Dear Ram,
Mike: Thanks so much for your
insightful words. Now, I'm wondering where does
"experience" fit if it's also passing. Why did we
incarnate in the first place?
Ram: Well, it depends on who ‘we’
is. If ‘we’ is the Self
then we didn’t incarnate and there is no ‘first place.’ It is the purpose of Vedanta to help
people see that there is no incarnation and therefore that all the problems
that go along with it are not legitimate.
Experience is irrelevant to the Self.
On the other hand if
‘we’ is a person, a body/mind entity, then
experience plays a part in the quest for freedom but only in this sense: any
experience is only as spiritually valuable as one’s ability to interpret
it. And the meaning of one’s
experiences ultimately depends on one’s understanding and one’s
values. And one’s values
depend on who one is.
So the question of experience always
comes back to the one who is having experiences…the experiencer. If the experiencer does not know that it
is the Self then incarnation is always a problem. Why? Because the vasanas do
the interpreting. Vasanas
means your conditioning, your past, all the notions and ideas that you picked
up as you worked your way through life.
And since the vasanas have developed during the time when you
didn’t know that you were the Self…that is to say when you were spiritually
ignornant…they ‘interpert’
experience for you in terms of pleasure and pain, likes and dislikes. Because the vasanas are always changing
and in conflict with each other, the ‘person’, the
‘we’, is buffeted unceremoniously from (emotional) pleasure to pain
and then back to pleasure and off to pain again, ad infinitum. This leads to a lot of
confusion…which should motivate one to inquire…because people do
not want to suffer these ups and downs, these contradictions.
Most of the people offering advice
in the spiritual world are telling people that the way out of samsara is to
seek some sort of ‘transcendental’ experience or
‘state’ that lasts forever.
And they promise that this experience can either be gained by some
practices or through the ‘grace’ of a master. But as we know these experiences, this ‘grace’
never lasts. And since epiphanies
are almost always pleasurable a vasana for them develops and the person becomes
an addict of ‘spiritual’ experiences. And he or she, the ‘we,’
jumps out of the worldly trap into a spiritual snare. A trap is a trap whatever name you give
it.
So what is the way out? The way out is to see that you are not
an incarnated person, a ‘we.’
This is where the whole problem begins. But how to do that? It is hard because there is no thought
that one has thought more frequently or more consistently than the thought
“I am so and so. I come from someplace. I am this body. I am these
feelings. I am what I experience. Etc.” As
long as this thought is there life is going to be uncertain. So this thought has to be replaced by
the thought that is actually a clear reflection of who
one actually is: I am the observer, limitless awareness.
There is no better experience than
the removal of the thought “I am a person.” It is a very heavy burden. And when it is lifted one’s spirit
soars. When it is lifted and
replaced with the truth, ‘I am awareness’ one’s
‘state’ is permanent because the Self is permanent. And whatever experience one is having is
satisfactory because it is known for what it is: a temporary play of Consciousness
in the form of the vasanas.
To get rid of this notion that you
are a limited being you have to relinquish the belief that you have not
experienced enough. You have to
turn your back on the seductive idea that the experience to end all experiences
is just around the corner.
Believing in experience is like believing in jackpots. When you give up on
experience there is only one other path available…the path of
understanding.
If ignorance is the problem then
experience will not solve it because experience is not conscious. It can not tell you how to interpret it
in such a way that you realize that you are limitless Awareness. There is a strange notion that when one
permanently experiences the Self the intellect is switched off for good and you
just remain forever as the Self in some kind of no thought state. The fact is that the intellect keeps
right on thinking from womb to tomb.
God gave it to us for a good reason. Clear logical practical thinking is
absolutely necessary if you are going to crack the identity code. It is called inquiry. You want to think before realization,
during realization and after realization.
Realization is nothing more than a hard and fast conclusion that you come
to about your identity based on direct experience of the Self. Only understanding will solve the
riddle. And
understanding comes from people who understand and who have a valid means of
knowledge at their disposal. So to
be qualified for enlightenment you need to be a seeker of knowledge. This seeker is in everyone and can be
cultivated by the relationship with a proper teacher. This why we don’t need
Anyway, this is something to think
about. I could go on and on but a
friend is coming to take me out for breakfast and I have to stop the word
factory.
Ram
Jim:
I'm not going to be able to call as
planned prior to this weekend. I'll attempt a call on Sunday, and if that
doesn't work for you, I'll set up a better time next week.
As far as
Aloha,
Bear