[Advaita-l] ADMIN: New member introduction: Jurek

[Jurek]

Dear Srikishna
 
Your feedback is very helpful indeed, thank you.  My own naive interpretation is aligned wih the contemporary cognitive science which basically states that our illusion of being separate units of consciousness has its roots in the way the brain represents reality. New reseach seems to prove that the brain cortex at certain level of compexity (as in humas) generates model of reality based on the input from the senses. This model gets so complete, that the brain puts itself into the the representation, so that 'the person' perceives not only the outside world, but also itself in it as an acting subject. This may be close to the idea of the false ego (aham+Kara), which is like the virtual subject the brain generates to deal with the objects outside of the body. So in this simple model, the brain creates the illusion of the ego as a solid object separate from everything else, the way other objects are, like trees, houses, cars, animals, etc.  Of course the question science cannot
  address
 is how it is that this representation of the related objects and subject (as an object) makes into awareness and what is the nature of this awareness.  This is when I think advaita vedanta is difficult to beat since it says atman is brahman, which means that there is one non-differentiated real subject in whose awareness all this modelling takes place.  In this context science is not contradicting advaita, what cognitive science is trying to do is rather to explain how the subjective experience is generated based on the material elements, but it does not claim that it is possible to explain the whole process (subjective experience at the level of awareness) without assuming the exsitence of the subject whose awareness makes the subjective experience possible. They seem to be close to discover, that awareness is indispensable energy, that has to be there to open up experience. If the brain generates external objects of experience and internal object we call false ego, then by
  logical
 necessity, there has to be real awareness that can potentially collapse into this type of dream or stream of representation by identifying itself with it. I cannot read sanskrit but based on the translations of multiple verses it seems to pretty obvious to me that the differentiation of matter in our perception is only possible because awareness we really are is one. On top of this I have realization, that this awareness itself is real and non-differentiated. So at the core of your being, if  you guys like it or not, we are one. Should we be different and on top of this there will be also a supernatural being of which we as individual awareness are not a part, it would collapse the meaning of the awareness as all-encompassing. There is a short avi film on the Swami Krishnananda web page in which he explains this concept. It is about 30 seconds long, but after listening to this many times i think it covers it all. You may want to checkt it out for yourself. Sorry for the long
  entry
 but these matters are very important to me and I do not stop considering them.
 
Warmest greetings,
Jurek

Srikrishna Ghadiyaram <srikrishna_ghadiyaram at yahoo.com> wrote:
harih Om !!

Sri Jurek !!

I understand your problem clearly as I went through a
similar situation two years ago, until I listened to
lectures of Swami Dayananda of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam.
The message I got was that we must understand the
'Whole' before we can understand the 'parts' fully.
So, once the vision of 'Purna Brahman' is grasped, and
(then) when you try to see the meaning of 'That Thou
Art', you will be compelled to see that 'You' are
'PurnaH'. So, 'You' are that 'Brahman'. In Sanskrit
'aham' simply means 'I'. As we know there is only one
'I', whoever says it. The nature/expression/vritti of
mind is 'ahamkAra'. So, this aham + kAra have to be
separated by knowledge and understand that 'kara' or
'kartrutvam' does not belong to 'aham' and it belongs
to the mind.

I think the best place to read and understand this
nature of 'aham' is 'upadESa sAhasrI'.

Om Namo Narayanaya !!

Srikrishna
--- Vidyasankar Sundaresan 
wrote:
> 
> >From: Jurek 


> I do
> not feel comfortable with 
> >the concept of separatedness of jivatma from isvara
> and paramatma. 


>But I 
> >am not Hindu and cannot understand what atma in the
> Scripture means. And 
> >English translations are useless in this context,
> since the primary 
> >interpretation is already embedded in the text I
> could deal with. 




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Warm regards,
jurek


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yogas citta vritti nirodhah         
-Patanjali /YS I.2

yoga is the cessation [of identifying with] 
the fluctuations [arising within] consciousness


uddhared atmanatmanam natmanam avasadayet
atmaiva hy atmano bandhur atmaiva ripur atmanah.
-Sri Krsna /The Bhagavad Gita  6.5

Elevate the self by the self; 
do not weaken the self - 
Self is indeed the friend of the self. 
Self alone is self's foe.   
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