Essence of Advaita

[Greg Goode]

At 02:17 PM 12/28/97 +0100, Miguel Angel Carrasco wrote:

>IIf, being the Absolute, I can^Òt
>change, then why bother at all to speak about enlightenment? Who would be
>enlightened? Why seeking for truth? Who would find it? Why speaking about
>anything at all? Why on earth am I writing this post?

Why?  Lila!  Don't look for anything more profound.  If you feel you must
find the answers to these kinds of questions, perhaps you can find a living
teacher.  You know, as Nanda Kumar (I believe it was he) asked on this list
a while ago:

     Guru Wanted.

This is why many Vedanta teachers don't expose their students to the
highest non-dualist teachings till the necessary mental, emotional,
educational distillation has taken place (via karma and bhakti yogas) --
advaita can be really hard to understand!

Have you read the Yogavashista or the Mandukya Upanishad or the Ashtavakra
Samhita?

--Greg Goode
>From ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU Mon Dec 29 01:11:28 1997
Message-Id: <MON.29.DEC.1997.011128.0500.ADVAITAL at TAMU.EDU>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 01:11:28 -0500
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From: Greg Goode <goode at DPW.COM>
Subject: Re: Essence of Advaita
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        ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU
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Miguel,

Dan's reply (below) to your question reminds me:  He himself has written a
book that deals with the same subject: living in the here and now, free of
memory, free of anticipation, free of concepts, free of ego.  Some teachers
consider this state, if it persists, to be enlightenment itself.

So, if the list will excuse me (it's not orthodox advaita vedanta), I will
plug Dan's book:

     _The_Sacred_Portable_Now_, (forgot the publisher), c1997.

It's a good book, and will allow you to keep from being obsessed by
thoughts, questions and answers.

--Greg Goode


At 09:57 PM 12/28/97 EST, DSingerny wrote:

>Here's a tip from my the archives of my own journey:
>When I leave my apartment, and open the door to the outside, the sun might be
>very bright (for example) and the heat very strong. Meeting it there is a
pure
>experience of sensation. There is a spontaneous stopping of thought, but
then,
>"thought" or "concept" would enter and  internally say "Gee, it's hot!" or "I
>forgot my sunglasses".  So there is this momentary window in consciousness, a
>space or a gap between the actual experience of meeting the phenomenon and
>then, the "thinking ABOUT the phenomenon".  Abiding in this gap is one way
>that I just allow the condition of "be quiet" to arise. It is different from
>the play of ideas or notions.