[Advaita-l] A beautiful story is told about a great mystic, Nagarjuna

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

On Wed 12 Jun, 2019, 3:58 PM Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> praNAms Sri Subbu prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
>
> Since it is not about vedAnta, I hope I could get the clarification from
> you about this story.  Well, watching the breathing is the technique
> adopted to improve our concentration (dhAraNa / ekAgrata), Swamy
> Vivekananda also suggested this method for improving concentration but not
> able to understand who it can be an effective tool to get vairAgya?? For
> getting vairAgya nityAnitya vastu viveka is not required??
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar
>

Namaste Bhaskarji
You could perhaps do the 10 day silent Vipassana meditation course in
Bangalore etc., where there is 9 hours or more of meditation everyday.
Several people run away on day 2 or 3 of the course!

Such a course will *totally* clarify the matter otherwise we will only
intellectualize it!

The AnA-pAna sati (Pali for their breath observation based method) does
give a sort of vairagya because, the method they follow is to allow the
arising and falling away (upejjetvA nirujyanti) of various thoughts and
emotions and most importantly vedana-s (bodily sensations). And the
meditator is asked to maintain sammA satI (Pali for samyak smRti) which is,
to be equipoised without aversion (dveSha) or attachment (rAga) to whatever
comes up. So in that sense it does strengthen vairAgya (vi-rAgasya bhAvah).
They have an elaborate theory whereby all other pains and pleasures and
vixepas are 'reductionistically' analyzed by looking at the corresponding
bodily vedana-s which arise concomittantly and then one is tasked to be
objective towards them through the breath observation and body-scan methods
they prescribe. (The method includes not only breath observation but also
body-scan methods including special focus on the spinal cord - indicative
of yoga sUtra influences. )

If a vedAntin tries it, he may find it quite nice actually, although then
he may find that it will be a case of 'necchannapi nidhidhyAsanam Eva
bhavati' for him.

Om
Raghav



>
> Nagarjuna said, "If you want that silence, that peace, that bliss, that
> arises in you when you watch your breath, then choose that. If you think
> all those diamonds and gold and silver is more valuable, then choose that.
> That is for you to choose! Who am I to interfere in your life?"
>
> The man said, "I cannot choose to be unconscious again. I have never known
> such moments. Accept me as one of your disciples, initiate me."
>
> Nagarjuna said, "I have initiated you already."
>
> Inspirational Stories
>
> Religion is based on morality & meditation. It is rooted in character & in
> consciousness.
>
> N.B: Shankara, in the BSB, has expressed a word of praise for the vairagya
> content in Buddhism. Shankara's famous policy-statement: paramatam
> apratishiddham anumatam [that  which is not contradictory to Vedanta in the
> opponent schools is admitted by us and not refuted
>
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