Hari OM
'Text-days' are for delving into the
words and theory of Advaita Vedanta.6th
We are now studying Aatmabodha. As
always, with each week, you are encouraged to review the previous teachings and
spend some time in contemplation of the meanings as the affect your life.
Please do consider purchasing the text. Remember, also, to recite the mangala charana before each study and
review the lessons before each new one.
The
text continues to look at the process of meditating and what pitfalls may be
awaiting the unsuspecting. We saw that there is a risk of sleep, or excessive
restlessness through inner distraction, or even becoming enamoured of the
process and it's little 'side roads' that we lose the key purpose. How to avoid
these?
AaTmNyevaiol<
d&Zy< àivlaPy ixya suxI>,
_aavyedekmaTman<
inmRlakazvTsda.39.
Aatmanyeva-akhilam
dRshyam pravilaapya dhiyaa sudhiiH,
Bhaavayedekam-aatmaanam
nirmala-aakasha-vatsadaa ||39||
The wise one should intelligently merge the entire
world of objects in the Aatman alone and constantly think of the Self as being
ever-uncontaminated like space.
Viveka
- intelligent discrimination between the Real and unreal - is what is called
for here. Drawing ever closer to union with the Self, the jnaani must now
resist all pulls of the external and seek to empty out and merge, just as space
can not of itself contain anything, yet exists everywhere.
The
human being is a critter of intellect. Despite being of animal matter and
instinct, there is another factor which this 'animal' possesses that no other
does; the ability to make abstract connections, to think beyond survival and to
question existence. It has resulted in a type of existence upon this planet
that no other creature has managed. The use of this phenomenal advantage leaves
us open to its abuse, harbouring it for purely selfish and destructive
activity. However, if we are wise, we can use the intellect for only that which
raises us and, possibly, the people and society with which we are connected.
Even further, we can use this tool to find the answers to the abstracts, the
point of survival and the purpose of existence.
In
doing this, we begin to associate the very fabric of the universe as a whole
with our minute individual being-ness and start to grasp that the physical
matter means nothing - spirit alone is the supreme state and this has no
substance, just as we imagine space does not. (In terms of physics, of course
we know that even space contains material, but let us take the licence which
philosophy affords us!)
Reaching
this understanding is quite mind-blowing of itself. Moving beyond the mind and
making it our experience is quite another level of existence altogether. When
one crosses into the dream world, we know no separation of ourselves from that
dream existence until such time as we are once again fully awake. Now think - even this which you currently
think of as 'waking state' is, in terms of Vedantic philosophy, still nothing
more than a 'dream'. It is the illusion created by the Maya component of
Brahman. The aim of the jnaani is to sit in meditation until that True
Awakening can be experienced. From there it is possible to look upon all the
material world with true focus and emphasis and having thus merged with the
Aatman, the Universal Soul, would any of us fall back into believing the dream
over the waking?
SAADHANA
Contemplate
on the differences between dream and waking. Sometimes we have difficulty
waking properly and are caught somewhere in between - have you ever experienced
this? There are those who say they do not dream. This is an error of
understanding, for science has proven that every person dreams, but that it is
not necessary to remember them. If you are one who does not, ponder the shift
from being asleep to being awake; the knowing of nothing and then the knowing
of something. If you can, begin to
imagine the possibility of Waking Up from the waking state!
