It has been a long time since my last email, several things have happened that have tested my self-knowledge, but I can say that despite everything, I continue with the firm knowledge that I am Existence that shines as Consciousness, non-dual, unborn, ordinary, unlimited and always present.     

 I’m writing again because I have a somewhat technical question, but I wanted your opinion on the matter.  I have read the gospel of Ramakrishna and what caught my attention is the comparison he makes between a jnani and a vijnani.  In short, it indicates that a jnani is a Self-realized being who knows how to differentiate between Satya and mithya and a vijnani is that jnani who lives in communion and love in this relative and apparently real world. 

Is not a vijnani a person who has successfully completed the stage of nidhiyasana?  Or am I confusing processes?  I have searched for more information on this and can’t find anything clear.  I hope you can give me some ideas and I apologize for the sincere concern on my part.  

Sundari: Good to hear from you again – and I am happy for you that Self-knowledge stays strong despite the challenges life brings you.  That means it is assimilating and working to remove the obstacles in the way of Self-actualization. Good for you!

Ramakrishna was a saint, and probably, a Self-realized being.  But he was not a qualified teacher of Vedanta as he was never properly taught.  His language is very confusing, and he uses many experiential terms, which are misleading.  Essentially, he is correct in many of his statements, but because of the terminology, it is hard to know what he actually means.

What he seems to be referring to with the term ‘vijnani’ is a person who has actualized Self-knowledge, therefore, completed nididhysana. This is someone who can discriminate between satya and mithya, but has gone further by seeing that as there is only Brahman, the Self, all is Brahman.  So mithya must be satya.  This is correct.  All differences dissolve in the Self. Nondual means nothing other than. What he does not do is explain what Self-actualized actually means, he is not giving a proper teaching.

I assume by a jnani he means someone who can discriminate between satya and mithya, but has not yet understood that all is satya. Therefore, he is still in the nididhysana stage. Meaning, he still has residual ignorance or duality obscuring full access to his nondual nature as the Self.

 I have added the teaching from Swami Paramarthananda, who is a proper teacher of Vedanta, to show you what a real teaching should be.  His explanation of Self-actualization is all you need. Please read it carefully.

What is Self Actualization (Nididyasana)?

Karma Yoga is a preparation for Jñāna Yoga and Jñāna Yoga leads to self knowledge and liberation.  Jñāna Yoga is three disciplines, (1) hearing (shravanam), (2) reasoning (mananam)and (3) actualizing (nididhyāsanam).  Hearing isextracting the essential teaching of Vedānta by systematic and consistent study of the scriptures under the guidance of a competent living teacher. Mananamis logically dwelling upon the teaching until all doubts with regards to the teachings are eliminated. It is understanding that Vedanta is flawless and factual.  Actualizing is the internalization or assimilation of the teaching by dwelling on the teaching until it is spontaneously available during every day transactions.

The process of liberation (moksa sadhana) is presented in Vedanta as consisting of  three stages, (1) liberation while alive (jivan mukti), (2) liberation at death (videha mukti) and (2) the end of samsara (samsara niviritti), i.e. no future births. 

The seeker starts the path as a doer with sanchita karma, tendencies toward good and bad actions accumulated from previous births.  Prārabdha karma is that portion of the sanchita which is actively fructifying in the present birth and agāmi karma is karma the doer accumulates during the current birth.

When the Jīva gains self knowledge through Vedānta sādhanā, the knowledge destroys sanchita and agāmi karma leaving the jnani with prārabdha karma only. This is called jīvan mukti, liberated while living. And when this jñāni exhausts all the prārabdha, the current birth and body caused by the prārabdha is destroyed, which is called videha mukti, liberation at death, so there is no reason to come back. This is called cessation of transmigration (samsara), moving from one body to another.

Nididyasanam

The final stage of Vedanta sadhana is nididhyāsanam whose purpose is to internalize and actualize the teaching Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithyā Jivo Brahmaiva Nā Paraha. “The self is real, the world is apparently real. There is no difference between the self and the Jiva.”  It is a fact that I am only limitless existence/consciousness but as a Jiva I am ignorant of this fact it so I have to (1) claim my limitlessness and (2) negate the misconception that I am a Jiva. Claiming limitlessness means claiming that I am not a doer/enjoyer entity.  If I don’t accept this fact, even though I know the scripture’s point of view, I am not a jivan mukta.  I am still at the doubt removal stage (manana).  But if I am convinced that I am the limitless self and am not perfectly satisfied with my new identity I must actualize it.  I must:

(A) Get Rid of the Idea that I did Sadhana to get Liberated. 

The entire process of moksa from jivan mukti to vidha mukti to the cessation of samsara is based on the idea that I am a Jiva with three types of karma. Nididhyāsanam negates the idea that I am a Jiva, so along with it I need to negate my sadhana. The idea that I am a Jiva and the idea of moksa are two sides of the same coin.  I shouldn’t think I did sadhana for moksa because I was free when I was doing sadhana.

(B) Get Rid of the Idea that I am Liberated

If I didn’t do sadhana because I was always the self, I didn’t get liberated either.  So I have to get rid of the status of a liberated person because it is a misconception based on an incorrect notion of who I am. 

(C) Get rid of the idea that I won’t be Reborn 

If I never was a jiva or a jivan mukta, it is also true of videha mukti and the end of samsara (samsara nivritti).  So I can’t say I will be liberated at death or that I won’t come back again.  These notions should be dismissed during the nididhyasana stage.   

(C) Get Rid of the Idea that Qualifications are necessary for Liberation.

The idea that qualifications are necessary for moksa is unconsciously formed during one’s sadhana and needs to be deliberately negated because moksa is my nature, not something I gained, nor which I can lose.  This is usually difficult for doers but it is a fact.  Persisting in this notion is tantamount to identifying with the doer.

(D) Redefining Qualifications

Even though qualifications are not valid as a condition for moksha, sadhana still is required for nididyasana. Why?  Keeping up your sadhana once you are liberated is the best gift you can give Isvara for bringing you to Vedanta.  Neglecting it is the worst thing you can do.  It is the best gift you can give your teacher also (guru dakshina).  Neglecting it is the worst gift you can give the guru.  Keeping up your sadhana is also the best publicity for Vedanta.  And keeping up your sadhana is a blessing for the world (loka seva).  

So you should keep the qualifications…discrimination, dispassion, etc… but convert your desire to be free into the  idea…which is a fact, incidentally…“I have always been free.”  If you think you achieved moksa you are still thinking of yourself as a jiva.

(E)  Get rid of the Conventional Experiential Definition of Liberation.

Often people who are convinced that they are the self, still long for some kind of epiphany to validate it, which means that they haven’t completed stage two of Vedanta sadhana (manana).  Since I am limitless awareness I am always experiencing myself so I needn’t look for some kind of experiential validation of my nature.   

(F) Redefine Liberation – Taking a Stand as the Self –  Repeated Internalization of Identity Mantras

I need to continually contemplate on and confidently assert: (1) I am of the nature of eternal all-pervading existence/consciousness. (2) I am the only source of permanent peace security and happiness.  (3) By my mere presence, I give life to this material body and experience this material universe. (4) I am never affected by any event that happens in the material world or to the material body.  (5) When I forget my real nature, I convert life into a burden.  When I remember my nature, I convert life into entertainment.

 Commit to memory this mantra from the Kaivalya Upanishad and repeat it until it becomes a continuous and automatic thought.  Once it is continuous it will never be forgotten and it will drop out of every day consciousness but be available always when it is needed, like your name.  

 “Everything is born in me, all things have their existence in me and everything merges back into me. I am that limitless awareness, the one without a second.”

Om Tat Sat

I hope this helps

It’s great to read the works of great beings and saints, but the problem is that very often there is ignorance mixed in knowledge, or the terms used are experiential and confusing.

Ronny: Thanks Sundari! You have given me a wonderful tool to continue working on this stage of nidhiyasana. I’m going to check everything carefully. The road is arduous, but the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. 

A big hug

Ángel 

Much love

Sundari

Metacognition

(Note – This was another insert in the teaching I gave in Bali, but did not have time to complete it.  It is part of the online course I am in the process of structuring)

To value a controlled mind is to understand the way the mind thinks and to bring it in line with the way the Self would think if it was a person living in the apparent reality.  It means that although the mind is capricious I need not fulfill its fantasies and yield to its caprices.  It means that I am the boss, not the mind.

There are four basic ways of thinking, three of which are necessary to understand and master if I want to prepare my mind for Sel-knowledge. 

1)    Impulsive. Unexamined thoughts born of instincts dominate the mind.  I do what I feel without thinking about it. 

2)    Mechanical.  Thoughts of which I am conscious but have no power to control because they are produced by binding vasanas.     

3)    Deliberate.  Thoughts subjected to discrimination that are accepted or dismissed with reference to my value structure. 

4)    Spontaneous.  Without evaluation my thinking automatically conforms to universal values and my actions are always appropriate and timely.  This kind of thinking only applies to those for whom Self-knowledge has destroyed binding vasanas and negated doership.   

 Spontaneous thought is not included in this value because it only applies to Self-actualized individuals.  If my thinking is impulsive, conditioned or deliberate I am not a master, but by deliberate thinking I, the doer, can gain control of the mind.  Relative mastery is simply alertness (sattva) and involves deliberately submitting all thoughts and feelings to rational scrutiny and substituting the appropriate Vedantic logic whenever ignorance-born mechanical thinking dominates the mind.  If I am conscious of my mind I can learn from my mistakes and exercise choice over the way I think, allowing me to fulfill my commitments to my goal in the face of various distractions and to change my behavior so that it conforms with universal values.

Control of the senses and single-pointedness are qualifications for inquiry.  In this discussion we present them also as values.  Here, mind control is discipline over one’s thinking at the level where the thoughts arise, sense control indicates discretion at the level of the senses and single-pointedness is the consistent capacity to stick with the teachings in the face of unhelpful thought patterns…applying the opposite thought, for example.  The first two make the mind capable of single-pointedness.  

The limitation and Inevitability of Bias

Everyone has biases, they come with the territory of being human and cannot be avoided because they are all guna generated. The field of experience is run by them. Isvara loves bias and you can see how it functions even in the natural world. Whether the bias is personal or universal, it’s not a problem if we understand what it is and how it conditions the mind. There are an infinite number of biases, most of our thinking and feeling comes from them. Some are more damaging than others. One of the most familiar is confirmation bias, and we all know how that works! Because the mind is so limited it operates as efficiently as possible – it is a master of heuristics. It simplifies everything as much as possible to conform to what it knows, which is why all of us have a tendency to align with ‘our truth’. It takes us out of our comfort zone to do otherwise.

What Is Metacognition?

Metacognition is a function of the mind which allows us awareness of our own thoughts and emotional processes. It’s being able to plan, monitor, and access our true motivations, conditioning factors, performance, and understanding. It’s like our brain’s way of understanding and grading itself. It applies in our interaction with others and in our mastery of any topic, skill or task. Including the assimilation of Vedanta. Our metacognition will be vastly different if it is governed by Self-knowledge, nonduality, as opposed to duality. Self-knowledge gives us the 20/20 clarity of guna knowledge, as well as how to think critically and deliberately. It will also give us a rational understanding of what we do and do not know regarding the factors in the field with reference to object knowledge, and our abilities. But if we enter self-inquiry thinking we know it all, we will never make progress towards moksa. Without Self-knowledge, not only will we tend to be identified with our thoughts and feelings, less aware of our conditioning and biases, but we will tend to have unrealistic views of what we do and do not know.

Vedanta Requires Developing a Critical Thinking Mentality

It is undeniable that the lack of critical thinking faculties amplified by social media contributes a great deal to the current worldwide state of affairs.  Sadly, our society does not educate people to develop independently verifiable, evidence-based research and analytical skills, to practice exercising judgment, and to use language with accuracy. If it were, we would be seeing less of the madness going on, with people losing all ability to agree on what constitutes ‘truth’.  None of it is new of course, it’s just the way ignorance is unfolding, it just seems much louder and ubiquitous now because of social media. If you have not read it, I attached my comments on the topic.  What else is there to say or understand? Self-knowledge gives you 20/20 vision about everything, in every moment.

The intellect is an especially important tool, and we all need to develop it to think critically. We are not born with a highly developed intellect, although some people seem to have a natural propensity to think well from young. However, as much as having a finely developed intellect is, we need to develop emotional intelligence as well to function properly as humans. The problems raging in society, the ‘us vs them’ populist ideas are nothing new; it’s just the same old age-old dissatisfaction. Thanks to rajas and tamas, fear and desire, these ideas are part and parcel of duality. Today these eternal grievances have found social media as the perfect platform to shout them out into the void. It is all so silly because all everyone wants is to be happy, no matter what we believe to be true.  In mithya, everything is subjective. But even so, there are or used to be, rules that guided what we all believed to be factual. Not so anymore.

Sundari

However, Vedanta stands resolute and contends that there is a logical connection between love as my nature and the Self/Existence.  But it will ask you to shift your perspective from duality to non-duality, which may be a big ask.  If love exists (which we know it does) and reality is not a duality but a non-duality, therefore, then there can be no difference between love and Consciousness. Non-duality means just that—there is only one principle and I am it. I know this  is still a stretch to believe for those of us convinced that duality is real.  To convince you, I need to reveal a bridge between love and consciousness.

That bridge is attention.

Think about it.  I am always paying attention to something. This fact means I am always loving something. If you love your child, you are always thinking about them, you take care of all their physical needs, cuddle, and play with them.  If you do not pay attention to your loved ones, they do not feel loved.  You know this is true because you don’t feel loved if the ones you love do not pay attention to you.

So, what is attention?  Attention is Consciousness (love) directed through the Heart towards an object. This is a difficult concept to grasp because we are conditioned to believe that love is a special feeling or state of being. But as stated, it isn’t. It is the nature of Consciousness, my Self.  It does not come from objects, it comes from me.  Although certain objects invoke the love I am.

Sundari

ShiningWorld.com

I recently have had near conscious events that I was fully awake for several seconds. (Apparently this is common during awakening) But the world was truly a marvel to witness as an unformed, non dual environment. I have had this happen three times now I feel I’m on the cusp of staying there but….I must be patient. It was as if I was looking from behind my eyes, as if “I” was seeing things from the “person who isn’t my egos” perspective. Yes it was blissful and calm.

James:  Good for you. However, here is something to think about. Yes, the world is an unformed non-dual environment. I like this formulation. That in itself is true knowledge. It is not an “illusion,” although it seems to be. But I think you will have a lot of frustration if you try to “stay” there. Non-duality means that there are not two of anything in reality, although it seems as if there are. So there is not actually here or there, nor is there anyone other that you, existence shining as unborn whole and complete ever-present awareness, to “stay” anywhere. As you contemplate on these words hopefully you will understand that the one who would like to “stay” is the awareness that is yourself. How can you “stay” in yourself? Is it your experience that there are two of you? If there is, then how will you determine which is real and which isn’t? Non-duality means there is only one reality. You can only “be” yourself. In this case “being” is not a verb. If you came to the world in a body, then perhaps there is a “there” somewhere. But is that your experience? I don’t think so, although you may have subsequently incorrectly inferred that you arrived “here” on earth. But if you think about it you will probably realize that at some point in time a body appeared and you were fascinated by it, which goes to show that you, awareness/consciousness precedes the body. To be born, you have to have died, which means that birth and death are real. But two things that depend on each other for their existence are not real. At best they are “apparently real,” which is as good as saying that are non-existent, even though they do exist. What is real stands on its own. It does not require any support. This is why you are free and unborn. Dare I say immortal?

Dear James,

Thank you for taking the time to write the last email about pleasure and pain. You said the solution is identifying with awareness as awareness. I am serious about identifying as awareness as completely as possible James, will you kindly help me? But in any now moment, how can I verify that I am right now identified as awareness or not and what is the definition of the term ‘’identify as awareness?’’ as I don’t know what that means.

A Story Upgrade

James:  Asking me how you take a stand in awareness as awareness, is like taking a stand in Joe except that if you take a stand in awareness, you take a stand in bliss, as I pointed out in my last letter a few days ago. You need a story upgrade, which is what Vedanta is all about.  The new story says that you and your circumstances are perfect in every way and provides the tools to understand it.  As Nancy Reagan once famously said, “just say no.” She was referring to drug use, but the same mentality applies to self inquiry. Just say no to the Joe story.  Thinking of yourself as an historical character gets pretty heavy and boring as one ages. Awareness has no history.  It is a Teflon self; nothing sticks to it.

It seems to me that the spirit of renunciation required by karma yoga needs a bit of work.  When you do an action standing as awareness you are asserting the real you as the hero of your story.  You do it in a spirit of loving service and you take the results with gratitude .  Gradually, you lose contact with Joe as you forge a new identity.

Joe: From your book Meditation, Inquiry into the Self, this is what I’ve accomplished so far, or close, I guess.

James: Notice the words “close” and “I guess.” The teaching “I am whole and complete, perfect in every way, is like water. It doesn’t turn to steam at 211 degrees, only at 212. When, with easy confidence, you can say “I’m fine in every way and the world is fine too,” then you’ve got the message.  Up to that point you need to assert your true identity, every time you feel hemmed in by your circumstances.  Freedom from samsara only happens once in one way but getting to that realization comes after thousands of baby steps.

Joe: On page 70 you say, “If the meditator consistently feels a sense of uncaused happiness and unexplained peace, the mind is pure.” The dictionary describes consistently as in every case and all occasions, which is not true for me.

James: I explained why in detail above. Your saving grace is honesty. You don’t deny that you are only partially committed to taking a stand in your real self. 

Joe: It also states that when something happens again and again, it happens consistently, so that is true for me. This is also true for me regarding feeling whole and complete and satisfied again and again, so seeking pleasures is optional.  I have never been driven to seek them.

James: That’s good.

Joe: On page 69 you say, “Accurate identification of the Self depends on a still clear mind.” What does a still clear mind mean? In every situation even in a car accident?

James: No.  This mind is definitely disturbed in extreme circumstances.  But life is not dramatic every day.  It is a steady tedious drip of unremarkable thoughts like the Chinese water torture that slowly bores you to death.    

It means how you generally think about yourself. Your mind is confused and therefore it suffers. The suffering keeps you from seeing what I’m saying.

Joe: Having no thoughts?

James: After all these years you still don’t understand the first and second chapters of Essence of Enlightenment. DEFINITELY NOT. It is thinking the right thoughts! You must train your mind to think from the non-dual point of view. It will neutralize the voices of diminishment that have hypnotized you.

Joe: Residing in the gap or space between thoughts for 31 seconds more or less, or for 15 days in a cave? The definition of this statement needs to be extremely specific and totally understandable.

James: No, again.  What are you thinking about when you are listening to Vedanta?

Joe: Starting on P.100 is a list of 8 qualifications which I have accomplished to a large degree depending on definitions, for example, #8.  Devotion is the ‘’constant’’ inquiry into the Self, which I’m not clear on how to do that or maybe I am in meditation. So again, it needs a specific and understandable definition.

Constant can mean without change, without change for how long?

James: Forever. Time is not long and short. It is eternal. It is a big problem for Joe because time is running out for that guy. The second issue is the question, “Or maybe I am in meditation,” which shows that you are not clear about the difference between yogic meditation and Vedantic meditation, which is sourced in chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita and explained clearly in “The Power of Know.”

Joe: P.34 Holding to the Silence is something I do every day for usually 2 hours and after 50 years it is now very enjoyable.

James: Good. Now discover the fact that you can’t hold on to anything because you, awareness, don’t have hands and emotions.  Out of ignorance the body and mind cling to things.  This is enough for now.  I will wait to read your reply before I continue.  Anyway, not to worry.  Just keep doing what you are and one day the penny will drop. 

Love,

James 

Sundari: Nicely put, when you know that the conch call is always the call not to arms but to surrender.

Michael: It is funny you mention “expect a battle” – these past weeks during our exchanges, I observe the ego (still admittedly having a foot or stake in it) is apparently aware its “territory” is shrinking before my eyes. Suddenly tenuous, like a prolonged halfway moment during beam up in Star Trek, the previously very corporeal ego is no longer all there. That is my ego, the Jiva, the doer there (or here?) That was / is..but never was me. Huh? 

I am so reminded of James saying “oh you’ll know…”

Sundari: Yeah. I think anyone truly dedicated to eradicating doership has this insight and experience. The protracted and subtle process of doer negation was the topic of my talk last Sunday, and will be again this coming Sunday.  It is totally related to actualizing Self-knowledge, no way around this. Here is the link to the satsang posted online, if you care to read it: https://shiningworld.com/sundaris-sunday-10-march-satsang-synopsis-of-the-steps-to-self-actualize/

Michael: The apparently real ego gets irritated. Not for long (like before in my life, perhaps for days or weeks). This is way more subtle. Like “no no, oh no – it cannot end like this, it’s not going to end like this – no!”. Accompanied by shorter moments of acute irritation about a tiny thing, like a pencil dropping, or a computer failing – but lasting a second, even funny in the next.

Sundari: The most important word here is apparent.  When you know that, you are on your way to having a very different life as a person.  One that is no longer dragged around by its usual tendencies.  Of course, this is very irritating to the egoic doer accustomed to normalizing duality.

Michael: While the ego is seeing itself in a reflection, can express itself apparently calmly dying in words as you indicated, there are emotional ricochets. But no more than a bumpy landing on a plane. There is a security – it has to land. Inevitably, after an apparently very long haul flight. 

Sundari: Yes, it has no choice but to land, and hopefully, not crash land, if Self-knowledge is working.  This is kind of the litmus test of the whole process of self-inquiry. If life is not improving for you as a person, what is the point of doing all this work? You might as well give up and find religion.

Michael: That is to say, I am clearly not the pilot, Ishwara is. The mind and doer are focusing on the scripture, the teachings, the qualifications. Increasingly able to co-pilot the gunas better. So while Krishna is saying “get up and fight” at the beginning of the Holy Gita and all the conches are blowing, I feel he’s not talking to me now. He is me, in a way I cannot fathom properly yet.

Sundari: A sure sign that Self-knowledge is working to remove ignorance.  Who can it be, if not you, the Self? Surrender to Isvara is not really a surrender, it is the knowledge that there is no need to surrender because there is no surrenderer and nothing to surrender. When you absolutely know this, there is no more conflict about anything because you not only know that none of it is real, you also know that what you want is only one of so many factors that need to be present for anything to happen.  We can take appropriate action for a particular result, but if something is meant to be, you will not be able to stop it. And if it is not, there is nothing you can do to make it happen.  Accepting that is living a sane intelligent life.

Michael: I start now to appreciate those words James so often said in the first Satsang I attended – ordinary, unconcerned, unborn Awareness. And wow was that fascinatingly irritating at the time. In every corner of the esoteric, every spiritual group, every religion – one thing none of all that ever says is “ordinary” or “unconcerned”. From humble church prayer book holders to star spangling angelics, nutty cult voodooers, tarot crystal swingers, jungle ashramers or even radical atheists – none of them, ever, use such words!

Sundari: Yes, indeed.  Vedanta is the cult of the ordinary, the leaderless and with no followers. There is only the Self, so how can anyone be special? Humility, respect and support of a genuine teacher is very important as they represent the scripture, the Self. But everyone is the Self regardless.

Michael: At the time I thought “What is this (true) wizard saying?!” So interesting and curious! Without a shadow of a doubt this was it (and if this wasn’t it, then for sure, there is nothing else). This was the end stop, right here – or just “the end”. Yet quite quickly I became aware of also sitting in an apparent ton of bilge water; a momentum of previous actions swirling around, pushing “me” relentlessly. Like someone getting pushed on trains in Asia, I was stuck in the push, gripping a moth-eaten copy of Swami Chinmaynanda’s Vivekachudamini. Which I confess is the only Vedanta book I read diligently at the time.

Sundari:  Par for the course for all inquirers. Assuming some qualifications, there will be the first ‘hit’ that will knock your proverbial vasana socks off.  And then comes the reality sandwich. Getting handed the key to the door of the prison of limitation does not confer instant freedom. You have been institutionalized by Maya/duality, and nonduality goes against what you know to be ‘normal’. This is where the ‘work’ truly begins. Any scripture that works is the right one for you.

Michael: Understanding the essence of everything to be me is like a vast non-separation. Yet conspicuously marked by being so normal, so non-different to everything else. Indifference even. But not in a negative way. My ego hates indifference with a passion – but this is compassionate, while its control just winks out. As you so visually put in your poem – like forlorn ghosts, staring with glass eyes. It reminded me of those deep sea fish swimming lifelessly in utter darkness with apparently nowhere to go or do anything.

Sundari:  Yes! It is not the indifference or detachment/dissociation of not caring but the non-attachment non association of true love. Seeing everything as you, the Self. What’s not to love?

Nick: I can see Swami A’s smile now. He knows. As you say, he shows us, “you are this too”. He is “all there” – just like when I met/meet James. It is so hard to describe. He is not empty, yet there is “nothing there” anymore and it is wonderful !  Much love to you both and thank you again

Sundari:  Yes, it’s the emptiness that is the fullness of love. No words can describe it. You know when you know.

It is always a pleasure to hear from you.  I find your writing inspired and inspiring, thank you.

Much love

Sundari

The little me is as good as non-existent and I’m blissful to know so. The teaching on karikas is a profound way of describing the situation. It cuts right thru the confusion about Who is Doing. You both have brought the knowledge/truth into very clear focus. It blinks off occasionally on my end, but I am so very grateful to both of you.

Sundari: Yes, indeed. We all chase objects until we realize that there really is nothing to gain – and nothing to lose. Nothing wrong with having any particular desire, as long as it is in keeping with dharma and not binding. Frank was hoping to find through you what he believed he lacked in himself, which of course, he does not.  There really is no ‘other’, and love is never denied because we are it.

Susan: Now for my question…

Ben and Rory’s talks really clicked with me. It became perfectly clear how (and why)  to get the equipment into great condition so that the knowledge can actualize. I have been delving into the model of the 5 Koshas (or Sheaths) and I am having a bit of trouble understanding the difference between the 4th, (Vijnanamaya kosha), which is where knowledge is illuminated, I think. And the 3rd (manamaya kosha) which is mind as it relates to function of the Jiva system.

Sundari:  The teaching on the five sheaths unfolds the whole ‘jiva system’ to negate it all with reference to the one unchanging factor – Consciousness, the knower of the five sheaths. See below.

Susan: This is where vrittis occur? Is that right? Is the 3rd where the Ego emanates from? From the mind?

Sundari: The fourth or intellect sheath is where thought takes place, correct. The intellect is the part of the Subtle body, the instrument which allows us to discriminate, determine and make judgements. For Vedanta, you need a qualified and functioning intellect, or the teachings will not stick.

Ego  – the ‘I” thought identified with the body/mind – is part of the mind or emotional sheath, also called the Subtle body. But the third sheath cannot really be separated from the intellect because feeling is a component of thinking, as is the egoic identity.

Susan: The 5th (anandamaya kosha) seems to fit the description of “reflected consciousness” which is lighting the intellect of the 4th. This results in the bliss which is experienced in the entire system, I guess.

Sundari: The fifth sheath is reflected consciousness, correct.  It provides experiential bliss – Ananta. It can also be called the bliss of deep sleep.  As the reflected self is not THE SELF, this bliss ends. The bliss of Self – ANANTUM – does not come from any of the sheaths, is not dependent on what is going on in any of them, and never ends.  It is the knower of all of them.

Susan: I am not clear if the 4th is where stuff is known or is it the 3rd. Since consciousness can’t see or know anything it must be the 5th Kosha, just shining. And if so, is the 4th kosha what we might call the witness? The witness “sees” the other koshas? This would explain the need to “polish the mirror” of the 4th kosha by tuning up all the other koshas in order to maximize the reflection in the 4th kosha and provide the greatest amount of light as to illumine the mind in the 3rd. Am I understanding this correctly?

Sundari: See above. The koshas do not ‘see’ or ‘witness’ anything because they are all objects known to you – the Self – the only true ‘seer’ who never actually ‘see’ anything but itself. The Self only ‘becomes’ a ‘seer’ when Maya appears and apparent objects are there to be ‘seen’. ‘Tuning’ or polishing (purification) the mirror of the mind/intellect is very important for Self-knowledge to assimilate, yes. This is done through yoga – dealing with psychological and cleaning up lifestyle, issues meditation, devotional practice, developing all the qualifications and values for self-inquiry – which entails karma yoga and guna yoga (jnana yoga).

Susan: So when we use the term mind is it the 3rd kosha with intellect being the 4th? I know this is a model, but it helps me to have a visual and orient me to know where a problem or blockage might be occurring. If it is a physical problem that is where to fix it, if it is an energy problem that is where to fix it, if it is a mind problem that is where to fix it…etc. 

Sundari: The kosha teaching is a model, and though it does help to locate and negate thought/emotional problems, all ignorance is due only to one thing: ignorance of your true nature and super-imposing satya (nonduality) onto mithya (duality).  The koshas, as with anything relating to the jiva and its experience, subtle or gross – are all mithya.

Here is the 5 five sheaths (panca kosha prakriya) negation process:

1. The Gross Body: anna-maya kosha: Are you your body?  Does ‘your’ body know you? Do your sensory organs or organs of action know you? Or are you the witness of your sensory organs, meaning your body?

2. The 5 prana: prana-maya-kosha: Are you your basic energetic desires and functions? Are you hungry/thirsty…do you breathe or digest the food you eat? Or are you the non-experiencing witness of thirst/hunger/breathing/digesting etc?

3. The Mind: mana-maya-kosha: Are you your emotions and feelings? Or do you witness them?

4. The Intellect: vijnana-maya-kosha: Are you your thoughts or the witness of your thoughts?

5. Deep sleep or Bliss: Ananda-maya-kosha: Are you the bliss of deep sleep? In moments where there seems no doer/experience, have you been able to witness and know the joy/bliss to be coming from you? If not how do you know joy/bliss was there in the first place? How can you say that you did not know anything while you were asleep unless awareness was there to witness the absence of knowledge? Therefore, you cannot be the lack of knowledge or ignorance. As I said above, deep sleep is called experiential bliss because it ends, like all experiences do.  The bliss you are after if you are seeking moksha is the bliss of SELF-knowledge which never ends (anantum) because it is your true nature.

Susan: My early education was in nursing and nutrition (so that’s how my mind works). Then I returned to art and I began organic gardening to have the cleanest food I could. This was followed by Vipassana meditation teachers, Bhakti, yoga, exercise and reading the great writings of the sages and many scenic detours in Hell realms. I was trying to attend to the first 3 koshas without much awareness at the time. And now Vedanta is weaving it all together. I feel blissful just writing to you about these ideas. And I feel blessed to have you for my teacher. Cookie and I are laughing a lot as we discuss this. 

Sundari:  Vedanta is a flawless teaching – there is nothing like it! The Gross Body is ‘within’ the Subtle Body and the Subtle Body is ‘within’ Awareness…you. The body belongs to Isvara and we have no control over it other than to look after it to the best of our ability, if we want peace of mind.  With knowledge about healthy lifestyle and especially guna management, you can do a great deal to maximize health, wellbeing and therefore, peace of mind.  It is very difficult to maintain a sattvic mind if your lifestyle is a mess and the body is in bad health as a result. But, no matter how well we look after the body, Isvara is the final (and only) determiner of how long the body will sustain life. 

With much love

Sundari

Inserts by Sundari

Matthew: I will describe something that I’ve been aware of quite a bit lately, that I think of as “the slippery spot“ problem. The “place” where there’s “no traction”.

Sundari Insert: No traction is a good description of the last stage of self-inquiry, Self-actualization, because the remaining ‘work’ of cleaning up binding samskaras and subtle doership is very subtle. The doer is still trying to keep a grip, but it has to surrender entirely. Which is the hardest part.

Matthew: Before I get to the point I need to give three metaphors. 

Metaphor one: learning to play piano

There are a number of different “schools” of piano instruction. This is analogous to the different schools of enlightenment, for example Buddhism and Vedanta.

The qualifications to be successful as a piano student are very similar to the qualifications for enlightenment:

• Steady discrimination and dispassion give consistent access to a sattvic mind which is a working mind, and is absolutely required. A piano student needs consistent access to a working piano. Enlightenment is made manifest in a mind and music is made manifest by the piano. 
• Both an enlightenment student and a piano student need the ability to control their mind, manage internal and external distractions, concentrate for long periods of time, give up habits that conflict, accept the results of their practice with an unbothered attitude, be persistent and keep returning to the work. 
• Both an enlightenment student and a piano student need to have a burning desire to succeed or they’ll never make it. 
• Both need a qualified teacher, a valid teaching methodology, and confidence in the teacher and the teaching.

The goal of the “Russian school” of piano pedagogy is to produce pianists who are fully qualified to play classical piano in a professional capacity. They don’t teach composition, only performance. They don’t teach improvisation or jazz or other styles, only classical. They do teach every skill needed to play classical piano at a professional level including posture and body mechanics, music theory, sight reading, ear training and expressiveness. To succeed takes steady training, coaching and practice; apparently for around 18 years. The subtlety of the study and the intensity and difficulty of the practice increases over the course of training. A beginning student may only have the ability to study 10 or 20 minutes per day but by the end they will be able to practice six or more hours every day. Studying Vedanta is similar to studying piano in this way. 

Metaphor two: infinite approach, never arrive problem 

I took an introductory calculus class, and one of the first lessons was about this thought experiment. Imagine you have two objects some distance apart from each other. One of them is at a fixed location and the other is movable. At some set interval, say once every second, you move the movable object towards the fixed object and cover half the remaining distance between them each time. Closing the gap this way means never actually reaching the target. The gap between them gets progressively smaller for the rest of infinity but the two never touch. This is a metaphor for discrimination or holding attention on awareness or “standing as the self” as a technique.

Sundari Insert: This is a good analogy for satya and mithya – though they are not opposed, they also never meet. And they never meet because they are never actually separate. But to get that last bit – to close the ‘gap’ requires dissolving the subject/object split. It is not a  target because there is no actual gap and no target. You are and always have been the ‘target’.  You cannot gain something you already have. The split  cannot be resolved by a doer. It is resolved once Self-knowledge removes all residual ignorance of the Self. Then mithya ‘becomes’ satya because there is only Satya.

Matthew: Metaphor three: wrong identity in each of the five sheaths 

Each sheath has identity processes and each process is capable of being wrong. All mistakes about identity cause misery. The intellect sheath is the one primarily responsible for jiva-ego-identity and this being wrong is the single underlying basis of all psychological suffering. 

• The first sheath is the food body, and it has an inarticulate, non-verbal identity process. It knows when it stubs its toe that it is its toe, not some other toe. This sense of identity can be wrong, for example tumor growth, clumsiness, numbness.
• The second sheath is the “vital“ sheath, or the sheath of biological processes and reflexes. This sheath also has  identity processes and can also have identity errors, for example auto-immune diseases, ulcers, not feeling hungry while starving, hunger for sickening food or drugs, not feeling sleepy while exhausted, maybe twitches and tics, etc.
• The third sheath is the “mind sheath” and it has a lot of different identity activities. The best way to understand the mind sheath is as that part of mental functioning which happens spontaneously or at least without deliberate effort. It acts or thinks or emotes in reaction. It includes learned or trained behaviors and skills like walking, language and speech, habitual gait, body posture and facial expressions, “highway hypnosis” and other kinds of auto-pilot, memory, emotions, all habits, all remembered knowledge and education. Mental functions can have identity mistakes. People can remember things that never actually happened to them, hold habitual beliefs about themselves that aren’t true, continue to limp long after an injury to a foot has healed, etc.

 Sundari insert – Technically the mind sheath is the emotional body, but as thoughts precede emotions, you cannot really separate thinking and emotions. See below in intellect sheath

Matthew: The fourth sheath is the intellect sheath and despite the limited identification activity in the other four sheaths this sheath is the primary source of the personal identity. This sheath is composed of volitional mental activity, such as carefully watching and listening, puzzle and problem solving, deliberate learning, willful effort.

Sundari insert: the intellect sheath is composed of four types of thinking,(some of which you ascribed to the mind sheath):

• 1)    Impulsive. Unexamined thoughts born of instincts dominate the mind.  I do what I feel without thinking about it. 
• 2)    Mechanical.  Thoughts of which I am conscious but have no power to control because they are produced by binding vasanas.     
• 3)    Deliberate.  Thoughts subjected to discrimination that are accepted or dismissed with reference to my value structure. 
• 4)    Spontaneous.  Without evaluation my thinking automatically conforms to universal values and my actions are always appropriate and timely.  This kind of thinking only applies to those for whom self knowledge has destroyed binding vasanas and negated doership.
•   Every learned skill that is available automatically from the mind is now like typing or piano playing, driving, speaking, walking; all of these were first learned and practiced or trained into the mind sheath by the intellect, either yours or someone else’s.

1. The bliss sheath is available when the other sheets are not too distracting. It’s hard to mess up the bliss sheath but you can get false bliss, for example from heroin. 

Sundari insert: The bliss sheath is always available, just not always accessible if it is covered by rajas and tamas.

Matthew: Non-Enlightenment is living as a manifest person in the manifest reality while operating with a mistaken identity process in the intellect sheath. This is identification with the impermanent body-mind and is the basis of psychological suffering. 

Enlightenment comes in 3 phases:

What the Buddhists call “stream entering”

Vedanta calls this listening. You know about awareness and that you are awareness and you are not the body-mind. This is largely only intellectual knowledge but the mis-identification process in your intellect pauses every now and then for a while, and that little bit of relief gives joy and motivation to continue. 

Self-realization 

This knowledge is firm. You know you are impersonal awareness not the body-mind, and the mis-identification process ceases (almost) permanently in your intellect, but probably not in your mind.

If you think about your “internal” experience there are some things that you always know for certain, all the time and without any doubt at all, whenever you are awake, even if you aren’t thinking about it at the time:

1. You exist 
2. It’s always now, never any other time 
3. You’re always right here, never anywhere else

Self-realization is when you know yourself as awareness and not as the body-mind with this kind of certainty. Permanently and without any doubt. 

Sundari insert: Self-knowledge is different from knowledge of objects because it is always good in all situations, and it is always present. It is that which cannot be negated.

Matthew: Self-Actualization 

When you are self-realized the mis-identification process in your intellect has stopped for good (maybe or almost) and you don’t really experience psychological suffering any more, or at least you have an undercurrent of uninterruptible well-being that exists as the very nature of all experiencing, regardless of any psychological suffering. 

However you might still have mental, emotional and behavioral problems and discomfort based on the fact that you haven’t assimilated and integrated Self-realization. For example a Self-realized person can continue to have occasional or chronic sadness or anxiety in their mind, or persistent behaviors that they wish they could be rid of like overeating, smoking, laziness, procrastination, etc. Because they have an undercurrent of uninterruptible wellbeing they are unbothered and okay with the sadness or laziness or whatever, like they would be okay with a rainy day. It’s not them, it’s not real, it’s not permanent, it’s no big deal. 

This can last a long time but sooner or later they will have to deal with the issues that make what remains of the mind’s identity process feel bad about itself (regret, embarrassment, shame, etc), or this lack of integrity will eventually cause the mind to restart the mid-identification process in the intellect, and psychological suffering will resume. To be clear you only have to address the problems that you feel bad about. For example if you feel comfortable gambling but are ashamed of smoking then self-actualization includes stopping smoking. If you wanted to you could decide to continue working to be better and better even after self-actualization, when it’s no longer a benefit to you. Why not handle everything you can? It could be a good hobby. 

Sundari insert: This is correct, except that when Self-knowledge fully obtains, anything that is not in line with the scripture has to go, not just the things you are ashamed of. It also includes the adharmic self-insulting things you have normalized and make excuses for. You follow the principle of non-injury and of dharma at all times, not to be ‘good’ but because there is nothing to gain by breaking dharma. And peace of mind is paramount.

So something like gambling, which is a rajasic/tamasic activity, would not engaged in because gambling is a gratuitous desire based on the hope of gaining something you think you don’t have. It is not a sattvic endeavour.

When you live as the Self, the jiva’s life becomes clean and pure because the mind is clean and pure. It no longer seeks gratuitous entertainments or activities not only because it does not need them but because even a little discomfort (rajas and tamas out of balance with sattva) becomes intolerable.

Addictions like smoking that harm the body are likewise adharmic because the body is a gift to you from Isvara. It may not be real but you honour it and take care of it as such. And because peace of mind is paramount.

Matthew: The necessary and almost sufficient practice and its limitation and solution 

There are many techniques you can use to correct your mind, emotions and behavior for self-actualization, but there is one specific practice that is both necessary and almost sufficient. 

We need to practice correcting our thoughts, emotions and behavior while standing as awareness.

This is the slippery spot. It’s hard to get traction because it is paradoxical. 

If you are doing the work of discrimination to defeat the process identifying and establish “standing as awareness” (self-realization), so you can then correct your thoughts, emotions and behaviors (self-actualization) then you are doing the required practicing like a piano student. 

But you also have the “infinite approach, never arrive problem” of using your intellect to study the reflection of the self in the mirror of your own intellect, and even worse you are reinforcing your identity as a person who does things to get results. 

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. 

Sundari Insert: For moksa to obtain requires having all the qualifications, values, motivations, being properly taught by a qualified teacher, and total commitment to the three stages of self-inquiry: hearing, contemplating, application.

The tools Vedanta provides to manage the mind, karma yoga, devotional practice and guna yoga are perfectly designed to address the main problem here  – which  is the fallacy of doership and the binding mental/emotional disturbances, or vasanas. But the doer cannot free the doer. It will get stuck in the principle of ‘infinite regress”, which is the attempt to refute a position by showing that the position leads to infinite recursive sequences – i.e., there is no solution. And that is true if you are talking mithya. It is not true if you are talking satya. You can only ‘step out’ of this loop with Self-Knowledge, nothing else.

The only solution to mithya is satya – Self-knowledge, which is the only ‘thing’ capable of removing all ignorance of our true nature  and ending all suffering the result of the delusion of Maya = mithya.

If there still is a subtle doer involved, (the ‘practicer’), the distinction between the reflected self and the Self is not resolved. So the practicer feels like they are ‘reinforcing’ the identification of the reflected self in the mirror instead of discriminating it from the Self casting the reflection.

This process is very subtle. And without total negation of the doer, ultimately no ‘technique’ in itself will produce moksa – freedom from limitation or identification with the reflection. But even with assimilation and perfect application of the teachings to every aspect of your mind and life, the unknown or missing factor is grace. More below.

Matthew: Another way to look at the problem: three shifts

Shift 1) The false personal mind-body identification ceases due to knowledge and “practicing the knowledge” and you experience a shift from recognizing yourself as a person to “impersonal witnessing awareness” of stuff that includes a person. 

Shift 2)  Knowing yourself as witnessing awareness ceases and you recognize “naked awareness”. 

Shift 3) The final shift happens when you cease to recognize or care about or notice identity or personal selfhood at all on the intellectual and mental levels. No one is there, no one cares, everything is just happening and it is joy. The very concept of personal identity is forgotten, then the idea of separation is forgotten, everything is just spontaneously appearing somehow. A sort of “primitive identification” is still happening in the body, the food and vital sheaths. This is bodily process and is not a problem, and it is not you. After all if the body is hungry it needs to know which mouth to put food in, which toe has been stubbed. 

If you don’t make the effort you won’t get the 3 shifts. If you do make the effort you won’t get the 3 shifts”. Frustrated either way. 

Sundari Insert: The effort required for Self-knowledge to obtain is undeniable. But unless it is effort in the spirit of sacred karma yoga – total surrender to Isvara the idea of doership – the problem here is that there is still a doer to get frustrated, such as Jeremy’s question last Sunday: How can I go further? You can’t if you are talking as a doer. Beyond this point, you take nothing ‘with’ you.

Matthew: Practical advice for Self-Actualization 

1. Continue to pray and study every day. Pray for help. Read and listen to the teachings.
2. If you get truly stuck or lost or confused reach out to your teacher. Don’t let asking for help too often become a substitute for sincere work. 
3. Continue to practice managing and correcting your thoughts, emotions and behaviors while standing as awareness.  It only seems paradoxical. 
4. Gathering firewood is not cooking the food but gathering firewood is necessary work if you want to eat. Similarly Vedanta is not theory and practice but self-actualization requires integrity in action as well as in thought. 

You have realized your nature as awareness and now you want to clean up your nature as a person. Keep up this way of practicing. Doing both simultaneously seems paradoxical but it really isn’t. Do the best you can. 

Ultimately satya and mithya are only teaching paradigms. Reality is non-separate. 

Remember the analogy given by Ramana Maharishi about the stick that is used to stir the fire eventually itself being consumed by the fire. Your standing as awareness and your correcting yourself will also be consumed. 

Practicing in this is not just developing integrity for the jiva, it is also rehearsal for the moment of grace after efforts, when we no longer need to consciously discriminate between satya and mithya. Duality isn’t real, only apparently real. Someday the world will transform for us forever and the self we worked so hard to transcend will be like the mist from breathing on an early winter morning. It appeared for a moment and was gone, an insubstantial indication of the presence of life. 

Sundari insert: For more on the final stage of doer renunciation – read the satsang by Sundari – The Synopsis of the Steps to Self-Actualization

At Home and at Work: Living Knowledge of Non-difference in a World of Difference

Swani Chinmaya indicates that Vedanta is the ‘art of living’ and it can be pursued under all circumstances, at all places, whether it be in our own house, in a factory, office or in the rice field. There is no problem in the world that can mow you down, if you are equanimous at all times.

But how, is always the question.

The scriptures guide us by the three-fold self-discipline, from chapter 17, verse 14-16 of the BG, when these are practiced with faith and without attachment to results, meaning Karma yoga, it cultivates sattva. As verse 17 says. With a predominant sattvic subtle body, we can navigate the environment, home, and work, thriving in the art of living.

These disciplines for the Bhagavad Gita are:

Verse 14 Discipline of the body:

1. Worshipping the divine,
2. honouring wise teachers, and
3. maintaining purity, honesty, self-discipline and non-injury

Verse15 Discipline of speech:

1. Speech which does not cause distress,
2. which is true, pleasing and beneficial, and which
3. conveys the wisdom of the scriptures.

Verse16 Mental discipline:

1. Inner calm,
2. cheerfulness,
3. absence of compulsion to talk aimlessly,
4. mastery over the mind, and
5. pure intent.

Shankara’s Titiksa, one of the Sixfold Wealth, translated as Endurance of the polarities by Swami Tejomayananda or Forbearance as Ramji writes in Essence of Enlightenment, with Sama, mastery of the mind leads us to the art of living, mastery of life. This mastery is not control, as Isvara controls the field, the jiva’s mastery is simply not being swayed by the push and pull of likes and dislike, but able to attend to whatever life bring with equanimity and inner clam.

It is important to understand the relationship between thoughts in the mind, for mastery of the mind. Between the thoughts and the mind there is a relationship. However, thought alone is not the mind.

The yogis of India discovered and declared that thought and mind have a relationship, just as water and the river. Water by itself is not a river, a pool of water is also not a river. When the water flows continuously, only then do we have a river.

Just as a river is water flowing, so too, when thoughts flow through us, there is the experience of the powerful equipment known as the mind. Now if the water of a river is muddy, the river is known as muddy; if the water is clean, the river is clean; if the water is fast, the river is fast; as the water, so the river.

Similarly, as the thoughts, so the mind. If the thoughts are good, the mind is good; if the thoughts are bad, the mind is bad. A man may have a beautiful body, a big car, a million dollars, but if his mind is bad, he is bad. If his mind is good, the whole world is attracted towards him.

Therefore, systematically we must train and discipline the mind for right thinking and correct, diligent activity. Right thinking is a habit that can be cultivated. Accumulated knowledge adds to form ‘proficiency’, the ability to translate that knowledge into action in the appropriate fields is known as ‘efficiency’.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Because we value life more than anything and because it is a gift from the Field of existence, we reciprocate by taking the three dharmas into account and offering our actions as a gift to the Field. 

The three dharmas are Samanya Dharma (Universal Ethics). These are Universal moral values and underpinned by non-injury as we do no harm through words, deeds and thoughts. 

Visesa Dharma (Situational Ethics) is the application of dharma in a specific situation, according to samanya and your svadharma. Lastly, Svadharma is doing what is appropriate to your relative nature, your design.  

Karma yoga is a giving, not a getting, attitude.

It is the appropriate response to life’s demands. It breaks the hold of rajasic and tamasic desires, and converts an extroverted emotional mind into a peaceful introspective sattvic mind.

What you do with the gift of life is your offering to the Field or God. The Field is obviously intelligently designed, so there must be an intelligent architect. And the Field controls us completely right down to causing us to breathe and eat and digest our food, so it is called God.

If you appreciate this fact, which should be second nature, you will not offer a greedy, angry, vain, licentious life to the Lord. You will offer a pure life as a wonderful gift, with a cheerful, smiling face.

You may wonder why, considering the downsides of life, you should present a cheerful, smiling face. However, if you are fair-minded, you can find an upside for every downside because life is a perfectly equilibrated duality. The half empty glass is half full. A positive attitude is no less realistic than a negative attitude.

Environment/Field

It is our duty as humans to take care of the Field which gives us everything we need to live. An attitude of gratitude is a prerequisite for a happy life.

Yes, the Field may not be real, but that does not mean that we should not care about it. It exists, we exist in it, from the jiva perspective, and it sustains us while we are in the body. We look after our body because we want to enjoy peace of mind.

The environment, the Field of Existence, is Isvara, is you, the Self. Lovingly acting as its steward and contributing to preserving it is a devotional practice and much encouraged as a practice.

We must remember that the body-mind-ego complex is part of this larger environmental system that also has interrelationships and needs synchronicity, in order for each part to function well.

That environmental factors that we have issues with are outward projections from our own mind. Things in the environment in and off themselves are not the problem.

This is a difficult concept for the mind to grasp because we are constantly bombarded with information about how things are bad for us.

The body-mind-ego complex is weakened and made susceptible to environmental factors because of what is happening in the mind. We must go to the level of disassociating beliefs and the emotional attachments created at the mind level.

The only reason a frequency from the external reality will not be harmonious with a frequency within a person’s body is that there is a discordant belief and/or emotional attachment to the environmental factor in question.

These underlying belief systems that makes the body-mind-ego complex susceptible are usually not evident, most often hidden in the subconscious mind.

These environmental factors can impact from 3 areas:

Head – mind games based on beliefs.

Heart – emotional games based on feelings.

Pelvis – control games based on power issues.

These are symbolic of the type of belief systems attached to the environmental factor.

If we apply the disciplines to the environment, by maintaining purity in our views of the environment and by applying benevolence to our view with an honesty focus we can unplug ourselves from these games. But unless we apply self-discipline to our mind and especially emotions, we will be unable to maintain non-injury.

We connect with the environment in how we speak to and about it. If we focus on speech that is true, pleasing and beneficial, we will ensure that we do not play games and therefore not cause any distress.

Mental discipline is the key when we look at the environment, calm is a superpower combined with cheerfulness and the ability to restrain our speech, and leads to mastery over the mind. Which is only possible if we cultivate pure intent for a value  living life.

Nondual relationship implies you don’t see the other person as something other than yourself. That is only possible if you subtract the person’s body from the relationship.

As soon as you start paying attention to and relating to the differences around that shining being inside, your communication suddenly becomes conflicted, which is evidence that you are having a dualistic stance to relationships. You want to extract from others. Then your likes and dislikes interact with ‘their’ likes and dislikes, and conflict is inevitable.

In nondual you always focus on the oneness, sameness of the two, not differences.

Of course it is not easy, because the ego, the most tamasic function in the subtle body, abhors change and does not like to relinquish the idea of control, even though it is not in control of the results in the first place.

Rather than follow the foolish advice of gurus who tout ego death, you need to make friends with your ego and educate, not eradicate, it, not that ego death is even possible. Enlightened or not, you cannot function in the world without an ego.

If you patiently educate your ego in the karma yoga spirit, it will like you because you have given it good noble work, and you will like it because it will stop being a problem.

Energy Flow

Energy flow must be balanced in the field and subsequently in the jiva system, as part of the field.

When we are needy all energy flows out and the apparent other unconsciously immediately lets it energy flow in as to balance it.

Because I know I am whole and complete, I don’t need anything and am already satisfied. I do not try to extract from others, as there is only the Self – what could I extract that I don’t have.

This whole and completeness is communicated silently and there is a great sense of lightness. This communication naturally incorporates discipline in speech, if we know we are whole and complete our speech is true, pleasing and beneficial. Our focus being on the sameness and thus not distressing any apparent other as we are not trying to extract form them.

Home

Maintaining purity, honesty, self-discipline and non-injury at home is often absent as we struggle to apply the knowledge of non-difference to our most private space where we insist on our likes and dislikes, it is after all “our home”.

However, if you focus on the shining being that is in the body living with you. You understand that what you love in that person is that shining light, shining awareness, that loving Self that is in that person and you understand that it is the same being that is shining in you.

As soon as you start paying attention and relating to the differences that pertain around that shining being inside, your communication suddenly becomes duality.

At home discipline of speech becomes very important, if you focus on the shining being, your speech will not cause distress. You will not be motivated to be anything but true, pleasing and beneficial in your communication.

Mental discipline will transform your home life with great efficiency.

Inner calm is directly related to breathing, pranayama, a focus on the out breath is essential. Allow the nervous energy of the body to release with the CO², even use sighing when needed. Great emphasis is placed on in-breaths these days, greedily grasping for more life, more and more. By bringing the focus to outbreath, the reptilian brain is tricked into shifting from sympathetic to paratympanic, meaning from fight or flight to rest & digest, making inner calm viscerally possible.

Once the nerves system supports instead of distracts, it is easy to maintain cheerfulness and mastery over the mind becomes possible. The incessant need to compulsively talk aimlessly will disappear as the silence and quiet will easily rest on a tranquil and calm inner space.  

This will require pure intent to bring a change to the quality of your home life. If you want freedom, you have to be willing to give it to all other jivas too.

If you get angry in a relationship, rest assured it is because you did not get what you wanted. You had a need that was unmet. The fullness of our nature makes needing anything from your partner unnecessary, even practically.

Ishvara takes care of life, and we participate apparently when needed, thus I do not need to extract my husband’s time and energy, it will show up and work as needed as it always does.

The cure is always karma yoga – when we show up and do our best, offering our actions to Ishvara and not expecting any specific results. By default then, we unhook others from our demand on them to provide a certain outcome. Whatever we receive, we are grateful for as it is a gift from Isvara.  

Business & Work

The best life is not a material life, because it does not tap our real potential and it is a life of problems that tend to compromise our authenticity. The best life is a sincere life, one that manifests our innate spiritual potential and adds real value to the world. To do what you love is the best worship you can offer, assuming it doesn’t involve injury.

The modern world in its materialistic viewpoint strives to bring about a higher ‘standard of living’ by improving the world around man, the deep thinkers of the scriptures and the rational philosophers conclusively indicate that the happiness and the glory of a community depend upon the ’standard of life’ the individuals come to live.

Echoing this sentiment from Swami Chinmaya above the model developed by Regenesys Management, which demonstrates how the external environment, the levels of an organisation, the team and the components of an individual are interrelated in a dynamic and systemic way. The success of an individual depends on his/her self-awareness, knowledge, and ability to manage successfully these interdependent forces, stakeholders, and processes.

Vedanta teachings state that we should live a life in service of Isvara. That’s where karma yoga comes in. With karma yoga, our every action, right down to cleaning our teeth and sweeping the floor can be an act of service, bearing in mind that the universe and environment is Isvara‘s body.

Being able to use your work skills in a constructive and positive way is a wonderful opportunity for you to serve the Lord. The degree to which you do this, specifically in terms of workload etc, is a matter for your own discretion.

Everything has an upside and a downside in maya, and it’s really a matter of seeing how these weigh in. If you feel you want to offer more in certain areas, and feel the benefits offset any downside, then that might be a good choice.

Although, more isn’t always better. Again, for the inquirer, the inner work–worshipping Isvara by devoting time to our sadhana and inquiry–is no less important than the outer work. Sometimes we just need to be clear about that, and not be too upset when we realise that others with opposing values judge us harshly for what they see as missing opportunities or wasting our time.

Always be clear on your goal, and allow your values to guide your priorities accordingly.

Bring the view of non-difference to work requires maintaining purity, honesty, self-discipline and non-injury. Purity in relating to the contract establish of serving the goals of the organisation with honesty. Applying discipline to maintain a work ethic that serve and inspire, whiles ensuring that non-injury is maintained at all times in word, thought and deed.

Especially in a competitive work environment, this can be tricky. However bringing inner calm and cheerfulness to the work space, will transform the level that you relate to everyone, as the focus will be on sameness and not difference.

Abstain from the compulsion to talk aimlessly at work is critical for the art of living, as the content of speech mostly in these environments reverts to gossip and idle small talk.

Again, this will require a mastery over the mind, and pure intent especially, as we are bombarded with the dualistic view of competition.

It is advisable to ensure that the organisation you work for aligns with your values. If not, and nothing else is possible, always apply karma yoga. But working in an environment that is injurious to the field, must be avoided.

Ramji said that after he spent two years with Swami Chinmayananda decisions such as job, value for money, relationships and even where he lived were simple; if it didn’t support moksha he said no to them.

In Vivekachudamani, Shankara stresses that life’s greatest blessing is to have not only a human birth, but a good mind, good karma, the desire for freedom and access to the teaching and a teacher. This is life’s highest blessing because it’s the setup for moksa.

Nothing in this world can lead us beyond the world, but Vedanta + a qualified mind + a teacher is all that’s needed to ‘bestow’ our birthright of freedom. Worldly joys are finite and always offset by sorrow, whereas moksa is an infinite and lasting joy because it’s based upon that which is infinite and lasting–our own ever-free, self-effulgent nature as awareness/consciousness.

The realisation of this inherent freedom does not come easily to a mind habituated to worldly cravings and suffering. Indeed, applying Self-knowledge and re-educating the mind is pretty much a full-time job.

References

BodyTalk Fundamentals handbook, Ed 9th, John Veltheim & Sylvia Muizneks; p241-243

BG Divine Song, Ch 17 V 14-17, Ed 1, Rory Mackay, p326

A Manual for Self Unfoldment, Ed 8, Swami Chinmayananda, p2-14

Regenysis Business School, MBA Business Ethics and Corporate Governance Module Study Guide, p2-3

Tattva-Bodhah, Adi Shankaracarya, Chinmaya Mission, p 6-16

Youtube video, ShiningWorld, What is a Non-Dual Relationship? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vprarg9u7As

Satsangs from Shiningworld website used by Rory Mackay & Sundari

Let me take this opportunity to take a little detour. While my remarks may appeal to a broader audience, the focus of this blog is practitioners of psychotherapy.

Let me start with the basics once again…with qualifications. We know how this applies to Vedanta, but what about to psychotherapy? Maybe they’re not so different. In fact, it makes perfect sense that helping people to become qualified for psychotherapy by using Vedanta principles could be a powerful tool in starting the process of psychotherapy. I understand that the end game of these two systems is different. One is improved mental health; the other is freedom from the mind itself (moksha) which requires a healthy mind. But on the qualifications level they have more in common than you might think. Both require some ability to think clearly, be discerning and to be dispassionate. In general, these are universal life skills…not limited to a specific situation. These skills are enormously valuable irrespective of whether you are engaging in Vedanta or psychotherapy… They are a basic life-skill set.

You might ask, how can this be applied to psychotherapy? Well, it should be obvious. From the perspective of the therapist, if you don’t possess these qualities, you simply will not be very effective. Therapy training places a great emphasis on the relationship with the client. Some training promotes a more open authentic attitude, while others encourage more distance…“being professional.”

I have my preferences, but I’m not here to argue one way or the other. Many training programs encourage a process of self examination as being essential…”Know thyself.”… All good. And while self-examination may indirectly develop a person’s qualifications, I don’t recall ever being asked during my training to cultivate them directly…and I think the direct approach has a lot of merit.

What about the client? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Don’t ask me which is which. This ground floor stuff is the basis for any healthy relationship, including a therapeutic one. How do you go about implementing these guidelines?

Start where you start….first with yourself. Lead by example. It’s vital that you evaluate your client’s ability to follow the guidelines. How you evaluate your client’s ability will not only determine the outcome but also the nature of your interaction. Some clients will require more help than others in gaining stability. In some therapies, clients are encouraged to emote, and are not encouraged enough to balance themselves with objective qualities. So, if someone comes to you with a highly charged emotional situation, obviously, express empathy and concern….and as the emotion subsides, you might begin to gently instruct your client in the guidelines of dispassion.

A word of caution…timing is everything. If you try to make comments about becoming qualified too soon, they may not land. So, take your time, relax, try not to be too pedantic, there’s no hurry…and I think you’ll find a way to implement these guidelines into your practice.

Hopefully this was helpful. Maybe a little too basic. Anyway, tell me what you think. Have you thought about focusing on qualifications in your practice?