Silence is best

[Charles A. Hillig]

     First of all, I want to acknowledge Shrisha for  reminding me that
advaitic non-dualism is, by virtue of the subject matter, an untenable
position when argued from a logician's standpoint.  The moment that you say
anything about anything, you automatically imply  the existence of its
opposite and, as it was turning out in this case, it often triggers a long,
endless string of "Yes, buts..."    There would be no end to such a
conversation because it would be only more point--counterpoint.

     But pure consciousness, the Self,  has no opposite.

     The truth is that no one can be argued, reasoned or "talked into"
advaita.   After all, non-dualism flies in the face of our immediate
experience of the world.
The quintessence of Advaita is quite beyond the dualistic realms of  logic
or debate.  We can explain its tenets, but we cannot (and I think should
not) strive to convince anyone else using either inductive or deductive
reasoning.  It's a waste of time.  Advaita either resonates within them or
it doesn't.

     Avaita can only be experiential, and it has nothing to do with faith.
If you sense its truth, but still have no permanent experience of it yet,
then  you can only point the way.

     Once again, I don't think that Advaitans are ever really "argued into"
this "path."  In a sense, this "path-less path" seems to find them through
Grace.

     I can well understand why Silence was Maharshi's highest teaching!


                                                With Blessings,

                                                     Chuck Hillig