Thank you so much for the satsang Sunday. I was thinking that there is, in Vedanta, a subtle element that tends to be ignored, but is built into the teachings, the teacher, and the lineage: If one is truly committed to the process, whatever is in the way will eventually show up.

One is forced to face it or keep suffering. That is of course when a teacher is primary.  But I have also found an inner guidance because, of course, there is only one. So the teacher, the teachings and the lineage are I.

The “system” is foolproof. It means one has to learn to trust Vedanta (karma yoga). Not to discount psychology at all. It saves a lot of time, and clarifies patterns of behavior.

Anyway, you might disagree, but I was thinking that there is no lack in Vedanta, if practiced earnestly and one truly “wants to know”. I don’t think it can fail you.

Love, always, Ramji

Dear X,

I don’t disagree.  There is no lack in Vedanta if you include karma yoga.  Karma yoga is psychology; that’s why it isn’t not called karma vedanta.  Vedanta deals with the topic of awareness, which karma-free. There is no lack.  It is a complete teaching.  It cannot fail.  Modern psychology is a helpful aid as long as it doesn’t try to co-opt the “I am Awareness” teaching.  Most of the psychologists in Vedanta don’t understand non-duality at all.  They think they do, but they don’t.  I hesitate to tell them for fear they will run away.   They keep hanging in there because they know that standing as Awareness works.  

Anyway, the whole Bhagavad Gita is Isvara’s guarantee that if you do your part, It will do Its part. You can count on it.  Jiva and Isvara are eternal companions.  Thanks for this wonderful satsang.  The part about “the subtle element” is profound.  Only a few people understand.  I will post this satsang for the benefit of those who are ready to understand.  

Much love,

Ramji 

I haven’t reached out to you before but will catch you in Bali next month.  My wife and I will be making it there from Australia for the retreat. Must say I read through a few of the reddit comments to folks there and kudos to your patience! 

Would be good to hear your observations sometime on where the traps are that people are falling into. It’s very hard I’ve learnt with neo-advaita half -truths, to find the full truth without a systematic process of logic. Maybe a way to help is to catalog the common logical wrong-notions and create a post detailing the biggest ones you can link to. Would’ve helped me on the journey earlier I’m sure. 

For instance, “The suffering is consciousness and I am consciousness and I’m not a doer so can’t get rid of it” was one that I was stuck in when I took the detour from vedanta and went to neo-advaita for a few years. Ultimately the tree that doesn’t deliver fruits has to be abandoned and I found my way back to Vedanta with double the conviction to not take the shortcut again 

James: I look forward to meeting you in Bali.  This is a good suggestion because you are absolutely right; the modern non-dual guys are deluded dualists who imagine themselves to be non-dual.  They picked one convenient teachingand passed it off as the whole truth, which sounds good to the “have your cake and eat it too” ego but it doesn’t work as you know.  Welcome back to a serious, complete teaching.  

The traps are legion…indulging endless fears and desires for objects to remove fears and desires for objects!…but they all boil down to one big trap…the zero-sum setup into which we are born.  Once you get zero-sum you become qualified for freedom from the person who has fears and desires and are willing to develop the secondary qualifications that make inquiry a great pleasure.  

S:  For instance, “The suffering is consciousness and I am consciousness and I’m not a doer so can’t get rid of it” was one that I was stuck in when I took the detour from Vedanta and went to neo-advaita for a few years. Ultimately the tree that doesn’t deliver fruits has to be abandoned and I found my way back to Vedanta with double the conviction to not take the shortcut again “

James: Well, it takes what it takes to learn what one needs to learn.  This laughable bit of Neo-Advaita non-sense is new to me but not surprising.  Just for fun I’ll break down the fallacies. 

Consciousness doesn’t have equipment…a body-mind-sense complex…that is capable of action and/or suffering.  If we take Maya (ignorance of the fact that I am whole and complete unborn consciousness and that my nature is bliss) into account, then consciousness apparently acquires the capacity to suffer.  But apparent suffering is as good as no suffering since consciousness is unassociated with anything, not to mention that the word apparent itself means unreal.  This is so because reality is non-dual, which means there is nothing other than myself with which to associate.   If there were even the slightest association, then what happens to the equipment would rub off on consciousness and I existence shining as consciousness would be subject to change, which is suffering.  If consciousness jumped out of its “hermetically sealed bubble” and affected its equipment, the equipment would be transformed by consciousness into consciousness, which is absurd for various reasons, the most obvious of which is that something which is unreal can’t be transformed and if it could, it could it could only be transformed into another unreal something.  God bless the poor Neos.  They must be here to drive mature thinking people to Vedanta!  I have one friend who spent 8 years trying to figure out Tony Parsons!  Imagine that.  

Vedanta requires faith in inference, which is a valid means of knowledge.  The teachings expose the unexamined logic of one’s own experience, which is all that is required to remove the ignorance that apparently hides the fact that I am the bliss that makes bliss blissful.

Love,

Ramji

I hope you are doing well. I keep up to date with the latest news from Shiningworld via the newsletter and have also heard about your treatment. I wish you and Sundari all the best.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t come to the teaching in Berlin last year, but I’m still on the Vedanta bus. Since I am too undisciplined to create a proper practice for my nididhyasana from the guidelines of the Vedanta, Ishvara presented me with a Course in Miracles. Since I come from a Christian tradition and thanks to Vedanta can reinterpret the Christian teachings accordingly, the language of a Course in Miracles is like coming home for me. Maybe it is similar to you when you heard Sanskrit for the first time. I study both the Course in Miracles and Vedanta almost every day. To me it makes little difference. The form of teaching is different, but not the teaching itself.

I finished the translation of “How to Attain Enlightenment” at least 18 months ago. Then I started revising it and got halfway through. Unfortunately, I had the stupid idea of starting all over again with the help of a computer language tool and suddenly all the joy of the work was gone. I started over and over again 100 times and finally did nothing at all. You could say I failed because of my perfectionism. 

I’m contacting you again now because I would like to finish the book. And I’m hoping for a motivational boost by contacting you first (not that you should motivate me). Perhaps I’ll just continue on page 160 and leave everything as it is. 

I wish you a wonderful retreat in Bali and hope that you will come to Berlin again soon. 

Love Ted

Hi Ted,

Your message isn’t terribly inspiring to say the least.  You may have found Vedanta and The Course in Miracles but what good are they if you can’t make up your mind and complete a simple project.  It’s natural to dither for a few seconds or minutes, because the upside and downside of every choice cancels the gain or loss that results, but this shouldn’t keep you from acting in an appropriate and timely way.  If you fail to act in an appropriate and timely way, your life will stagnate, which it has. 

If you understood karma yoga you wouldn’t be in this tamasic state of mind.  I suggest that you throw out the whole translation project.  How can a translation work if the translator, much less an AI program, doesn’t know the topic, which you obviously don’t.  AI doesn’t even have an algorhytym capable of recognizing non-dual thinking, only the word non-dual.  I know from personal experience, as I was warned by YouTube about certain comments I made that were carefully preceded by a setup that anyone with a brain could understand were completely justified and did not mean what they appeared to mean. 

Karma yoga is the introductory teaching that takes care of anxiety of which dithering is an extreme example, and gives individuals a personal relationship with God, which gradually eliminates like and dislikes and prepares the mind for Vedanta.

To compare Vedanta to Course in Miracles is ridiculous.   Maybe both make you feel good about yourself and give you hope, but that’s where the comparison ends.   One is the science (knowledge) of unborn existence shining as whole and complete consciousness and the other is a channelled document from Jesus, whoever that is, through an atheistic Jewish academic popularized by any number of so called “spiritual” types.  It’s basically kid stuff, although it has its place.   People have to start somewhere.    

Dithering is anxiety about results, but since results aren’t up to you, you can quit worrying about perfection and do whatever you think is right for yourself in a cheerful state of mind.  I just posted an email on the website entitled “Offload the Anxiety at the Beginning.”   Study it carefully and see if you can’t figure a way out of this pernicious state of mind.  Confusion is not a lot of fun.

The second point is about the fact that you’ve written me.  I assume it is because you want some advice.  It is clear that you actually haven’t made any progress since we met.  It’s always the same story.  You need a story upgrade.  An upgrade would be that, like Arjuna who is stuck dithering in the no-man’s land, you turn your mind over to a teacher, in this case me, and follow my suggestions.  A “no-man’s land” is a place where children live; they can’t think for themselves so they need teaching aka parents. I’m not looking to teach anyone, but I can teach very well.  There are thousands of testimonials to that effect.  If you want me to teach you, you need to throw out the Course in Miracles and forget all the Vedanta you have picked up so far. 

If you want guidance, you need to follow the program on the website starting with the link on the homepage “New to Vedanta” and study Tattva Bodha for at least two months, then write up your understanding and send it to me so I can see if you got anything.  You need to come to the weekly satsang on the internet every Sunday and you need to donate to ShiningWorld Inc. at least 25 euros a month.  (See the donation philosophy on the website).  And you need to follow my suggestions without dithering. 

If you are not willing to do this, stay in samsara until you hit bottom.  I’m a good teacher, but Maya is the best possible teacher.  It will bring you to your knees and get you out of this tamasic fog.  I’m sorry to be so straightforward with you…think of it as tough love… but you need a wake up call.  Good luck and let me know what you think about his letter.  You can’t offend me, but it’s time to put on your big boy pants and get real about your spiritual inclination.  Time is passing.

Much love,

James 

Pop the Bubble

Is the Self Everything that Exists?

Inquirer 1: But I thought ALL is Self? If all is Self then what could possibly be other than Self?

Inquirer 2: The Self is a placeholder that gradually expands as you make progress spiritually.  His definition: an expanding placeholder like a phone caddy on the dashboard of an automobile.

Now he tells us his idea of self-inquiry.

As an ego who has just started the process of self-inquiry, you are first supposed to cut all contact with the external and only abide in the inner reality. As you gain more influence over the mind, the bubble of Self grows (think children blowing bubbles) to occupy the external space gradually, until the universe itself is engulfed by it. This is when all manifestation becomes the Self.

Location of Objects

Inquirer #2 becomes an unskilful guru who teaches the Self as an object, but a guru nonetheless.  Next, he teaches non-duality equating Maya and the Self but the supporting logic is missing so non-duality can only be taken on faith by Inquirer #1.

He continues with the rhetorical question, “ Is not Maya the Self? Is not the world Brahman?,” So how can you say Maya is not-Self and we should turn away from it?

The Mathematics of Existence Shining as Consciousness

Vedanta: Supporting logic is required for moksa.  It is Om Purnamadah Purnamidam, Purnat Purnamudachyate, Purnasya Purnamadaya, Purnameva Vashishyate

That is Full.  This is Full.  If you subtract This from That Fullness remains. If you add This to That, fullness remains.

Analysis – Self Inquiry

This and that.  If you see a tree at a distance, you will say “that tree.”  If you speak of yourself, you will not say “that self” nor will you say “this self” because that will equate yourself and the tree which is not your experience.  You will say, “I.”  I is the “placeholder,” i.e. the location of this and that, which are spatial concepts based on experience.  That tree and this body do not enjoy equal status with reference to I, yourself from the experiential level, only from the non-dual level. What is the non-dual level.  It is he knowledge generated by unfolding the unexamined logic of existence, the only access to what is.

Vasana Kshaya Teaching

The duality guru continues, “If you’ve developed the conviction that everything is the Self, then Maya has no power over you and you can engage or disengage from it at will.”

Liberation From the Jiva is Liberation For the Jiva.

Vedanta: True. Why? Because duality and non-duality are useful concepts to keep the world in its place as “not-self,” for the purpose of liberation for the jiva.  

End of Listening (sravanna)

Until you reach this grade of dispassion, (paraviragya) you’re supposed to focus on just the inner Self (how) and constantly guide your mind away from the manifest. This is to kill your tendencies that you’ve accumulated in life. Once all tendencies have been effectively culled, (reduced) your (reflected) awareness naturally occupies the universe. This is what I meant when I said the bubble of the Self expands.

Vedanta: “Your” awareness doesn’t “occupy” the universe.  It is limited.  Original unborn awareness apparently “occupies” the universe.  Your awareness focuses primarily on the knowledge of the self as it transacts with objects at both the karma yoga and the jnana yoga stages..

The Upside and Downside of Metaphors

These are just metaphorical descriptions. All that’s happening is your awareness, freed from the distractions of the mind, is able to hold more and more of the manifest universe steadily in itself. And as you become adept at that, your true nature of bliss also becomes more prominent.

End of Inquirer # 2’s Teaching

Vedanta:  The bubble metaphor needs explaining because bubbles are very fragile temporal things. They easily disappear, whereas the self, existence shining as unborn whole and complete awareness, is always present. It is “rock solid,” meaning it doesn’t change. It is being. It doesn’t “become.”  Finally, prominent implies lack of prominence.

The bubble metaphor is unhelpful for another obvious reason.  Bubbles contain air.  But nothing contains the Self.  In so far as there is anything to contain, which there isn’t, the Self is the container and if there is, it “contains” consciousness, which is absurd since it is consciousness. 

At the same time the gradual process you describe is helpful for entry level inquirers because of the belief that freedom is an obtainable once and for all experience.  But what is obtained is eventually unobtained i.e. lost, which is not possible for the self.

Freedom from coming and going is the nature of the self so I am always free whether I know it or not.  It takes a certain kind of mind to appreciate metaphors because with every metaphor something is useful and something is not useful.  For instance, if I say the Self is “a rock on which I build my church” as Christ supposedly did, I may take it to mean that the self is tangible like a rock is tangible, not that it is permanent. Even the idea of permanency implies impermanent, so if a person thinks too much, he or she may conclude that the self is also impermanent because, whereas rocks last a longer than conscious beings, they eventually degrade and disappear.

The last paragraph also needs clarification owing to the words “more and more,” which imply incompleteness. The self is whole and complete because it is unborn aka eternal. It is the subtrate from which all objects are seemingly manufactured by Maya. It is possible but problematic to deliver self knowledge in the form of experiential language, because people tend to take words literally. If someone doesn’t know that a metaphor is a metaphor, he or she will be misled.

The phrase ‘become more prominent” is also misleading because the bliss of the self is not experiential in the sense that it comes and goes and is experienced in various intensities. It is whole and complete unborn non-dual bliss, meaning it is not subject to modification.  You can say I experience bliss only when you can say with easy confidence, “I am bliss.”

Subject and Object

Now I’d like to tackle one of the core concepts in Vedanta: the distinction and relationship between two primary categories: the subject and the object. Vedanta describes these as follows: The “subject” is the “ field of awareness” in which “objects” arise. Objects are everything else. “Object” includes anything that awareness notices, both gross and subtle. Gross objects would include things in the world that are perceived by the senses. Gross material objects include things such as rocks, trees and the human body. Subtle objects would include interior things such as thoughts, feelings, or even your belief of personhood.

Characteristics of the subject include: unchanging, stable, beyond-space-and-time, meaning “limitless.” But limitlessness doesn’t mean vast or big. It means that the subject, awareness, isn’t modified by the discrete subjective and objective experiences that present themselves to it.

Objects, on the other hand, are characterized by change, lack of stability, and are confined by space and time and are defective, meaning “limited.” Vedanta defines the unchanging subject as real, (sathya), and the changing objects as unreal or apparently real, (mithya.) This is a foundational idea, but like all ideas, it is nonetheless a provisional idea.

Since the ultimate goal of Vedanta is the understanding of the universe as nondual, meaning non-separate from the conscious self, you may have noticed that the idea of subject/object is clearly positioned in duality. But do not despair, this particular provisional idea is unbelievably useful. Let me explain.

As I explained in the previous blog on superimposition and negation, one of the goals of psychotherapy is to replace a bad set of ideas about yourself with better ones….a little upgrade in your identity. Hey, why not? What have you got to lose? But you’re still in the object realm.

A Major Upgrade

Vedanta challenges you with a set of ideas to completely transform your identity by asking you to begin identifying with the subject….that which is stable, unchanging, conscious, and unmodified by what it experiences. This is a major upgrade. It does this by teaching us that we mistakenly identify with objects that are unreal and not with the subject which is real. Typically, objects such as the contents of your mind and the body, are viewed as real….and in general we focus by default on objects, instead of on the subject. It’s nobody’s fault. Again this is built into the system. Vedanta calls this process “ignorance.”

So whether you’re doing psychotherapy or Vedanta, it’s important to understand that your mind naturally places too much emphasis on objects, leaving the subject unnoticed. With that in mind, you would be wise to be skeptical of your thoughts, ideas and beliefs, and pay more attention to the background subject. Unfortunately, noticing the background subject requires a calm, objective mind. A mind preoccupied with objects, even obsessively so, will not be qualified. Those with issues such as addiction, obsessive disorders, major depression or anxiety, will find it difficult if not impossible to refocus their minds on the background…the subject. This is where you should consider therapy (1) to calm down your nervous system (2) to determine what objects are distracting you (3) to prepare your mind to understand Vedanta, which is the firm knowledge that you are the stable subject. Cognitive therapy can be particularly helpful in this regard. Remember dealing with your mental health compliments your Vedanta practice.

When you express a concern about the unreality of the object, you start to notice how unreliable it is…as basis for emotional support. The subject is an ideal support “object” because it is always present and complete. This moves your focus to the reality-based subject. The subject is always there in the first place, but since it has no characteristics of its own, it goes unnoticed. You simply note that you are, and always have been, awareness…and you take that as your primary identity. This is the so-called “standing in awareness.

Love Your Fingers

Remember, thoughts are necessary and essential, but provisional. The same with your identity as a human, which is nothing but a collection of thoughts about experiences real and imagined that happened in the past. You can’t do without them, but they shouldn’t be completely trusted. They’re still in the unreliable realm of objects. Even though Vedanta thoughts are fingers-pointing to the moon, they’re not the moon…but don’t underestimate the importance of fingers….in this case, Vedanta. It is quite handy. However, it is important not to underestimate the value of a proper relationship with someone who knows the difference between the subject and the objects that present themselves to it. And don’t despair if you keep having to go back to your fingers to find your way. It comes with the territory….remember, there’s a moon out there even when hidden by the clouds.

Superimposition and Negation

Inherent in Vedanta is a very clever strategy called superimposition and negation.  Let’s give it a definition.  For example… You start with a basic idea about yourself.  You accept that idea as provisionally true. Then you challenge yourself to find as much wrong with that idea as possible.  Negation.  And magically, you replace one idea with a better idea.  Pretty straightforward.

For instance, replacing the idea, “I can’t get anything right,” with “sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong,” moves you closer to the truth.  Or you replace the idea that the world is a mess with the idea that it is beautiful.  In this case you will notice a definite improve in your mood.  Hopefully, you get the idea. 

A Simple Definition of Psychotherapy

Since we’re nothing more than a jumbled mess of bad ideas much of the time, exchanging bad ideas for better ones seems like a pretty good deal.  At the risk of oversimplifying, we might call this psychotherapy.  The application could be tricky.  We will likely need help identifying these bad ideas… more often than not they remain hidden because we usually think they are good ideas!  That’s where therapists can come in handy. They can help us uncover the bad ideas, provisionally accept them, and then challenge them. This is not easy, and it’s up to the therapist to provide a safe setting to make this possible.

The Next Level

Up to now, I’ve described the process of superimposition and negation in the personal psychotherapeutic realm. Why stop there? Well, maybe we don’t have to.  Maybe you haven’t heard about Vedanta.  It takes this process to a whole other level.  While including the personal, it’s way beyond the personal.  While psychotherapy challenges the ideas of who you think you are as person, Vedanta challenges the idea of whether you are a person at all.  Both Vedanta and psychotherapy are valuable and essential tools depending upon in which realm you’re operating.

Are Ideas Actually Real?

Psychotherapy and Vedanta use the same methodology.  It’s a logical progression. Once again, you start with a provisional idea, an idea assumed to be true, and negate it. These ideas are not only assumed to be true, they are literally experienced as “reality.”  For instance, the idea “the joy is in the object of my desire”… not true.  What!  How is that possible?  Suffice it to say, Vedanta does a whole lot of this. In fact, it has a series of logical steps for negating ideas like this, and replacing them with much better ones…and on and on… until the only thing left is the idea that you are simply unlimited existence awareness, and since that’s an idea, even it can be eventually negated once you have worked through the steps.  Oh my, my head is spinning! I’m not going to go into the details of this process at this moment… that’s a whole topic in itself. However just like psychotherapy, you will need guidance… a teacher and a teaching. It’s not that complicated but it’s pretty subtle.

Provisional Identities – A Friendly Warning

Heed this warning…proceed with care… If you are thinking of doing psychotherapy or Vedanta, you need to proceed slowly under the guidance of a qualified professional.  Don’t underestimate the value of your provisional foundational ideas or identities.  They are important.  They provide stability and that’s not a bad thing.  Remember these identities and ideas have gotten us this far.  Empathy involves taking yourself (and others) from where you are currently standing…not from where you would like yourself (and others) to be.

So make haste…slowly. Suppose you don’t pay attention and are too heavy-handed in your challenges/negation. In that case, you can cut the legs out from under someone or yourself, and end up with mess on your hands…or at the very least nothing will be gained and you will have lost the power to assimilate critical self-knowledge.

I know I’ve taken some liberties using a Vedanta concept to describe psychotherapy but that’s OK because there is common ground.  Please let me know what you think.

Send and email to swartz.jb@gmail.com and I will forward it to John.

The last six years I followed logic.  I listen, read, and contemplate Vedanta (the Gita and Upanishads etc) on a daily basis. Meditation never went away. I just ‘completed’ the Bhagavad Gita for the fourth time. (First James, then Swami Dayanada HSC, again James and then Swami Tadatmananda). There was a wave of doubt. From the past.  I ask myself where is the compassion in Vedanta? Is knowledge enough? Don’t I have to do something? Is it that ‘easy’? Don’t I have  to work hard and be disciplined to ‘get it’? It is overwhelming. Is this my so-called spiritual ego? Is this a wake-up call to leave scripture and assimilate the teaching? Or did I take the wrong turn to Vedanta?

I know it is the jiva in me that wants know. So, I began searching again, reading again. Doing comparisons between Vedanta and Buddhism. It is fruitless. It is the battle between those two giants. The battle I don’t want to get involved with. But the jiva is running away with it. It drags me down the drain of my memory of all the books I read and all the teachers I spoke to. They yell at me like fishwives at the market. Do I have to turn back to Zen? Do I take refuge in the Buddha, join a Sangha and do sesshin. “Because that is always what you wanted,” says the voice in me. Friends say the same, you always wanted to do that. Why not? Go for it!

But what is it that I want to do? In my environment there is nobody that is interested in Vedanta. And when they are, they only want a quick fix. There is no sangha (except online). It is a lonely road. And I did take it very cognitive. Only knowledge can deal with the ignorance. But this is at the same time the problem. I know, but I don’t know. I can talk like a parrot repeating the knowledge from scripture. But knowledge isn’t moksha. It is a path to moksha. It is only mind, not heart, at least for me.

So after six years, here I am. Knowing less, doubting more. I can tell who I am, but when I tell it, it isn’t true, because not a single word, a single scripture can. It is only a finger pointing to the moon. Nothing gained, nothing lost. 30 years of meditation didn’t do it either. I know there is not a big lasting event, a satori. So why should I bother myself with Zen?

For now the only thing I can do is stay with it. Staying with the knowledge that I don’t know. In silence, without books, without scripture. All I can say is that I see the struggle of my mind that wants to know, but finally can’t know what it already knows. Somehow it opens up, but at the same time it is terrifying…

Do you have any further suggestions to deal with this impasse?

Hi Dave,

Well, your words say that your mind is an object, in which case it can’t be you, the ever-free Self, but if that were true you wouldn’t be so depressed.  You are second guessing yourself, questioning whether or not all the effort you put into seeking was worth it and you seem to have come to the conclusion that it was a waste of time.  At the same time, you say it is a gift. 

It will be a gift if it causes you to let go of the idea that moksha can be gained by spiritual practice.  It can’t because you are already free.  The problem, however, is that you have misunderstood freedom as loneliness, which causes despair.  Freedom is aloneness, not loneliness.  When are there ever two yous?  Or when is there anyone else that experiences your loneliness?  Everyone is alone because there is only one of us.  It is pointless to want reality to be different.  it is ignorance.  Accepting aloneness is freedom.  It is knowledge.

So, you need to come to the conclusion that what you have been doing all these years is not the way to happiness and stop.  Seeking is a bad habit, like smoking.  Or, you can rightly conclude that you are not the person who has been doing all this stuff and let that person go.  This is what we call karma yoga.  When you quit identifying as a doer, you default to the only other option, the knower of the doer and its doings.  

It is obvious that you are the witness of the doer because you have accurately reported its thoughts and feelings.  The “weeks long” despair (tamas) is an accumulation of the results of frustrating (rajas) actions.  These are normal feelings for someone who has pursued an unworkable path for a long time.

So, there are two solutions, both of which you need to accept.  First, you need to accept the fact that you are free already.  You have never been a doer.  If you can take a stand as a finder, a free person, you will feel differently about yourself.  The frustration and despair will leave.  Seeking stops when you discover Vedanta.  If it doesn’t, you haven’t accepted Vedanta’s central teaching; you are free. 

And second, you need to find something to do that gives you joy apart from the understanding that you are free.  If you do, your self love will return.  Think back to the time when you weren’t consciously seeking, when you did simple things that made you happy and look at your circumstances now for the solution.  It is present.  What made you happy before won’t work now but what you need is always present in the form of a pleased Self and in the form of pleasing activities.  Please yourself by doing something pleasing.  More spiritual practice doesn’t work.  As you say, nothing is going to happen to solve the problem for you.  

Yes, following these suggestions is not easy because your self-confidence seems to have deserted you.  But it will return if you just admit that you were barking up the wrong tree and let the whole seeker mind-set go.  Yes, it’s difficult because somehow you have been perversely enjoying the suffering, but letting go of Dave is freedom by default, as I said above.  All the best and

much love,

James  

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Vedanta is much more than intellectual concepts that give us the inspiration to cope with life.  It is living non-duality.  Inspiration without action wears off, keeping seekers seeking, whereas Vedanta ends seeking and provides a blueprint for joyous transformational living.  It is difficult to let go of seeking because, despite its downsides, seeker is often a comforting identity, a virtuous security blanket of sorts.  When you understand the value of Vedanta, the dream of seeking stops and your real waking life begins.   

For quite a while I was living in the dream that most long-term devotees of Vedanta were dispassionate and rational enough to recognize the dualistic mindset and were dedicated to eliminating it.  Backed by the Bhagavad Gita, my teacher made it clear that duality was the enemy and that the struggle with duality is the essence of our spiritual work.  It made sense so I worked hard on my mind every moment of every day for about two years.  It was satisfying work.  It wasn’t hard because I trusted my teacher, who had mastered his mind and I was completely fed up with the me-centered approach to the world.  Gradually duality lost its power and one fine day, the mind stepped off the samsaric merry-go-round.  The status of the world changed.  It was no longer real as it had once been.  It was real in a completely different way.  It was real because it was me, ordinary vasana-free existence shining as whole and complete unborn awareness, which is the teaching. 

As I shared what I knew over the years I also discovered that many seekers claimed they were working hard on themselves but were still cultivating the dualistic mindset.  That duality was a serious problem was only an idea that was at best partially assimilated, sometimes not at all.  Consequently, here and now, duality played scot-free in their minds! 

When you are not ready to let go of your fears and desires any  teaching can supply a rational for hanging on to them, particularly the idea the life is a both/and, not an either or.  If it’s a both/and, you can have your cake and eat it too.  You can say the world doesn’t affect me because I am the Self so I will just let things be as they are, which is only good if you more or less indifferent to your mind.

Unfortunately. When the Self thinks it is a doer, it doesn’t know that the world doesn’t affect it, so it keeps choosing this and that to make it happy.  And for its trouble it keeps going round and round on the samsaric merry-go round.  The doer likes options and if it knows that a particular path is going to limit them, it avoids it.  They call it human nature.  But the whole point of Vedanta is to put the doer in the position where it uses it’s free will to eliminate its sense of doership.  The only time it stops doing is the day the body dies.

Is Vedanta a Both/And or an Either/Or?

But if Vedanta is an either/or with reference to your choices, a wise person will cultivate a non-dual mind-set, since it prevents sufferings large and small.  It should be a simple rational choice. 

The hallmark of the Self ignorant Self is fear.  It thinks fear is smart.  So, it is attracted to the idea that that life is one big conspiracy.  It is to be sure, but not in the way it imagines.  Even though Vedanta repeatedly points out that ignorance is the only virus and Self knowledge is the only vaccine, these words still fall on the deaf ears of many good people who are not ready to let their fears and desires go and trust life…call it God if you will…to take care of them.  

Yes, fear can momentarily make the mind alert, but it can just as well make it dull and unsubtle.  Vedanta doesn’t use fear because using it inculcates it.  Unexamined fears of every sort spring up and attach themselves to events, keeping the mind that is not committed to constant vigilance of duality obsessively disturbed until one’s life becomes dysfunctional.  The mind should be aligned with the non-dual nature of reality, a friend, not an adversary. 

Fear-oriented people think they are covering their backsides, but they are actually living backwards, defaulting to duality when they should default to fearless non-duality.  They think they are clever, but they aren’t.  Sometimes they even try to convince me that non-duality isn’t smart.  “You’re living in a fools’s paradise, James.  The idea of trusting God is good, but you need to look after Good Old Numero Uno.”  They don’t know that trusting God is the only sure way to underwrite their happiness.   
All a proper teacher can do is make suggestions and hope that an inquirer is mature and subtle enough to pick up the idea that duality is a practical problem and run with it, which basically means taking a stand in the opposite thought.  “I am whole and complete.  Nothing can be added to me or subtracted from me.”  Practiced steadily with faith it kills doership and sets the doer free of samsara.     

Upcoming Seminar in Oss, Netherlands on Self-Actualiztion.

This seminar will be a continuation of the Sunday night satsangs, which are presently focused on the reflection teaching with the idea of helping individuals progress along the well-worn path to freedom and non-dual love.  For those who don’t attend regularly we are talking about Self-actualization in depth, using a mnemonic symbol…the dancing Shiva…to assist us in removing the dualistic mindset and establish the mind in non-duality.  You will like your mind very much if you can teach it to think from the non-dual platform.  Although the seminar is fully booked it will be live streamed and kept online for downloading.  For details write Georg at georg.shiningworld@gmail.com   

OK, time to talk about another key concept in Vedanta, which is connected to Karma yoga. And what would that be? “ Life is zero-sum”. What the heck?… Simply put, for every up there’s a down.  For every ‘in’ there’s an ‘out’ and for every gain there’s a loss.  According to the great sages, The Rolling Stones….”You can’t always get what you want”… isn’t that something… Who would have guessed that the Stones were Karma yogis?

Zero-Sum

Alert! This “zero-sum” concept is inherently baked into the system. Blame God if you like.  It won’t be offended. It’s not personal. People frequently take things personally and blame themselves for their failures. You do bear some responsibility, but not as much as you might think. If you make a mistake, do your best to correct it…you are not completely off the hook. But if you’re paying attention, I think you’ll discover that the results aren’t up to you…that the world is a big place and you are a small part of it.  This is another key concept from Karma yoga.

So where do we go from here? You may have reached a fork in the road. One path of “life is a zero-sum” could lead to an attitude of, “what’s the point, why try?…I can’t win.”  This could unfortunately result in cynicism and even nihilism. This path is not recommended.

Mistaken Identity

The other path is much more hopeful. What’s that look like? First let me explain:  Another key concept in Vedanta is that you have a case of “mistaken identity.” You think you’re a limited individual. In the beginning, this idea of being a “mistaken identity” is essential.  God sets it up this way. But then you start to get messages that maybe you’ve got it wrong. Your identity misfires. You start to fail and get frustrated. You don’t get what you want. What’s good about this setup? God sets up this world perfectly…equal parts support and frustration…a perfect balance. I understand the support part, but why the frustration? Well, let me tell you. Frustration is your friend. Without it, would you be drawn to Vedanta, or any psycho spiritual practice in the first place?  I doubt it. When frustration starts to challenge this provisional identity, and that identity crumbles, you might start to ask yourself the question, if I’m not that, then who am I?  Now you’re off and running…

Fuel for Your Growth

Comfort is not the friend of curiosity. God provides the itch and you have to scratch it. If you don’t, you’re likely to be stuck with a limited concept of yourself, without a clue of what to do next. So God sets it up so you can never completely succeed in this world. Your dissatisfaction keeps you reaching higher and provides the fuel for your growth…and with Karma, God gives you instantaneous feedback concerning whether you’re on the right path or not. What a setup! God’s on you side…Glorious…

Key Concepts

So let me summarize some key concepts common to both Vedanta and psychology. First, don’t personalize. This is absolutely critical, whether you’re doing Vedanta or psychotherapy…do not personalize. We’re all guilty of some form of this,  so do your best. If you personalize and lose objectivity, remind yourself of the karma yoga attitude. God is in the driver’s seat.

The second key concept is:  “you’re not who you think are.” Again, this is both critical to Vedanta as well as to psychology. In psychology, you start by creating an observing ego, a witness, if you will. How do you go about that? As you tell your story, you are encouraged to observe it objectively.

Basically, you HAVE a story; YOU are not the story. You HAVE feelings, but YOU are not your feelings. You are encouraged to express your emotions, but not to turn them into an identity. Similarly, Vedanta encourages you to identify with the subject and not with the object. While psychotherapy importantly works on identity in the personal realm, Vedanta takes identity to the nondual realm. More on that later…

There’s No Success Like Failure

OK, time to talk about another key concept in Vedanta, which is connected to Karma yoga. And what would that be? “ Life is zero-sum”. What the heck?… Simply put, for every up there’s a down.  For every ‘in’ there’s an ‘out’ and for every gain there’s a loss.  According to the great sages, The Rolling Stones….”You can’t always get what you want”… isn’t that something… Who would have guessed that the Stones were Karma yogis?

Zero-Sum

Alert! This “zero-sum” concept is inherently baked into the system. Blame God if you like.  It won’t be offended. It’s not personal. People frequently take things personally and blame themselves for their failures. You do bear some responsibility, but not as much as you might think. If you make a mistake, do your best to correct it…you are not completely off the hook. But if you’re paying attention, I think you’ll discover that the results aren’t up to you…that the world is a big place and you are a small part of it.  This is another key concept from Karma yoga.

So where do we go from here? You may have reached a fork in the road. One path of “life is a zero-sum” could lead to an attitude of, “what’s the point, why try?…I can’t win.”  This could unfortunately result in cynicism and even nihilism. This path is not recommended.

Mistaken Identity

The other path is much more hopeful. What’s that look like? First let me explain:  Another key concept in Vedanta is that you have a case of “mistaken identity.” You think you’re a limited individual. In the beginning, this idea of being a “mistaken identity” is essential.  God sets it up this way. But then you start to get messages that maybe you’ve got it wrong. Your identity misfires. You start to fail and get frustrated. You don’t get what you want. What’s good about this setup? God sets up this world perfectly…equal parts support and frustration…a perfect balance. I understand the support part, but why the frustration? Well, let me tell you. Frustration is your friend. Without it, would you be drawn to Vedanta, or any psycho spiritual practice in the first place?  I doubt it. When frustration starts to challenge this provisional identity, and that identity crumbles, you might start to ask yourself the question, if I’m not that, then who am I?  Now you’re off and running…

Fuel for Your Growth

Comfort is not the friend of curiosity. God provides the itch and you have to scratch it. If you don’t, you’re likely to be stuck with a limited concept of yourself, without a clue of what to do next. So God sets it up so you can never completely succeed in this world. Your dissatisfaction keeps you reaching higher and provides the fuel for your growth…and with Karma, God gives you instantaneous feedback concerning whether you’re on the right path or not. What a setup! God’s on you side…Glorious…

Key Concepts

So let me summarize some key concepts common to both Vedanta and psychology. First, don’t personalize. This is absolutely critical, whether you’re doing Vedanta or psychotherapy…do not personalize. We’re all guilty of some form of this,  so do your best. If you personalize and lose objectivity, remind yourself of the karma yoga attitude. God is in the driver’s seat.

The second key concept is:  “you’re not who you think are.” Again, this is both critical to Vedanta as well as to psychology. In psychology, you start by creating an observing ego, a witness, if you will. How do you go about that? As you tell your story, you are encouraged to observe it objectively.

Basically, you HAVE a story; YOU are not the story. You HAVE feelings, but YOU are not your feelings. You are encouraged to express your emotions, but not to turn them into an identity. Similarly, Vedanta encourages you to identify with the subject and not with the object. While psychotherapy importantly works on identity in the personal realm, Vedanta takes identity to the nondual realm. More on that later…

Edited by James

Dear Ben,

You say that we need Self knowledge for liberation but that the Self, which is beyond the known and the unknown, can’t be known by perception and inference, the only means of knowledge we have.  If it is beyond our means, then how can it be known?  Is there another means?  Please explain.  Is it like deep inner listening, quiet still mindfulness and waiting?

Mike

Ben:  There was a man named Gregor Samsa who was firmly convinced he was an insect.  Perception though his sense organs does not reveal him as a human being because the senses are controlled by the mind and the thought that he is an insect causes the senses to present him to himself as an insect.

He sees his skin as chitin and his body with the exoskeleton of an ant.  He likes leafy vegetables, which confirms his mistaken conviction.  He crawls along on the floor and hides under a couch when a bird looks through the window for fear of being eaten, so he can’t infer his humanness because he is completely focused on survival.  Perception and inference don’t solve his problem.  However, he has a doubt because his hidden human self is always present subtly informing his mind, so he concludes that he needs another opinion and goes to a psychiatrist, who says he is not an insect but a human being.  He doubts the shrink but is so tormented that he provisionally accepts the psychiatrist’s statement.  It does not help, however, because he still sees himself as an insect.

So, Gregor needs to do a lot of work to get his mind ready to see himself as he really is.  Using various psychological techniques—basically cognitive behavioral therapy—he works hard because he is industrious like the ant he thinks he is.  One fine day his therapist sees that he is ready for human knowledge so he starts with the only other means of knowledge available, the words “You are a Human Being,” which will reveal what is already present and always experienced—his Humanness.  His insect-ness is a projection from his Humanness, his fundamental self.  It is superimposed and needs to be negated with the steadfast understanding “I am a Human Being.”

Similarly, our perception of ourselves as people is a projection from our fundamental Self.  It is superimposed and needs to be negated by the hard and fast understanding, “I am existence shining as whole and complete ordinary unconcerned unborn consciousness.”  Consciousness is primary (satya) and cannot be negated; personhood (mithya) is secondary and can be negated or “cancelled.”  When you cancel a person, he or she doesn’t die; he or she is simply no longer “real” for you.  When you look at the sky you see blue but your know it is clear.  When the words of Vedanta are fully assimilated you know you are existence shining as whole and complete ordinary unconcerned unborn consciousness appearing (mithya) as a human being and your humanness is automatically cancelled.

Everyone in Gregor’s family thinks they are insects, as do his neighbours, acquaintances and  fellow citizens. In fact, insectness is the norm throughout the whole world.  Every country structures events large and small on all levels to celebrate insectness and protect insects from predators, particularly birds. The pharmaceutical industry makes bug spray capable of killing every conceivable type of creepy crawly stinging and biting insect and militaries constantly spray noxious chemicals on mother earth world-wide, not to mention that the global food chain has been treated to toxic chemicals for decades.  Different insect species zap each other with powerful lazers.  Even Olympic gold medallists achieve superstar insect status and are worshipped fanatically.  Insect religions abound as well.  The remote transcendental ANT and BEE Gods are propitiated daily by quintillions of ants and bees.

For secular insects, who are known as insectarians, an army of psychologists, psychiatrists, and their ilk—life coaches for instance—practice day and night to help resolve insect-related issues too numerous to mention so individuals can more effectively serve society.  Most insects want high insectesteem.  Naturally, anyone who has an inkling of their humanness is considered abnormal and may be persecuted, ostracized, and punished for thinking differently.  In some states their books are burned, and their children are bullied.  In some, humanness is a serious felony and convicted criminals are incarcerated in large insect prisons with re-education facilities where loudspeakers blare the truth of insectness day and night.

Once he is qualified Gregor listens diligently to his mentor and one fine day he is told that he is ready to go outside.  He thanks his shrink and walks out into the sunny afternoon.  A robin sitting on a branch hears a worm munching earth underground near Gregor, who is savoring his freedom, and flies in his direction.  Terrified, he rushes back to the doctor’s office.  The doctor asks what’s wrong and Gregor says, “I may be a human being, but the birds don’t know it!”  The doctor realizes that he isn’t ready and puts him back on his therapies until he can leave his office once and for all.

Unfortunately the human race, with few exceptions, remains, as always, in the dark about the capacity of the human mind to inquire into the truth of things, and is content to accept the perception of the senses without realizing that it is trapped in a collective web of inadequacy, mortality, vulnerability and insecurity.  As the great Buddhasect said millenia ago, “All life is suffering.”

Although it is taken for granted, humanness is not normal. We have been blessed with the capacity to think, which, guided by the perennial wisdom of Vedanta, introduces us to our identity as suffering-free non-dual ever-present ordinary awareness and provides the therapies—karma yoga particularly—that transform our lives into shining reflections of our perfect creator.  

What a blessing for the few who fully appreciate the value of Vedanta, which sages have  chanted since the beginning of time.  May we all recognize the reality of our true nature and revel in its ever-present bliss!!!