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#3284 - Tuesday, September 9, 2008
- Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Prior to the I Am: The End of Self Consciousness: I Am That I Am Part 3.
Stephen Wolinsky
http://www.netinetifilms.com/index.html (order all DVDs and experience a guided meditation)
http://www.youtube.com/user/NetiNetiFilms (watch video samples)
http://www.amazon.com/Prior-I-Am-Self-Consciousness/dp/B000PSRLP4/ref=cm_cr-mr-img (order this DVD)
Review by Jerry Katz
This video features Stephen Wolinsky
serving up his understanding of Nisargadatta Maharaj's most
profound teachings. Two points of power are noted in this DVD.
One is Nisargadatta Maharaj's confession of the primordial
advaita. The other is 9 minutes of footage of Nisargadatta
speaking to a group of people in his home.
POINT OF POWER 1 - THE PRIMORDIAL ADVAITA
In this video teacher Stephen Wolinsky says that Nisargadatta
called "prior to the I Am" the primordial advaita.
Stephen says, "Even the sense of beingness as well as
presence, and witnessing, awaring, is part of the I Am and an
illusion. Prior to the I am, in the primordial advaita, they are
not."
The primordial advaita is a power point because there's nowhere
else to go from there. It is "prior to." Today's
teachings that are classified as neo-advaita speak from
"prior to." Primordial advaita is Nisargadatta's
version of neo-advaita.
"My words, if planted in you, will remove all other words
and concepts," Nisargadatta said. That's all neo-advaita
confessions or the confessions of "prior to," of
primordial advaita, can do. And they can do it. This DVD can do
it.
Primordial advaita is a power point within this production.
Through Wolinsky's explanations and meditations, you are brought
to where you can confess the primordial advaita yourself, if you
are inclined to.
If Nisargadatta's words can become planted in you, or have become
planted in you, then Wolinsky is like a growth stimulator of
planted words, whether the gardener was Nisargadatta, Tony
Parsons, Bob Adamson, or anyone. Any guru. We learn from
Nisargadatta in his own words that, "Gurus are like
milestones. It is natural to move from one to another."
Primordial advaita, or "prior to the I Am," is one
thematic power point.
POWER POINT 2 - FILM OF NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ:
The other notable power point consists of nine minutes of footage
of Nisargadatta Maharaj speaking to a group of men and women.
This film takes the DVD out of the hands of Wolinsky and leaves
you with Nisargadatta himself.
I thought the 9 minutes with Nisargadatta was very much like
being with him. He was speaking to a roomful of Indian men and
women. There was no translator, so the interaction seemed more
direct, relaxed, and naturally paced. The natural sounds within
the room, Nisargadatta's voice, the noises from busy street
outside added to the reality and intimacy. The subtitles are very
good. I love how Nisargadatta laughed with the people as though
something common was shared about being human. I sensed that in
his laughter Nisargadatta revealed all "this" as a
humor-evoking magic trick.
OTHER POINTS OF POWER:
--Wolinsky addresses these comments by Nisargadatta which we see
him speaking in authentic footage: "You have faith that you
are. On what does it depend on? The faith that you are ... nobody
investigates on these lengths. Why is there beingness? How am I?
Why am I? On what does it depend on?"
--You may have sudden insights, as when Wolinsky tells you,
"Even the space between two thoughts is not it. Actually,
the space between two thoughts and the thoughts themselves are
made of the same substance."
--I enjoyed the discourse on truthiness: "Truthiness is a
satirical term coined by Stephen Colbert in reference to the
quality by which a person claims to know something intuitively,
instinctively, or `from the gut' without regard to evidence,
logic, facts, or intellectual examination. Truthiness is used as
an appeal to emotion and comfort." (Wikipedia). Wolinsky
says, "What gurus say feels good but you need to
differentiate between what they're saying and what you're
feeling. First, is the information accurate? Faith is not
enough." Later on, he says, "People fall in love with
their perception of the personality. Most people don't know the
teacher and the teacher doesn't know them. They don't know what's
going on in the guru's life. You're missing the point by
attracting to the teacher, the sadhana, the practices."
--Deconstructing Deconstruction: Wolinsky teaches,
"Witnessing, beingness, awareness, and presence are all
functions of the I Am; they either happen or they do not. They
are not you. The are `states' which are I Am dependent, and hence
illusions to be discarded."
--Meditations. There are a few meditations through which you are
led by Wolinsky. Here is a fragment of one on deconstructing
deconstruction:
"Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions,
your associations, your perceptions, is there a logos, no logos
or neither? Notice the knower or awarer or the witness of the
logos/no logos, source/no source dichotomy, and the witness. What
happens if the witness or the knower of the logos/no logos
dichotomy, and the dichotomy itself happen through a biochemical
reaction in the abstraction process, but there are no
chemicals?" He repeats this meditation with several other
dichotomies, such as path, plan, purpose, self, emptiness, void.
At end he says, to "keep part of your awareness `back there'
beyond knowing, beyond yes and no. When you open your eyes part
of your awareness can be here."
CONCLUSION:
Stephen Wolinsky is brilliant in two ways in this DVD. First, he
goes as far as any teaching can go, it seems, by deconstructing
deconstruction. Second, he's not simply confessing the
"state" of primordial advaita, as neo-advaitins do, or
as the Avadhuta Gita does, a scripture he refers to at the end of
the video; he's explaining the primordial advaita very, very
carefully, repetitively, clearly, borrowing seriously from
Nagarjuna's eight negations. He's leading you to the experience
of primordial advaita through meditations. There is no state and
no experience of primordial advaita, but those words are used.
There are four DVDs in the Nisargadatta/Wolinsky series. If you
are comfortable with the teachings of the Avadhuta Gita and you
don't mind hearing that the witness, the `source', the I Am are
illusions to be discarded, then start with this DVD. Watch all
four if you want a penetrating course in nonduality, the essence
of advaita, and the teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Prior to the I Am: The End of Self Consciousness: I Am That I Am Part 3.
Stephen Wolinsky
http://www.netinetifilms.com/index.html (order all DVDs and experience a guided meditation) http://www.youtube.com/user/NetiNetiFilms (watch video samples) http://www.amazon.com/Prior-I-Am-Self-Consciousness/dp/B000PSRLP4/ref=cm_cr-mr-img (order this DVD