The seekers goal is to acquire non dual wisdom, whereas the yogis goal is to attain Samadhi.

The goal of the seeker after truth is not the same of the yogi. The seekers goal is to acquire non dual wisdom, whereas the yogis goal is to attain Samadhi. This non dual wisdom is to know all the three states are erupted out of the soul, which is in the form of Consciousness sustained by Consciousness finally they, dissolve as Consciousness.

All the three states are an object to the Consciousness, which is the witness of the three states.  When one has no idea of being separated from the three states, then there is no idea of space, time and form. 

By Gazing at nose-tip one cannot acquire non dual wisdom because a man is false entity within the false experience. When the self is not the form but the self is formless then what is the use of doing practice on the base of the form, which is the false entity. Pursuit of truth is to know what truth is and what is false and realize and establish in the truth.  If one wants wisdom then he must look on everything as consciousness.  He must have firm conviction that, —everything is Consciousness. 

All the three states disappear back to the soul.  All the three states are mere mirage created out of consciousness. All the names and forms are part of the mirage. The mirage appears as waking or dream (duality) and disappears as deep sleep (non-duality) thus the universe, appears as Mind. And mind appears as waking or dream. Thus mind is also Consciousness because it is created out of consciousness. If one knows whole world is dream, or is mental, when all the states go, it becomes Consciousness (soul). Hence he who becomes a sage is able to know his- self as Consciousness. This is the meaning of non-causality. Mind seemed to be the cause of duality, but its elimination shows clearly that they are non-different from it.

The three divisions of time--past present and future--are within the waking or dream.

Just as a stone, a tree, a straw, grain, a mat, a cloth, a pot, and so on, when burned, are reduced to earth (from which they came), so the body and its sense organs, on being burned in the fire of Knowledge, become Knowledge and are absorbed in Brahman, like darkness in the light of the sun.- Sri- Sankara

_All the three states are made of the same substance, whether it is dreams, deep sleep or waking. All the object and sense perception is of the same substance. This is the great lesson to be learnt by the seekers of truth.

The three divisions of time--past present and future--are within the waking or dream.  It becomes necessary to analyze the three states. Whatever may come in the future, whatever objects existed in the past, whatever thing one can think of in the present--all these are possible only in waking experience. Waking or dream consists of names and forms.” All names are but words.

 The waking is parallel dream and dream is parallel waking.  The formless knower of the three states, which comes and goes, is within the three states but it is apart from the three states. It is within the three states as their formless substance and it is apart from the three states as their formless witness.  Thus judging and reasoning the truth on the waking entity is erroneous because the self is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity. Thus the self is not the form but formless consciousness, which pervades all the three states.  

All the three states are got from the Consciousness(soul), corresponding to formlessness. One has to mentally merge waking into dreams, then merge dream into deep sleep. And finally he has to merge into Consciousness.

Any experience, is part of the mirage, and hence a superimposition. Consciousness is the substratum of the experience of all the three states.

Meher Baba said: - God is your inner most self. Do not search for god outside of you.

Meher Baba said: - God is your inner most self. Do not search for god outside of you.  Let these words be inscribed in your heart. Nothing is real but god. Nothing Matters but love for god. God is everywhere and does everything. God is beyond us and is everything .God alone is and all else is illusion. 

To know what is god we must know what self is. In deeper self-search we becomes aware of the fact that, our body, ego and our experience of the universe are created out of single stuff, which is consciousness or soul.  Due to ignorance we identify the soul with the body and we become egocentric.  When we become aware of the fact that, the self is not the form but self is formless then we become soul -centric and realize the fact that, all the three states are mere illusion created out of consciousness.  Thus, consciousness is ultimate truth. The consciousness is our inner most self.    Ultimate truth is God or Brahman Christ or Buddha.     

Consciousness is the true self.  And consciousness is everything. It is One. Until one realizes the Unity in diversity– the mind, which is in the form of universe will prevails as reality.  Until the universe is experienced as reality the duality will prevail as reality. If duality is accepted as reality one will remain in ignorance of the ultimate truth. 

Panchadashi:- The Atman is the witness-consciousness that experiences the action, the actor, and the world of separate things. It is like a light that illuminates everything in a theatre, revealing the master of ceremonies, the guests, and the dancers with complete impartiality. Even when they all depart, the light shines to reveal their absence.

Consciousness is Pure Awareness; it cannot but be aware of us in totality. The universe is also consciousness –whether we see it as real or as a “waking or dream”. From Creation and Creator are one in essence. From the ultimate standpoint there is neither the creation nor the creator but only the consciousness, which is ultimate truth or Brahman. 

Consciousness has no beginning and it has no end. It is within the universe but it is not of the universe.  The Universe ceases to exist without the consciousness but the consciousness can exist with or without the universe [illustration: - as in deep sleep].

Just as the body and the world in a dream is superimposed and therefore illusory, so is also this body and the world in the waking is superimposed. The birth, life, death and world are part of the waking experience and waking is superimposed, and in the absence of waking, which contains the body and the world there is no room for karma at all.

The ignorance to be verily the material /cause) of the waking/dream just as water is of a cloud. If the ignorance is destroyed, how can the three states subsist?

Just as a person out of confusion perceives only the snake leaving aside the rope, so does an ignorant person experiences the world/dream within the waking without knowing their reality? The real nature of the rope being known, the appearance of the snake no longer persists; so the substratum being known, the waking no longer remains as real.

If one knows the ultimate truth, he will know there is neither cause nor effect. Pursuit of truth is to know, what is real, and base the reasoning on that real.

When reasoning is done on true base, one has the yardstick to know what is truth, and what is untruth, and he will be able to reject the unreal/untruth mentally.  Therefore, one has to make sure whether the  self is body/ego/I, or  self is soul/Atman, which is in the form of consciousness.

When the reality appears this ignorance
which one thinks as reality becomes unreal.
— MEHER BABA

Because of the inherited conditioning an average person cannot accept anything else as truth, other than his inherited truth.  Only the seekers who has intense urge and receptive and sharpness to grasp will be able to reach their inner destination. Rest will remain in the illusion [outer] experiencing the birth, life, death and the world as reality.    

It is necessary to for the seeker of truth to inquire on his own and realize the non-dual truth without any scriptures in this very life time, and make sure of the fact that, the three states are mere mirage created out of consciousness and consciousness alone is real and eternal.     

 Thus by quoting one authority from one scripture, and another authority from another scripture, and trying to prove and realize the truth is like, trying to drain the ocean drop by drop.

Samskars means conditioning. Conditioned to remain in ignorance of the true self, and perceive the world as person.  As person within the world, one thinks he is an individual separate from the world. And world existed prior to him and he is born in it afterwards. Until this conviction is there, it is very difficult to overcome the samskaras.    Therefore, self –knowledge is necessary in order to overcome the inherited samkaras.  The samskara is not the religious or social conditioning of an individual. It is the inherited ignorance of the truth of one’s true existence.  Because of this samskara the duality is experienced as reality. People limit the samskars as parental grooming with religious and social order, which is an error.  Thus Sankara means the conditioned to remain in ignorance. 

As one goes deeper in self-search one becomes aware of the fact that the self is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity, therefore one becomes aware of the fact that the self is formless substance and witness of the three states. When one becomes aware of the true self then he becomes aware of the fact that the one, which is born, lives and dies is not the self.  And waking experience is as real as dream.  Thus waking entity or ego is the false entity within the false experience.  Thus our experience of the birth, life and death is part of the false experience.  The soul, which is the formless witness of the waking experience, where the birth, life, death and world experienced, is as false as the dream.  Thus to realize the waking experience is falsehood one has to discover and realize the fact that, the self is not the form [ego] but the self is formless (soul).  The self or soul is in the form of consciousness. 

Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana  is necessary to know the fact that, the universe, which appears is in the form of mind and disappears as nothingness (formless) is   mere mirage created out of nothingness, which is consciousness.  Thus the consciousness is the source and witness of the universe or mind, which comes and goes.  Thus it is necessary to know the formless witness of the three states in order to know the fact that, the true self is apart and  free from the mirage ,which is in the form of birth, life, death and the universe.  Therefore, it is necessary for the seeker to make sure how the three states are mirage.

The body and the world are reality within the waking experience but the waking experience is mere illusion, same way as the dream body and the dream world were reality within the dream. The dream becomes unreal when the waking takes place; similarly the waking experience becomes unreal when the non-dual wisdom dawns. 

Heart Sutra - Advaita discussion

From my friend Andy Stratton Link [FB]

Dear Tree Tobin,

I respect your views.

 But as per my conviction derived from deeper self-search:-

Gate gate para gate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

I respect the great master Thich Nhat Hanh. 

 Heart sutra is a great sutra.  Yes, it takes us to the inner realm but all the Buddhist sutras limited to physicality, we have to go beyond physicality by perfect understanding.  Since the self is not the form but  self is formless. All the skandas are in physical realm [Form, feeling, perception, mental formation and consciousness].   The self is not limited the physicality but it pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states.  Thus the heart sutra yields only half-truth.  

The Buddhist scriptures were completely distorted by the time of Adi Sankaracharya. Adi Sankaracharya had to criticise the Buddhist literature prevailing then as the Buddhists themselves were confused as to what Shunyata is. Vasubandhu and his disciple Dignaga (the latter lived about a couple of centuries before Adi Sankaracharya) could not retain the original teachings of Lord Buddha. At first Vasubandhu did not agree with his half-brother Asanga and wrote one book on Abhidharma and later on he went to the side of Asanga and wrote a second book, where? he opposed his own earlier views on Abhidharma. Adi Sankaracharya? had to criticise the Buddhist knowledge? and literature of his time as he wanted to bring to us back the Pure Vedantic knowledge through his work on the Prasthanatraya.. That is why there is reference to the writing of Dharmakirti in Sutrabashya.

There is another aspect also The? Vishnu Purana also says that Lord Buddha created confusion. In Sarnath he first taught about the Moral code which is basic. He talked about Anatma. Then? two decades later he taught the concept of Shunyata and? the tenets of the Mahayana Buddhism.? In spite of Nagrjuna's telling that Shunyata is not Nihilism and that Parajanaparamita also mentioning about the Shunyata after one leaves? the five? skandhas, there are and there will always be people who will go on calling Buddha's philosophy as Nihilism. About the origin of the? Tantric Buddhism also? there are controversies.

The most valuable contribution of Sri, Sankar is that he gained general consciousness on the issue that the authoritative explanation of Upanishads, Gita and Brhma Sutra was the final say in matter of religion. Anything that goes contrary to the trio is not authentic. He also made a clear distinction between Vedas and Upanishads in his commentary on Gita. He stated that the Karma Kand of the Vedas deal with the injunctions relating to the performance of duties and actions. These are for ordinary householders.

  

The path of religion, path of yoga and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate Truth and Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.

Sri Sankara’s whole teaching can be summed up into one sentence, ‘There is nothing else but Brhma. He says that the Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge and Absolute Bliss is Real. The universe is not real. He says that Brahma and Atmana are one. The ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances.

 In fact Sri, Sankar states a paradox- the world is and is not. It is neither real nor unreal. It leads us to recognize the existence of Maya. He thinks that the world is illusory from one perspective and from the second it is nothing but Brhma, Itself in manifestation. This apparent world is Maya and has its basis in Brahman, the Eternal. It looks as real. It has names and forms and actually, it is not real In the light of true knowledge, it disappears and Self-alone shines as real. However Sri, Sankar’s Mayavad has not been accepted by many preachers and philosophers.

When Sri, Sankara says clearly, the universe is not real. He says that Brahman and Atman are one. The ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is Real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances, then it indicates the form [waking/duality/mind] is unreal the formless is real [soul/spirit/self/FW].  Therefore, only Ataman is real because there is no second thing other than Ataman.

He also clearly mentions that:

The path of religion, path of yoga and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate Truth and Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.

Thus we have to know the fact that Buddha, Goudpada and Sri,Sankara are not only reformers but also  the greatest  scientists. Since there original thesis have been lost in the labyrinths of philosophy and mutilated by pundits and priest craft, it becomes very difficult understand and assimilate the wisdom expounded by the great masters. In addition, the conservativeness of the orthodox scholars will not allow any research other than playing with the words, which suits the mass mind sets, because of their egocentric outlook.

 All the add-ons have to be deleted, in order to understand and assimilate the real fragrance of the wisdom expounded by the great masters of Advith, but it is hurricane task.  Thus, it is no use going through all the scriptures, when there is direct path to nondual truth.  The same time and effort can be used to reach the nondual destination, in lesser time and effort. 

  

Nonduality does not need the support of any Scripture or Revelation like the Veda. For it is based, not upon the varying theological fancies, which are as numerous as the sands of the sea, but upon reason, the common heritage of all mankind, irrespective of colour or creed or clime.

Seeker of truth has to know that something is inadequate in Buddhist or Advaitic teachings to reach the nondual destination because of the add-ons and adulteration. Thus it becomes difficult to reach destination directed by the Buddha, Sri, Sankara and Sri,Goudapada.  It is for the seeker to go on his own and remove the obstacle.  The greatest hindrance is mixing religion, god, scriptures, and yogic theories. Moreover, attachment to scriptures, personal god and religious code of conduct keeps one permanently in the grip of duality.

For the same reason Raman Maharshi said:  fortunate are the one who do not lose themselves in the labyrinths of philosophy. Bhagwan says: Take Vedanta, for instance: it speaks of 15 pranas the names and functions of it   which the student is asked to commit memory. Will it not be sufficient if he thought, only one prana does the whole work of maintaining the body? Again the antakaran is said to think, to desire, to will, to reason etc. Why all these details? Has anyone seen antakarana, or all these pranas? Do they really exist? They are conceptual divisions invented by teachers of philosophy by their excessive analysis. Where do all these concepts end? Why should confusion created and then explained away? Fortunate is the man who does not lose himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the source from which they all arise. (GURU RAMANA .By S.S Cohen -vii Danger of philosophy-Page -58-59)

The duality is reality on the standpoint of the false self [ego or body as self].  The duality is mere mirage on the base of the true self, which is formless consciousness. This understanding comes only to the serious seeker, who has real urge to know the ultimate truth, which is beyond the all the teachings and teachers. There is neither teaching, nor teacher, nor student in the realm of truth.  

Different paths will not converge to the same Ultimate Reality because they are based on the false self. They are not the different stages in the same path. People fight about the differences and greatness of their chosen paths but only through wisdom one can realize the Ultimate Reality.

One has to have perfect understanding and march a head, surely and steadily, towards that Ultimate Reality, which is consciousness or Brahman or Christ or Buddha. One becomes limited to the concepts, names and forms within the waking/dream. Waking/dream originates from the soul.

 The soul is the true self.  The soul is in the form of consciousness. Realizing the consciousness as the true self is truth realization. Consciousness is formless, limitless, permanent and unchanging, and by its nature non-dual and universal. The consciousness is the formless knower of the mirage [universe] which comes and goes. The knower[self, which is in the form of consciousness]  and the known[three states] are one in essence, therefore there is no second thing exists other than consciousness.   

Realize Brahman or ultimate truth here and now, in this very life, not in next life and in the next world by realizing the fact that, this life  within the waking experience itself is illusion because the waking experience is itself is an  illusion.    

Adyathmic Discussions-131

Q:- Humanity will continue to have an I.. Without an I there is no communication possible. 'The True Self' is just another I and an ultimate standpoint is equal to the prison of reasoning which is - also = based on the notion of 'I...

A: - Humanity is part and parcel of the illusion. ‘I’ and ‘I Am’ is the centre of physical existence. Until ‘I’ or ‘I Am’ is there the universe or mind is there, until the universe is there we all exist experiencing the duality as reality.

The communication happens within the duality and the duality is not reality from the ultimate standpoint. When the true self is not limited to ‘I’ or ‘I am’ but it pervades the whole physical existence or universe then how one can refer ‘I or ‘I am’ which cease to exist without the form or universe.  Thus the self is within the ‘I’ but it is without the ‘I’.  Holding ‘I’ or ‘I am’ as self will lead one towards intellectual speculation thus it has to be avoided.   Thus ultimate truth has be grasped and realized mentally and it is possible when we rectify our reasoning base from form to formless.

Panchadashi:-

The Atman is the witness-consciousness that experiences the action, the actor, and the world of separate things. It is like a light that illuminates everything in a theatre, revealing the master of ceremonies, the guests, and the dancers with complete impartiality. Even when they all depart, the light shines to reveal their absence.