[Advaita-l] Inward and outward contemplation

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Wed, 25 Aug 2021, Ven Balakrishnan via Advaita-l wrote:

> The thrust of Gaudapada and Sankara is to regard the world - and most 
> particularly the body-mind - as unreal, illlusory.


Incidently I am uncomfortable with the use of words like illusion and 
unreal.  They suggest to the English speaker the idea of falsehood; that 
the world is some kind of mental construct.  As far as I know the only 
major Indian darshan that believed this was the Bauddhas and only the 
Vignanavadis amongst them.  Although it is a little unwieldy, I prefer to 
talk of lower-order reality.  After all, vyavaharika satya is still satya, 
just a lesser kind.  Atleast we should say it is delusion not illusion.

Other than this quibble though, I agree with you.

> Ramana’s ‘who am I’  is doing just this.

Contemplating thus will lead one to the realization that what was 
conventionally thought of as "I" is also delusion just like the 
world-appearance. "who am I" is an upasana for coming to that conclusion.

Shastras contain many other upasanas.  We can also (note also not instead) 
profitably ask "who is the Sun", "who are the five fires", "who is the 
Gayatri mantra" etc. etc.


On Wed, 25 Aug 2021, H S Chandramouli wrote:

> As per the Advaita Sidhanta advanced by Sri Bhagavatpada,  Realization is
> possible ONLY through  जीवब्रह्मैक्यज्ञानम् (jIvabrahmaikya j~nAnam).
> "inward" contemplation  is compulsory.

Yes.

> Reg  <<  It
> should defintely include inward focus but sometimes I think it gets
> forgotten that Brahman is "pervades all this and ten fingers beyond" as
> the purushasukta puts it.  The root bR^inn from which brahman is derived
> also means growth or increase.  Brahman is as much "out there" as "in
> here." >>
>
> But for successful  "inward" contemplation leading to जीवब्रह्मैक्यज
> (jIvabrahmaikya j~nAnam), Vairagya is an essential sAdhana. This is 
aided by
> जगन्मिथ्यात्वज्ञानम् (jaganmithyAtvaj~nAnam). It is essential to understand
> what is “out there” is mithyA.
>

Yes.  What I am trying to get at is that to do this one must rigourously 
inquire "what is it that is out there".  As a question, this is on the 
same level as "who am I"


> Reg  << Some experience a massive collapse of sense of self
> where one seems to be nothing at all >>,
>
> This does not represent Realization.
>

Shakyamuni described his experience as nirvana, "snuffing out" like as a 
flame that is extinguished.  No wonder Gaudapadacharya says that though he 
may have been dvipadAnAm varam ("The best of men".  Literally "of the 
two-footed.") he did not understand the truth.


> Reg  << Others have an equally massive
> expansion of consciousness where one becomes everything >>,
>
> This indeed is Realization.
>

if jnana is only jIvabrahmaikyam than how to get from there to "becoming 
everything"?  There must jagadbrahmaikyam too no?

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>