[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Watch "Mahavakya Viveka - Panchadasi (Part 1) | Swami Sarvapriyananda" on YouTube

[Kuntimaddi Sadananda]

On Saturday, September 12, 2020, 05:32:22 PM EDT, 'davesx' via advaitin <advaitin at googlegroups.com> wrote:
 

Manana is a prerequisite preparation for the mind to eventually fall silent creating the open space for the grace of Self-Awareness to strike. This is beyond the self-identity, the individual's choice, effort, and comprehension. 
------------PraNAmsBelow is my understanding. 
An Advaitic state is not necessarily thoughtless state. It is in spite of the presence or absence of thought. Kena says 'pratibhodha viditam matam' The consciousness is revealed in every thought. Perception involves that every thought that is formed unites with the consciousness that I am for me to be conscious of the thought (see Vedanta Paribhasha in terms of perceptuality condition). The meditation involves then shifting the mind from the contents of the thought to that which reveals the thought. It is like looking at the full moon in the night, and while seeing the moonlight shifting the attention from the moonlight to the sunlight that is reflected and expressed as the moonlight. I need the moon (similar to the thought) for reflection of the sunlight and without the moon present, I cannot RECOGNIZE the presence of the sunlight where the moon is. In the same way, looking at the thought, I have to recognize using the mind only that which illumines the thought.
To do this subtle shifting of the mind from the thought contents to the at which illumines the thought, the mind needs have Viveka or discriminative faculty that differentiates that which is eternal (illuminating consciousness) to that ephemeral (thought that arises in the mind). 
Thoughtless mind is also an object only - not different from the thoughtless mind. The pure consciousness has to illumine that mind (chidaabhaasa) for me (using the same mind) to recognize that because of which I am conscious of the thoughtless mind. Without reflecting medium (RM in the Paramarthanandaji words) one cannot recognize the all-pervading consciousness (OC of original consciousness). In essence, the mind is required even to say I am not the mind. Without the mind (thoughtless or thoughtful) there is no realization also since realization is also within vyaavahaarika satyam. 

Hari Om!Sadananda