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This Sunday In-person Satsang will also be livestreamed on Zoom
Non-duality
How to stop seeking? Non-duality & Advaita
Seeking = suffering.
So, how to stop seeking?
Until the truth of your own Self is known, seeking will continue no matter how much you try not to seek.
(Please contemplate this first before reading further)
How to know the truth of your self?
With happiness, faith, love and devotion in your heart, gently and lovingly (but definitely) turn away from all objects, which are not-self (being illusory, upon realisation they will no longer appear), towards the I AM (that which you ARE), the Subject, the Self (upon realisation the formless I AM/subject/Self, which is the nature of love-light-being-bliss, is all there is)
If instead we embrace objects as ‘part of oneness’ and say ‘all is included in oneness’, then the illusion is embraced, the truth of Self is not realised, and ego-seeking-suffering continues, as per the 3rd ‘paragraph’ above.
This is why Bhagavan Sri Ramana writes in Upadesa Saram verse 16:
‘It is true wisdom
For the mind to turn away
From outer objects and behold
Its own effulgent form.’
And why in ‘Who am I?’ Bhagavan Ramana writes:
‘Just as the knowledge of the rope, which is the base, will not be obtained unless the knowledge of the snake, the superimposition, goes, so the realization of Self (swarupa-darsanam), which is the base, will not be obtained unless the perception of the world (jagat-drishti) which is a superimposition, ceases.’
Shakara did not teach ‘The world is an illusion, only Brahman is real, the world is Brahman’
As far as I’m aware Shankara never actually taught ‘The world is an illusion, only Brahman is real, the world is Brahman.’ – this appears to be a misquote.
The actual teaching is ‘Brahma satyam, jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah’
..which means:
‘Brahman is Truth/Reality, the world is illusion, the Jiva (individual Self or ‘I’ or ‘I Am’) [when enquired into] is nothing but Brahman’
The Self can Never be a Witness
The Self is not a witness at all, and it can never be a witness in Truth, but as long as we think we are a body-mind entity, and as long as we see a world outside of or apart from ourself, the Self is indicated or pointed out as being the Subject or the Witness merely for the purposes of the teaching.
When in Self-Enquiry we turn our attention away from the objects, which means we turn our attention away from the various gross and suble phenomena that are perceived, and towards the Subject or Self (‘Witness’), also known as the I AM or the 1st person, eventually the ego-mind which takes itself to be a body-mind entity dissolves or dies and all that is left is the Subject-Witness-Self.
This Self can no longer truly be said to be either a Subject (for there are no objects present), nor can it be said to be a Witness, as there is nothing to witness. It is All, it is the Sole Reality, ‘One without a second’, as it is often described as being in the Upanishads.
Hence Bhagavan Ramana is recorded as saying:
If you refrain from looking at this
Or that or any other object
Then by that overpowering look
Into absolute Being you become
Yourself the boundless space of pure
Awareness which alone is Real Being.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Vachaka Kovai, Verse 647
The ego/mind, when attending to objects, considers itself to be an object (the body-mind). However, when the ego attends or pays attention to itself (also known as the I-sense, or first person, or I am), and in so doing no longer pays attention to the objects it was previously attending or paying attention to, it discovers its true nature without objects, ie it’s true formless nature, then it has actually discovered its actual or real nature which is Self.
This is why Sri Ramana states In Day by Day with Bhagavan:
‘The mind turned inwards is the Self; turned outwards, it becomes the ego and all the world’
No need to convince others | Non-duality & Advaita
Everybody has their own path. Traditionally one is encouraged to follow one’s own path and allow others to follow their path, trusting that the One Power is guiding us all in the way that is most beneficial for each of us.
We are therefore encouraged NOT to convince others to adopt our own point of view, for this becomes another distraction on our own path as well as a dissipation of our own energies. Ultimately there are no others, and so this kind of discourse in which we try to convince others as to the superiority of our own view becomes a grand detour into illusion.
This does not mean that we cannot share our own spiritual insights and thoughts, but that we should tread lightly and lovingly in how we share. We can acknowledge that we do not necessarily have all the answers for everyone else, and that different teachings suit different people at different times.
All teachings and teachers have their place, even the ones we may not like!It is said in the Bhagavad Gita:
3.26 Let not the wise disrupt the minds of the ignorant who are attached to action. They should not be encouraged to refrain from work, but to engage in work in the spirit of devotion.
and
3.29 The person of knowledge should not confuse the mind of those people of imperfect understanding who, deluded by the Gunas [Energies or Forces] of Nature, are attached to action in the material world.
How can a Jnani describe the Self?
Conscious sleep (Jagrat Sushupti) is Self-knowledge | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Guru Vachaka Kovai
959. O men who, caught by the dangerous snares of the world and struck by the sharp arrows of cruel miseries, are suffering greatly and are wandering in search of the attainment of supreme bliss, the sleep in which there is no loss of consciousness [i.e. wakeful sleep or jagrat-sushupti] alone is the imperishable happiness.
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Vachaka Kovai
Commentary by Sri Sadhu Om:
”The sleep in which there is no loss of consciousness’ [arivu-azhiya tukkam] means only the state of Self-knowledge.
‘Here consciousness [arivu] means prajna or the knowledge of one’s own existence, and not the knowledge of other things.
‘That which knows other things is not true knowledge [see Ulladu Narpadu verse 12]. The state we call sleep is the state in which we know no other things, not even the body.
‘The state we call waking is the state in which, along with the knowledge of one’s own existence [‘I am’], there is also knowledge of other things.
‘The state in which we remain conscious merely of our own existence, like in waking, but in which the mind [the knower of other things] does not rise, like in sleep, is called the state of conscious sleep or wakeful sleep.
‘Since no other thing is known in this state, it is a sleep; and since one’s own existence is shining clearly there, it is a state of consciousness or waking.’
960. Those who are sleeping, having given up the habit of [going out through] the deceitful senses and having become established in the heart-lotus, are those who are awake in the abode of real knowledge [mey-jnana]. Others are those who are asleep, being immersed in the dense darkness of this unreal world [poy-jnala].
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Vachaka Kovai
Has my desire to be free created another trap?
Satsang meeting recordings now available for download from the ‘Shop’ at tomdas.com – OPENING 50% SALE | Satsang with Tom Das
Dear all
Satsang recordings are now available to download from the ‘Shop’ here at tomdas.com, both as audio and/or video. Just click on ‘shop’ at the top banner to find them. Please allow me to take this opportunity to thank the volunteers who helped with this process.
To celebrate these recordings being available for the first time, for the next 7 days there will be an OPENING 50% SALE on all items – just enter the coupon code ‘OPENINGSALE‘ at the checkout.
There is an even greater discount available to those who regularly attend satsang – I have already shared this code on Thursday and will do so again at the next few satsang meetings.
I know some of you have been asking for this functionality for sometime now, so I hope this helps you better access the teachings.
There may be some initial teething issues, so do let me know if there is anything I need to address or improve upon.
With thanks & namaste
Tom
‘Bhagavan Ramana, sweet nectar of bliss’ – a poem by Markus
This beautiful poem was sent to me by Markus, someone who attends satsang with me, with the following note and is posted with his permission – many thanks to Markus for writing it and to Bhagavan Sri Ramana for inspiring us all:
‘Hi Tom! Being empowered by our 1-to-1, I wrote a thank you poem for Bhagavan and also for You:’
OM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI RAMANAYA
Bhagavan, my Lord
You are my teacher
You are my savior
You are my protector
You are my Only One
Bhagavan Ramana, sweet nectar of bliss
where is pain, when You are here
where is confusion, when You destroy it all
where is destiny, when there is Your Self-Enquiry
where is isolation, when Your Love shines in every face
O, my Guru, my Bhagavan
Glory to You, master of the universe
Glory to You, my perfect friend
Glory to You, raging fire of wisdom
Glory to You, eternal peace
OM SRI ARUNACHALA RAMANAN
OM TAT SAT
