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#4286 -
The Nonduality
Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Long time contributor to
the online nonduality scene and student/teacher of Advaita
Vedanta, Dhanya Moffitt, has had an article
published in Yoga International magazine.
What is Happiness
The Upanishads
show us how to recognize the source of true fulfillment
By Dhanya Moffitt
http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/YI/article.aspx?id=4022
We all want a good and
happy life. Most of our pursuits are geared toward that end. What
we may not understand is that the happiness gained through
changing experiences and actions is fleeting. The only way to
gain the lasting happiness we seek is through the recognition
that our true nature is happiness itself. This recognition is
called moksha, Self-knowledge or liberation.
The Vedas are the
world’s oldest-known scriptures. The essential subject
matter of these revered texts is happiness and the nature of your
Self. The Vedas are divided into two parts. The first part is by
far the longer and contains instructions on how to achieve the
best life possible in the world of changing experience known as
samsara.
The second part of the
Vedas is for those who have discerned that changing circumstances
cannot deliver something that lasts. This part of the Vedas
contains the Upanishads, the original source books of the
teachings of Advaita Vedanta. (Advaita means "not two,
nondual." Vedanta means "the end of the Vedas.")
The entire teaching of
Vedanta is encapsulated in the word upanishad. The Upanishads
convey the very well-ascertained knowledge (ni) of that which is
most near, the Self (upa), which brings about the disintegration
of sorrow—along with its cause—when the truth is
revealed (sad). In other words, it is Self-knowledge that
delivers lasting happiness.
The teachings of the
Upanishads tell us that the cause of sorrow is taking the
ever-present changeless Self (Atman) to be one with—and a
product of—the body, mind, and sense organs. Thus we take
who we are to be limited, subject to birth, death, and change.
Vedanta tells us this is not true. Who we are is not subject to
any of these things; rather, we are birthless, deathless,
changeless, limitless Atman. Not recognizing the Self as it
really is, we suffer.
A student of Vedanta is
guided by the teachings to distinguish between that which
doesn’t change (the Self/Atman), and that which does
(everything else). This is done through a dual process of
negation and positive assertion. "Not this, not this"
(neti,neti) is the negation of the notion that our Self has
anything to do with the body, mind, and sense organs, all of
which change. At the same time, positive assertion is used to
point out that we are "that which is changelessly
ever-present, illumining all of these."
This is not a conceptual
exercise. The teachings are pointing us to recognize directly and
without a shadow of a doubt the truth about the Self.. People
often say, "My body has changed and aged, but I feel as if I
never have." This intuitive feeling is accurate. Although
the Self has never changed, it remains undifferentiated from the
changing experiences of the body and mind until the teachings
clearly point the unchanging nature of the Self out to you.
Guided by the teachings
of Vedanta, the student examines the phenomenon of happiness in
order to ascertain its source. When we obtain a desired object,
for example, we experience a moment of pleasure. A variety of
other experiences—such as meditating, listening to music, or
watching a sunset—may also produce pleasure.
We naturally assume that
the source of our pleasure lies in the situation, experience, or
object that appears to have made us happy. Thus we keep trying to
gain those objects and replicate those situations that seem to
produce this effect. However, the same objects and situations
please some people while displeasing others. Also, what once gave
pleasure may later become a source of pain. Meditative
experiences don’t last. In short, no object or situation is,
in and of itself, a source of constant happiness at all times,
for all people, in all places. How then does the experience of
happiness arise?
The mind is composed of
thoughts. The Atman is ever-present and illumines the mind. The
nature of the Atman is pure happiness. In the instant a desire is
fulfilled the mind relaxes, and the ever-present Atman is
reflected in the mind in the form of ananda (pure happiness).
This produces a moment of pleasure.
In the next instant
another thought or desire may arise, replacing the reflected
ananda of the Atman. Rather than recognizing the Atman as the
actual source of happiness, the source of happiness is projected
out onto the changing world of objects, and we try to gain
happiness from them, an activity the scriptures compare to trying
to drink water from a mirage.
Once the Self has been
recognized as it truly is—ever-present, limitless, and
full—we no longer need to project our well-being onto
objects and experiences. We no longer need to pursue happiness;
we know our nature is happiness and we can rest in that
recognition.
There is only one Self,
one Atman. This same Self shines in the hearts and minds of all.
Step by step, as the teachings progress, using a process of logic
and reason, we come to recognize that this same Self is Brahman.
This very Self, from which the world has come, is the stable
being of the entire world of changing experience.
Everything we see,
perceive, and experience has for its actual being Atman, which is
Brahman, which is the Self alone. Once we gain this recognition
we know the truth of existence. Despite any appearance to the
contrary, all is in reality only one, nondual, advaita: one
being, one reality, one Self, which—due to the veiling power
of maya—appears to be many.
This recognition takes
place over time and through the teachings. Because the verses of
the Upanishads are terse, and their meaning difficult to
decipher, we require the guidance of a highly trained teacher who
knows how to unlock the meaning of the words, and then how to use
those words as direct pointers to the Self.
Having acknowledged that
the changing world of experience can never be a lasting source of
happiness, the Upanishads do not tell us there is something we
need to do in order to be happy. The result of any action, being
time-bound, will not provide lasting happiness. Once the Atman is
recognized as it is—limitless, full, and complete,
ever-present, never-sorrowful, and never-changing—we
don’t need to look for happiness elsewhere.
The Upanishad is the
revealer of truth. Moksha is that which is revealed. The meaning
of the revealer and the revealed is the same. When that which is
most near and dear (upa) is very well ascertained (ni), all
sorrows disintegrate—along with their cause—in the
knowledge that I am Brahman alone (sad). This is moksha—the
discovery that your true nature is happiness.
~ ~ ~
The Vedanta Column is
published in partnership with
Dhanya Moffitt
has been a student of traditional Advaita Vedanta for the past
eight years.