https://open.substack.com/pub/shiningworld/p/personal-relationships-and-vedanta?r=2ii4um&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Dear Friends,
As announced in our previous Newsletter, we have introduced a new two pronged method to our online teaching, with the intention of facilitating the assimilation of Vedanta. We will teach one format where Ramji and I, as well as on occasion other Shiningworld teachers, will impart the non-dual teachings in a more technical, scriptural format, as we usually do. The other approach will be for all the Shiningworld teachers to join in to help inquirers, whether beginners or advanced, with issues pertaining to the jiva identity, i.e., duality, or mithya. As John and Lisa Baxter are both psychologists, their professional knowledge will be of great help in this regard.
Though non-duality has no real connection to duality, the reason most inquirers get stuck at all stages of self-inquiry is usually linked to psychological issues, which impacts on or is impacted by lack of qualifications and correct values. This is in many ways, the most important part of teaching. But it is also the most difficult because egos can get in the way. It’s much easier to just teach the Self – but unfortunately, there is no way to get to that without addressing the individual first.
It’s not that the scripture is not designed to do this – obviously, it is. But we want to target lifestyle/psychological issues, specifically – with reference to the scripture. We kicked this format off last Saturday, with John introducing us to his approach to mental health with reference to Vedanta, as well as talking about dispassion in more general terms. This was followed on Sunday with my talk addressing guna management, qualifications and values. Both sessions were very productive, with excellent audience participation and feedback.
However, we decided that holding two separate online seminars every week is too much – it will lead to saturation, and possibly, poor attendance. What we have settled on is alternating the two approaches. We will do so on Sundays, at the usual time. One week we will hold more technical scripture based satsangs, and the next, more lifestyle/psychologically oriented satsangs.
This coming Sunday, we will once again focus on psychological issues, and the topic will be ‘Personal Relationships’. In this session, all the Shiningworld teachers have been invited to join in, though not all can make it this week. The idea is that this will be a collaborative effort. We also encourage anyone who has a question or a contribution to make, to do so as well. We believe that collectively we can offer many valuable insights that will benefit everyone.
To read John’s post for this Sunday, you can access it on Shiningworld website, under Satsangs: https://www.shiningworld.com/healthy-personal-relationships-part-1/. We will have several other posts from Ramji and me as well as other Shiningworld teachers on topic before this Sunday.
Much love,
Sundari and Ramji