Sundari: As ‘cute’ as it is to refer to yourself in the third person, what purpose does it serve, exactly? Do you think that if you say ‘I” or ‘me’ it means you are somehow less ‘enlightened’? Only if by “I’ you mean your ego or personal identity. If Self-knowledge is firm and you know that your primary identity is the unborn Self, you have no problem with the limited finite personal identity, or their name. You do not have any difficulty discriminating between the two orders of reality, satya/Consciousness, that which is always present and unchanging, and mithya, that which is known to Consciousness, not always present and always changing – i.e., everything else.  

What does it matter what name you use – all names refer to the nondual Self because that is the only option. Vedanta uses different names to refer to the creative principle, or God – the most common being  Brahman, or Isvara. But by whatever name, God is the Self and does not have a name. And any name will do since God is all that is in existence, in form or formless.

Statement: Videha-mukti is a specific form of mukti, or liberation, which implies, one has seen it from the other side, meaning death, which is still a mystery for the ordinary muktas (mukta as one having attained mukti). Thus properly one is merely a muni, or the Videha-mukta muni. VMM. The third. We/they/them.

Sundari: Who has ‘seen it from the other side’? After death of the body/mind, ‘you’ as a person no longer exist. And as the Self, you are never born and never die, so what difference does it make to you if the body/mind/subtle body is alive or dead? There is no ‘other side’ for Consciousness because the body/mind/ world is not real. You cannot die. Knowing this is moksa.

There is only one moksa, and it is the removal of all ignorance of your true identity by Self-knowledge. That said, 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.

Statement: Identity. Where does it begin and where does it end?

Sundari: You, the Self, do not begin or end. The body/mind and its personal ignorance or avidya begins at birth and ends with the death of the body/mind.

Statement: God told one long ago that he was going to make me the angel of death. We didn’t know what that meant back then. It’s actually not as bad as it sounds. If it all works out, it’s merely the death of the ego. And what is the basic instruction Krishna gives to Arjuna on the battlefield? Fight. For there was never a time when you did not exist, and never shall there be a time when you do not exist. Such is true even for Bhishma, the grandsire of the Kauravas. Who dies upon a bed of arrows, who Krishna comes to grieve.

Sundari: You need to drop the affectation of referring to yourself in the third person – it is phony and only serves to highlight that the ego is alive and well. It is correct that there is never a time when you as the Self did or will not exist. Freedom comes with living this as Jivatman.  As the Self, you were never bound so you do not need moksa. There is only one primary identity that matters and that is as the unchanging Self/Awareness, one without another. All other identities are subservient to that and of no real importance because they are not real – meaning, they are always changing and not always present. Only you as the Self are real, unborn and cannot die.

Statement: Many great fighters were on the opposing side on the day of Kurukshetra. But this battle was not to secure Krishna’s position, but to restore Yudhisthira to the throne, the rightful heir, the most noble of the five Pandavas, their leader. You must understand that Krishna became furious with Bhishma, who oversaw the humiliation of Draupadi, as the evil Duryodhana order her disrobing before the court. Bhishma’s fate was sealed at that moment, for he should have stood up and chastised his student, the pretender to the thrown, Duryodhana. Everyone knew.

Sundari: The Bhagavad Gita with all its characters is a perfect metaphor for how duality plays out, and how the ego functions. Though the characters are many and seemingly either on the side of ‘good’ or ‘evil’, in fact, all jivas have egos that contain all possibilities. All egos – which is another way of saying anyone under the spell of Maya – function in the same predictable way, conditioned by the three gunas. There is in actual fact, only one ego and all samsaris share it.

Statement: Therefore even great personalities can have flaws. This is why the Divine is sent to settle all scores, from time to time, directly dealing blows. But in the battle at Kurukshetra, Krishna was merely a chariot driver. It was the bow of Arjuna which did the slaying.

Sundari: Isvara, God or the ‘Divine’ does not settle scores because it is not a person or a deity.  It is an eternal principle in Consciousness, wielding Maya, the three gunas. These three forces are impersonal and are programmed by Maya to function according to natural inbuilt laws, which ‘‘settle’ scores in that as you sow so shall you reap. 

Of course all ‘personalities’ great or small are flawed. Where’s the problem with that if you are not identified with ‘your’ limited personal identity because you know you are the knower/witness of that entity, unborn Consciousness/Self?

Sundari

I know both you and Sundari are so busy with Shiningworld and students and I should not be writing you so often but I can not seem to help myself because you are both in my heart so much. This is particularly true at this time, even this whole past year, with what Ishvara has been putting our family through. 

Anyway, I happened to see you in the trailer “Mystic By Default with Swami Chinmayananda” done six years ago and thoroughly enjoyed seeing and listening to you. I haven’t watched you for months, so it was nice. It seems to me that much has been happening around you and the Shiningworld website. I think you have a good team around you. Sundari is even more amazing than I’d thought.

However, small talk aside (I hear your voice) I need a little slap in the head James, so I’m writing you rather than Sundari. She’s much too kind. 

Two things, first some reassurance that I’m staying true to the teaching and then a question that arose from something you wrote in your book “How to Attain Enlightenment”, (which by the way, I love, particularly the first and twelfth chapters, actually all the chapters),  this morning that set “me” on my heels.

On the matter of asking for some reassurance, I had just written in my journal earlier in the morning the following: The Self, non-dual limitless, consciously aware existence does not occupy space because space or the idea of space depends on conscious awareness. The universe is the creation of Ishvara which provides the mirror, the means for the Self to (see) reflect its Self to its Self, with the reflection in the polished mirror being the jivan mukta, atman.

That understanding arises from my questioning as to why is there an (apparent) jiva and an apparent universe since I understand the Self,  being non-dual and without the instruments of knowing, not being a knower of “any thing”. Your comments please.

Second, just when I was sailing along thinking I was pretty firm in my understanding of the teaching and was experiencing the fruit, (with the ego sneaking in of course), you wrote under the chapter on meditation page 249, that the soul undergoes evolution.

Could you clarify as I am not sure what is meant by the use of the word soul and the use of the word evolution?

Thank you James and again forgive me for wanting to keep in touch.

Love

James:  You are one of the most exasperating people I know.   We have been through this issue many times in the last few years and you know that it’s not cool to revisit it so why do you want me to scold you again?  It’s not my job to reassure you.   Put on your big boy pants, if you have any, and do proper sadhana.  A teacher is only a temporary psychological aid.  Maybe personal bhakti works for you but what about me?  If I have to hold the hands of every Tom, Dick and Mary, when to I get to do my duty to myself?  Faith pending the application of the teaching is the guru.  Thousands of people listen to ShiningWorld’s offerings and nearly everbody plays by the rules, except you.  How does this letter endear me to you?

You don’t attend the Sunday satsang.  You don’t donate for your own good or the good of the world.  You obviously haven’t retained even the most rudimentary information from my books and videos and you seem to think that it is my job to answer the most elementary questions. 

I’m not your personal guru.  The people I serve personally are sensitive, sincere, classy people who appreciate me and who actively support our mission to disseminate non-dual wisdom for the benefit of the world. 

You may write with a serious question after you have attended the Sunday satsang for one year, make a recurring monthly donation of $25 for one year, and generally show some kind of appreciation for my situation assuming I’m still alive, which is anybody’s guess.  You don’t even know that I’m in New York waiting for a second surgical procedure this month!  If you’re sailing along with Vedanta, I wonder what kind of Vedanta you’re talking about.  You know who got the message and corrected himself on the basis of one short friendly conversation.  Please do the same.

Dear Ramji,

Thank you for bringing Vedanta to the English-speaking world. I have studied with several other teachers throughout my life, but none of them can hold a candle to you.  I hit the jackpot when God (Ishwara) brought me to you.

Some might criticize you for occasionally swearing or telling off-color jokes or criticizing other gurus but all of these are very valuable to me. Why? Because swearing affirms the inherent frustrations common to us poor little individual worms.  Off-color jokes bring humor to life and often humble the arrogant, holier-than-thou types. 

Maybe the most important of all, criticizing other gurus for real shortcomings puts into practice the very important skill of discrimination by articulating the differences between authentic teachings and erroneous ones. Without such clear distinctions, how can we navigate the often treacherous and deceptive waters of the spiritual world?

I think genuine spirituality should be able to deal with both the ugly and the beautiful in life. Real spirituality is strong and compassionate, and not afraid of evil or ugliness. Sometimes the best way to learn from error and ignorance is to call out frauds, to name them, and spell out their misconceptions and faults. You do this when appropriate, Ramji, and I’m glad you do. I believe self-actualization is not for wimps, for those shrinking-violet types who never want any remotely negative things around them. You have helped me see both my weaknesses and my strengths, my sins and my virtues, and I’m better because of it.

Thank you for all of it. 

D……….

Unawake, unsleeping and undreaming
I was when God’s smile,
a Dyson vacuum,
sucked me up
into its Heart
like a spider
crouching in a
cruddy crevice

It held me so
tight a fine sheet of paper
could not fit between us

Without whispering
It whispered in
the Ear of my ears.

I love all
even
raper-robbers,
greedy misers
crypto speculators
real estaters
masturbaters

but most of all
I love the one
who knows he
or she
is Me 

Dave: The viewpoint of Vedanta is that there is no second thing. That does not mean that there is no apparent second thing, in fact all we experience is duality if we believe we are looking “out” of a subject “at” objects. The logic of Vedanta reveals that that is not the case, and that there is no actual boundary at any “point” between you and anything. What we see as duality is how “non-duality” appears. As such, there is no second thing to act, whether an act would be deemed evil or loving.

So what actually is going on then when atrocities from the smallest to the greatest are committed? From where would malevolence arise? Vedanta says the cause is ignorance of my nature as limitless existence consciousnesses; or, the non-appreciation of my unimpeded whole and completeness. Lacking this recognition, I “become” a separate individual in an infinite universe over which I have no control, and the cycle of samsara begins. The moment I see others as “not self,” they become less important than me – even if that happens unconsciously. In that ignorance, all manner of violence becomes possible.

Yet while the ignorance principle is eternal, since where there is something that can be known it is always possible not to know it, “individual” subjective ignorance is not. It is subject to removal by self knowledge, so while it is beginning-less, it is not endless. The shift from self ignorance to self knowledge is therefore not an actual shift, but rather a recognition that self ignorance was always merely a belief. Existence, on the other hand, which is consciousness (you), cannot be removed because it is formless and limitless.

With regards to your question, this means that while all is only God, ignorance of that is not only possible but hardwired into human beings as apparent individuals. This inevitably, albeit seemingly, creates duality until ignorance is removed by knowledge. God is not ignorant, but God is also not a person with likes and dislikes, and so is “bound” by its nature to deliver the results of action impersonally.

As there are not two creations, so there must not be two creators. As that creator/creation is only God, it must be the intelligent, energetic, and material cause of itself. If you take God’s perspective, nothing is happening because there is only God. Water makes no distinction between an ocean, a raindrop, or sewage. In all forms, water remains pure and seems to take on different forms, even though it is always only water. From the perspective of ignorance only form is recognized, but from God’s perspective there is only water.

This perspective doesn’t inoculate us against the pain caused when unwanted experiences occur, no matter the cause, but it does change the subjective context in which those occur. It does this by shifting our source of satisfaction from outward to inward. After all, if there is something which is completely out of our control, what use is worry? If we are worried about what we cannot control, that worry is supported – consciously or unconsciously – by a belief that things can be other than they are. This is never true, but the one and only way to see this is to look at life from God’s perspective. This perspective, and our non-separation from God, implies that the “enlightened” viewpoint is to discover and claim its perspective as your very own.

No one chooses ignorance. It isn’t even an option. Someone without self knowledge sees only form and is not aware of the presence of water. Therefore, they are at the mercy of their compulsions towards or away from form (ideas, objects and experiences) and unwittingly subject to the entire range of behaviors from the most loving to the most abhorrent cruelty. On the other hand, someone in whom self knowledge obtains, recognizes their desires and aversions but is not compelled to act on them when they run counter to Dharma. Dharma is a priority for them, not because they are do-gooders or bound to dharmic action, but out of love for themselves and the whole – between which they make no distinction. They no longer have any compelling reason to perform adharmic action. Those who do not realize what they are, are ignorant (not unaware, but ignoring) and thus capable of all manner of atrocity until their ignorance is removed.

While I covered the basics of karma yoga in the last blog post, I thought it would be helpful to cover a related topic: dependence and independence. Some may view these categories as polar opposites but they aren’t  They’re two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other. Mental health is defined by a healthy balance between the two.

OK, let’s take a step back. What steps do humans go through to develop dependence and independence? Obviously, we start life completely dependent. Everything must be done for us. Food, clothing, shelter, physical contact and emotional nurturing are essential. If this gets messed up, we’re in for serious trouble. We may not even survive. Then we begin the long journey to adulthood passing through childhood and adolescence. Along the way, we are exposed to a series of challenges, that allow us to develop the ability to cope with life. If we are not challenged enough, we don’t develop the resilience to thrive.  If we are challenged too much, we become overwhelmed and view the world as an unsafe and untrustworthy place. Neither position is ideal. What makes parenting so difficult is finding a balance of these factors. Depending on how the parents were raised, they may tilt to one side or the other. In addition, peer groups and society in general can have a powerful influence. Some societies are organized around collective ideologies emphasizing more cooperation and social cohesion over independence. Others, typically in the Western world, place a greater importance on independence, individual rights and freedom. This is an ongoing conundrum. Humanity still struggles to sort it out.

As near as I can tell, there’s not a “right” way of being, which is finding the right balance of dependence and independence for you. While that may mean a broad range of possibilities, you’d be wise to stay out of the extremes. Generally speaking, the more flexible you are, the better things work. When dependency is called for, do it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or be vulnerable. When you need to be independent, go for it. Don’t be afraid to assert yourself or to take the initiative. It’s good to stick your neck out once in a while. Remember: healthy dependency supports healthy independence and vice versa.

OK, now that that’s out of the way, what does it have to do with karma yoga? Here’s the deal. As long as you think you’re an individual, and you probably do, you are going need something to depend on. What’s that, you say?

Vedanta says God is the ultimate solution.  Transfer your dependency to your true primary care-giver, the one that gave you life and the equipment to enjoy it.  Remember, God is not a fickle big remote person. God is the natural order of things…100% consistent and reliable.  But one catch: God is more interested in the total than in the individual. So, align your individual self with ‘total’ and do not worry.  How do you do that?  Follow dharma.  Align your life with the natural order, which includes ethical guidelines, of which the ultimate guidline is “Do no Harm!”  And don’t forget to include harmful thoughts, speech and physical violence.  Don’t think that just because you are a vegetarian you are absolved of aggressive, violent speech and thoughts.  Negative thoughts are unhealty and lead to an unhealthy body and unhealthy relationships.

Furthermore, align your life with your natural disposition, your svadharma. What about the independent part?  With the support of Vedanta scripture, teachers and community, it’s up to you to take the initiative and put Vedanta into practice. You have to do the work…nobody can do it for you. If you have a doubt, it’s up to you to raise it. Seems like a pretty healthy balance of dependence and independence, if you ask me. What do you think?

John

Today God woke me up from the sleep of the dead, so to speak, with—what else?— a chain of thoughts.  They came streaming down from on high fast and furiously as they do and I thought about how to add them my life’s story, which by now is more than a mere sea of stories; it’s the veritable mother of all oceans. 

Awake, I kept dreaming up clever titles,  Catchy “interesting” words that grab readers.  Juicy sound bites that tickle auditory taste buds.   Anyway, one thought kept appearing, “Why should I repeatedly teach zero-sum mantras and supply ‘for instances’ all my days?  People should know all about it because zero-sum reality, like gravity, is hard at work day and night, the most obvious thing, yet no one thinks about it.  Every sentence, more or less—paragraphs for sure—heralds it from the rooftops.  “Hey you down there! Listen up!  For every gain there’s a loss, for every high there’s a low.  But don’t despair.  Help is on the way!”  

Mercifully, I’m not going to veer into my psychology just now.  I intend to just keep observing and recording God’s thoughts for…what else?…the upliftment of humanity, which might benefit from a bit of uplifting, a Herculean, Sisyphean task if ever there was one. 

Someone said, “And why deprive us of deep insights into your good self, James?”

And I replied, “Today is not about me.  It is about God asking me to pass on the good zero-sum news.”

Unfortunately, passing on this message means the body/mind sense complex needs to shake off sleep, get up and write more essays on said topic, as my public demands.  It’s what I’m destined to do because that is what happens every day of my tragi-comic life.

My apparent self finds itself quite pleased that it is out there in the cruel world hard at work making a difference.  As they say, “dying with my boots on.”  What other kind of dying is implied?  Dying barefoot?  Now, there’s a bad zero-sum joke.  Come to think of it, most people probably die barefoot.  Blessed with foresight, they’ve had the good sense to contact terminal illnesses and are more or less prone and pijama-ed by the time the grim reaper comes calling.  Hey, another zero-sumism just popped up; doesn’t grim reaper imply a smiling or even a laughing reaper? 

Not four meters from my workstation on one of our three-foot-thick stone walls lovingly painted burnt umber by my artistic wife… Oh, dear God, a possessive pronoun just snuck into my story!    Forgive me, Lord.  As the divine Miss Sundari is always happy to remind me, “I am not your wife, James! “

Good point that!  It’s all God, right?  Can’t claim anything or anyone in this world.  God owns all the copyrights.

Anyway, on a cool and pleasant summer day, the longest of the year, in our finca hangs a tile, technically a bas-relief, of two happy skeletons dressed in matrimonial finery holding hands on their wedding day, which was sculpted by said darling “wife” under the spell of a memory of a certain mid-winter visit to Oaxaca, Mexico, where people actually find the idea of death entertaining. Just to worship death, these wise people set aside a whole day like Labor Day or Xmas, or Juneteenth.  That aside, 7 years ago we had cabin fever bad thanks to below-zero temps and four feet of snow and we decided that White Xmas was for the birds and that torts and guacamole should be on the menu. 

So, there we were in a small art gallery after our (typical) coffee and croissants in a (typical) warm sunny Mexican courtyard, looking at many happy skeletons (mixed in with typical Frida Khalo merch) happily doing all the typically monotonous touristy things that typically unhappy touristy people do.  I will spare you the list, miserable people.  Smiley here.

Smiley’s a nice tidbit of zero-sum trivia.  You must sprinkle it liberally on emails or you will be trolled by frowny-faced but otherwise good people, who should know full well that life is zero sum. Prudent souls don’t make make cranky people crankier with seriously sensible statements.  Be compassionate toward yourself, slather on the smileys and especially spread silly emoticons here and there throughout your text. Serious souls shouldn’t think you’re attempting to convert their grumpy selves into happy selves. HEAVEN FORBID! 

That would be “FATHER FORBID, they know not what they do.”  Thanks Jesus for that spectacular one-liner.   I use it liberally to make people feel guilty for whining about the slings and arrows.  It’s like saying, “Shut yo miserable mouths, you spoiled rotten entitled Mofos!   You’ve got it made in the shade, far from the scorching rays of poverty and its litany of privations.  You’re sick with affluenza, you dumb bastards!!!  Show some gratitude, dudes and dudesses.  Long line of exclamation points. 

I didn’t put my boots on, on this the longest day of the year because I live in Spain and if today’s the day for shuffling off the mortal coil, I’m planning to shuffle off barefoot, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.  Sorry for the mismatched metaphor I picked up in Montana during my misspent youth.  No creeks here in this Saharan climate, not to mention that terra cotta tiles feel cool and pleasant on my 82-year-old feet this fine morning.  I got up and brushed my teeth after sanding down my dentures with a nail file owing to the sad fact that I couldn’t eat properly because they were injuring my aging gums.  You will have perhaps taken note by now that said grinding converted a sad fact into a happy fact.  To whit: As God intended, I can now masticate with the best of them!

Then I q-tipped my ears.  Sorry worriers; I know how dangerous that particular bit of well-meaning hygiene can be but I just can’t help living dangerously.  It’s so exciting!!! Ears q-tipped and other small duties too quotidian to mention completed, I snuck down the short stairwell next to my (sleeping) darling bundle of joy’s bedroom, entered my dark office and booted up my computer in the orangy glow of a tidy row of LEDS. 

Perhaps it’s premature and you will be justifiably distraught, but I’m going to chuck this story into the sea of stories that is life and get on with the hilarious here and now business of living from thought to thought.  But first I need to apologize for the title.  Woke is a bad word in certain circles these days, although the spiritual world is no stranger to mindless contrarians either.  The woke word in the title means that sleeping stops, eyes open, and God’s thoughts start streaming through the mind.

Having done my day job, which is to alert you to the obvious ubiquitousness of zero-sum thinking, I will now do another job, which is to remind you to do your job, which is to look for my next post, which in some way or other will also remind you that for every sinner there is a saint and that joy follows every sorrow, which (finally) shows that the emptiness you feel so often is unborn blissful fullness, which means you can kick back and relax because God has your back. You can bank on it. In case you’re not convinced, think about it anyway. Until we meet again take it easy…or not.

Greetings and pranams with love and gratitude. I wanted to reach out and discuss what seems a new type of spiritual dilemma on the pathless path.  As I continue the process of simplification and refinement, my lifestyle has become increasingly spartan. To most, I would say it is even boring. Mostly vegetarian meals only once or twice daily. Meditation at early hours of the morning, sometimes as early as 3-4 am. Followed by a simple hatha yoga routine for back maintenance and scriptural study. Most recently I finally started making progress chipping away at a lifelong sex vasana and seeing the benefits of what yoga calls continence. This the routine that makes me happy, gives me self-confidence and creates a stable mind.

My focus is increasingly on the way I interact with others to do my best to avoid conflict or to say anything that I will regret later because it disrupts my mental focus.

OK great, so I am plodding down the sattvic path attempting to mind my own business. But what about karma yoga? Being of service to others tends to invariably lead me into mixing with their lifestyle. Eating out. Staying up to late visiting even if the conversation is about spirituality. Before I know it, I’m eating meat, staying up late, haven’t meditated for 3 days and feel  like a homeless drunken sailor who has been sleeping in the park. What used to be normal is now almost unbearable. What is to be done? I see many yogis whose idea is to segregate themselves from society. They give darshan, write books, and the rest but never really mix with people in a way that compromises their sadhana. 

Short of running away to the ashram, what is to be done? I still have kids that need support, friends that make mistakes and want support, community that asks me to immerse myself in the drama of life even if it is as a spiritual guide. 

And then there is the annoyance of jealousy. As you know, no good deed goes unpunished. Sincere gratitude expressed by those you help garners the envy of others.  Why covet the same praise for selfish reasons? A tamasic lifestyle protects from the negative thought waves of others but a sattvic lifestyle makes you more exposed or at least aware of these things. In short. Spirituality is great. It is obviously much preferred to ignorance. But as we progress, how do we navigate the world without succumbing to the natural desire to get the hell away from it? I am fine with isolation. I enjoy it very much. But do I outgrow karma yoga? Or do we begin to only help those who don’t disturb our peace? Is the spiritual world stratified? “Sorry sinners. I’m too pure for you now.” Seems a bit elitist. But at the same time somewhat unavoidable. What say you? 

With love and respect,

Joe

Ramji: I’m happy to hear that you’ve got a lifestyle that is conducive to self-inquiry.  Chipping away at those pesky vasanas is what it’s all about on a daily basis.  The karmic pipeline goes on until they tuck you into the warm inviting earth, so the enlightened and the unenlightened chip away cheerfully day by day. 

But you have a common misconception about karma yoga.  It seems you have the action side under control, in so far as you are happy and you’re chipping away at the vasanas, but karma yoga isn’t social service, although helping others is one of the practices.  I’m not sure, however, why helping people involves getting into their “lifestyle” to the degree that it makes your mind tamasic.  You should always have a reason why you can’t stay long when you visit tamasic/rajasic people.  Those energies infect the mind by osmosis.  So when you visit, you need to arrive in a sattvic state and when you feel the mind getting dull and agitated, you should politely excuse yourself. “I’ve got to see a man about a dog.” Don’t hang around.  Indulging in “their” bad habits is cultivating “yours.”   This is how you protect yourself. 

If they come to you, make it clear that you have a schedule, don’t let them drink or smoke in your house.  Offer them a cup of tea, let them tell their story, give some sensible advice like “stop whining and man up,” and show them the door.  Your needy little ego will have a very hard time doing this because it needs to feel loved, undoubtedly because your self-love, which is growing—thanks be to God—is still insufficient to keep your mind quiet. 

Who cares if people think you are an elitist?  F..k them.  Life is not a popularity contest. You’re a spiritual person, not a politician.  Freedom is freedom to do your own dharma before you set out to mess with the dharma of others.  Put on your own oxygen mask before you put on your kid’s mask.  It’s common sense. 

Your sattva, which should act as an early warning system, isn’t deep enough yet. If you were monitoring your state of mind, this is when you discover that you forgot that you have a meeting with your lawyer in twenty minutes, give them a hug and high tail it out the door. 

You should segregate yourself from society.  All the texts recommend it.  What exactly does society have to offer someone who is serious about life?  Living in society as we know it is little more than indulging in or fighting against powerful weapons of mass distraction.  F..k society.  Keeping apart is not elitist. It’s commendable common sense.

Your inner child has been fed too much democracy.  Democracy is the best of a number of bad political philosophies, but there is nothing democratic about life.  Governments should legislate on bi-partisan issues and quit pandering to the personal needs of spoiled foolish people.  How are you going to get free of your pesky vasanas if you can’t get free of paternalism?  Society and government are not your mom and pop.  God is.  I’m not talking about rebelling against society.  I’m talking about protecting yourself from toxic people.

As for friends that make mistakes, the worst thing you can do is to try to fix their mistakes for them. Fixing is just an excuse for enabling them.  The Gita is particularly clear on this point.  What part of Krishna’s advice “Doing the duty of others is fraught with danger” don’t you understand?  I once saw an inscription on some restored medieval stocks in England that read,  “Tis sport for a fool to make mischief.  Let thy wicked ways correct thee.”

Karma yoga means that you pass praise and blame on to God.  It has nothing to do with you.  What do negative feelings like envy have to do with anything?

I’m glad all this stuff is merely an annoyance and that you like your own company.  You’re on the right path and doing good work.  Enjoy solitude.  Crave it.  Gobble it up.  The most compassionate thing you can do is to let people figure life out for themselves, not enable their dysfunction.

I help a lot of people but only because I am qualified to do so.  I feel their pain, but I don’t take it on board.  I try to encourage them to do the right thing but when they need a kick in the butt, I kick them in the butt with love and feel good about it.  Don’t “attempt” to mind your own business, mind your own business.  Stand in a cold trout stream casting your fly and know that fishing has nothing to do with fish and that it has everything to do with worshipping God.  The next verse on Sunday night is about worshipping God as nature.  Humans are God too, but worshipping them is a lot more tricky because, unlike the rest of the creation, they always have an agenda born out of ignorance. 

So, that’s my nice kick in the butt for you this month.  This email is a far cry from the last one, which made me think that you are a fully self-actualized sage. 

Love you, Joseph and come to Trout Lake. 

Joseph:  Thank you Ramji. It’s always a pleasure. It doesn’t feel like a kick in the butt at all. It feels like a confirmation to follow my inclination to stop babying people and stand firm in the Self. You are right that my self love is not what it should be. That has been the main issue all along. An inability to disappoint people when they need disappointing and allowing their tamasic justifications to become my own. Why? Because it’s easier than facing my own demons I suppose. But the war has begun and I have tasted victory in battle with the help of heart-felt submission to the Lord.  That has been the whole process since the beginning of this journey of Self inquiry which began in 2015. It has yielded amazing results that shine in the mind and the heart becomes radiant.   But the fear of disappointing others has continued to surface from time to time.

But what has also come is a true appreciation of my own jiva’s spiritual position and an appreciation of spiritual people who really live renounced lives.    I started this path with a severe handicap in conditions extremely adverse to a spiritual life.  This is not an excuse but my history and decision making explains a lot.  I’m a ghetto sage, a flower that pushes through concrete. The more the heart blooms in the Love of the Self the more painful a nonconforming lifestyle becomes, even small things like watching too much TV and staying up  late. Once you get a taste of the Bliss of Love it’s painful to interact with others the way you used to.   What is important for me to acknowledge is the fact that there people drowning in self-created misery and I can’t save them

Yes. Trout lake. It was already my plan. I would love to be more involved with Vedanta directly. I have been making more meditation/yoga friends and they are wonderful but scripture is not their strong suit ( although that doesnt stop them from trying. God bless them). I love meditation and it is critical for truly comprehending but meditation doesn’t make a wise person.   With love and gratitude always.

Ramji:  Cool.  The only comment is that you needn’t love Joe at all because he isn’t real.  There is only one self and that is you, the beauty that makes beauty beautiful, so it is easy to love.  About meditation, you need to read my book, “The Power of Know.”  Love you. 

Is it correct to say that the gunas are just one force that changes quality as frequency of its vibrations change, leading to different appearances or qualities of manifested phenomena?  

Ram: Yes, they are the only force.  The implied meaning of “just one force” is that there are other forces so only is a better word but from the context that’s what you mean by the word one, I believe. We don’t say that reality is one because that implies more than one. We say non-dual.

Vibration is all there is to manifestations. The property of space is sound which is vibrations, not physical sound Indeed, the subtle point is the key in these email exchanges and I think I best setup a time to talk if you see that it will further the understanding.

Ram:  It is probably best, although as I mentioned in the last email I think word usage, not understanding is the problem.  Yes, get the questions ready and we can chat.  Speaking is easier for me than writing.  It’s a technical issue.  However, how the apparent reality (the world) evolves is not an essential issue, which is: identifying one’s self as unborn existence shining as ever-full (anandam) consciousness as you know.

I think you are referring to Isvara’s subtle body which is “mental sound,” which is to say the essential ideas that generate the appearance of a solid world before each subtle element (space, air, fire, water and earth) divide and recombine to produce the gross elements.  The Self “hears,” which means that it knows the qualities of the different elements.  The elements are called tanmatras in Sanskrit.  It is a valuable teaching because people take images presented by the senses to be direct perception of actual substances when, in fact, they are only approximate substitutes or imitations, simulacra if you want a fancy word.  Because we identify with the sense instruments, the eyes for instance, we assume that what they see is reality.  But it never is.  Looking through the senses is like look through sunglasses. 

Otherwise contemplating will go on until we meet again, no worries.

Ram:  Well, it’s best to be sure that you have a clear nuanced understanding of the teachings.  If there is lack of clarity, then the conclusions you arrive at will be inaccurate. 

Yes, Persian culture has deeply woven bhakti until the bulk of it got hijacked by blinded fanatics of religion. Rumi’s quote, whose work moved me from dry religious beliefs/practices to truth seeking, which finally makes sense.  I can no longer tell where I end and where you begin!

Ram:  There is no difference.  I can tell that this statement is born out of a profound understanding because the bhakti is there.  It is not just an intellectual conviction. 

PS:  The next time you need something specific to help with the teaching please let me know.  I could have gotten the computer LONG ago had I known.  Not being vain about my finances, I am not very rich but God has always made my ends meet by no choice/effort  of mine.  However, I have learned some things are worth spending on even if I have to “do” extra work or empty any reserves. 

Can’t buy you a private jet,  ( yet) !!

Love and gratitude to you and Sundari,

Ram:  How about a yacht instead? 🙂