dwai

If we consider the average lifespan of a person to be 75-80 years, we spend 15+ years in getting an education. If one gets a bachelor's degree, one's around 22 when they graduate. Then we start to make a living -- work from 22 through 65 (avg. retirement age). We spend ~ 81% of the estimated lifespan getting knocked about in this samsara, in institutions such as schools, offices, etc. By the time one retires, one has reached almost the end of one's life. People tell themselves and each other the story that you study hard, work hard, save money for your retirement and then you can enjoy life. What life?!? What enjoyment?!? Old age brings diseases as the organism is disintegrating slowly. The years of living the life of "hard knocks" (for most of us, who aren't born with, cutlery made of noble metals, in their mouths), also takes its toll...disintegrating the body, depleting the energy we need to be able the "enjoy" the said mythical retirement! Leave aside all ideas of "peace", "happiness" and "Satisfaction". What will bring us happiness? Satisfaction? Material possessions? Wealth? A House? A car? We spend our lives worrying about ourselves, our offspring, our future, their future. We swing violently between past and future, rarely even knowing what it is like to live in the present. True freedom exists in the present moment...right here, right now. How many even know this? How many of us have even experienced what it feels like to be free from the bondage of this world? This vacillation between the past and the future? To crave things that we think will give us happiness (mistaking pleasures for happiness) and the run away from those that we think will give us sorrow (mistaking pain of having the pleasures taken away as sorrow)? This craving for pleasure and cringing at pain is the root of all suffering in this world! If we don't start early and teach our children and youngsters this truth, if we keep filling their heads with the ideas that somehow material success in this society is the way to be happy, peaceful and contented, we are perpetuating this cycle of suffering. There IS NO heaven, there IS NO hell except for what we make in our own minds. How does one break this cycle of enslavement? Think about this my friends...

The prison is only a prison as long as the illusion remains. Once the illusion is gone, there is freedom

A philosopher sage friend of mine, used to teach philosophy at Stony Brook in NY. He described a scenario where when talking to one of his students he asked "what does the word mother evoke in your mind"? She replied "the word - Mother". She did not visualize her mother, a motherly figure or even a woman! Just the word - Mother. According to him, this can also be culturally based. His website covers this topic -- http://www.biocultural.org/biocultures.html http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/i_es/i_es_denic_neural_frameset.htm

The door is illusory too

Or just remain present and let the yin and yang to manifest in whatever way they manifest as empty phenomena?

Yes I too have felt that discussing this subject too much churns the mind and pulls one back into mental mode.

Yes. Dvaita is what the world appears to be. In fact, it is a necessary precondition for material existence (as we know our universe to be). It's root is the duality of the poles (Purusha/Prakriti, Yang/Yin and so on). So in order to realize the non duality (advaita) nature of reality, one must work within the boundaries of duality, until sufficient work has been done to catapult us out of duality. For some (in one lifetime) it never happens. That is also within the framework of the duality we operate in. For others it happens in a fraction of an instant. All this we are doing (reading, posting, debating, discussing, meditating, etc) are all part of work being done.

It is also called "tad ekam evadvitiyam". It means existence and non-existence, permanence and impermanence have no meaning from that Perspective. NOTE: Corrected the statement "tad ekam nadvitiyam to Tad ekam evadvitiyam" (meaning that one, without a second...I had misquoted it)

Atman cannot become an object of the mind. Whatever the senses and mind finds as an object, in process of inquiry, is discarded as "not this, not this", until eventually one gets emptiness. That is why there is a difference between jiva and atman in Vedanta. You should go back and re-read the ten principal upanishads and also read texts like yoga vasishta, if you have doubts. Again note, I am not referring to dvaita interpretations of upanishads. which only deal with jiva and ishwara duality.

Adam's Taiji is very good and very authentic. They teach a good foundation and build on that. Don't know the folks in Milwaukee but I did take a 1 month look at adam's material online (for sake of curiosity) and it is very solid. Be prepared to do a lot of standing.

First, the Buddha did not create "buddhism". What is called Buddhism was formulated into a separate system after the death of Gautama Buddha. And Vedanta says Brahman and Atman are one and the same. We use the term Brahman when referring to the universe/multiverse. It is unknowable, ineffable, empty and full of potentiality, out of which all phenomena arise, and into which all phenomena collapse. We use Atman when referring to the fact that all that is known, knowable or unknown are from a purely subjective source, which is our inner-most being (Atman...Self). But the Atman itself is unknowable and ineffable, empty and yet full of potentiality. Therefore Atman is none other than Brahman. Since being Non-dual, there can be not be two "unknown unknowable emptinesses".

Reflexology

No they were not neophytes and nothing needs to be "discarded". But they were not contradicting each other either. Because the Buddha refused to label that which is beyond the non-self. What Vedantic masters call "atman" is not a limited beingness. It is none other than what they call Brahman (the empty yet full source of everything). It is beyond all duality, so beyond self and no-self. call it what you may,..it's your choice.

Anything "fundamentalist" implies a closed mind. A mind that has already decided what is right and what is wrong. Such a mind cannot be liberated from dualism or from the world of appearances. Such a mind can only imagine to know God. In order to know God, to feel the presence, one has to let go of positions of this and that, good and bad, right and wrong. To be here now is the way to become present. To become present is the way to know God.

Even your self, you can't take it personally. It simply is ;P

Love it! Thanks for sharing... Beautifully articulated... "Stop taking the universe personally!" "The universe does not take sides."

It's okay. Most people live their lives out and not realize this. You are doing better than 99.99% of humanity, imho The next part is to realize that there's nothing to be done in that regard if you don't have another alternative. Just continue with what you are doing, but don't be "invested" in it beyond the action needed to sustain yourself/life, etc. Best of luck.

https://www.lionsroar.com/discover-your-innermost-awareness/

All of the above or which ever combination works best for you. IMHO, it eventually becomes all of the above.

Found this website with the original Sanskrit verses, with translations in Hindi as well as English. https://sites.google.com/site/vedicscripturesinc/home/ashtavakragita

That is one reason. Other is as spotless mentioned, imho. The joy of not-doing

You articulate it so much better than I do