Dear James,
It’s a joy to join you and Sundari each week online. You said something last night about your friend remarking that “you are a walking altar”. I didn’t quite get this. Could you please expand on it? I understand looking at Isvara in the form of the world as an altar, but not myself – is that the jiva? Lately, I’ve been seeing Isvara as “residing in my heart”. And my heart is my friend…your statement seems more profound. Looking forward to seeing you in at the end of March.
James: So that body walking with your name on it is excluded from God? God is existence itself and everything that seemingly exists. Our equipment (body and mind) isn’t real but it definitely exists. So we are all walking altars! Nice.
Joan: I do understand that the body/mind of this person is included in God. I thought there was more to it than that.
James: Everything included in God is God.
Joan: I guess thinking of the body/mind as an altar just gives the opportunity to enquire whether there are any obstacles to that perspective.
James: What obstacles could there be to seeing yourself as a holy person, not separate from God?
Joan: I’ve been doing loving kindness meditations recently and it has been challenging! It’s easy to direct loving kindness to others (including people with whom there’s a conflict) but it’s been very difficult to direct it to myself. It felt like I was going through the motions.
James: Because you didn’t have faith in the teaching.
Joan: Then I realized that it’s just the nervous system that has become trained to register part of the spectrum from numbness to tension and not ease and joy.
James: See the duality…you and others. Forget otherness. Vedanta says you are the beauty that makes beauty beautiful. What’s not to love? The walking altar thought is just a happy affirmation of the truth of yourself, a tool that trains the nervous system to think differently. If one other person thinks you are beautiful it’s permission enough to love yourself. However, the one “other person” that is totally reliable, a competent witness, is scripture.
Joan: From a non-dual perspective, it doesn’t matter because the nervous system and its effects are objects known to me. Nevertheless, for the sake of the jiva’s happiness, it’s still helpful to allow the nervous system to regain its capacity to feel the good stuff.
James: That’s right; the nervous system is just a thought object known to you, the shining awareness that make beauty beautiful. The nervous system is a wonderful thing when it is purified by scriptural knowledge. Thinking of one’s self as one truly is gives you the capacity to enjoy this wonderful life to the hilt. Nothing wrong with that.
Love,
James
