Frank: Thank you, Sundari.
I agree with what you are saying. I am 61 years old and struggle with intense chronic pain due to high sensitivity and trauma. I traveled a long journey through different therapeutic and spiritual modalities. I am actually in therapy with a therapist, trained by Brandon Bays and Bert Hellinger.
Sundari: Hello, Frank; yes, my apparent (not-self) self is Italian/African/whatever…
Most people who somehow find their way to Vedanta have explored many paths and suffered a great deal. It is not clear to me how much you have assimilated about the teachings of Vedanta or if you are even committed to Self-inquiry. It sounds to me like you are still seeking solutions in many places and Vedanta just happens to be one you have stumbled upon. Usually, we ask people to follow the instructions we give for Self-inquiry before taking them on via e-satsang because it is difficult to teach someone who is not committed or prepared to hear the teachings.
As I explained to you in our last email, to hear the teachings of Vedanta, the mind must be qualified. I have attached a satsang for you to read on what Self-inquiry entails, which also covers the qualifications required. These are not arbitrary requirements. Vedanta is a radical teaching; it is scientific, and laser-like in its veracity. It is the court of last appeal, as we like to say, once you have tried everything else. And it works to end existential suffering, if you are qualified, dedicated to Self-inquiry and properly taught.
That said, Vedanta is not a panacea that will end all karma magically, especially physical karma, such as chronic pain. There actually is no karma for the gross body; the karma seems to take place in the physical body only because the physical body is “attached” to the subtle body. Karma “burns up” for the subtle body when the time is ripe because it is only ever “in” the subtle body. Chronic pain is part of the prarabdha karma you as an individual came in with, which is to say the momentum from past actions, whether from this or past lives of “your” particular subtle body. The physical body is just meat and though it appears to be alive, it is inert. It only seems to be conscious because the light of consciousness shines on it. The gross and subtle bodies are objects known to you, consciousness. See further on for the definition of an “object.”
Problems arise when the doer thinks it can make the body “whole” through its own actions, which one can to a significant degree with knowledge and intelligent living. There are many modalities on offer in the spiritual and medical/nutritional arena which definitely do help to ameliorate physical pain. There are even more that are wrong, misleading and downright dangerous. There is no avoiding the fact that our bodies are part of our environment and not separate from it. There is a constant flow of energy from one to the other, positive or negative. We ignore the laws that run the Field of Existence at our own cost. There is much that we can do to help and prevent chronic illnesses that are under our control, such as healthy eating habits and exercise. But the main thing we can do to reduce pain is to not identify with it.
However, it takes extreme dispassion to deal with chronic illness or any pain we can do nothing about. This is where karma yoga is so important. I don’t know if you have any knowledge of karma yoga? I don’t think you do. Karma yoga is basically an attitude of consecration we take towards all action, accepting that everything we experience comes to us from the Field (Isvara), and we have no control over it other than our attitude to it. We can take appropriate and timely action, but the results are never up to us. Karma yoga reduces the pressure of existential doership because it negates the doer, the one who acts for results, allowing us to take everything that happens “to” us as prasad, as a gift, even physical pain.
With karma yoga, we can work with the body and what appears to be taking place in it by managing the thoughts that arise in the mind as a result. We call this mind management, and it requires knowledge of the three gunas, rajas (desire/action), tamas (dullness/denial) and sattva (clarity/revelation). Coping with chronic pain, which is rajas, makes the mind dull, tamasic. Even though it is very difficult to maintain a sattvic mind when the body is in a lot of pain, it can be done with the right attitude and knowledge because the Self, consciousness, is not affected by anything that goes on in the subtle body.
For many who have made pain an identity, pain becomes a cop-out, a way of justifying how hard done by the doer is, legitimizing complaint, blame and victimhood. Or just a way to hang onto binding vasanas (tendencies), to camouflage them with talk about Self-knowledge. That said, there is always something “wrong” with the body, even when we are experiencing good health. It is not static but fluid, like a river, always changing and in a state of flux, and in a constant symbiotic relationship with the environment (Isvara, the gunas). It is a product of the gunas. The body you had a year ago, a month ago or yesterday is not the same body you have today, because the gunas are always changing, constantly revolving and evolving. Thus nothing in the world of duality ever stays the same.
But, no matter how well we look after the body, Isvara (consciousness plus Maya) is the final (and only) determiner of how long the body will sustain life. The body is on loan to us. We must take appropriate and timely action to look after it and surrender it to Isvara, who will take care of it. The right attitude, which is an attitude of gratitude for the gift of life “in a body,” is the best and sanest approach to the body and to life, along with a knowledge-based lifestyle. It is a privilege to be born with a human body because only in a human body can freedom from limitation and suffering (moksa) obtain. And when the time is right, the body will be withdrawn and returned to the five elements from whence it came. And you, as consciousness, will not be affected by that one bit. Ultimately our problems do not come from the body, its good or bad health. All our problems come from ignorance of our true nature as whole and complete, non-dual, actionless, unchanging, ever-present consciousness/the Self.
Frank: Apart from that, I practice some doing nothing, shikantaza kind of meditation combined with vipassana like the observation of bodily sensations. I ordered the book by James Swartz De essentie van verlichting, so in Dutch. I appreciate his work.
Sundari: How is “doing nothing” going to help to remove your ignorance of who you are? Firstly, there is a doer doing nothing, and secondly, “doing nothing” is not opposed to ignorance, which is your main problem. As I said above, Frank, you need to sign on to the teachings in a systematic and committed way for me to help you. We encourage practices such as meditation, but unless they are undertaken in the karma yoga spirit, which means you know you are not the one “doing” the meditation, and so surrender the results to the Field, to Isvara, meditation usually works to reinforce the doer, who is the main problem. We know many inquirers who have been meditating for years, sometimes decades, but ignorance of who they are is alive and well, and so is suffering. Meditators are usually after and experience of the Self or whatever they think they need to gain to be better, or “whole.”
Vedanta is not about experience; it is about negating the idea of doership with SELF-KNOWLEDGE. You do not need any special experience to experience the Self, because that is all you are ever experiencing. There is no other option. You just have a knowledge/ignorance problem. Vedanta tells you right up front that you are not the experiencing entity but the one who knows the experiencing entity, in this case, the “meditator.” If you meditate knowing this, meditation can be an aid to Self-inquiry. It does not equal or take its place, please note. If mediation is done for results, it is invariably a stumbling block.
I have also attached a satsang on Vedanta and Meditation. Read it and the satsang on Self-inquiry if you are serious about making progress. You say you are reading James and appreciate his work, but you do not yet understand what you have found. James is one of the best Vedanta teachers alive, but he, like all other qualified Vedanta teachers, does not teach “his” work. He teaches Vedanta, which is a totally independent and infallible teaching for consciousness. It does not belong to nor comes “from” anyone. It is the timeless, flawless knowledge that ends the quest for knowledge, and it ends suffering. You have stumbled upon the Holy Grail.
Frank: Some years ago, I attended satsangs by Douwe Tiemersma, who was a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta. He advised me to expand my sense of self infinitely in all directions to resolve the heavy contraction in my chest…
Sundari: I have not heard of this teacher, but how can you expand your “sense” of Self, if all there is is SELF? This is a totally dualistic statement made by someone who clearly does not know how to discriminate between satya and mithya. It applies only to the small self, the sufferer, who believes it can “do” something to “become” the Self or to end suffering. But nothing a limited entity can do or gain will ever permanently remove limitation or suffering. All doing takes place in duality, which is always limited and the cause of all suffering. Vedanta is about non-duality. It explains what duality is (ignorance) with the Logic of Existence.
Duality (Maya) is that which is only apparently real (mithya), i.e. always changing and not always present. Non-duality (satya) is that which is always present and never changes. As I said above, non-duality is you, consciousness, the KNOWER of duality and the doer/experiencing entity. It is the only factor in any situation that can never be negated. Ask yourself: How do you know anything? And is that knower always present or not? Of course it is. If consciousness is not present, the body is six feet under. You cannot deny consciousness, because you would have to be conscious to deny it. Understanding what that means for you as the apparent person is where all the teaching of Vedanta takes place.
Although Nisargadatta was a jnani, meaning one who is Self-realized, he never claimed to be a qualified teacher of Vedanta, because he was not properly taught the methodology. For instance, he didn’t clarify the distinction between original pure consciousness (satya) and the reflected or small egoic self (the “I-sense”) which is mithya. His devotees generally have a knowledge-and-experience confusion (see chapter two of James’ book The Essence of Enlightenment). He used hyperbolic words and terms (such as the term you use above) to refer to consciousness, which created much confusion.
Vedanta is very specific about the words it uses to avoid confusion and the experiential trap. It takes great pains to elucidate that the Self is ordinary because it is the only thing there is. You cannot “become” more aware or conscious, because you are and always have been consciousness, that which makes all objects appear conscious, including the individual. All objects arise from you and are dependent on you to exist, but you, consciousness, depend on nothing. You are present with or without objects.
What is an object? An object is anything other than you, be it a subtle object like a thought or feeling; or a gross object, like the body or a rock. If you know something it cannot be you. The spiritual world has a tendency to make the Self and enlightenment something “special,” transcendent, extraordinary, something to be gained by the few, which is completely bogus. You cannot gain something you already are and have always been. We say consciousness is ordinary because it is all there is – there is nothing to compare it to, so how can it be extraordinary? All Vedanta does is remove the ignorance of your true nature as the Self, thus ending the hypnosis of duality for you as the apparent ego, the jiva, or individual. And, so permanently ending existential suffering.
If you would like my help in guiding your Self-inquiry, I am happy to do so. But you need to sign on to the logic and commit to it. Put all your other ideas aside, at least temporarily. You can always take them back if you like them better. You cannot read your way to enlightenment, because your own ideas, beliefs and opinions stand in the way. You must be properly taught. If you continually compare Vedanta to all other teachings you have come across, Self-inquiry will not work for you. It is your choice.
~ Love, Sundari
