FLAWED

We live in an imperfect world, so therefore we are imperfect.  We are flawed. 

Our flaws fall into five categories:  physical, mental, emotional, character, spiritual.  Physical flaws need no explanation, as we all have them, too tall, too short, too fat, too whatever.  Mental flaws are wrong-thinking, as in delusional thinking, erroneous logic, such as two plus two equal three not four.  Emotional flaws are wearing our hearts on our sleeves, being hard hearted, being angry at everyone and everything, being fearful.  Character flaws involve our fundamental constitutions, our genetic makeup.

These flaws, individually or in concert, are responsible for the downfall of scores of people in politics, entertainment, business, sports, and religion.  We need only turn on the evening news to be astonished at the people who have everything anyone could ever want, but who tumble in disgrace because of their flaws.  Making a poor choice in a matter is one thing, but doing it over and over again until it brings us down is, truly, the tragedy of it.

Spiritual flaws is the big one, though.  Physical, mental, emotional, and character imperfections are relative to this manifested world and can be resolved, one way or another, sooner of later, by us or by another.  Shortcomings spiritually, however, are not so readily remedied. 

People cannot be forced to “believe,” for instance, to have faith in something larger than themselves, when, in their view, there is only themselves.  It takes a religious experience so-called, to make a difference, but for most of us this does not happen. 

What does occur in everyone is the evolution of our spirit, called the Atman.  The Atman is Brahman, its source, what Eckhart Tolle calls “presence.”  The task and destiny of the Atman is to awaken, just as the task and destiny of the universe as a whole is to awaken. 

We can facilitate this awakening by the practice of spiritual disciplines, called sadhana.  Sadhana need not be complicated.  The idea is to give the Atman space in which to emerge.  By being aware spiritually, by paying attention to what we are doing spiritually, we create space for the Atman. 

No flaw can withstand this space.

FREE TO GO: A SHORT STORY

One day while walking through the forest a man came upon a wing.  Now, he had come upon wings in the forest before, but they were always attached to something.  This one was not.  Yet it was very much alive, as though a being in its own right.

It was not that large, no more than a robin’s wing, but larger than, say, a wren’s wing, which was not large at all.  But what was it doing independent of something else?  And, as such, how was it still alive, and living for who knows how long? 

Picking it up and examining it occurred to the man, except that the wing was watching him warily; one false move by him and it would fly away, even as its condition suggested otherwise.  At the very least, to satisfy his curiosity, the man snuck a peek at the point where the wing would normally be hinged to a body.

The wing eyed him doing so, and took a deep breath.  Unclear was whether the wing was frightened, impatient, or was about to say something. 

 “May I help you?” the wing said, at last.

The man was taken aback.

“Well?” the wing said.

Finally, “What are you?” the man managed in a higher than normal voice, his eyes wide.

“What are you?” the wing echoed, as though a situation it was quite accustomed to.

The man had never before been asked what he was, since it was plain to see what he was.  But then so was the wing obviously a wing. 

“I am a man,” the man then blurted, his voice lower now, “a human.”

“A human well attached, I see.  Earthbound.”

It was true enough, the man had to admit.  “I admit it,” he said.

“I was once attached, earthbound.”

“A bird?”

“Now I am not.”

“You are free to go, then, I suppose, no longer being bound to the earth,” the man said, although with a grin, because a wing by itself was not going anywhere.

The wing grinned back.  “Of course,” it confirmed, and flew away.

HUMAN BIRTH IS RARE

We must not assume that in our next lifetime we will again be born as a human.  As human life is rare, it is far more likely that we will be born in some other life situation.  If this occurs, the odds of our identifying why we are being reincarnated are diminished. 

We humans are uniquely positioned in the cycle of existence/nonexistence.  We have sufficient intelligence to identify the problems that result in our rebirth, unlike less developed beings such as lower animals.  Other beings are prone to being overwhelmed by their problems and therefore are less likely to know what to do about them.

Buddhism in particular underscores the need to always be aware of, in this instance, death, to be aware that there is never one instant when death is not happening.  Death is everywhere and always.  By being mindful of this and of the fact that human birth is infrequent, we can discover, as the Buddha did, a way clear of constantly being reincarnated.

PERPETUAL FRUSTRATION

Among the images of Hell in Medieval art is that of a man with a huge belly and a tiny mouth.  Gluttony is his offense.  He is famished but can only eat a tiny morsel at a time, and therefore is forever miserable.

Perpetual frustration is familiar to all us.  We all are frustrated because we never get enough of, you name it, wealth, power, and prestige, in the larger way, but also, on the smaller scale, the new car, the latest IPhone, the promotion at work. 

Even in the moments when we appear to have enough of what we want, it is not.  Our apparent satisfaction, satiety, is fleeting because what we have acquired is fleeting.  

Everything in this world of form is time-bound and therefore is changing, is quickly becoming something other than what we at first gained.  Things deteriorate, no less so than our perception of them and interest in them.

Concerning spirituality, many of us work very hard at establishing and maintaining our faith, even though, again, with time, it may flag.  Even for those whose faith is unshakable, nuns, monks, and priests, there is still frustration.  We all want more.  We want God face-to-face.  We want to be overwhelmed by God.

Death is no guarantee either.  Death is, for all we know, oblivion, annihilation, the Buddhist view.  There may be no God, after all, no paradise, only reincarnation that takes forever to end.   

The optimistic perspective is that of Vedanta, which teaches that there is God, that there is paradise, that, yes, there is reincarnation, but it has a purpose, the evolution of God’s spirit in us, Atman, which inevitably will merge with its source, Brahman, putting an end to our perpetual frustration.

ENHANCEMENT OR MADNESS? A SHORT STORY

His meditating was enhanced greatly by the ability of his background consciousness to separate itself from his thinking mind.  His background consciousness was able to point to his thinking mind and say, “There it is.”  It worried him now, though, that he might be flirting with schizophrenia.  Of course, it was his thinking mind that had this worry, not his background consciousness.  His background consciousness never worried about anything.

WHAT IS LOOKING

What you are looking for is what is looking.---St. Francis of Assisi

WHEREVER I GO

Wherever I go, I meet myself.---Tozan, 9^th Century Zen monk

SPIRITUAL FREE FALL

Despair is a spiritual aspirant’s greatest enemy.  In fact, in Christianity it is considered a mortal sin, “the one unforgivable sin.”   It is the feeling that one has lost his connection with God.  He had it once, but no more, and the prospect of his getting it back anytime soon feels, to him, remote.

In Christianity this is called the Dark Night of the Soul.  It does not last long, if one is lucky or blessed, but it can.  In some cases, it continues for years.  For St. Paul of the Cross in the 18^th Century it lasted 45 years, eclipsed only by Mother Teresa in the 20^th Century for whom the Dark Night lasted 49 years.

Its cause, in the view of Vedanta, is the analytical, thinking mind overwhelming the intuitive, transcendental, spiritual mind or consciousness.  It is the “sheaths” overtaking the Atman.

Buddhism does not explain the condition but neither does it worry about it.  Despair is merely a state of mind, an emotion, and states of mind and emotions pass.

Despair need not cause a person to lose his faith, in any event.  St. Paul of the Cross and Mother Teresa, despite their suffering, remained in their vocations, and near the end of their lives their Dark Nights vanished.

SIMULTANEITY

Countless events are occurring simultaneously, yet it is all one event, God.

WHICH ONE?

Which world is actually the world; as it is perceived by humans, by bees, by bats, etc.?

SEEING THEM AGAIN: A SHORT STORY

“Who do you expect to see in the afterlife?”  Admittedly, it was an insensitive question for him to put to himself at his age.
 
Well, he could think of a lot of people he hoped he did not see, only because he did not get along well with them in this life, so there was no reason to think it would be different in the hereafter.  Granted, it was not up to him.

Since it was out of his hands, it rather seemed that he would see everyone who ever lived, and, indeed, would see everything that ever lived.
 
Sooner or later, everyone who has ever lived sees everyone else who has ever lived, and everything that has ever lived sees everything else that has ever lived.  If not over there, here.

MUSEUM: A SHORT STORY

He didn't know what made him think of it, but that morning he was recalling a moment 38 years prior, give or take a year, while he was in exile in Canada over his resistance to the Vietnam War.  He was standing across the street from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, after having weaved his way through side streets from his apartment over on Huntley Street.

He was going to the ROM as a reminder of his education.  He had intellectual interests, in other words, despite working as a stagehand now in television, not an intellectual activity.  As he stood there in the snow across from the museum, he asked himself whatever would become of him.

When he escaped from his unjust conviction for refusing the draft, it seemed he had lost everything he had ever been.  He was adrift.  Would he now be a stagehand, nothing against stagehands, for the rest of his life, living in a modest apartment that he could not afford really, on Huntley Street?

It was because he could not imagine himself now as anything other than a stagehand, at least not for a long time, not until he recovered psychologically from his exile, that he was headed to the ROM, that stimulation.

As it happened, he never did make it to that museum just across the street.  He is still standing there, wondering whatever will become of him, even though he now knows.

THIRD EYE

The third eye is the center of a person’s being and is also referred to as the heart’s eye, the intuitive eye, the mystical eye, the transcendental eye, the inner eye, or the mind’s eye. 

In New Age spirituality, it is associated with enlightenment.  It may also relate to mental images having deeply personal spiritual or psychological significance.  Religious visions, clairvoyance, the ability to see chakras and auras, are connected with the third eye, as are precognition and out-of-body experiences.

Father Richard Rohr, representing Christianity, holds that the third eye is a metaphor for non-dualistic thinking, the way mystics see. 

He explains that mystics use the first eye for sensory input, sight, and the second eye for reasoning, meditation, and reflection.  He points out, though, that one must not confuse mere correct information or knowledge with the transformation of consciousness.  The mystical sight of the third eye builds upon the first two eyes, but goes further, he says, to the level of awareness that he calls “having the mind of Christ.”

For the Vedantist, the third eye is the eye of the Atman, who is the watcher, the witness of all that a person does.  The Atman is background consciousness, whose source is Brahman, God.  Advaita Vedanta is the non-dualistic view that Father Rohr referenced, where everything is one thing, the basis of mysticism.

WHAT AN AVATAR KNOWS

An avatar, an incarnation of Vishnu usually, knows what you are going to ask him before you ask, and knows what your reply will be after he answers, if he answers, which probably he won’t.   

He won’t because he has been in every conversation possible over his thousands of descents to earth and knows where every conversation ends up.  For this reason, he speaks, or gestures, looks, or touches, only when there is something of critical importance to convey

LOST IN THOUGHT

We are forever thinking, forever lost in thought.  At times we are thinking about our relationship with God, and how we can be closer to him.   

Ironically, we are closest to God when we are not thinking about him.  He is the opposite of thought.  Thought is the hardest way to get to him, in fact. 
 
Prayer and contemplation are thinking about God, too.  We are nearest to God when we are not praying and contemplating. 
 
God is stillness.  He comes to us when we are still, too, with no agenda.  True stillness is a state of the soul that only God can see.

HELL

Hell is not knowing what you want, yet craving it.

IN THE WAY

You are in its way, and it is in your way.

REPRODUCTION

Machines making other machines is scary, but no less so than people making other people.

KALEIDOSCOPE

Life is like a kaleidoscope where one change brings about many other changes, some intended, most not.

CONSCIOUSNESS IN VEDANTA

Consciousness, according to Vedanta philosophy, is a field that exists separate from the body.  This field is a continuum which means that it goes on endlessly in all directions like an infinite ocean.  Each individual consciousness is a portion, a small subsection, of the infinite field, the vast majority of which lies beyond the realm of usual human experience.

Different living beings possess varying amounts of this one continuous spectrum of consciousness.  Take for example an ant.  Compared to humans an ant has significantly lower quantities of consciousness.  An ant is not aware of the traffic jam outside, for instance, nor is it worried about picking the kids up from school.
 
But now what if the consciousness of the ant expands so that it becomes aware of more things?  It, then, will find its small body and brain insufficient and therefore will manifest a more capable body the next time, say that of a cat.

Now, in the evolutionary chain, a consciousness does not jump from an ant to a cat.  Rather there are many small evolutionary steps in the middle.  In fact, in Vedanta a consciousness is said to travel through 8.4 million life forms before it attains to human birth. 
 
Nor are human beings the final step in the chain.  While human consciousness has evolved significantly over that of other animals, it is still restricted.  Beyond it is a state of super consciousness where a consciousness that has expanded becomes boundless.
 
This state is called by different names in different religions.  In Vedanta it is called Samadhi; in Buddhism, Enlightenment; and in Christianity, Salvation.  It was attained by Swami Vivekananda, by his guru Sri Ramakrishna, by Ramana Maharshi, by Jesus, and by Buddha, to name a few, and is the goal and destiny of all living beings.

SAME THING

The many religions, faiths of the world, are like a dog chasing its tail.  It is all the same dog.

MOMENTARINESS

We live here only momentarily.  What are we to do with our brief time here, then, precious as it is?  Nothing.  Nothing beyond what our instincts have us do, that is, which is to procreate, to perpetuate the species.  Eat and procreate.  That’s what we are to do.  It is what all living things do. 
 
We humans, though, believe that we are here to do additional things.  We are, for instance, to find God.  But this, as with all the other things that we decide are important to do, is merely an idea.
 
Or is it?  If we accept that, like the perpetuation of the species, finding God is also an instinct, then our view of finding God changes. 
 
We cannot, of course, deny that we have instincts and that they influence us.  The only thing about them that we have control over is whether or not we act on them.  Just because we feel the urge to procreate, for example, does not mean that we actually will.  Some will, some will not.

So, too, with our instinct to find God.   We may act on it or we may not.  It is only when the instinct is felt especially intensely, as it is with monks, nuns, and priests, that acting on it is certain.  For the rest of us, though, it is doubtful, given all the distractions that we face everyday, family, job, education, etc. 
 
When we, on the other hand, are reminded of how briefly we are alive, the importance of our discovering God while here is heightened.   

Meister Eckhart, the eminent Christian mystic of the 13^th Century, wrote that when we take one step toward God, God takes one hundred steps toward us.  And it was Jesus who said, the kingdom of God is within; it is not that far to go, and it only takes a moment.

SWAMI ABHEDANANDA

In the previous posting, “Swami Vivekananda’s Early Death,” I stated that in 1896 Vivekananda confided to Abhedananda, a fellow disciple of the Ramakrishna Math (monastery) and Mission, that he, Vivekananda, only expected to live another six years, at most.  It was in that same year that Vivekananda, while in London to give a lecture, sent for Abhedananda to join him. 
 
Unbeknownst to Abhedananda, Vivekananda had arranged for him to also give a lecture, announcing it in advance to the Press.  As it happened, Abhedananda had never spoken in public before in his life, but his faith in Vivekananda, the head of their Order, was such that he agreed to do it.  Stepping in front of an audience which filled the hall to its capacity, Abhedananda gave what all agreed was a brilliant lecture. 
     
Due to this and the subsequent successful lectures that Abhedananda delivered in London that year, Vivekananda asked him to take charge of the Vedanta Society in New York.  Abhedananda agreed to it and again was highly effective.  With the exception of one short trip to India in 1906, Abhedananda stayed on in New York, teaching and lecturing, until 1921.  By this time, Vivekananda had long since passed away. 
 
Returning to India in 1921, Abhedananda went on to found his own Vedanta Society two years later, which gradually dissociated itself from the original Ramakrishna Math and Mission.  There were, however, no unfriendly feelings between the members of the two institutions; they simply were different institutions. 
 
Abhedananda died in 1939 and was the last of the original sixteen direct disciples of Ramakrishna, the last to have ever actually met Ramakrishna.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S EARLY DEATH

Vivekananda was one of the greatest teachers of Vedanta since Shankaracharya.  Like Shankaracharya, however, Vivekananda also did not live long, leaving his physical body at the early age of 39.  Shankaracharya did so at age 32.
 
Now, Swamiji, as Vivekananda was called, suffered from certain ailments, in his case diabetes and asthma, but at the time of his passing he was in good health and spirits, reportedly.  So what caused him to die so young? 
 
Six years before his passing, in August 1896, Vivekananda confided to Abhedananda, a fellow disciple of Ramakrishna’s, that he, Vivekananda, was only going to live five or six more years.

When Abhedananda protested, saying a young man like him should not think of death, Vivekananda replied, “You do not understand.  My soul is getting bigger and bigger everyday, so much so that my body can hardly contain it.  Any day it may burst this cage of flesh and bone.”

What did Swamiji mean when he said his soul was getting bigger?  As Vedanta explains it, the soul is pure consciousness, so what Vivekananda meant was that his consciousness was expanding so far beyond the realm of ordinary human consciousness, to the domain of super-consciousness, in fact, that his body was proving inadequate to contain it.  It would soon therefore have to be let go.

How accurate was Vivekananda’s prediction?  He passed away on July 4^th 1902, indeed six years from his disclosing it to Abhedananda.