D GAP X FACING WALL

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 Almost 30% of physicians retire between the ages of 60 and 65. An additional 12% of doctors hang up their white coat for good before their 60th birthday

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MORTAL DREAM 

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I practice being aware, and verbal thought disappeared mostly. Still, this awareness feels very personal, there is no feeling of oneness. What is the next step?

Letting go of an “I” that wants a ‘next step.’ :-)

“Who” wants a next step? “Who” wants a feeling of Oneness? Doesn’t identifying or catering to a separate “I” that wants these things immediately confer duality instead of Oneness?

“You” are a dream-character, and “your” function is to dream in separateness. Oneness is already doing Oneness. It doesn’t need you to emulate that.

If the ilusory “I” that wants Oneness and wants ‘next steps’ ever collapses (a non-event that does not take place in time and which “you,” absolutely, cannot ‘cause,’) all there will be is Oneness, or Being. It’s all there has ever been…and it’s not “your” concern.

Unless you are still clinging to being an “I,” chasing after experiences and ‘spiritual progress.’ 🙏🏻

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प्रभु वो नहीं देते जो आपको अच्छा लगता है, प्रभु वो देते हैं जो आपके लिए अच्छा होता है ...

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Is it possible that I am shuttling between the two viewpoints? When I am the Witness/Void, I am in Ajaata-vada viewpoint? When I get pulled out by the mind and get involved in the drama, then I am in Drishti-Srishti-vada? Thanks!

 

Answer:

Drishti Srishti Vaad:

• • Is a clear understanding that one is the Witnessing void
  • There is an underlying belief that Brahman functions as the mind and projects one’s illusory world.
  • The world is an illusion but the illusion still exists.
  • The Witnessing and the witnessed arise and fall together.
  • There is a subtle duality still existing between the witness and the witnessed.
  • This is a less radical stage/approach than Ajata.

 

Ajaata Vaad:

• • There is the recognition of the Primordial Void. [Brahman/Shunyata].
  • There is 100% clarity that the world does not exist.
  • It is a higher understanding that sets in only when one becomes 100% clear that there is only Brahman/Shunyata and nothing else.
  • There is no shuttling there because duality is completely overcome.
  • Ramana Maharshi said that personally, his understanding was that of Ajaata Vaad and the only medium of instruction at that level is total silence.

 

In both Vaads, the recognition of ‘I am Brahman’ is clear for the Sadhak [spiritualist].

When one is involved in the Samsaric drama, one has moved back to Avidya [Ignorance] dear. He is neither in Drishti-Srishti nor Ajaata, not even in Srishti-Drishti, as there is no witnessing happening there at all.

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RM 

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"Thoughts," declares Pujya Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji, "are things. They dictate our actions and our emotions. We act based on what we think and our emotional state is determined by our state of mind. So our thoughts are the steering wheel directing our life — our outer life and our inner life.

"Most of the thoughts we have, we’ve ALREADY had! We keep thinking the same types of things. So we know exactly where this thought of jealousy or resentment is going to take us. To misery. So if you know where the vehicle is going and it’s a place you DON’T want to go, you very simply have to just make sure not to get on it. When a thought arises that is going somewhere you DON’T want to go, just wave it by like you would wave to the driver of the bus that you DON’T want to get on.

"Think carefully about which “Thought Vehicles” you get on!"

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Adi Shankara in his commentary on the 12th Mantra of Isha Upanishad says those who devote themselves to Prakriti fall into darkness. Why do Shaktas and Smartas still claim Goddess Durga can bestow moksha?

If you study Vivekachoodamani of Adi Śankarāchārya properly from verse 96 to 118, you'll get a clear idea what prakriti really is..

The divine Prakriti above avyakta and saguna ishvara is the supreme mother worshipped by Adi Shankaracharya himself in the divine form of Soundarya Lahari, whereas Maya mohiṭa prakriti (Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.10) is the delusional illusion of the universe.

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EB 

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If the Brahman has no qualities, then whose quality does Satchitananda refer to?

Prasad Krishnan

A student of Advaita Vedantha, learning it in the traditional manner from teachers who themselves have had traditional teachers, ad infinitum. The aim of Advaita is not to deliver any special experience but to remove the emotional dependencies of the individual on the world (i.e.people, things, and circumstances).8y

Suggestion: Find a teacher who can teach Advaita systematically. Please do see Prasad Krishnan's answer to Are there any approachable gurus today who have experienced the state of Samaadhi? for who might be a qualified teacher of Vedanta.

Answer (worth only as a inspiration for Suggestion): Sat-chit-ananda are not Brahman's qualities. Qualities or attributes in Vedanta are viewed as limitations pertaining to objects, subject to change. Brahman is not an object. Sat-chit-ananda are what are called "Swarupa Lakshana" in Advaita. Roughly translated, this means "Non-controvertible or innate characterising definitions". These words act as pointer's to the Self (atman) or Brahman.

The word "Sat" corresponds to "existence", indicating the "non-dual is-ness" of Brahman. It means that Brahman is the only real thing to which the word "is" can be associated to. For example, if you say, "There is a shirt", then the argument may be raised, "The shirt is really just threads stitched together. How can we say the shirt is? Only the threads are. The shirt is merely an appearance of the threads in a particular way". Thus, the "is-ness" of the shirt is now moved to the isness of the threads. Further we may see the the threads are made of some material, etc. and further and further we may move the isness into subtler things.

Brahman or Atman is revealed in Vedanta to be pure consciousness which gives the is-ness of everything. It is the original "being", the original existence.

The word "Chit" corresponds to the Pure Consciousness which is unadulterated by the body-mind. Brahman is the Self or Consciousness which is untainted by the vagaries of the body-mind. In the shirt example above, it appears as though we will end up with an absolute material fundamental existence. But Vedanta reveals that the fundamental existence is Consciousness which is the real self (not tainted by the body-mind). To affirm the existence of anything material, one needs the subject, the self. The self however is self-illumined, self-revealed, self-affirmed, needing no other. Thus that which is the original "being" is also the same as the self-revealed consciousness.

The word "Ananda" corresponds to Purnatvam or fulfillment or unalloyed happiness. This is not the pleasure that one feels when one enjoys an ice-cream, or any such sense-object. It is merely indicating the limitless nature of the Self. The self, being the subject, is different from all objects. One notices the passing of time, the passing of objects, the spatial-limitations of objects, their attributes (which are also limitations) etc. But the "noticer", the "witness" itself is never subject to all these things. In the presence of objects, the Self is. In the absence of objects, the Self is. The Self is the objectifier of time, it is not subject to time. Because all limitations pertain to object, the Vedantic revelation that the Self is PurNa, ever-full, never lacking anything, holds good. This very same PurNatvam, this ever-full nature, is called Ananta (limitless) or Ananda (ever-fulfilled) nature of the Self.

Thus, these "non-controvertible or innate characterising definitions" point to Brahman. However one may have the question - "But Advaita says Brahman cannot be defined, neti-neti, "not-this, not-this", it negates". For this, please take the Suggestion. As an addendum also see Self Abidance's answer to this question. It is short and best and addresses this particular question. (Sadly it is collapsed because Quora says the name is not verified).

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A bacterium won’t be upset about its pear-shaped body; no one will ever study the psychology of a microorganism. But there will be a tiny glow of experience.

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Consciousness changes across the lifespan — becoming richer as we grow from a fetus into a teenager and mature into an adult with a fully developed cortex.

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Consciousness cannot spread over the universe like a thin veneer of jam; there has to be a point where my consciousness ends and yours begins.

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Maharajji isn’t done with us. He’s still at work or, perhaps more accurately, he’s still at play. His dance continues in some surprising and unexpected ways.

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Who is Lord Rama? Is he the avatar of Lord Vishnu or the supreme lord of the universe above even Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh?

Lord Rama is an incarnation of Lord Sriman Narayan, the supreme. So with this Lord Rama is also revered as supreme lord Para Brahman Param Purusha.

Lord Rama is the seventh avatar of Shri Hari Narayan/MahaVishnu. He is complete Narayan.

Vishnu decends to earth in Treta Yuga and was called Raghunandan Shri Rama who was born to Dashratha and Kaushalya during this avatar and was married to Sita who is MahaLakshmi only. Lakshman, Shanta, Bharat, Shatrugan were the siblings of Shri Rama. Lakshman was non other than Shri Hari priya Sheshnaag on whom Shri Hari rests.

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The satguru takes you from living in duality— the realm of pleasure and pain, good and evil, rich and poor—to Sub Ek, where it’s All One, where form merges into the formless.

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As I walked out the door, I saw Maharajji to the right of the building. I definitely saw his form; it wasn’t like a ghost or anything. He was standing and smiling and just being. I looked again and he beamed this giant smile. I’d heard stories that masters can come back and show themselves to you. I was young in the yoga world, so I didn’t know what to do. I literally just smiled and drove away. I didn’t tell anybody. I haven’t been to Ananda in quite a while. I don’t remember where that gas station is, but Maharajji grabbed me there. Now I’ve grown to have a relationship with him. When my life fell apart, I would sit with Maharajji’s picture and talk with him, yell at him, cry to him. I knew he was supporting me, and I knew that I needed to deal with whatever I was going through. I feel him. I hear him. I know he’s here.

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CLISS

Really,

Maybe,

The greatest

Liberation

Of all

Is that

There are no

Special ones.

You no longer

Look to anyone

For Answers.

You no longer

Expect any answers.

It's pretty fucking obvious

There are no answers.

And then,

You don't know

What you're

Left with,

Or what's left,

When there aren't

Any answers.

And that is

No Answer.

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My eyes were closed, but there he was right in front of me, and he said, “Laugh!” It jolted me out of the meditative space. I asked my friend, who was sitting nearby, “This guy in a blanket, a friendly-looking man, who is he?” I had seen his photo. He said, “You mean Neem Karoli Baba?” “I don’t know, maybe. He’s still here! He’s like right here.”

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