The promise of Advaita Vedanta

[dwai]

A very interesting promise is made by Advaita Vedanta --

 

Quote

prāptasya prāpti - Attain what you already have

nivrittisya nivritti -- give up what is not yours anyway

 

This might seem very silly to most people, but this promise is very profound and has great depth to it. What does "attain what you already have" mean? It means you are already Brahman/Atman. There is really nothing to attain per se. The attainment is merely a dropping of the veil that seemed to hide your true nature. After the veil drops, you realize you were already and always that which you realized

 

What does "give up what is not yours anyway" mean? It means the world of objective reality, where you are a doer of actions and owner/possessor of things becomes apparent as just an appearance. So you give up the idea of being a doer and possessor, because you never were a separate actor or owner of "things". They were just appearances that rose and dissipated in you, the reality.

[Orion]

I enjoy Vedanta because it's really paired down and simple, yet it's not an easy system. You have to come at it already awakened to the samsara we live in, as well as the nature of presence as being different from the dualistic ego. They don't hold your hand through those basic realizations; they assume that you already have most of your preliminary spiritual "shit" dealt with. Vedanta is really the road map for once you've done all the personal psychospiritual drama and trauma work of the mind-body, and now you are on the actual pre-requisite road to enlightenment. This weeds out a lot of weaklings, woo woo new agers, and people who would otherwise suck too much energy from the tradition due to their basic-ness.

 

The other thing that I really value is that you can approach this system using the intellect because the mind is seen as a technology that can be used for the intervention of enlightenment, rather than being seen as an enemy to be silenced. You can bring all your questioning, all your intellectual ideas, and they will be met. Because Brahman is projecting himself through a mind-body and experiencing himself-as-that-person, the mind is a legitimate tool for tracking back to Reality, if you know how to use it.

 

The few high level cultivars I've come across in this tradition, they really emanated... stronger than other traditions I've seen. The difficulty with Vedanta is that because it can get deeply intellectual, it allows some minds to mimic awakening, even though they haven't attained it. I have seen this over and over in online videos of various gurus talking, often white western ones. Their words seem right, but nothing about the energy feels like, "This person's got it." But there's no other real way to tell other than to rely upon the guidance of resonance or dissonance which you feel in your own core reality.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Orion

[dwai]

52 minutes ago, Orion said:

I enjoy Vedanta because it's really paired down and simple, yet it's not an easy system. You have to come at it already awakened to the samsara we live in, as well as the nature of presence as being different from the dualistic ego. They don't hold your hand through those basic realizations; they assume that you already have most of your preliminary spiritual "shit" dealt with. Vedanta is really the road map for once you've done all the personal psychospiritual drama and trauma work of the mind-body, and now you are on the actual pre-requisite road to enlightenment. This weeds out a lot of weaklings, woo woo new agers, and people who would otherwise suck too much energy from the tradition due to their basic-ness.

There are prescriptive techniques one can follow in order to prepare for real Vedanta practice. If one's mind is scattered, practice Raja yoga. If their mind is polluted, practice selfless service via karma yoga and dedicated name remembrance (called nāmasmarana) of their deity of choice -- bhakti yoga.  Then when the mind has been cleansed, made focused like a laser, then one can start vedānta in earnest. 

52 minutes ago, Orion said:

 

The other thing that I really value is that you can approach this system using the intellect because the mind is seen as a technology that can be used for the intervention of enlightenment, rather than being seen as an enemy to be silenced. You can bring all your questioning, all your intellectual ideas, and they will be met. Because Brahman is projecting himself through a mind-body and experiencing himself-as-that-person, the mind is a legitimate tool for tracking back to Reality, if you know how to use it.

Actually Brahman is not experiencing anything. But that's a good concept to hold on to until there is no need to hold on to it.

52 minutes ago, Orion said:

The few high level cultivars I've come across in this tradition, they really emanated... stronger than other traditions I've seen. The difficulty with Vedanta is that because it can get deeply intellectual, it allows some minds to mimic awakening, even though they haven't attained it. I have seen this over and over in online videos of various gurus talking, often white western ones. Their words seem right, but nothing about the energy feels like, "This person's got it." But there's no other real way to tell other than to rely upon the guidance of resonance or dissonance which you feel in your own core reality.

Only a jñāni can know another jñāni. Others can see if their mind becomes transparent and still in the presence of the teacher. If it does happen, then they're in good hands.