Sahid: Greetings, while I am continuing my plan started from May-24 based on Foundation Course steps, I request your guidance about Self-Inquiry practice. I wish to start 5-10 minutes of daily Self-Inquiry practice, by doing discrimination between experiences (e.g. external objects, sense organs, thoughts, feelings and Ego or I-Thought) and observer (Experiencer). I sincerely appreciate your valuable advice, which will help me begin in the right way.
Sundari: If you have a burning desire for moksa, you will need more than 5 – 10 minutes per day dedicated to self-inquiry. It should be the most important part of your day, and your inquiry must be taken with you into your daily life. The importance of applying the teachings to your life cannot be over-emphasized. Moksa is for the jiva, not the Self, as the Self has never been bound. So if the nondual teachings are not lived, what use are they?
Vedanta pramana is a valid means of knowledge to discriminate satya from mithya, the real from the apparently real, which is the essence of moksa – freedom from bondage to the limited, small egoic self or jiva. Vedanta is designed to challenge the mind, which is based in duality, to think from the nondual perspective. This is not easy, and doubts will arise, this is normal. But thankfully, Vedanta, though counter-intuitive, can end all doubts. It offers a ‘tool-kit’’ as it were, which if applied to your life with utmost dedication, will result in permanent peace of mind and freedom from the limitations of the idea that you are the limited person, or doer. But certain things need to be in place for that to happen.
1. Lifestyle
Firstly, apart from mumukshutva, dedication to moksa, your lifestyle must be simple and in accordance with the values required by scripture, not the other way around. Whatever activities or conditions in your life that are not in accordance with the dharma of scripture, must go.
2. Qualifications
The qualifications for moksa are a prerequisite, of course, and these are all explained on our website and in many texts. You need to know what they are.
3. Following the Methodology of Vedanta
It sounds like you are adhering to the methodology of the teachings, which is excellent. Vedanta has a very specific, progressive methodology which will work to remove ignorance if:
1) You are dedicated to self-inquiry;
2) The mind is qualified. The most important qualification is faith in the scriptures, but all qualifications are necessary;
3) A qualified teacher wields it for you. You cannot read your way to moksa.
Although not all the qualifications need to be present to begin with, they must be understood and developed. So, both qualifications and a qualified teacher are not negotiable, assuming moksa is the aim.
4. You Are Properly Taught
You need to be properly taught because although following the foundation course, reading the books and watching videos is very good, you need to sign on to the logic every step of the way. It is best to check with a qualified teacher if you are indeed doing this. As the mind is conditioned to think a certain way and non-duality is counter-intuitive unless the mind is guided in its exposure to Vedanta it will interpret Vedanta according to its conditioning, or vasanas and Self-knowledge will not obtain. There are apparent contradictions within the teachings which are not real contradictions and need to be resolved by a qualified teacher. Teachings and teachers abound who teach according to their methods and experience, but this is always misleading, flawed and limited. Unless a teaching is independent of the teacher, it will be contaminated by his or her beliefs, opinions and experiences, no matter how lofty or ‘enlightened’ they claim to be.
We can definitely teach you, but—we cannot do ‘the work’ of self-inquiry for you, nobody can. It takes a burning desire for freedom to commit to self-inquiry. As James is fond of saying, Vedanta is the court of last appeal for those fortunate souls whose karma prepares them for moksa, freedom. And there is one more factor to consider, grace. It is only by the grace of Isvara that anything happens–and grace is earned.
Vedanta is taught in a very specific way for a very good reason – the mind is very conservative, and ignorance is hard wired and tenacious. Unless all the qualifications for self-inquiry are present, and you follow all the stages of self-inquiry carefully and methodically, assimilation of Self-knowledge will not take place. You may ‘get it’ for a while and then you will ‘unget it’ because the mind has not been sufficiently purified, your lifestyle does not conform to the dharma of an inquirer, and/or you are not putting into practice the teachings, mainly karma yoga.
5. Ruthless Moral Inventory
Self-inquiry requires an ability to be ruthlessly honest and to have the courage to look at your life objectively and impersonally, to conduct a fearless moral inventory to determine if your values support self-inquiry. If there is a part of you that still thinks there are things to gain in this world and chases experience/objects, you are not ready for self-inquiry.
The Three Stages of Self-Inquiry in Brief:
1. Sravanna – Listening and Hearing the Scriptures.
The first stage of self-inquiry requires that you start at the beginning with the teachings, sign on to the logic and stick with it. It is taught in a, progressive and methodical way to answer all doubts that can arise at each level of understanding. It is very important not to rush seeking instant answers (which is often what spiritual types are after) because that will NOT work. If you are too attached to your own ideas, beliefs and opinions acquired and developed from your exposure to multiple teachings, Vedanta is probably not for you. It requires that you admit to yourself that what you think you know has not worked thus far, so there must be something you don’t know. If you are chasing a life-changing spiritual experience, Vedanta is definitely not for you.
As stated, very importantly, this stage requires that you make sure you understand the qualifications required for self-inquiry, check if they are in place, develop the ones that are not, track yourself on them on a moment to moment basis. Conduct a fearless moral inventory on your values and lifestyle and implement necessary changes that you stick to. Your sadhana (self-inquiry practice) should be the most important part of your day, not incidental to it if you truly want freedom from existential suffering.
2. Manana. Reasoning, Contemplation.
The second stage of self-inquiry requires thinking about what the scripture is saying, examining the unexamined logic of your own experience, and starting to apply the teachings to your life. At this point, you look at your beliefs and opinions in the light of what the scripture says, NOT the other way around. If you have not developed the qualifications for self-inquiry, do not have faith in it and are not dedicated to it, or find yourself making excuses for the way you live because you are in denial about binding vasanas, you will not progress. Even if you do realize the Self, it will not stick. You will not actualize Self-knowledge unless you surrender to the teachings and address every aspect of the jiva’s life.
Even though this stage is about contemplating the scriptures, it overlaps with the last and final stage, so youbegin applying karma yoga and guna management. Karma yoga, the knowledge that you can act to gain a certain result, but you are not in charge of the results, will eventually destroy the notion of ‘doership’ if properly understood and faithfully adhered to in every thought, word and deed. In the manana stage, it is meant to clear the mind of enough likes and dislikes until it becomes composed enough for sustained self-inquiry.
Guna management (also called jnana yoga) is understanding the forces/gunas that run the Field of Existence and everything in it (including, of course, ‘your’ body/mind), how they work and generate vasanas and why the mind modifies to them. It is essential for managing thoughts and feelings that dominate the mind. Jnana yoga is also understanding Isvara, the ordainer of the Field, and the identity between the jiva and Isvara, why they are the same and what is different. Without this understanding it is impossible to negate the jiva/doer and all its fear/desire programs, so you will not progress to the last and final stage of inquiry. Many people do realize the Self at this stage, but that is really where the ‘work’ of self-inquiry BEGINS. To progress to the final stage requires full and complete faith in and compliance with the scripture – it alone is the boss of your life, not the jiva, and it requires the final stage of karma yoga, nididyasana.
3. Self-Actualization, Nididyasana
Self-realization is not Self-actualization. Nididhysana is the final “stage”, which comes after all the previous stages mentioned so far, and the hardest. It usually takes the longest. The knowledge that you are the Self has obtained, but complete freedom from the jiva program has not; there are still some binding mental/emotional patterns to purify. For most people who have realized the Self but not actualized it, this stage in a way is like ‘requalifying’ – re-examining qualifications and strengthening those that are weak. It requires the final negation of the idea of yourself as an individual, a jiva. Karma Yoga is a preliminary form of nididyasana. Up to now, karma yoga went from relinquishing results of actions to Isvara and taking given results as prasad, a gift, to the next level, karma jnana sannyas – renunciation of the idea of doership, and, of desire.
But, here in the last stage of self-inquiry, karma yoga becomes a different kind of mind management – it is the transformation of our remaining binding mental/emotional conditioning into devotion to the Self, along with the final renunciation: renouncing the idea of seeking moksa because you ARE moksa. As the Self, you have never been bound.
Nididhysana is managing the mind’s involuntary, habitual thoughts and feeling patterns, which are bedrock duality and often survive Self-realization. These patterns can still hijack the mind without a moment’s notice, denying it access to the Self in the form of Self-knowledge, so you are still bound to the jiva program. There is nothing inherently wrong with involuntary thoughts, but they tend to immediately morph into actions which are liable to create unwanted karma in the form of obscuring thoughts and emotions. Therefore, guna/mind management continues. Until this stage is complete, Self-actualization has not taken place and discrimination can be lost, if not permanently, at least temporarily. You are not free because limiting thoughts/feelings like fear, smallness, need, shame, confusion, low self-esteem, etc., can still strike, destroying peace of mind.
To be fully Self-actualized means (1) That you have fully discriminated the Self (Consciousness/Awareness) from the objects appearing in you (all objects, meaning all gross objects as well as one’s conditioning, thoughts and feelings—all experience), and do so spontaneously, 24/7. (2) Self-knowledge has (a) rendered the binding vasanas non-binding and (b) negated your sense of doership, completely. In other words, the jiva program is understood and fully negated. The jiva still exists with its inborn nature and operates in the world, but it is like a burnt rope – it no longer has the power to bind. It is as good as non-existent and rests in the fullness of the Self. The world neither attracts or repels it. There is nothing left to identify with other than the Self.
Therefore, once Self-knowledge is permanent, you never think of yourself as a person again, your primary identity is fully established as the Self. And, you are totally fine with the apparent person as they are and their role in the world. All desires from here will be not opposed to dharma, they are preferences, no longer binding. Karma yoga is no longer a practice as such, it is just knowledge. It can be said that nididhysana never ends even when Self-actualization has taken place, because the jiva, although no longer binding, is a constantly changing entity due to the gunas, and lives in the Field, which is also always constantly changing because of the gunas. Thus, though the mind may no longer condition to the gunas, mind management continues but Self-knowledge works spontaneously and instantly to nullify any effects.
There is no karma for the Self, and no rules for it either. Adharma is no longer possible once Self-knowledge has actualized because as the Self you know there is nothing to gain in the world and, it is all you.
Feel free to write any time with questions or doubts that arise
Om and Prem,
Sundari
