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#2358-
In this issue are
featured Dr. Narendra Tuli and James Braha. They each express
nonduality in different ways. Dr. Tuli teaches the Advaita
Vedanta philosophy of Adi Shankaracharya. James Braha is from the
Sailor Bob Adamson tradition.
If you like what is
posted here, you may enjoy visiting their websites where there is
lots more to see and read.
--Jerry
Vedantaquest, by
Dr. Narendra Tuli (
http://www.vedantaquest.ind.in/
Vedantaquest
is dedicated to the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Adi
Shankaracharya
'Salutations at the feet
of my most adorable Guru, who is omniscient and has, by imparting
Knowledge to me, saved me from the mammoth ocean of births and
deaths inundated with ignorance'
Photo: H.H. Swami
Vidyananda Giri Ji Maharaj
~ ~ ~
I feel that any aspirant,
in the current scenario, has an edge inasmuch as one has the
opportunity
to find an answer through the study of both - the Scientific and
the Spiritual aspects. One should
seek the answer with an open mind. The Scientific and the
Spiritual aspects are complementary to
each other in revealing the ultimate Truth.
The marriage of an
intelligent Scientific mind with Spirituality should reveal the
Truth in all its
grandeur.
~ ~ ~
I conduct the following
courses for the aspirants of Vedanta:
1. Introductory Vedanta
Course: This is a short introductory course to Vedanta. It is
aimed at
introducing the aspirant to Vedanta terminology and explain the
basic concepts of Vedanta
philosophy. The course is of 7 days duration with 2 Hrs. session
daily. Medium of instruction is
English.
2. Advanced Vedanta
Courses: These courses cover the three Prasthanas viz. the
Bhagavad Geeta, the
Brahmasutra and the Ten Upanishads along with the commentary of
Adi Shankaracharya on these three.
Each of the three Prasthanas is dealt with separately. The course
on Bhagavad Geeta is of 15 days
duration with 2 Hrs. session daily. The Brahmasutra and the
Upanishads are taken up in 30 days
courses each with 2 Hrs. session daily. The medium of instruction
is English.
3. Short Sessions and
Guest Lectures on Vedanta, in English, are also taken up on
special requests.
4. Online Vedanta
Sessions for the aspirants.
For more information on
these courses please e-mail to
http://www.vedantaquest.ind.in/
James Braha
http://www.jamesbraha.com/home.html
What Is Non
Duality?
Non-dual understanding
provides the visceral answer to the age-old question “Who am
I?”
It is the perception of
our true nature, and confirms what sages have been saying for
eons: Who we
truly are is neither mind nor body, both of which are transient
and therefore illusory. Who we are,
essentially, is consciousness or awareness.
What Can
Understanding Of Non Duality Do For Me?
Seeing this clearly does
not make us essentially different from anyone else. But it
distinctly
alters our experience. The result is a more graceful life,
greater acceptance of what is, and a
quantum reduction of psychological suffering.
More than anything, it is
the end of the perpetual search for wholeness and completeness
that forms
the background of most peoples’ lives. It is the end of the
sense of “becoming” this or “becoming”
that, as well as the seemingly never ending craving to fill the
void that began the moment we
believed our separateness.
~ ~ ~
EXCERPT FROM
CHAPTER FIVE
Never the Same
Again
*
From the age of twenty,
when I learned about meditation and enlightenment, there was one
pervasive
current of thought running through my brain. It began when I
awoke and was there until I slept. And
the intensity never lessened. It was, of course, the desire that
my sense of separateness and
incompleteness would one day be replaced by the peace or
so-called bliss of enlightenment. By my
late forties, my thinking remained unchanged except that
expectations of success had seriously
diminished. Shortly after Bob arrived, however, my worn-out
concepts of, and desires for,
liberation were replaced by the conclusion, I will never be the
same again. Indeed, that thought
became somewhat of a mantra for the five weeks of Bob’s
visit. And I heard similar reactions from
others who spent more than two or three days hearing Bob’s
non-duality teachings.
Amazingly, this was
unrelated to experience. It had only to do with understanding.
During Bob’s
visit, there was no transmission of bliss, no trance-like state
of meditation, and no tapping on
the forehead. There was simply a reaction to following Bob’s
instruction to investigate the belief
in the “me” we have all lived with since childhood. It
was a reaction to seeing clearly that the
past and future are nothing more than mental images. If past and
future are illusory, then so is
our entire existence. If past and future never happened, what
exactly did? It was a reaction to
looking within and, instead of experiencing an independent
entity, finding emptiness or “no thing.”
And it was a realization that since “no thing” has been
with me ever since birth—while absolutely
everything else about me has changed—then emptiness or
“no thing” must be who I am. That being the
case, who I really am is, and has always been, whole and
complete. That being the case, who I
really am is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.
For ten years during my
thirties, I had taken the Werner Erhard EST seminars. Werner is
not an
Advaitan, but he’s a brilliant teacher. Many times I had
heard him state emphatically, “This is it.
This is how life turned out. Stop expecting it to be different.”
He also said, “Life has no
meaning. Get used to it. Life has no meaning—and it has no
meaning that it has no meaning!” For
years, I wondered what it would be like to be able to really
comprehend such statements. Somehow,
Sailor Bob had a similar message, said in different words. But he
said them in a way I could grasp.
And it was all simple and painless. It was as if we were little
children entranced by the beautiful
blue ocean, and Bob handed us empty buckets and said, “Go
fetch me some blue water from the sea,
and watch what happens.” It was exciting beyond description.
The effects of this
understanding have ranged from changes so simple and normal they
are barely
worth mentioning to a radical shift in life. While “The
Bobs,” as we sometimes called them, were
here and visitors were streaming through our house, I was so busy—and
so excited—there was no way
to fully appreciate the changes that were occurring. A few weeks
after they left, however, I
noticed a blatant “before and after” effect. Life
before Sailor Bob and life after. The most
revealing experience, initially, occurred every time I awoke from
sleep. Before Bob, my first
thoughts upon awakening were directly connected to feeling
separate, limited, and incomplete. And
they were always accompanied by some corresponding desire that
when fulfilled would supposedly set
the problem right. There was often a sense of impending doom and
a probing of what could possibly
go wrong. This was naturally followed by a strategy of how to
control any problem or potential
predicament. Even in the best of times, there was always
something missing and always something
needed. The kicker was that no matter which desire might get
fulfilled, the feeling of separateness
and incompleteness never abated. Not even close. I could never
get enough of what would not bring
peace. Still, desires persisted. If, as they say, the definition
of insanity is doing the same
action and expecting different results, I should have been placed
in an insane asylum decades ago.
After Bob’s
teaching, waking from sleep is radically different. Instead of
feeling something is
lacking and needs fixing, there is a sense of wholeness and
completion. There is nothing missing,
no sense of “becoming,” and no worries about the
future. There is finally a sense of belonging.
Instead of a bunch of niggling, needy thoughts and desires
demanding attention, there is simply
life as is—presence awareness, moment by moment. The
experience is so normal and undramatic it is
barely worth mentioning. But it is so contrary to my previous
life it is still surprising—and it is
a relief beyond description.
http://www.jamesbraha.com/home.html