Our circumstances of life good and bad are a reality within the dualistic illusion.
The life within the dream world becomes unreal when waking takes place. Similarly, life within the waking world becomes unreal when the Advaitic wisdom dawns. Wisdom dawns when you realize the fact that the ‘Self is not you but the ‘Self is the Soul.
The Soul the Self ‘is nothing to do with happiness and the misery. The happiness and misery belong to you. You belong to the duality. From the standpoint of the Soul, the Self, the duality is merely an illusion.
You, happiness, misery and the world in which you exist are created out of single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul which is present in the form of consciousness. The knowledge of the Soul is the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Happiness and suffering are physical and they are a reality in the domain of the form, time and space whereas the Soul the Self not physical because the Soul is ever formless, timeless, spaceless.
If one says this universe is real then: ~
A person, who stamped his foot on the ground to refute to show the world, is real, ignore that in a dream he would do exactly the same--stamp his dream foot on the ground and assert it to be real.
Sage Sankara: ~VC~ if the universe be true, let it then be perceived in the state of deep sleep also. As it is not at all perceived, it must be unreal and false like dreams.
The correct understanding will be when you realize that the reality of the world in which you exist, is invalid because the world in which you exist merely an illusion created out of the Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of the consciousness.
The look of an object will depend upon the medium through which the observer views it. In fact, our mental and intellectual conditions determine the life observed and experienced. The commoner viewing life will see differently from a Gnani viewing the same life. Each one interprets the life that they see in terms of their existing knowledge. The commoner sees everything based on the ego, therefore, the life he experiences as a reality, whereas a Gnani sees the life is an illusion created out of the consciousness and he is fully aware of the fact that, there is no second thing exists other than the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness (subject). Thus, all the objective observation is based on the 'false self' that has to be bifurcated to realize what I am saying.
Meher Baba: ~ “When the reality appears this ignorance which one thinks as reality becomes unreal.
Everyone has a story of their success and failure. Everyone is most interested in sharing their stories of success and failure with others.
People think that their success story can be applied to others who are less fortunate in their life to get success.
Thus, they try to impose their idea of success on others by propagating their success story. But they themselves are failures in recognizing the truth, because they are unaware of the fact that, their success story is based on the false self within the false experience.
Not everyone becomes Steve Jobs if they adopt his life skills. Everyone’s life circumstances are different. The circumstances whether they are good or bad they come on their own and they disappear on their own. The positive thinking only helps one to move ahead in time thinking and hallucinating of the bright future, but the results may be favorable or unfavorable. Circumstances arise not, because, individual conduct or action.
The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan affected many successful people. Many successful people lost their dear ones and wealth. All these circumstances of life come and go on its own.
When the circumstances are favorable life goes on smoothly. But in unfavorable circumstances, life becomes very hard and miserable. And there is also mixed circumstances which make us happy and also miserable.
If a successful person becomes a failure in his dream and a failure person becomes a successful person in his dream, their dream becomes unreal when waking takes place. In the same way, the waking also becomes unreal when one becomes aware of the fact that, the Self is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity.
Whatever one sees, knows, believes and experiences within the waking or dream experience is a falsehood. Therefore, Self-Realization is necessary to realize “what is truth” and “what is untruth”.
Favorable circumstances do not arise because of one’s positivity. And because of positive thinking, the circumstances will not change. Painful experiences of the past and fear of the future make one think negatively.
By thinking positively it helps to keep away the future fear in the present nothing more. Thus one has to understand and realize the fact that, these positive and negative circumstances do not depend on his doer ship because they arise on their own and they disappear on their own.
Remember:~
In life, everything happens on its own. No one can plan it. We did not plan our birth, it just happened. The same way our life is a package of unknown circumstances everything is happening on its own, whether they are good or bad. In the past, some sages introduced the concept of God to cast the burden of worldly suffering, so that everyone can dive their attention on the imaginary entity by indulging in prayers, worship, and orthodoxy, and cross the ocean of this worldly suffering.
Thus, the populace followed it and passed it from one generation to the next. So everyone inherited blind belief and they imposed on their children and they themselves indulge in priestcraft without verifying the validity of their own inherited belief system.
The ultimate truth is hidden by orthodoxy in the name of protecting their God and their religion is meant for those who are incapable of thinking deeply about their own existence and also it helps people to adopt certain discipline, morals and ethics in society with its code of conduct. The love was the religious tool it helps the society to a certain extent. Love and hate co-exist.
People talk of love because they are deprived of it. It is impossible to love everyone. It is easy to say but difficult to practice in worldly life because everyone loves their own ego. Thus, this egoic love is temporary because the ego is the false self within the false experience.
People have the notion that the more and more they gratify their senses to attain worldly pleasures, the happier they will be is not true at all, because they think the physical self is the real self, therefore they are unaware that the Self is not physical but the Self is the Spirit.
Consciousness can stay with or without waking or dream. Thus it is time to realize their pleasure and suffering is limited to the waking experience, which is a falsehood.
It is the illusory sense-pleasure that is responsible for the forgetfulness of the Self, which is in the form of consciousness, which results in one’s sorrows and sufferings.
Suffering is the reminder to search for the remedy to overcome the suffering caused by ignorance of the true self. Pleasure is the cause of ignorance. But if the real self is realized, and then, the illusion will not prevail as reality.
Why do mortals then become attached to worldly pleasures in the first place?
It is the illusion that allures one to enjoy the mundane objects in a futile effort of satisfying the unceasing demands of his senses within the waking or dream. A person within the illusion becomes intoxicated of lust, greed, anger, attachment, false ego, enviousness, stubborn mindedness, and their numerous variations within the illusion.
Consequently, the individual 'self' gets caught in the illusory cycle of birth, old age, disease, and death within the illusion. This is an illusion, by which the consciousness is forgotten; emotional attachment and love of duality are born.
The ignorance of the Self, which is hidden by the universe, is the cause of dualistic illusion (Maya). The dualistic illusion (Maya) is the cause of experiencing unreality as reality. Because of this pluralistic phenomenon of illusory -vision, material happiness appears to be followed by sorrow. If there is laughter, there is a cry; if there is a birth, there is a death; if there is a rich, there is a poor; so on and so forth.
Everything in the waking or dream experience is in the state of constant flux; there can be found no everlasting happiness. The ego is in the control of evil passions, evil intent, and duality.
Everyone wishes for happiness, pleasures, joy, peace, etc. and none asks for suffering, misery, etc. But in the wake of pleasure, there comes suffering. The pleasure and pain co-exist within the illusion.
People do not understand this. Therefore, there is necessary to realize the fact that, mind, which appears as waking or dream is mere illusion.
It is the attachment to the form of separate objects which keeps one from apprehending their unity, not the seeing of them. One has to think of both form and essence, by practice he must get to the stage where he can think of both simultaneously. This is done by knowing that the form is made of consciousness, which the true self. This requires sharp intelligence and constant repetition of practices of seeing both form and essence at the same time.
False and true knowledge exists only when one talk on the base of ‘ego’: when one knows the truth, however, such classifications cannot arise because everything is then known to be consciousness, and no questions of where and how or why can arise.
One must make an effort to know consciousness as self. Consciousness is there always.
One has got it, there is nothing new to be acquired, only have the sharpness to grasp and understand it, when told about it. But there is a difference between understanding and realization.
The effort is required for this understanding only, whereas once understood no special effort is needed to remember one understands.
Until then he only has an idea of the Soul, which is in the form of consciousness he only partially understands it. But once he thoroughly grasps what it is and that all these things are consciousness, he will then constantly find it present everywhere without further effort, because he will perceive consciousness by understanding, even in the midst of the waking experience.
When there is only one thing (consciousness) known, there is nothing to change, nothing to appear or disappear; when one speaks of remembering or forgetting Consciousness that implies he believes in the existence of something else, i.e. a second thing, which is to be remembered. That would show you have not known that all is one. But knowing it, there is no second, consequently no intermittent perception of consciousness, but a permanent effortless understanding that it alone is.
When one gets a glimpse of truth mentally try to repeat it a number of times to establish it. The Self must raise itself by the Self."
Beginners and intermediates must indulge listening, reading, writing and discussing and constant reflecting on the subject. Discussing other than the Self is a waste of time. Discussion of accumulated knowledge and intellectual speculation satisfies only those who want to exhibit their skills of playing with the words.
Thus, it is better to avoid such discussions about who is more interested in exhibiting their accumulated dross and less interested in moving forward in their pursuit of truth. Only through deeper self –search on his own, one becomes receptive to the Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sri, Sankara.
The seeker has to realize the fact that, the imagination is cannot transport him or her to the non-dual destination. He has to attain to a state when he can negate all ideas and imagination, which are part of the duality [waking/dream]. Therefore, he has to know and grasp mentally the nondual witness of the three states. When this new idea of the nondual witness is formed in the subconscious, it will help to replace the old idea of the physical witness, the same way as --One thorn pulling out the other thorn and both thrown away--that is the only way. And hence seeker of truth has to “think deeply and discriminate between the base of ego and base of the soul to get uncontradictable truth “as a tip against getting mislead by others.
One has to differentiate between understanding the spiritual truth and realizing the spiritual truth. The former makes to know with certainty; the latter is ultimate realizing and final with firm conviction.
Remember
Advaitin Sage and Maya:
The King of the Hoysalas was a dualist and was greatly incensed at the doctrine taught Advaitin Sage that everything here below is an illusion. He wanted to teach the exponent of this doctrine a lesson. So he invited the then Advaitin Sage to his palace. That Advaitin sage went there and stoutly maintained that everything in this world was an illusion. The king had arranged to let loose an infuriated elephant against, Advaitin sage. The beast rushed at Advaitin sage who took to a precipitate flight to save himself.
'Oh, Venerable Sir,' shouted the king, 'why do you run so fast seeing that the elephant is only an illusion?'
'Oh, king,' said Advaitin sage in the course of his flight, 'my running too is an illusion. Everything in this world is an illusion.’
Similarly, the practical life within the practical world is mere illusion. A Gnani is fully aware of ‘what is truth’ and ‘what is untruth’. A Gnani e is fully aware of the fact that the experience of birth, life death and the pleasure and pain within the waking is merely an illusion because the waking experience itself is an illusion.
Thus, life within the waking experience will go on, on its own. It is nothing to do with the Soul the innermost Self. The waking or dream is merely an object to the formless witness. The Soul is the Self. The Soul is the witness.
The Soul the witness is nothing to do with the three states, because it is a mere witness of the coming and going of the three states or illusion. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
