Seeker: Dear James, I am grateful to have found your books, website and the vast library of teachings. As I am studying and practicing Vedanta and karma yoga, I have questions that I’ve jotted down in my journal and in the margins of the pages. With your permission, I will send questions to you from time to time.
I am reaching out to you, like so many others, to inquire about finding a qualified teacher for myself as I learn and assimilate the knowledge of Vedanta. I make this request while realizing that you wrote in Experience and Knowledge that students should not seek a teacher but let one come to you. I am willing to let one come to me, though I am not sure how to best follow that suggestion, as I live in Alabama, and as far as I know there are very few qualified Vedanta teachers loafing around. Ha.
The “Contact Us” page outlines things inquirers should know before reaching out. I have read through those and I will share a bit about myself to give you context. I have completed the beginner’s course, including reading both How to Attain Enlightenment and The Essence of Enlightenment more than once. I continue to study the books daily. I have listened carefully to all of Self-Inquiry Berlin 2011 and I’m currently listening to Bhagavad Gita India 2012. (I purchased the complete Vedanta set from the ShiningWorld website.) I have read the PDF book Experience and Knowledge. I continue to read satsangs at the website.
I am grateful to have come upon Vedanta and the ShiningWorld.com website. I have been “spiritual” all of my life journeying through evangelical Christianity until my late twenties, Christian and Eastern mysticism, atheism, secular Buddhism and discovered something about Advaita Vedanta through various Zen, post-Zen and modern spiritual teachers, as well as Sri Nisargadatta and Ramana Maharshi. I imagine this brief sketch is similar to many who eventually discover Vedanta. Like these students, I have found it a breath of fresh air for my soul.
I am a father, psychotherapist and psychology professor. My scholarship includes the interface of spirituality and psychology, mindfulness and social justice issues. I also teach and train clinical mental health counseling students. As might be expected, I have emphasized Buddhist psychology and mindfulness in my teaching and practice.
I do not have a burning question about Vedanta at the moment, though questions arise as I study. Mostly, I have tried to adopt your admonition to study with an open mind and let the teaching work in the reader. I believe it is revealed truth and I am taking seriously the requirement for a teacher as mentioned so many times throughout your teachings. So I present myself to you and remain at your service. I am interested in a relationship with a teacher if that seems right to you at this time. If I should wait until another time, then I will do as you suggest. Whatever the response, I am open to your counsel.
James: In this day and age the teacher needn’t come to Alabama. Alabama comes to the teacher via the internet. In the end the only thing separating one from eternal bliss is attachment to the thought that is occupying the mind in the moment. “I am the Self” provides instant access. If one is committed to Vedanta all doubts disappear in the fullness of time. But if a person can keep the Self-thought at all times the bliss of consciousness “becomes” a permanent feature of one’s experience. Nay, it “becomes” one’s experience because it is one’s experience irrespective of the presence of non-liberating thoughts. So, whereas the physical presence of the teacher is always enjoyable, one needs to discipline the mind to stay with the Self-thought in presence and in absence until it realizes that it is the bliss of awareness, at which time no discipline is involved, because the thinker, the doer, has been “merged into one’s Self. Freedom is freedom from the doer.
The answer to your question is yes. I’m happy to help you. When you feel the need, make a Skype or Zoom appointment and we will chat. If you feel it is valuable make a donation to ShiningWorld so we can continue to disseminate these precious teachings. I’d like to hear your views on Vedanta’s psychology.
~ Love, James
