Already That

 

So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self, you are already that. The fact is, you are ignorant of your blissful state. Ignorance supervenes and draws a veil over the pure Self which is bliss. Attempts are directed only to remove this veil of ignorance which is only wrong knowledge. The wrong knowledge is the false identification of the Self with the body and mind. The false identification must go and then the Self alone remains. Therefore realization is for everyone: there is no difference between the aspirants. The very doubt you can realize and the "I - have-not-realized"  are themselves the obstacles.  Be free of obstacles. 

Ramana Maharshi

I just listened to a timely and captivating lecture on the nondual Vedanta's view of knowing and being, offered by Swami Sarvapriyandanda (who I never heard of until today).  On my way home,  after a trip to the ophthalmologist's office for further Glaucoma testing, I was feeling "unsteady". I was holding onto my side as if that would somehow make the pain there go away. I have been overwhelmed by the circumstances unfolding around me and in me lately . Vulnerable, would be a good descriptive word to use here.  I felt "unsafe"  as I often do when I am driving, especially in a vehicle in desperate need of an inspection,  that seemed to be pulling to the left while the  big Exclamation mark flashed on the dashboard. I have, as I have written,  been feeling like I was losing control over so many things in " my life"  lately beyond what 'my' car was doing, 'my' eye was doing, and what 'my' body was doing. Stuffed things are bubbling up from the bottom of me and boiling over as I deal with the many "going ons" affecting this version of Life I call "me".  "My" experience of life is not a pleasant one these days. So I prayed as I drove  for some comfort, some ease and I wondered why I just cannot seem to find it. Am I not doing things right in my attempt to realize Self/no-self?  Am I not prioritizing what is really important by taking the spiritual path towards enlightenment?  Isn't it suppose to be easier when we do that?  I have come so far in my understanding, haven't I? Am I not supposed to be feeling peace no matter what at this point? I just felt so "unsteady". So I prayed for both comfort and answers.

As if my prayer was being answered, when I got home I felt greatly pulled to YouTube and to the video linked below entitled simply, Knowing and Being. It was exactly what I needed. The teaching offered, based on Advaita Vedanta, the non-dual school of Hindu philosophy is so much like the learning I have received from Buddhism. They line up beautifully. 

In the Shadow

Swami Sarvapriyananda began by reciting a line from T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Man: Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow. I realized instantly that I have been living in the shadow. I am living, like so many, in the gap between knowing and being. I have been doing the self-help thing since I was a teenager and doing the heavy duty spiritual practice for over a decade by embracing Eastern Philosophy.  I have been reading, listening,  studying and practicing it but I don't seem to be manifesting anything beyond the "knowing". Why is that? 

The more you "know" the bigger the gap gets between knowing and being..

I failed to remember that I do not need to know in order to be, because knowing is being. 

All efforts at self improvement are just fine.  They help to tune down the madness so you don't appear so mad...but...it doesn't cure us from this madness. 

Already That

None of our physical world and externally directed actions will get us what we really want. The solution for all of  Life's so called problems  is indeed enlightenment,  Self-Realization and Knowing who we really are.  But the thing is, regardless if we know it or not...we are already that which we seek to become....we are that. Tat Taum Asi. Nondual Vedanta, just like Buddhism, teaches that knowing is being. You are already that whom you seek to be ( divine), everything is already alright, you already have all the things within you to be complete and happy...you just don't see it and you just don't see you as you really are. We are simply lost in illusion and delusion and tend to be overly attached to that which isn't real.  If we want to experience realty, to "be"...we just have to remove the veil of ignorance Maharshi speaks of in the above quote. 

Enlightenment does not make you  Brahman. You are Brahman but your goal is to come to see it and be it. Knowing is being. 

Swami tells a story about the lion cub who after losing his mother in a hunt shortly after his birth is raised by lambs.  He grows up believing he is a lamb.  He eats grass like a lamb.  He bleets like a lamb.  He timidly runs from predators like a lamb.  Then one day another lion spots him in the pack of sheep and captures him.  He tries to convince the young lion that he is a lion not a sheep but all the younger lion says in return is, "Baa! Baa! Please don't eat me big scary lion. Baa! Baa!" . Taking him to the river, the other lion forces the young lion to look at his reflection in the water comparing it to his own and then he forces him to roar. To his utter surprise and delight, the young lion realizes who he really is...a lion, king of the jungle.

Moral of this story? Even when the lion thought he was a lamb...he was a lion.  He was always a lion. He was just delusional operating in a world of illusions.  Believing he was a lamb, did not make him a lamb. Being told he was a lion, didn't make him a lion, He was already one. Looking at his reflection in the water didn't make him a lion...he was already one. Hearing himself roar didn't make him a lion.  He was already one. All these things did was help him to realize who he always was. Enlightenment won't make us beings closer to God...it will just help us to realize we were always beings close to God. 

Two Major Components of Enlightenment

The lecture goes on to discuss the nature of enlightenment as having two major components.  The first component is what Swami referred to as, The Paradigm Shift. Here we shift from a body-mind focus to enlightened awareness where the problems of "me" disappear.  You see, it is only the body and only the mind that has the problems, right?  All "problems" belong to this realm, don't they?  It is in the body that we have physical pain and illness, aging and death.  It is in the mind that we have the concept of pain and suffering, limitation, of unpleasant, of anger and grief etc?  When we shift to pure awareness there are no problems because we go beyond the limitations of body and mind. 

The second component of enlightenment is the ethical manifestation aspect. There seems to be certain expectations of those who are fully evolved, Self-realized or enlightened. These beings are said to be selfless, fearless, peaceful, kind and compassionate to all, loving of all equally, possessing great wisdom, and serene.  Because they have solved all their problems forever, they are believed to be free. 

In order to be truly enlightened we must not only have shifted our knowledge and awareness, we must be living as an enlightened person as demonstrated in the second component. If we say we have realized Self but are still slipping into reactions all the time with others, getting angry, grumbling and complaining; if we are still clinging to material world things, still attached to body and mind in anyway...we are not truly enlightened.  We may be able to teach like we are...but in truth we are not. 

An enlightened being gives away their right to grumble and complain

Non-Dual Vedanta

The goal of nondual Vedanta, swami teaches, is to become free while living. Until we not only "know" who we are but  live as fully actualized beings,  we will continue to suffer. We achieve true Self-realization through 1) obtaining knowledge of reality 2) eradicating deep seated desires ( attachment to the external world) and 3) deep absorption or samadhi ( getting beyond ego)

Attaining all three of these simultaneously is the ultimate goal and it is said by doing this that we will have true liberation...freedom from suffering and bliss. 

For many of us the first part...attaining the knowledge is the easiest of the three and where many of us are stuck.  I know I am.  I mean I have not attained true realization by any means but I do know I am not this body or mind and that the world around me is illusionary.  I know there is so much more than this that I perceive with my five senses but man, I still suffer.  Why?  Because, I am still trapped by desire, by preferences, by my attachment to this world of form.  And I have not reached anywhere close to samadhi. I have not attained all three levels. So Life, doing what Life does, keeps throwing things in this direction and I keep reacting to them. I suffer. And oddly,  the fact that I have more knowledge now than I did before I first started this journey  seems to create even more suffering in me. It is like I am (the intellect) riding an elephant. The intellect knows what it wants and where it wants to go but the untrained elephant doesn't always agree with my directions.  It has other things it wants. Until I train it with repetition and practice it is going to continue to take me for a ride instead of us travelling as "one".

I walk away from this talk knowing I  need to up my yoga practice, all limbs of it, if I want to end this sense of suffering once and for all.  Starting at Samadhi, I need to work my way down to niyamas and yamas(rules of conduct) .  Swami has a lot to say about pranayama which is interesting and he goes beyond controlling the breath in his discussion to "steadying the being"... anyway.  It is interesting.

So much was gained from this lecture that I cannot transcribe here.  Please watch it for yourself.

All is well in my world.

Swami Sarvapriyananda/ Vedanta Society of Southern California  (n.d.) Knowing and Being. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSbTaIDYTb0