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#3840 -
The Nonduality
Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Articles on Traditional
Advaita, Neo-Advaita, and the New Nonduality.
Traditional
Advaita with Dennis Waite
http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/q_and_a/q_and_a41.htm#q257
Traditional Advaita
versus Neo-Advaita... once more. Dennis Waite responds to
questions...
Q. With reference to
non-duality/Advaita, how do I handle a painful experience of a
great financial fake (and also self-deception) some years ago?
Since that time, there is an increasingly contempt for other
people; I am also suffering from the great financial loss, which
destroyed 90% of my reserves for my retirement years (I am 65).
What would be your advice?
A. I’m not quite
sure what you are asking. Regret and resentment are futile
emotions. The past is ‘all deception’ and ‘irredeemable’
as T. S. Eliot said. There is only, always NOW and that is where
we have to start. If you have your health, and sufficient money
to live, that is good! Total dissatisfaction with life is almost
an essential requirement for the seeker, driving him to look for
meaning elsewhere. The Self-knowledge that is gained from the
teaching of traditional Advaita brings one to the realization
that all is already, always perfect. So, as with many enquirers,
all I can suggest if it is not possible to find a suitable
teacher where you live is that you read some good books and/or
join an Egroup such as Advaitin. Certainly, there are
unscrupulous people out there who will defraud the unwary, given
the opportunity.
Q. I wanted to express my
dissatisfaction with the human condition (me inclusive of
course), which especially came up after that great deception
destroyed my reserves for old age. This resentment is tremendous
and I have great problems in handling it. I know (and like) Tony
Parsons very well, as I do Richard Sylvester and Karl Renz - for
me, they are the 'best' Advaitins; unfortunately, I have missed
the opportunity to meet Ramesh. Despite contact with them, the
'realization that all is already, always perfect' (what you are
also saying) doesn't happen for this character. Your first book I
have read (in German) and I am thinking about buying your latest
one, which is so highly recommended.
A. Unfortunately,
teachers such as you mention merely tell you ‘how it is’
without giving you any way of reaching that understanding for
yourself. What I know of Karl suggests that he may be a little
better than this but even Ramesh seemed more interested in the
lack of free will than in presenting a logical, step-by-step
approach to enlightenment. Really, only traditional Advaita has
such a methodology. Outside of
Regarding my own books
and where you seem to be, I would recommend that you wait for the
second edition of Book of One, due in April. This is much revised
from the first edition, with lots of new material. On the other
hand, Was ist Advaita was an abridged version of the first
edition. Enlightenment: The Path through the Jungle is really
about the teaching of Advaita and explaining why people like Tony
Parsons can rarely help seekers. The most comprehensive book is
Back to the Truth, which covers most of the material in Advaita
and has extracts from the work of many teachers, including those
mentioned above.
Q. You may be right with
your attitude concerning Tony and others in that they cannot show
somebody 'the way'. But is there really a way to 'teach' at all?
I will look for the second edition in April as you recommend but
have you any other recommendation(s) - except for your Back to
the Truth, which is available immediately in English or German?
A. Indeed there is a
‘way to teach’. It is called sampradAya teaching and it
has been going on for at least the past 1500 years. It has been
validated time and again throughout the generations and uses a
proven methodology originating from the scriptures. The books
that I recommend are listed at my website.
Q. Finally, can you help
me with so-called sampradAya teaching that you mention. Is there
an understandable book or paper available; the whole material is
quite unclear.
A. sampradAya is the
system of teaching whereby the methodology and understanding is
passed on from guru to disciple in an unbroken chain. Shankara is
regarded as the originator, though this was going on before his
time anyway, stretching back to before the upaniShad-s were
written down. I am only aware of one book specifically on this
topic but it is very good. See also Wikipedia for general
information about sampradAya.
Neo-Advaita with
Richard Sylvester
http://www.richardsylvester.com/
Drink Tea, Eat
Cake
When liberation is seen,
life becomes less complicated. All the stories that have fuelled
our life drop away and we are left with the simplicity of this.
In that simplicity, the small and ordinary things in life may
really be enjoyed at last. I am often asked for advice and I
usually refuse to give it. But if I were to give advice, it would
be to relax and enjoy whatever simple things you like doing,
because until the everyday can be enjoyed, the miracle of this is
being missed.
In Zen they say “Before
liberation, hew wood and draw water. After liberation, hew wood
and draw water.” I prefer “Before liberation, drink tea
and eat cake. After liberation, drink tea and eat cake.” But
they add up to the same. Ultimately it is seen that there is no
difference. Before liberation and after liberation, being asleep
and being awake, are the same thing.
In liberation it is seen
that the individual that we think we are is simply an appearance.
At our heart and at the heart of everything is undifferentiated
Being from which all differences appear. There is no self, no
individual, no person.
The most common
misconception about liberation is that it is something an
individual can gain. But liberation is a loss - the loss of the
sense that there ever was a separate individual who could choose
to do something to bring about liberation.
When it is seen that
there is no separation, the sense of vulnerability and fear that
attaches to the individual falls away and what is left is the
wonder of life just happening. Instead of meaning there is a
squirrel motionless on a grey tree trunk, legs splayed, head up,
looking straight at you. Instead of purpose there is the
astonishing texture of cat's fur or the incredible way an ant
crawls over a twig.
When the sensation that I am in control of my life and must make it happen ends, then life i
Many teachers of
non-duality suggest that there is someone who can do something to
heal their sense of separation; in other words that there is a
person who is able to discover that they are not a person. The
absurdity of this idea is often camouflaged by highly complex and
subtle thinking.
Teachings about
non-duality frequently present the seductive idea that liberation
can be realised through an evolutionary spiritual path. This has
no actual connection with non-duality but it can offer us a
convincing, although meaningless, story about it.
Any way of searching may lead to a person being more comfortable.
That is fine but it is all that you get - a person who is more
comfortable in their prison. If you are in prison, it’s far
better to be comfortable but that doesn’t get the person out
of the prison they perceive themselves to be in.
Nothing will get the
person out of their prison because the person is the prison. When
the person drops away, it is seen that there never was a prison
in the first place.
Then it is seen that
‘I’ and ‘you’ are the light in which
everything arises.
The New
Nonduality: The Nonduality Movement
Jerry Katz
In these times, both
traditional and neo-Advaita exist in the matrix known as the new
nonduality and they spread throughout the matrix thus creating
what I call The Nonduality Movement.
The New Nonduality is in
fact The Nonduality Movement. It is a matrix made up of every
field of human endeavor. What moves through it, thus creating
it, is the teaching of nonduality (usually along with a form
of the word nonduality).
The word
"nonduality" or one of its forms -- nondual,
nondualism, nondualistic, nondualist -- serves as a marker
revealing the movement.
Comparing the search
engine results for the word nonduality now and yesterday, it is
clear that the teaching of nonduality has "moved." It
has diffused.
My eyes these days are on
The Nonduality Movement in Western culture. We have seen the
movement happen on the Internet. It began in its most direct
form in the latter part of the 19th Century, which is when we
find the first uses of the forms of the word nonduality. Prior to
the Internet, there were many gurus and teachings that have
advanced nondual teachings, yet one couldn't say for sure that
there was ever a Nonduality Movement during those decades.
We are in the midst of
The Nonduality Movement. It means that the teaching of
nonduality, in one form or another, through its diffusion,
propagation, circulation, is finding everyone who is open minded
about human potential and about who they truly are and why
they are alive. That audience consists of the spiritual
mainstream and everyone else who questions what they're doing,
how they're doing it, and what is behind what they are doing.
The Nonduality Movement
is huge and significant. I'd appreciate any comments.
-Jerry