FULFILLMENT

Once you have found it and it has found you, you are done.  But remember, you are it.

TRUTH ABOUT TRUTH

A posting on Facebook reads: "Surround yourself with people who are searching for truth.  Run from people who have found it!"  The source of the quote is not stated.

It's a catchy statement, but the word "truth" is used as though there were only one truth.  There are, in fact, many truths, all of which fall into two categories, relative truth and ultimate truth.

Relative truth applies to the relative world. The relative world is illusory, which means that it is transient, in flux, ever-changing.  A relative truth is, for example, "what goes up must come down," the law of gravity.  This is only sort of true, however, because the higher you get up in the atmosphere, the longer it takes for something that has gone up to come down again, and eventually, if you go high enough, what goes up does not come down at all.

Ultimate truth, by contrast, applies to the ultimate world, the spiritual world, which is not transient, is not in flux, and is not ever-changing.  An ultimate truth is the law of karma, for instance, which is "as ye sow, so shall ye reap," cause and effect.  Another ultimate truth is what is called awakening, which is found in all religions and is the basis for the faith held by people everywhere.  But the ultimate ultimate truth, of course, is the divine, which may be called God, Allah, Yahweh, Brahman, or what you will, which is eternal, steadfast, and abiding.

Therefore the statement "Surround yourself with people who are searching for truth.  Run from people who have found it!", while it has an nice ring to it, makes a nice slogan, does not really mean anything especially to all those around the world who have "found it." 

ATMAN'S SEARCH

The Atman in us is drawn to its source, the Brahman, like the needle of a compass is drawn to a magnet.  The Atman's search for this source is not an act of will on its part, anymore that it is an act of will on the needle's part to seek the magnet.  It is an attraction, simply put.

Ironically, what the Atman does not realize is that its source is everywhere around it and within it.  It cannot see this, though, because of the human being that it is temporarily housed in and which it wears like a heavy coat.  The human being makes many demands on the attention of the Atman, distracts it, for what proves to be, before it is over, many lifetimes.

Eventually, however, by way of the law of karma, there is a wearing away of distractions resulting in a breakthrough, an "ah-ha" moment, an epiphany, for the Atman.  It sees Brahman.

SPIRITUALLY FEARFUL: A SHORT STORY

He was spiritually fearful.  He feared becoming too intimate, too familiar with God, or, more correctly, of God becoming too intimate, too familiar with him, not that he had anything to hide. 

What this was really about was a trait or condition that he picked up from his parents.  His parents kept everything and everyone at arms length, so that they were never in any way vulnerable.

Being vulnerable, though, was what being with God, what he really wanted, was all about.

His solution was self-surrender, called saranagati or prapatti in Vedanta.  He surrendered his learned at-arms-length self to God in an act of purification, what proved for him an act of liberation.

VIDYA

Vidya, or Vidhya, is a Sanskrit noun meaning "right knowledge" or "clarity."  The opposite of vidyā is avidya, meaning ignorance or misinformation.  "Vidya" is used in reference to both intellectual knowledge and spiritual knowledge.

The Way of Knowledge, or jnana yoga, is the second of the three possible paths to moksha, or salvation.  The other paths are the Way of Works, or karma yoga, and the Way of Devotion, or bhakti yoga.

The basic premise of the Way of Knowledge is that the cause of our bondage to the cycle of rebirths is ignorance.  Our ignorance consists of the mistaken belief that we are individual selves, and not one with the ultimate divine reality, Brahman.

It is this same ignorance that gives rise to our bad actions, which result in bad karma.  Salvation is achieved through attaining a state of consciousness in which we realize our identity with Brahman.

The Way of Knowledge entails the study of the scriptures, and the regular practice of meditation, the result of which is vidya.

CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE CLARIFIED

The contemplative life is not thinking about God but being with God and God being with you.

NOTICING GRACE

You reach a point where you see every little thing happening to you throughout your day as God's grace.  Your entire life has no doubt contained just as much grace, only you didn't realize it at the time.

NEVER NOTHING

Why is there something and not nothing?  It is because there is no such thing as nothing.  There has never been nothing.  There has always been Brahman.  Brahman manifests and unmanifests but is never nothing.

THE FINDING: A SHORT STORY

"He hasn't found himself yet," he heard his parents say to others while he was growing up.  How desperately he wanted to "find himself" so his parents wouldn't have to keep saying this of him, especially by the time he got into his twenties, at which point he himself was saying to others, "I haven't found myself yet."

His solution turned out to be a forced finding himself.  Thus, he "found himself" as a poet, then as a playwright, then as a painting contractor, then as an academic writer, then as another painting contractor, then as a stagehand, then as a story analyst for television, then as another painting contractor, then as a novelist, then as a proofreader and editor.

The trouble was, all these things that he had convinced myself, along the way, were him, were not him, or so he concluded.  He had imposed himself on them, talked himself into them, and, in most cases, did them purely as a means of biding time until he actually did, for real, discover who he was.

Adding to the problem was his inability to understand exactly what finding himself meant.  This would change, he assumed, when something came along that truly lit his fire, was his "bliss," as Prof. Joseph Campbell termed it.  But then wasn't he inspired already by all the things he was doing in his life, even though they proved houses of cards in the end?

On the other hand, there was a lot to be said for houses of cards.  It was found in psychotherapy when, for example, a patient had a sudden revelation that what he or she had been revealing to the therapist was, in the end, all a lie, not intentionally a lie, but a lie nonetheless.  The result was a breakthrough.  The phenomenon was found in Zen as well, where monks struggled to solve koans from the Master, until their intellects collapsed into the bliss of satori.

When, though, he reached retirement still not having found himself, he had a revelation, no less a satori.  He realized that finding himself was only an idea put in his head by his parents.  There was no such thing as finding himself.  There was nothing he needed to find. 

Besides, a person was not what he did but what he was, and he was that all along.

ADVAITA VEDANTA

The term Advaita refers to the identity of the true Self, Atman, which is pure consciousness, and the identity of the highest Reality, Brahman, which is also pure consciousness.  Advaita is a non-dualistic philosophy which means that there is no separation between Brahman and the manifested world.  It is all one.

The philosophy is based on the sacred texts of the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Brahma Sutras.  Followers of Advaita seek liberation (moksha) by acquiring knowledge (vidya) of the identity of Atman and Brahman.

Advaita is widely seen as the most influential and most dominant sub-school of Vedanta.  Its teachings have influenced various sects of Hinduism and acquired a broad acceptance in Indian culture, and beyond.

The principal, though not the first, exponent of Advaita was Shankara Bhagavadpada who systematized the works of preceding Hindu philosophers.  Shankara's commentaries have become central texts in the Advaita tradition.

VISHISHTADVAITA VEDANTA

Vishishtadvaita, qualified nondualism or nondualism with a difference so-called), is a school of Vedanta whose main proponent was Ramanuja (c.1017-1137).

It holds that all living creatures and non-living matter are parts of Brahman, who is their soul and controlling power.  This is to say, all diversity is included in the underlying unity that is Brahman.  Brahman contains all things as opposed to is all things, as in Advaita Vedanta.

Vishishtadvaita's Brahman is, at the same time, a Personal God, essentially.

There are three key principles of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta:

1.  Knowledge of the three real entities, namely, living souls; the sentient (jiva) and the insentient (ajiva); and the creator and controller of the world (Brahman).

2. The means of realizing Brahman, which includes devotion (bhakti) and self-surrender (prapatti).

3. The goal to be attained, which is moksha, or liberation from the bondage that is the world of form.

DVAITA VEDANTA

Dvaita is a school of Vedanta founded by Shri Madhvacharya (c. 1238-1317 CE).  It is a philosophy of dualism in which sentient beings, as creatures, and God, as their Creator, are seen as separate from each other.

The distinguishing factor of this philosophy as opposed to Advaita Vedanta (nondualism) is that God takes on a personal role and is seen as one who governs and controls the universe.

Dvaita Vedanta is not the same as Western dualism which proposes the existence of two independent realities or principles.  Dvaita's dualism also acknowledges two principles, however, it holds one of them, sentient beings, as being strictly dependent on the other, God.

Because the existence of sentient beings is grounded in the Divine, they are variously described as reflections, images, or even shadows of the Divine, but never in any way identical with the Divine.

IT IS THE ATMAN

You are the consciousness that is aware that you are conscious.  This consciousness is your true self.  It is the Atman.  

VEDANTA SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

The three main schools of thought in Vedanta, one or more of which are found in other religions as well, are dualism (Dvaita), qualified nondualism (Vishishtadvaita), and nondualism (Advaita Vedanta).

These three concepts are not mutually contradictory, but successive steps in spiritual realization, the third and last being attained, as Sri Ramakrishna pointed out, when the aspirant loses all consciousness of self in union with the Godhead.

ALL SPIRIT

"Show me the line between matter and spirit.  It doesn't exist.  It is all spirit, all Brahman." --Vivekananda.

NOTHING BUT BRAHMAN

In all your life you have seen nothing but Brahman.

VEDANTA VS. HINDUISM

Vedanta is the predominant philosophy of Hinduism. Hinduism includes all the social and religious customs of anyone living in the subcontinent of India who is not a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Jain, Sikh, Zoroastrian, or Buddhist. There are many sects in Hinduism. It is a complex collection of many religious traditions. Vedanta is the underlying philosophy.

CORE OF VEDANTA

Vedanta teaches that the purpose of human life is to realize the ultimate Reality, or Godhead, here and now, through spiritual practice.  The term Vedanta often refers only to the nondualistic aspect of the philosophy, Advaita Vedanta.

Advaita Vedanta holds that the manifold universe of name and form is a misreading of the one ultimate Reality called Brahman.  (Brahman is regarded as transcendent, and Atman is regarded as immanent.)  Since it is omnipresent, this Reality must be within every creature and object.

Vedanta accepts all the great spiritual teachers, and the personal and impersonal aspects of the Godhead worshiped by different religions, viewing them as manifestations of the one Reality.  By demonstrating the essential unity on which all religions are founded, Vedanta is a framework within which all spiritual truths can be expressed.

IN EVERY ATOM

There is consciousness in every atom of the universe.--Mundaka Upanishad.

PSYCHIC VS. SPIRITUAL

Swami Prabhavananda explains the difference between a psychic experience and a spiritual experience.  The former has no lasting effect, whereas the latter results in a permanent shift in consciousness.

THE ONE THING

The Atman is the personal aspect of the Brahman.  The Atman is aware of each of us and, to the tiniest detail, the functioning of each of us.  It knows when we are well and not well.  It does not, however, interfere with us, just watches, witnesses us.

The Atman is aware of our environment, and while it knows that we see ourselves as separate from our environment, it knows that it is all one thing.

The Brahman is the source of the Atman.  It is aware of everything that the Atman is aware of.

At the same time, it is aware of the stars and planets, and the environment of the stars and planets, space, but does not interfere with them.  The stars and planets, and space, are not, however, separate from each other, as we perceive them to be, but are all one thing.  The Brahman knows all too well that it is all one thing, for the simple reason that it is the one thing that all things are.