Henry: What I presented as an answer to a question on non-duality and shamanism in the form of the existence of (a typical modern pseudo-“non-dual” teaching), which has been revealed to its seer/writer, has many similarities to Vedanta, which in fact is no surprise as the nature of reality simply is what it is, either seen and/or approached from this or from that point of view, so to speak (!), as is also the way to remove the ignorance of the nature of reality.
Henry, who has great personal bhakti for James, goes on to try to convince me that Vedanta is just one of many paths, a topic which I have unfolded many many times.)
Hi Henry,
The similarities pale to insignificance compared to the differences. I have a completely different opinion about Shamanism and this so-called teaching and the “seer-writer” who is responsible for it, but I don’t want to argue with you. I wouldn’t say that I am your teacher, more like a friend perhaps who knows you love and respect me. In the last few years I have just been gathering information about the nature of your mind and encouraging you to explore Vedanta. Yes, you have a spiritual vasana, but it’s pretty clear that your understanding of Vedanta and how to practice it needs a bit of work.
In fact, it may surprise you that I recommend that you drop your interest in Vedanta and continue to seek in the spiritual Maya looking for satisfaction. I’m told I’m a good teacher but I’m not nearly as good as Isvara/Maya, meaning your own mind, which will sooner or later show you that hopping around from one path to another leads to more confusion, not to freedom from the seeker.
It took a long time to tell you this because you’re a good guy and I don’t want to hurt your feelings but your whole approach is wrong. And I can’t really explain it to you because your mind tends to be opinionated, argumentative and convinced it is “right.” If you actually assimilate what Essence of Enlightenment says, as qualified people do, it wouldn’t be necessary to write this letter.
You don’t know what it means when Vedanta says because creation only happens in one way, there is only one path and because there is only one path there is only one solution. Isvara revealed and developed this simple, elegant and complete means of knowledge and shows us how it works through the teachings of the mahatmas. If you understand it properly and practice it properly it will transform your relationship to your personality. You may think you are benefitting and perhaps you are by your own standards but it doesn’t seem to me that your basic orientation to the world has changed.
The samkaras that you developed when you were young are still unconsciously driving you. It’s not your fault so there is no blame and I love you just the same but I can’t honestly continue to help you, unless you see this letter as a reasonable teaching. I know you think you love me but love is more than a feeling. It is understanding too, seeing how the object of one’s love sees things. I don’t think you understand me.
If you do you would not write these long intellectual letters trying to convince me that Shamanism and whatever so called spiritual path you’re presently attracted to is as good as Vedanta. It may be as good as Vedanta for you, but not for me. I have tirelessly explained why these modern teachings, which are just talking about something remote, are not actually teachings and don’t cut the spiritual mustard. The satsang section on ShiningWorld is an amazing testimonial to the power of Vedanta to reveal the truth and transform lives. I didn’t solicit these letters. People volunteered them.
It’s best to share personal doubts about your jiva, the world and the Self than your opinions on other paths. You don’t seem to appreciate that I’m a one trick pony and am completely uninterested in the many and varied opinions about the nature of enlightenment floating around in the modern spiritual ocean of samsara. So I wish you the best of luck and leave you with a satsang I just wrote from a qualified person that may give you an idea how to approach your desire to know the truth.
Love,
James
Dear James,
Thank you for taking the time and effort to read what I wrote to you and for your response, totally appreciated. I am fully with your response.To argue with you never was intended, neither to make any comparison. I know you are a one trick pony, and absolutely one of a kind, totally appreciated.
And yes, the full understanding of Vedanta is served by a bit of work, more than a bit. Be assured as such it has my sincere attention. Thank you to be available for me in case I might have questions, totally appreciated! I intent NOT to forget that outside Vedanta you have no interest and thus leave you fully in peace.
Grace to you 🙂
Much love, Henry
Henry: Your reply is totally appreciated and taken onboard and embraced. THANK YOU. Nevertheless I notice a misunderstanding based on over-looking the information given to you by me, which is my remark that The Presence Process lead me to Vedanta. Life can present “stepping stones” that prepare one for Vedanta, right?
James: I apologize for misunderstanding but sometimes the way you use words confuses me. It is understandable as English is your second language. Yes, all the paths should be thought of as stepping stones. Even Vedanta is a stepping stone because it negates the jiva as a unique entity. If you are taught properly and understand what negation means, you “are stepped” right off the personal self by the knowledge, never to return as a person again.
I got the impression from your initial email that you thought The Presence Process was the equivalent of Vedanta and that Michael Brown was a rishi/mahatma, which he is not according to Vedanta’s definition. That is why I included this sentence, “Vedanta says because creation only happens in one way, there is only one path and because there is only one path there is only one solution.”
One path means Self knowledge because a person’s sense of limitation is only created by a misunderstanding about the nature of the Self, which the teachings of Vedanta remove, assuming a qualified inquirer. All the three final steps of Vedanta sadhana do is remove the belief that the self is a limited entity. It doesn’t give you a “new” experience or a new identity because you are always experiencing the Self, whether you know it or not. It is your being. Isness. And the Self doesn’t need an identity because the Self is not a person. It is like a tree or a stone, although it is not unconscious or conscious for that matter (unless Maya has provided it with a body/mind). It is what it is and doesn’t think about itself.
I included the statement “creation happens in only one way, etc.” and the paragraph above explaining the uniqueness of Vedanta so you would understand what kind of issues you can profitably discuss with me. It’s natural to defend yourself but if you have questions about the uniqueness of Vedanta you are certainly free to ask.
Much love,
James
Your Heart is You But You are Not Your Heart
It’s been about a year since I last emailed you and I thank you with gratitude for your responses. I have been following your advice: “take a stand in awareness” for the past year keeping it that simple. Trusting absolutely in the self (limitless, unborn, undying ordinary awareness) . Every day, I read a portion of the Essence Of Enlightenment or go to your website and review the satsangs. I stopped reading other books on Vedanta etc…because it created more confusion than clarity.
James: Keeping it simple, daily, and exclusive is the proper way to do Self inquiry, David. I’m not surprised that you have been greatly served by this great teaching. Good for you!
A lot of the last year is spent being aware of my thoughts, feelings, actions and words. Being aware that very little of life is under the jiva’s control and that the best choice of all that arises within awareness is to gently bring this entity back towards awareness away from absorption in the jiva.
James: Yes, gently bringing one’s attention to one’s Self in an appropriate and beneficial use of jiva’s free will. Good for you!
Thoughts-emotions have now become objects, clouds floating in the sky. They come – they go. They have lost their stickiness. It seems the choice is to put my awareness on them or not. An example: a thought may arise to eat. I put my awareness on a certain food and then on cooking the food. I go back and forth between being aware of cooking or absorbed in cooking as the doing occurs. Sometimes my heart opens beautifully and from an experiential perspective there’s nothing more amazing. However from this came the dangerous pull to be in this state more and more and ultimately I tried to force it with intentionality. It became a binding vasana so I just kept going to back to taking a stand as awareness. If my heart opened then good. If it didn’t open then good. Whatever comes, comes. Whatever goes goes. Stay in awareness.
James: Seeing through the experiential trap is a great blessing, David. Good for you! And the solution is…ta ta!…taking a stand as awareness. Your “heart” is you but you, awareness, are not the heart. Being/awareness, is always open so you have nothing to gain from an open heart. When “taking a stand” is no longer necessary, the heart melts into you and ceases to exist as anything other than you.
And you are also successful because you apply the karma yoga view to your experience. Good for you! It is strange that you feel that karma yoga seems complicated because you expressed karma yoga perfectly when you said, “If my heart opened, then good. If it didn’t open, then good. Whatever comes, comes. Whatever goes goes.”
So when I read your book and get into karma yoga, it just seems all so complicated to me and has a tendency to regress me back to the doer state. I try to live the qualifications/values – it seems forced.
So here’s my basic summary: Life is a beautiful zero sum game. You can’t win. You can’t lose…you can only play.
James: That’s karma yoga, David. It neutralizes the one who seeks to gain and who fears loss.
Isvara creates the game we play and we have limited choice in the role and Isvara’s is in charge of the winning and the losing. Jivas have the joy of playing without being the determiner of the results and it’s such a beautiful gift to not control the outcome, nor people. Jivas can just play in joy without worry!
James: That’s karma yoga, David. It’s the karma yoga that removes the worry. Karma yoga is just knowledge of Isvara, the karma/dharma field. The karma/dharma field is the field of karma, life. Living universal values is the action side of karma yoga.
The ultimate jiva experience is love. This opening of the heart which can be watched or with attention immersed in. But to try and have this pushes it further away. To need and want it pushes it further away. To be the watching awareness, enjoy it when it comes and not miss it when it goes nor try to force it back.
James: Yes. As awareness you are whole and complete so there is nothing to gain and nothing to lose. Existence shining as awareness is your nature. Love is fulness, completeness. It is bliss. The Self is sat (existence), chit (consciousness), ananda (bliss). Reflected love you call the heart. It opens and it closes because it is subject to the play of the gunas. When sattva guna predominates the heart is full of you and open to everything. When rajas/tamas predominate, the heart closes. But you are love. The scripture’s words are “parama prema svarupa.” Prema means love, but not the love of objects. It means unchanging (parama) love.
I am real as reflected awareness – the jiva – but the I, me, my, mine story has lost its stickiness. It’s there and more personal than observing a tree or a car or a squirrel but it’s lost its control as the source of my happiness or sadness.
James: You are real as the reflection because one ray of light isn’t different from all rays of the sun. When you know that, nothing sticks to you. Feelings don’t stick, opinions and beliefs don’t stick, people don’t stick. Nothing sticks. You are Teflon. The next stage isto see that there is no I and mine for awareness because there is only you, awareness.
I do and there’s limited choice but I’m not the doer. More and more things have become effortless. As if it’s happening, yet there’s no me making it happen. I also have a mental process occurring that tries to avoid using I, me, my or mine when I write or converse but it seems unavoidable in expressing myself.
James: I wrote what I wrote in the paragraph above before I read your statement that you are working to remove the me and mine, which is excellent. You can’t remove the “I” because you are the “I.” There is only one “I.” There is only one true word and it is I. All modifiers don’t apply. If you only say “I” everyone understands. If you add anything, you’re in the apparent reality. Things may be true and they may not be true there. So in that world you just play.
I’m 62 ears old. I know death will come. But what dies is a temporary abode in a physical body, thoughts, feelings about people places and things. Not I which is unborn and undying.
James: Amen.
That’s where I am after a year. And it’s been a pretty amazing shift. Hoping for your thoughts.
James: My thoughts: Isvara loves you. You had the discrimination to keep it simple and do it right so you get the fruit, which is immortal bliss. Yes, these sound like big words but they aren’t big or small. They are the truth. If existence shining as awareness had a mouth, it could honestly say “I am immortal bliss.”
The next thought is: if you have a little extra dosh it would be nice if you made a contribution to ShiningWorld.
Love,
James
