Q. Isn’t Vedanta just outdated religiosity that actually feeds separation? And of all the names they could have come up with to call…’This’, ‘All There Is’…What is Happening, Life, Wholeness, Unconditional Love, Empty Fullness. And instead they choose to call it ‘the Self’.

Tom: Anything can feed separation. eg. many of us have seen how so-called radical non-duality/neo-advaita of the sort you frequently express can equally feed separation when it is believed as a concept, which unfortunately happens quite a bit. Some of your criticisms are no-doubt valid here too, and vedanta can also become a trapping of beliefs and ideology when incorrectly transmitted.

However, the words used in the vedanta teachings are part of a wonderful system to remove ignorance, which itself is seen to be non-existent ultimately.

In this methodology, there is a good reason why the word Self is used.

Later, words too are disposed of, eg. the Ashtavakra Gita points out the limitations of the words that are initially put forwards.

The wonderful thing about Non-dual Vedanta and other similar Nondual systems is that they actually work! Freedom beyond words and concepts!

It just takes a bit of time and effort to understand what the words are exactly pointing to. If you haven’t done this, then you will not understand how the words in the teachings are being used.

It’s like a recipe – the recipe itself doesn’t look like the meal, but it provides the results!