Student: Hi, dear James.
I was thinking about the idea of coaching or treating patients with some kind of a Vedanta-friendly psychotherapy, and it’s hard for me to see how to do that.
My understanding is that Vedanta is a very clear logical sequence in which you can’t understand one part without assimilating the other part. “Treating” people or coaching people without letting them have the full knowledge actually requires me to be out of integrity with myself and the teaching, and obviously it will be frustrating for them since they will think the problem is with them when actually the problem is that they don’t have the whole story. Vedanta talks about the ego only in the light of God. How can you resolve ego issues without them understanding the God matrix? The problem is – most people don’t want to hear about God! So how can I coach or treat them before they have the knowledge?
So the only way I see following the dharma of a Vedanta devotee is to teach Vedanta in its perfected logic.
James: Just don’t use the word “God.” God is existence: your life, your body, mind, emotions and your environment, i.e. relationships with people, plants, animals, etc. Everyone is dealing with God every minute of every day from womb to tomb whether they know it or not. It is everyone’s primary relationship.
Don’t think of yourself as a Vedanta teacher, as spiritual or anything like that. It’s not wise to compare yourself to people like me. I’m respected as a Vedanta teacher because I’ve been cultivating the skill of communicating life wisdom for fifty years, many years before you were born. I did it little by little, learning as I went. I wasn’t very skillful at first. I made a lot of mistakes, but that only inspired me to get better. Just be a caring, helping person with a certain life experience. You grow by service. Tell people what you’ve learned from your successes and failures. Teach karma yoga, which is an incredibly effective therapy, but don’t use the term. It is just practical knowledge. Your attitude toward your karma and the world around you what you do determines your happiness and success in life. Don’t “teach,” share. Transfer your enthusiasm for life to the other person.
Forget “the gunas,” just talk about energy, the three states of mind and how ignorance of your wholeness causes them. Just say that it is your experience that you are whole and complete, even though you sometimes forget and think you are small and inadequate. Forget “vasanas,” just say tendencies, habits, desires. Don’t mention “Maya,” just call it ignorance of our wholeness. Tell them that they are beautiful, that love is their nature. Love everyone you meet. Use the logic of the teachings. Logic doesn’t belong to Vedanta. It belongs to life. We just use it to awaken people to their own innate knowledge.
Of course, if you don’t feel confident with who you are and what you know – which is what I’m hearing – then you won’t be successful, no matter what you call it. Maybe you are a bit depressed? I dress like a regular person and introduce myself as James. I’m polite, friendly and helpful. People like me. If they show interest in me, I cultivate a relationship, unless I sense that they have the wrong idea about me or that their seeking is just a social role. Once they get confident that I’m a valuable person, I open up a little to see how much they are capable of knowing. Service to people is one of our most important spiritual duties. Once they trust you, you can introduce the word “Vedanta” if you like, but most Western people are suspicious of “foreign” stuff.
Vedanta works without the fancy Sanskrit words. The words don’t make you what you are; you make the words meaningful by your presence; you are just teaching you. Do you think Krishna was telling Arjuna about Vedanta? They were just friends. Arjuna thought Krishna was a successful person. He didn’t know about his spiritual side, although he felt it and had heard rumors. He wanted Krishna’s army and he wanted a successful person by his side as he faced the most important moment in his life. Krishna used regular words when he taught Arjuna. He even insulted him when he gave up on life and wouldn’t do what was necessary in the situation.
Anyway, you shouldn’t wait to help until you have confidence in the teaching. You should gain confidence by sharing what you know. If this is about the need for a job, then teaching won’t work. But even then, this wisdom is useful. There are quite a few psychologists, life coaches, etc. who are attracted to Vedanta, who see the utility of self-knowledge but are not fully committed to liberation. They are not bad people. So they help according to their capacity. I supported myself as a handyman and a petty businessperson until I was almost seventy while I cultivated my ability to communicate this great knowledge. Then one day the result of millions of dedicated thoughts and actions started to come back. As the Gita says, “With a heart that knows no otherness, keep your mind on Me alone and I will take care of your getting and keeping.”
~ Much love, James
