes when you are clear about your nature as unborn awareness is the status of the world.  Formerly, it seemed to be real (satya), now it is known to be unreal (mithya) because although the world is you, you aren’t it. 

The need to do things has gradually dissolved. It’s not that I do nothing anymore—I still have my activities—but it’s more as if they happen on their own. This has happened gradually and feels very pleasant. I also take breaks much more often between these activities. Then I sit in a garden chair and listen to the birds chirping and enjoying the stillness inside of me. Well – I can say, everything has changed.

James: The absence of the sense of doership and the lack of pressure that accompanies it, not the absence of doing, is another sign of firm Self knowledge.

You are often in my thoughts, and it is nice to think of you. Love T

James:  I am very happy for you, T!  And I can’t help thinking of you always because you are everything that exists. 

Om and Prem James

I want lasting joy. Total fullness, purnatvam. To be satisfied forever.

I gain knowledge and experience of names and forms through what the eyes see, ears hear etc. But to know myself, I can’t use the senses, cognise with the mind or through inference. Still one struggles not knowing how to gain fulfillment.

 Sastra – a means, Vedanta – a pramana, a means of knowledge for knowing my Self. Otherwise, I’m like the 10th man, feeling lost when I’m actually not at all. There’s no other means for knowing myself. I want freedom, total freedom, total fulfillment and lasting satisfaction, where there’s nothing left to gain. Otherwise limited pursuits and ends wear me down and frustrate me. Therefore use Vedanta sastra to understand what I am not and realise What I am.

Perhaps easier said than done. On this human journey obstacles present themselves and a veiling ignorance hides my true nature. It’s tricky as it appears as something it’s not, can be most convincing and seductive therefore maturity and dispassion are required. The defects in things of the world must be humorously seen as they are, transitory, ephemeral and insubstantial. Invoking Isvara’ grace as I start my study is a beautiful offering, not only for my own heart and mind but as sincere gratitude for being guided to the knowledge.

ॐ सह नाववतु । सह नौ भुनक्तु । सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।

Om saha nāvavatu | saha nau bhunaktu | saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai |

तेजस्विनावधीतमस्तु मा िवद्विषावहै ॥

tejasvināvadhītamastu mā vidviṣāvahai ||

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om śāntiś śāntiś śāntiḥ ||

Why at the beginning and each and every time? Because the mind’s nature is to wander. It lacks the peace required for knowledge to obtain. So, Isvara the ruler of this creation – total sovereignty, all wealth, power, knowledge, fame, and total dispassion needs to be invoked! I’m acknowledging my relationship and dependency with the Lord, therefore I pray to the Lord – help my mind be open and calm.

Saha – together, nā vavatu – let him protect. So let him protect us together.

Saha nau – us both, let us both (teacher and student) be protected by knowledge – to become free.

Bhunaktu –  may he nourish us with strength and the qualities required.  Saha vīryam karavāvahai – May he make us accomplish what we need to with the strength of knowledge. Then you feel secure.

Tejas vināva dhītamstu  Let it shine on us what we have studied. May he let it shine on us, and then people come to learn!

Ma vidvisāvahai. May we not have any misunderstandings and no hatred between us, born of misunderstanding. So let there be communication between us, adequate communication. May we remain having a healthy relationship.

Om śanti śanti śanti.

Three Shantis. Why? Because there are 3 disturbances within experience. First shanti is for myself, my body and mind, let it be free from laziness and dullness. Second shanti for the environment, and the people around me too, pray that illness does not disturb, and let me have the capacity to accept the circumstances no matter what and not worry about it. Third shanti, for the forces I have no control over. Natural forces over which I have absolutely no control such as earthquakes etc. pray for peace from those forces.

A shanti mantra is chanted and invoked at the start of an Upanishad study. What does Upanishad mean?

Sad is the root of the word meaning action, disintegrate, reaching, or destroying. And it has 2 prefixes.

Upa and Ni .

Upa means near. So the question is, who goes near? Those desirous of moksha; anadhikari – someone who’s turned their back on worldly desires, only has the desire for moksa and is qualified. We know there’s required qualifications, eg varaigya. I have to have dispassion for everything else and be free from binding desires. You’ve burned all the boats, you cannot go back. But you go to lasting joy and happiness!

Upa also can mean approaching this knowledge. So that one desirous of liberation is approaching the knowledge.

Ni is analysis, a study, also a commitment, Nistha steadiness; adherence, freedom from doubt and vagueness. What it conveys, it must stick.

Niscaya, decision; resolution, doubt free knowledge that will destroy the seed of a life of a limitation.

So what journey do we have to take? A journey of understanding. The journey, from ignorance to knowledge.

As Ramji greatly reminds us, how to apply the teaching in our lives is ‘where the rubber meets the road’. It’s easy when I’m in class, or doing sadhana. But what about my interactions with others and going about my duties? Well an excellent upasana; meditation, worship, reflectionI find most worthwhile is this… See the good in the other. Make it a sincere practice in the heart. See the good they can’t even see themselves…

It dispels any darkness quickly.

I leave you with this meditation, perhaps perfectly apt if you attended Ramji’s unfolding of Nirvana shatakam

OM

Sit upright.

Learn to sit upright as often as you can.

That keeps the body in the natural form, natural posture, just sitting upright.

Improves lung function.

Improves the blood circulation, particularly to the head, to the brain.

Therefore, there is a sense of vigour in the body, a vitality in the body.

Of course, the mind becomes quiet.

There is a natural cheer.

Cheerfulness, in you.

Now, this joy has nothing to do with the mind, or the sense organs, or the sense objects of the world.

So look at yourself, the body is vigorous, kind of rejuvenated when you sit upright.

The mind is cheerful and quiet. And you are joyous.

All of this has a name.

Just check again.

The body has a vigour.

The mind is quiet, naturally quiet.

Not forced to become quiet.

And I am cheerful with a sense of wellness.

All of this, you are without any effort.

Even sitting upright is not an effort with the natural posture.

Now, you can see an integration between the body, the Prana, which is inhalation, and the blood circulation, etc. the mind is quiet, and I am naturally cheerful.

All this put together is called Shiva, the auspicious.

Now, you can sing in yourself Shivoham Shivoham

This is the true religion.

Shivoham

The mind is quiet naturally without any force.

Now, I can feel a sense of wellness in the heart. A sense of cheer. Without any particular reason.

I can feel the sense of love in the heart.

Something like “I love all”.

And you can feel the sense of divinity in yourself, the divine.

The godliness in myself, I can feel in the heart.

You can sing in yourself, Shivoham.

The auspicious.

The divine, I am.

The spaceless, meaning the formless, I am

The timeless, meaning, motionless, I am

The independent, I am

The freedom to love.

Freedom is love.

That I am.

A heart which doesn’t know this song Shivoham, is an empty heart.

Shivoham, this is the real wealth, Shivoham

The real beauty, Sundaram, Satyam, Shivoham, I am.

The real I am.

Without this song in the heart.

Life is a waste, a dessert.

Shivoham

Shivoham

OM

~swami tattvavidananda

“The more I live, the more I learn.” – Sri Ramakrishna

Vedanta doesn’t change. It has said the same thing since I first heard it 8 years ago, and in the very beginning. Thank God.

I spent 3 months in consistent inquiry, being seen and seeing others in a sacred environment set up for self growth. A space the unconscious could arise in safely, be integrated and transmuted. It was beautiful to watch multiple transformations, blossoming of hearts and minds, soul friendships forming and deepening. (daily learning always) What it means to live this great teaching.

Tat Tvam Asi

Aham Brahmasmi

Brahma satyam jagat mithya jivo brahmaiva naparah.

Until these Mahavakyas can be properly understood and assimilated it requires consistent and ardent shedding ‘snake skins’ of ignorance. How strong is my desire to be my Self? Mumukshutvam. One of the most important qualifications to realise my true unborn nature

For many years I’ve contemplated a reconciliation of the “ideal” of the teaching, and “my life”,  or my personal reality/personality. Now I see the gradual full alignment of my life, my personality with the teaching, with what is true, with what the scripture says about me, and how to live a righteous wholehearted free life here and now. Letting ideas and feelings of separation and divisions melt away, so there’s no gap.

It’s not worth it to even have one little toe in Samsara (some sorrow). Samsara, a perpetual wheel of frustration. It’s just a notion! Full of attachments and beliefs. Wrong ideas about myself and the nature of reality.  It needs to be seen for what it is, a “rope snake”, merely a belief, a changing scene of appearances. Let it go and replace it with pure common sense logic and right knowledge, and true seeing, a vision, darshan. A deep, inner knowing, felt as absolute peace and unshakeable confidence. Harmony. Seeing All beings in my Self and my Self in All beings. A vision that transcends all boundaries of culture, religion, race, gender and states of mind, while quietly permeating them all.

 All these seeming differences, names and forms we see around us, can easily agitate one’s mind. How much are we living out of memory? How much is my conditioning preventing me to be truly happy, fulfilled, peaceful and authentic. To feel sovereign and empowered. (Have faith in the words of the scripture!)  A sense of being empowered that doesn’t need power or control. Doesn’t need to gain an upper hand or feel superior, look at others as inferior. But knowing the truth. Truth is simple, yet subtle. Therefore, not easy and often unpalatable. Therefore it’s important to keep the sastra so close to you in your daily life. Constantly remembering the Lord. and keeping company of the Self.

Such profound gratitude for my teacher came to me daily, tears would fill my eyes when I realised how well I’ve been taught, how compassionate and loving he is – to all those who come into his field seeking knowledge. It’s not a special kind of love, it’s equal to all who genuinely want to know.

That’s a true teacher. Whose love is pure. James taught me so wonderfully how to love all. How to know that I am deeply loved and what that really means. Isvara as my mother, as my father and how to truly love my biological parents, which is loving Isvara and opening up to Isvara sristi. It’s a setup here. The human journey is to realise oneself, nothing more, nothing less. Every little thing is perfectly curated. Remove just one thought… and that could be the most pernicious thought you can think of! Whether it’s afflicting or irritating or grand and holy, this whole thing would collapse.

Perhaps you’re already reading this on Shining World. I hope you know how blessed you are to have such a great teacher as James, Ramji, here with us in the West. I saw so many students who don’t have a teacher. Some perhaps don’t need one and some really do. Some had corrupt teachers, which is devastating indeed.

True love, true freedom, is letting God into your heart. Having full accommodation for Isvara, and nothing else, no one else, as everyone is automatically included. A true teacher has done the same. Seeing how much God loves you and wants you to love, be loved, be that shining beacon of pure love.

All of this is Isvara. That is called bhakti

All of this is Atma. That is called jnanam

Is there a difference between bhakti and jnanam ? There’s a difference in language but not in the vision.

Read the life of Sri Ramakrishna.

Inquire daily. Be courageous to be your Self. Be courageous to look at your Self. The beauty of who you are. Truly, in all ways. Letting go of anything that prevents you from knowing that, living that, seeing that. And…that requires some hard work. Karma yoga is not easy. Karma yoga is very difficult. The ego resists. The truth is there, it’s infallible. Action and results do not lie. Conscience is built in. “If you know you could do better, make small changes daily.” (read “I am an Ant” by Ramji)

 Early morning look at your thoughts. What comes up early in the morning is a great way to see if I’m habitually running off a program that doesn’t serve my best interest or my goals. What songs go around in your head? Let them be songs of God, who you are, Om Namah Shivaya! Let that go round in your head and know what that means. Not me, but Lord Shiva – all auspiciousness, please fill my heart and mind destroying any doubts. I’m free! – watching, unaffected, changeless. Think about it. Really, really think about it. Understand it.

What do you want? I have a choice. Moment to moment. Do I accept crumbs? Begging at the world for more of the same. Or do you want to know who you are? The divine effulgent source of everything. An endless source of love, security and pleasure. Free, unconditioned, not limited or modified. The pursuit is definitely most worthwhile. Never give up!

Daily, how do you treat yourself? Talk to yourself? See yourself?  How do you see and treat others? It doesn’t mean I must save the world. Or feed every starving mouth. But simply doing daily, what’s in front of you, what needs to be done, your duty to your Self. If you can offer your time and attention to others that is a great gift and blessing. The best service to the Lord is knowing me and the Lord are one. Let go of the divisions and oppositions in your mind. What are those elements appearing there that divide and oppose? Malaise, jealousy, hatred, spite, rivalry, competition, all these elements divide and come in the way of realising the spiritual unity. Therefore do away with all those elements.

 ~ Words from Swami TV  (whom I got to meet!)

 “Practice love, you have to practice love. Love all, like yourself. the one who censures you, love that person. The one who praises you, you love that person anyway. But the one who condemns you for a good reason or for the wrong reason, still you love that person anyway. How to do that we will see, this is how you have to grow into that realisation of spiritual unity. You have to grow into that. You have to bring an inner transformation in which the mind gets rid of all the divisible movements. You have to work on it. Take help from the sastra. Take the cue from the sastra. From the mahatma. Both. The sastra and the lives of the mahatmas. But ultimately you have to make it happen for yourself in your own heart and mind.

Suppose you are willing to live with non love, hatred and all that, then you are waiting for sastra to help you. It can’t. It’s an artificial structure. You have to pay attention to quality and intention in your mind, in your heart. Forgive all. There is a prayer. Oh god forgive my trespasses as I am willing to forgive those who trespass against me. Forgive those who you consider your enemy or opponent adversaries and there are people who are always waiting to find a fault in you. They are always waiting for that – fault finders these people are there, forgive them. Unless you forgive you cannot forget. Then your mind remains free from spite. Grow into consciousness that is ready for realisation of the Spiritual Unity.”

What else did I learn? It’s about integrating knowledge. Understanding I’ve been given everything. So I’m not grasping. I’m not struggling anymore. I’m not fearful. I don’t have grievances or complaints. I don’t feel victimised. I don’t feel I’ve missed out on anything. I’m not regretful – as I’ve attained the highest there is to attain in this life. So every day – show gratitude, and worship by making my heart and mind as bright and beautiful as possible. Be of service and inspiration to others. Be true to yourself and your Svadharma. Give more than you get. I’m not wanting needless stuff. Dreams about a better body, a better life. Better circumstances. If I want better health from my body or circumstances, that’s all within my capacities to make it possible. Because it is. I need knowledge. There’s no wishful thinking. The body is a science, a beautiful vehicle given to me by Bhagavan, it’s miraculous really, so see it as your own temple. The mind has endless infinite capacities to be brilliant and to be open to change. (The battle within) Gain control over your mind. Keep viveka and vairagya in your back pocket!

Don’t let your mind get stuck in the past. When you see something. How do you just see it? Can you just see it? Without naming it without a whole raft of thought or emotion to follow, apply this to people too, can we be objective when it comes to people, our nearest and dearest. Or money or your phone or the news. ( I generally don’t watch the news anyway, I didn’t watch it once for three months, of course I knew what was happening. My shanti prayers went out to the world… and… I was hoping I might have to stay in India.)

I learned and witnessed the power and beauty of Prayer… I pray show me Lord, how can I serve and learn today. Let me be happy and joyful. I learned so gloriously about the efficacy and purpose of prayer. Help me, help me keep my mind yoked. So that all pervading love shining in my heart lights up my mind – Tat Savitur Varenyam.

That one can pray is itself a blessing, and how one prays makes prayer meaningful.

I met and made the most wonderful friends. Inspiring each other to be the best human beings possible. A kind, loving, caring, and compassionate being willing to help and show others. I was inspired to be a better sister, daughter and friend. I saw them offer their time and hearts to those around them. Helping the kids on the street to read, buying them food, holding their hand walking along the river, or just generally giving love. I saw senior Vedanta students teach newer students what and how to pray at Ma Ganga. We sang a lot and laughed a lot together. The best things in life are free.

To sum up this piece, (more insights to come soon!) a few words from Swami Dayananda about prayer. I was so blessed at his ashram, soaking up all his amazing teachings. Namaste astu Bhagavan!

“Life has to be prayerful. Being prayerful means having an awareness of everything that is given, and the awareness of a giver. The more awareness you have of the presence of Isvara as the giver and the given, the more prayerful you are. If you analyse it, nobody can say that he or she is lonely, and yet most people feel lonely. It is because you feel that you are not understood.

You are exactly as you should be at this time and place, in your life. This is exactly what you are expected to be at this time and place. The Lord is the only one who knows that. And in order to say this, you have to know the Lord to be so. You are appreciating an omniscient being, in whose knowledge you are totally accepted. You do not need anybody else to approve of you, to accept you. You need not ask the Lord. Oh, Lord, please accept me. I may have many omissions and commissions, but please accept me. The Lord is not a limited individual like an uncle. In your vision of Isvara you are totally acceptable. It is not enough to say that in the vision of Isvara you are acceptable. That is all “iffy” because it depends on how much you understand Isvara. It is not enough to say that God is infallible.

You have to discover the infallible is God!

In that vision, you are totally acceptable.

There you can relax.

The one who counts is only the Lord.

When I say that everything is non-separate from the Lord. Then all that counts as one. In Isvara’s presence I am totally acceptable.

That I am acceptable in Isvara’s vision is my understanding. And that understanding is a must.

I have to see that I am an individual given this body mind sense complex. And as an individual, I have limitations, I have virtues. Both I acknowledge, and I am prayerful. I pray for the things I want. And one of the things I pray for is to be prayerful. Thus the whole life is one of prayerfulness.

I can look back and say that time, of course, wrung out. But it brought in a lot for me. So I can say it was a very good year. And I look forward to the next year, because in growth there is a joy. In simplicity, there is a joy. The simpler you are, the more people will love you because people are complex. Everybody has lots of problems.

Therefore, they look for a simple person.

People want to relate to a simple person, not a simpleton, but a simple person who is a wise person.

If a wise person is not simple, then he is not wise. He is otherwise. The simpler you are, the more profound are the things that you come to discover when you pray.

Let my life be prayerful.”

OM

Love,

Kate

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