dwai

What's good for the goose might not be good for the gander...or so the saying goes. Some need to disentangle the ego, others need to work on something else. What I've come to learn is this - In this path, to even understand what nonduality means (really understand) is a difficult thing for most of us. And as our spiritual maturity grows our understanding also grows, and can even change, sometimes even reverse! So until the proverbial fruit fully ripens and falls off the branch, it is a constant process of ripening. That is what our life is...a continuous ripening process.

it's quite the opposite imho. Yang expands till there's nothing left to expand. Yin contracts till there's nothing left to contract. End result is that there is nothing...emptiness. This dualistic world is predicated upon the duality of yin and yang, positive and negative. There is no such predicate for the primordial to exist (calling it one is also wrong, it is just not-dual). So if I took the logic route, even then, if I take anything to infinity, it becomes nothing. Be it infinite expansion or infinite contraction...

I used to practice vedic astrology myself (and have reference B.V. Raman's books). My teacher was my late paternal grandfather, who learnt Astrology (among other things) by sitting at the feet of a sadhu who spent his time meditating in a shmashana (cremation ground). He taught me that there are two aspects to Astrology. One is the calculation part, which is logic. The other is the mystical part, which is really a form of attuning with something greater than ourselves. He was very good at this..and had made many successful and strange predictions (he never charged any money for it and made horoscopes and predictions to help friends out). Not everyone has the gift...and I feel it is genetically transmitted. My dad had it. My sister has it. I have it (though I don't exercise it). I feel the "muhurta" is a point in space-time that we can use as a reference with which to enter the "stream" of happenings (with the intention of making predictions). In my case, it was strange because I'd just know. Some rules had been laid out per the system, but I'd just know what was going to happen. I've not practiced in more than 15 years...and let go of all these when I started my spiritual journey in earnest. These are props and we can't really do anything to alter the wheels that the almighty has set in motion...we can just stop swimming against the stream and flow....

What happens to "Yang" if it continues to expands? What happens to "yin" if it continues to compress?

That which is looking is the eternal witness...the "I Am". The seeker is the mind, conditioned and limited. The "I Am" is the portal to emptiness...

You see, I view that to be a withdrawal from the external (subject-object world, of which the body is also a part) to internal (subject only world, which is the domain of consciousness). Ultimately yes, the body is also a conceptual object in the consciousness matrix, but relatively it is true..hence a limiting adjunct. For there would be no reason for a relative (one can only conjecture) from the already absolute. This traversal, from unlimited to limited and then back again to unlimited, is the role of the limiting adjunct and also considered in the domain of avidya.

Because the body is born and dies...so while we have a body, we have to (most of us at least) live by the rules that govern it's functioning...

Before we know it, it is complicated. After we know it, it is simple perhaps?

The body is one of the limiting adjuncts (upadhi) we have to live with...and the body is in the domain of dualism... https://advaitasadhana.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/what-is-उपाधि-upadhi-limiting-adjunct/

In his system, Shiva is the primary deity, and is called Adiyogi - The Primordial Yogi.

There is no speculation in direct experience. Only those who have not experienced tend to speculate.

SadGuru is an interesting character...and an unabashed maverick. I found his presentation of "emptiness" very interesting...

There is a big misconception about what the "Hindu" view is. Often this mistaken position ascribed to "Hindu" thought is juxtaposed with the "Buddhist" view and then vigorously debated (which is also equally pointless mental acrobatics)... First, that which is "looking" is a primordial emptiness that is full of potentiality. When the seeker realizes this, the clinging and aversion to poles (good, bad; right, wrong; pain, pleasure...etc etc) disappear. In this absence of positions is freedom. This is the Advaita Hindu view (Vedanta). There are different nuances in different traditions - shaivism or Vedanta, Tantra etc. But end goal is cessation of suffering. This is not the Dvaita (dualistic view), where grace of the deity provides a "state" of blissful union or subservience...(ultimately none other than that primordial emptiness - who is our very own Self, and ever present as the timeless presence). The dualist is not ready to forsake experience, whereas the nondualist knows that the experience is nothing but a taste of the infinity that he/she already is. So which strawman do you want to tear down? Better to stick with practice...IMHO

I had thought of posting a reply earlier, with intention of augmenting what you wrote. So here goes - all imho.... Classical Advaita Vedanta involves reading the bhashyas, the karikas, the upanishads as the "jnana" part of the process. There is the "thinking" part of it..vichara (not necessarily atma vichara yet)... All the pronouncements of why just dropping the mind is sufficient to become "enlightened" (by Neo-Advaitins) is akin to closing one's eyes and shooting in the dark, with the hope that the right target will be hit (bad analogy, i know). But that said, there are those who get "awakened" without prior experience/knowledge. That has to do with their previous lives and what karma phala they have acquired (prarabdha). Ramana Maharshi was a rare exception to whom the transformation happened suddenly and then he read all the material to correlate what'd happened to him with a narrative. And even someone like him or Nisargadatta Maharaj were able to perhaps enlighten a fraction of those who came to them over the years. So seekers should take Sri Krishna's advice to heart - "Karmanye vadhikaraste, ma phaleshu kadachana" --

That depends on the definition of "mind"...

just ignore. they don't have any power over us...if we don't give them any attention.

I find what's working for me now (it didn't earlier) is to turn the mind back into the witness. The witness observes without attaching. So the mind turned back onto the witness seems to have the effect of stilling the mind itself. It still flutters this instant or another...but overall rests in the witness. Here I find the "attachments" don't exist. If the mind reacts to something (attachment or aversion), returning to the witness brings it back to non-attachment (letting go). Albeit, sometimes it is harder than other times. But i'm realizing, that with time and constant practice (of resting the mind in the witness), it becomes easier to guide the mind back there... You have articulated this much better than I can, so thanks

I suggest this version -- http://web.archive.org/web/20110106053646/http://home.pages.at/onkellotus/TTK/English_Chung-yuan_TTK.html

+1 for the first chapter.

I want to create three sub-forums in my PPF. 1) Taijiquan 2) Daoist Meditation and Advaita Vedanta 3) Philosophical ruminations Thanks, Dwai

(these were refusing to be posted) ;-)

For me, right means from a practical practitioner perspective, rather than a literal translation perspective. The DDJ is a practical guide to non-duality and conducive to first acquire the knowledge, meditate on the knowledge and then discard the knowledge once the Dao is known experientially.

The power of letting go. Even letting go of questions themselves. It is in line with "not occupied, not blocked" that we refer to in Taijiquan. If the mind is not occupied with a question, it is not blocked to receive the answer.

Thanks Kar3n, All the Taiji, Push hands related threads to the Taijiquan sub-forum. I'll know the rest when you move these Best would be if I had the privileges to move stuff around (only in that PPF) - if it was possible to do that...

Okay so now how do I move existing threads from the main PPF to these sub-forums? Is that something that is possible?