James, I remember you saying that our experiences are only as good as our interpretation of them. Of course that was said in a particular context to a particular audience or question. When you say we must plan our experiences to establish the mind in sattva, I get that it simply means reading scripture or sitting formally to withdraw our senses to quiet the agitation in the mind.
James: Yes, manage the gunas, do your karma, bhakti and jnana yoga.
Karl: However to what extent is our interpretation of our unplanned experiences an important factor. I think this question arises from a fear of imposing Satya over Mithya, that is being overly intellectual in approaching life.
James: Interpreting experience through the filter of an untaught dualistic mind is called samsara i.e. suffering. It puts the jiva at odds with the nature of reality. Vedanta is training one’s self to become aware of one’s dualistic bias and at the same time conditioning the mind to deliberately think from the non-dual platform until the non-dual thinking crowds out the dualistic perspective. It is difficult because the experience of duality continues once the dualistic orientation becomes non-dual owing to the fact that you, Consciousness/Awareness functions through the body. But the experience of duality is rendered impotent by the knowledge “I am the non-dual unborn Self.” The fear of superimposing is unwarranted because satya is supposed to negate mithya, if that’s what you mean by superimposing. Satya is the truth and mithya is the lie. You need to know which is which. When you know which is which,ß the lie can remain in so far as it has no impact on the truth. Only when you confuse one with the other do you suffer i.e. you take duality to be the truth and non-duality to be false. Ignorant people think the duality is the truth so they are always in conflict with the world and with themselves. Superimposition means confusing one thing for another.
