Hi Joe,
Sorry for the delay; busy as hell, all the usual stuff, plus a seminar, house guests and bad weather.
Ram: I Just finished listening to Gita video 93 on the body, and want to make sure I understand the example you gave when you held up 2 fingers in a V and then put 1 more between to show consciousness is between body / finger 1 and 2.
So does that mean all 8 Billion apparent people on the planet are really 8 billion body / light reflections of one reflection, consciousness / me? And Maya is like living in a house of mirrors at an amusement park that distorts each reflections reality (because we’re conditioned to think it’s ’me’ , as a body, getting distorted in the mirror”?).
Ram: Yes, indeed. Gold star. Go to the head of the class. Great metaphor! You’re a good writer. This satsang goes on the website.
If so, that is awe inspiring and a big help. Because I’ve been stuck at the stage you mentioned where I can recognize I am the ‘content/awareness in the borrowed ‘coke bottle’ of joe’s egoic/mind body entity yet still have struggled to square/accept how we can all be “one” non-dual impersonal, unfeeling, actionless consciousness when the body reflections seem so dynamically personal and feeling.
Ram: It’s the best help in so far as it removes the notion that there are other beings, which is the root of all conflicts. Vedanta is very simple but not easy owing to the fact that ignorance reverses the relationship between me, awareness, and my equipment, the body-mind-sense complex. It is completely counterintuitive.
Which now I think I understand is just due the how the ONE light of awareness reflects off the one eternal jiva’s three gunas and subtle body instruments showing up in the 8 Billion borrowed bodies from the material thought field at any given moment. And whether or not any jiva in the Maya house of mirrors wants to stay and obsess over trying to change their distorted reflection or use Vedanta to discover the truth about it is part of the beautiful freedom IS-wara gives us. Thoughts?
Ram: The idea of a distortion trying to undistort when the distortion is caused by a factor unknown to the distortion is laughable all right. Seems your knowledge is firming up. When beautiful intelligent ignorance goes, beautiful intelligent freedom comes. Good for you!
Much love