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Australian. Guru Nisargadatta told him the greatest help that can be given to anyone is to take them beyond the need for further help. “…This Nisargadatta did by pointing to the reality, the actuality, THAT I AM. Now, I abide as THAT.” Feels right, mature, straight. Semi-ret, some disciples in the biz.

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http://members.iinet.net.au/~adamson7/

A commentary on Upanishads.

Admin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:10:44 +0000

I read Rene Guenon’s article “The Vital Center Of The Human Being.
Rene Guenon has taken some famous quotes from various
Upanishads and tried to explain them according to
his understanding. I’ve studied some of these
Upanishads myself, and my teacher has unfolded,
and explained most of the verses which he is citing.

First of all, Guenon does start off with an error, which is
so common that it is not surprising to find it in his
writing. The error is the idea of ‘merging,’ that somehow
one has to merge in order to gain self-realization.

Who merges with what, I would like to know.
Self-knowledge isn’t ‘yoga,’ as in ‘union.’
It is actually vi-yoga, as in getting disconnected
from something.

What is that ’something’ one becomes disconnected
from? The false identity, the false idea, of taking
the self to be one with, and a product of, the body/mind. Self-knowledge is the
loss, the vi-yoga, the undoing of self-ignorance.

Now, if one wants to get technical, one can examine
how this vi-yoga takes place. What exactly happens?

What happens is this. Self-knowledge takes place
in the mind, in the form of a ‘thought.’ This isn’t
a ‘thought’ like an idea, or a concept, or something
hypothetical. It’s a ‘thought’ in the form of a direct
recognition.

And in explaining this, I can also bring in and
refer to some of the other things that Guenon has
referenced in his piece, which he hasn’t understood
or explained correctly.

Why is the self smaller than a seed, and larger
than all the worlds? Because the self is all pervasive,
like space (space, which I believe Guenon refers to
using the word ‘ether.’)

Everything comes from the self, is sustained by
the self, and resolves into the self. Everything
is in the final analysis the self.

Therefore the self is smaller than the smallest
and larger than the largest, because the self is
everything, and also that from which everything comes.

So, ’smaller than the smallest and larger than
the largest’ is a poetic and nice way that the
Upanishads have of explaining that, but actually
the self transcends size.

Guenon refers to the ‘guha,’ the cave of the heart.
This term is also is something else which is very
often misunderstood, because the actual meaning of
‘guha’ (cave of the heart), unless explained, seems
very obscure if one tries to understand the words
literally.

The cave of the heart, the ‘guha,’ is also called the
‘buddhi.’ The buddhi is that part of the mind capable
of decisive thinking.

Thus, just prosaically, when I’m wondering,
‘Did I lock the door?” as I’m driving down the driveway,
and I go back and check, and see, ‘Yes, I did lock the door,’
that cognition takes place in the buddhi, in the form of a
decisive or definite thought. Yes, I definitely know I
locked the door.

So that type of thought can be described as knowing without
a shadow of a doubt

1. Okay, now we have something which is smaller than
the smallest and larger than the largest, (i.e. something
which is all-pervasive), and transcends size (i.e. time and space)

2. And then we have the ‘guha,’ the cave of the heart,
aka the ‘buddhi,’ that part of the mind which is capable of
having a type of thought which is decisive, a ‘thought’ which
brings knowledge that is firm and unshakable.

3. Then we have self-knowledge, which takes place in the mind
(in the ‘buddhi,’ in the ‘guha,’ in the cave of the heart)
in the form of a certain ‘type’ of thought.

How does these three ‘things’ fit together?

If the self is all pervasive, then it also pervades my
mind at all times and in all places. If self-knowledge
takes place in the mind in the form of a decisive ‘thought,’
then technically what is it that occurs when self-knowledge
takes place?

What occurs is this. The mind, for an instant has no
content other than the self, which is always its constant content
anyway, but usually there are other cognitions mixed in as well,
cognitions which occur as a result of sense perception
of objects, or of varying mental states, such as fluctuating thoughts, moods and
emotions.

When self-knowledge takes place, it takes place in instant,
when then mind has no other content other than the ever
present self. In that instant self-knowledge takes place
in the form of, what is called in Sanskrit,
the ‘akhanda akara vritti,’ which translates as the
‘thought form in the form of the formless.’

It is because the self is ever present to every
thought that this can occur. The self doesn’t
come from anywhere or go anywhere. It is just for
an instant ’seen’ shining alone in its own glory.

And then ‘Aha’ one recognizes, “Oh that is me. That
is who I have always been.” This is the ‘bottom line’
reality.

This happens in less than a fraction of a second.
In a stroke, that vritti destroys self-ignorance,
leaving self-knowledge behind in its wake, and then
that vritti subsides.

Does this vritti need to be repeated? No.

Can this vritti be repeated? Yes.

Why does it not need to be repeated? Because
self-knowledge destroys self-ignorance forever.

So, this is pretty technical, but it is what does
take place.

Now, the mind knows without a shadow of a doubt
(having recognized it) that I am that self unchanging.
And once having recognized it, one always knows it.

So this isn’t really a ‘merging’ per se, but rather it is
that, in a mind devoid of all other content other than the
self, (which is ever present), the mind gains self-knowledge
and looses self-ignorance because of this vritti. And this
vritti does not need to be repeated, because once gone, self-ignorance is
forever gone.

From thereafter ‘I’ always ‘know’ who ‘I’ am.

Dennis Waite has a few places on his site that explain this.
http://www.advaita.org.uk/index.htm

If you do a pico search on his site for the words
akhaNDa akAra vRRitti
(using that spelling) you will find a lot of info

Here is a link to one conversation which Dennis and I had
on the subject before he knew how self-knowledge takes place.

http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/knowingself_durga.htm

At this point, Dennis being who Dennis is and having the mind
that he has, he can now probably explain it better than I can.

At the end of the piece are a few other paragraphs from
some other people which talk about the same thing.

And here is one more thing which I wrote out a while ago:

In March of 2008 I had the good fortune to attend some talks
which Swami Dayanandaji gave in Sydney Australia. One evening
some musicians, who are closely associated with Swamiji,
gave a small concert. They sang bhajans of Swamiji’s composition, including a
bhajan to mother Meenakshi.

Although I was not born a Hindu, nor do I know Sanskrit aside
from a few words, the beauty of the bhajan touched me deeply.

Some of us accompanied Swamiji to the airport in Sydney
prior to his return to India. We all sat together at a table
in an airport café drinking coffee. I remarked to Swamiji
how beautiful the Meenakshi bhajan was although I couldn’t
understand the words.

Sitting there Swamiji quietly began to hum. Then he began to
sing a few verses in Sanskrit. Then in English he translated,
“That very maya which brings forth this creation,
gives liberation in the form of a vrritti.
The akhanda akara vrritti”

To get back to Guenon’s article, he also talks about the
self lighting up all experience. He’s got this one pretty
correctly as far as I can see. He is quoting the Bhagavad Gita,
but actually the Bhagavad Gita, in several places, quotes
famous verses from various Upanishads, which are more ancient
texts that the Gita is.

This verse from Katha Upanishad is one of my favorites.
It is very often chanted during a puja when one is waving
the arti lamp (a small fire) in from of the deity.

“The sun does not shine there,
nor the moon or the stars,
nor does the lightening shine,
much less this fire.

Indeed That shines,
and everything shines after That.
By its light all this is lighted up.”

What does the above mean? The self lights up
(or shines in all experience). The self is
self-luminous. It is self-effulgent, swaprakasha.

It needs nothing else to ‘light it up.’
Because of the self, everything else is lighted up.
Even the luminaries themselves, the sun,
the moon, the stars, lightening, fire,
all these shine because the self, shining of
its own light, makes that possible.

Swami Dayananda has added that this verse
also means

“May that light of the self light up my buddhi,
the cave of my heart, and enable me to know,
my very own self.”

Author: Durgaji

From: Guru Ratings Forum

A spiritual experience.

Admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:56:42 +0000

The best ’spiritual’ experience I had ever had
took place at a Goenkaji ten day Vipassana course
held in Bombay. This was in the year “…”. It was
my first course with Goenka, and it was brutal.

It was May. It was unbelievably hot. It was humid
as well. We were staying at a school which was
empty for the summer, and we were sleeping in the
classrooms on a cement floor.

A guy came around with a bag full of white powder
on his shoulder, and dipping his hand in the bag,
he sprinkled a white powder all around the edges
of the room. What was the white powder? DDT.

The meditation sessions took place in some
huge kind of open metal building. Because the
building was open, pigeons used to come and roost
on the rafters over our heads.

We meditated for ten one hour sessions per day.
During one of the sessions we took a vow not
to move. Those sessions were excruciating, and with
the pigeons cooing up above, you never knew when
they might bless you with their ‘heavenly droppings.’

Of course in the evenings there were the mosquitoes,
and the smell of some horrible Indian mosquito
repellent which they seemed to attract them. You
might not think how long it takes to witness without
moving the sensation of a misquito biting you start to
finish while slimy misquito repellent runs down your face,
and your knee throbs in pain.

One day, added to all of these attractions,
someone in the neighborhood started blasting a
popular Bollywood film song of the time over a
loud speaker. I still remember the title of the song.
It was ‘Bobby.’

This was during one of our non-moving meditation sessions.
I decided I wasn’t going to let ‘Bobby,’ or the mosquitoes
or the pigeons, or the horrible pain in my leg get me down.

So I redoubled my efforts to concentrate and not to move.

All of a sudden I realized I had stopped breathing. Well,
after thinking about it a bit, I decided I wasn’t going to
let that effect me. I determined to keep on sitting.
Suddenly my whole body, burst into what I
can only describe as bliss on a cellular level. Still
‘I’ was present (That should have been a hint, but I didn’t
take it as such at the time)

When Goenkaji ended the session by chanting as he always
did, I didn’t really want to come out of it. After the
last meditation session of the day, people would form
a line and go up and talk to Goenkaji if they had any
questions to ask him.

I got in the line. When it was my turn, I said to
him, “The most wonderful thing happened this evening…”
and I wanted to go on and tell him what it was, cause
I thought I had really ‘gotten’ somewhere, and that it
was a big sign of progress.

Goenkaji stopped me mid-sentence, and he got a little
bit almost angry. He was definitely very stern, “If you
get attached to that kind of this, he said, “you will
never get anywhere.”

That burst my bubble. I was really shocked. My great
spiritual experience according to Goenka was something
that could actually be a hindrance.

Well, live and learn.

But you know, it really really was cool

Author: Durgaji

From: Guru Ratings Forum

The Tenth Man.

Admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:41:41 +0000

This is an ancient story from the Upanishads which
many of you many have heard before. When I first
heard this story, it provided a kind of ‘Aha’ moment
for me. I didn’t understand the whole import of the
story at the time, and yet I knew that it was meaningful,
and it stayed with me.

The Tenth Man

In ancient times in India, young boys were often sent
at the age of twelve to study with a guru, either at
the guru’s house if the guru was married, or in the
guru’s hermitage if he was a renunciate. The boy would
stay with his guru for twelve years, studying the Vedas
and the Upanishads, and at age 24 he would return to
his home to be married.

This story concerns ten boys who were studying at
their guru’s home. The boys decided that they would
like to return to their village for a festival and
to visit their families. The guru was a bit concerned
about their going as he wasn’t able to go take them
himself at that time.

One of the boys spoke up, and said that he would
take responsibility for the group and make sure
that they all arrived safely.

The guru reluctantly agreed to let them go, and
they started on their journey. On the way, they
came to a swiftly flowing river which they had to cross.
The boy who was leading the group advised them all to
hold hands and carefully ford the river. They did so,
but the current was so swift that the boys were quickly
separated, and some appeared to be swept away downstream.

As they scrambled up the banks on the other side of the river, dripping wet and
frightened from their experience, the leader
advised them all to line up, so that he could count them
and make sure that they all had crossed safely.

The boy counted, “One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine.” Nine! He had them line up differently.
The count was again nine. The leader counted them over
and over again, and every time all that he came up with
was nine. Nine! Nine! One boy had not made it across!
One boy was lost! One boy had drowned! One boy was dead!

The boys all ran around in a panic, beating the bushes,
looking, screaming and crying for the tenth boy.
And the leader? He was banging his head on a tree.
“What will my teacher say? What will the boy’s parents say?
I took responsibility, and now one of us has drowned.”

A wise old man, sitting nearby, watched the whole drama
as it unfolded. He understood what had happened, and
he approached the leader of the group. The boy poured
out his story of woe, weeping in utter despair, “I took responsibility for the
group, and now one of us is lost
One of us has drowned in the river.”

The wise old man said to the boy, “Don’t worry.
I can help you. I know where the tenth boy is.”

The leader was a bit skeptical, but also desperate,
and the old man did appear to be calm and sane,
so he said, “Yes, please do help us if you can.”

The old man said, “Okay, all of you line up,
and I will count you.”

The leader thought, “Well, this is a waste of time
because I’ve counted over and over again.” Still they
did as the old man requested because he did seem sane
and wise, and they were all in total despair.

The boys lined up, and the boy who had been leading the
group took the last place in the line.

The old man counted. “One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine,” And then arriving at the leader,
the old man said, “And you are the tenth man.”

The leader was elated! “I am the tenth man!”

He had neglected to count himself, and now he saw directly
and without a shadow of a doubt, that indeed, he was
the tenth man.

The tenth man hadn’t drowned in the river, and he wasn’t lost.
All the while the tenth man was there, as the leader himself,
but had gone unnoticed, overlooked and uncounted.

This is our situation in samsara. We ‘count’ everything
we see and perceive, and we forget to ‘count’ ourselves.
We even will ’search’ for our self in all kinds of places,
situations and experiences. And yet we are always and ever
‘right here.’ Our very own self which is totally 100%
present and available, standing as ‘I am,’ but overlooked
in all of our activities.

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Sailor Bob

A commentary on Upanishads.

A spiritual experience.

The Tenth Man.

Bodhidharma

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