Tag: nondual

A contributor ‘Maria’ wrote a piece HERE

• http://www.o-books.com/blogs/obooks/a-tour-of-advaita-through-the-books-of-dennis-waite/

under the heading of ‘A Tour of Advaita via the Books of Dennis Waite’

As a summary of advaita some may find it useful;

Summary

• Advaita uses various methods (prakriyA-s) to analyze topics about which we have mistaken beliefs in order to reveal our errors and to demonstrate that there is only Brahman.

• The method of discriminating between who we are (the seer) and what we are not (the seen – body, mind etc.) is called dRRigdRRiSya- viveka.

• Who we really are – Brahman – is beyond description and immaculate.

• The body is nothing more than the food we have eaten, yet we worry about its comfort, aging and death.

• Consciousness is not an epiphenomenon of the mind. Everything “appears” in Consciousness.

• We do not “think” thoughts – they arise and we witness them.

• The mind assumes the power of Consciousness in the way that an iron ball in the fire becomes hot.

• Attachment to emotions occurs similarly and we must cultivate dispassion (vairAgya). Peace is beyond all emotions.

• The ego is a construction of concepts and its power is destroyed once the truth is understood. This is the basis of “Self-enquiry.”

• ahaMkAra is the process by which we identify with ideas, emotions, roles etc. All disappear in sleep so we cannot be them.

• Neither are we the mask of a “person.” We are the changeless “I am,” the essence of the changing forms.

• The sheath model (pa~ncha-kosha-prakriyA) is used to illustrate the various levels of identification.

• The true Self has nothing to do with the body and mind etc, just as the moon has nothing to do with the bough of the tree on which it appears to rest.

• We are constantly lured by the form and miss the essence.

• Everything transient is first rejected (neti, neti) in order to discover who we truly are, the eternal unchanging. It is then realized that the changing, too, is none other than the non-dual Self.

• Just as dreams are seen to have been nothing but the mind itself on awakening, so the world is seen to be the Self on enlightenment.

• If it can be spoken of, I am not that. Truth is beyond language, which is necessarily in duality. I am the eternal subject. Reality is self-evident.