Thank you so much for your attention, words and correcting my misperceptions, you are like a mother. I read your attachment and it’s really an essential guideline. I will read it till it sticks to my life every moment and I am getting used to going slow in inquiry to understand and assimilate. Because I realized that getting impatient doesn’t have any benefit and only being an obstacle in learning this divine teaching. I need to read every sentence slowly like a poetry with love and joy.
Sundari: You are most welcome Mark it is a pleasure to assist in your self-inquiry. As I said before, if you understand the value of these teachings, you will treat them like gold, for there is nothing more valuable. They are called the Royal Secret for this reason. If you follow the steps laid out for you, you will harvest the fruit of self-inquiry, which is Self-knowledge, freedom from limitation. Nothing beats that.
Mark: Also. I want to inform you that I discovered Byron Katie while reading one of your satsangs in Shiningworld and she teaches ”The Work”. Is this teaching suitable for a Vedanta student who practices the opposite thought ”I am Awareness”?
Sundari: Vedanta makes it clear that as a teaching it does not come from anyone, which is why it is a valid and independent means of knowledge for Awareness. But an important thing to understand is that Self-knowledge is not restricted to Vedantic texts. Vedanta is not a philosophy or a path because it is the knowledge that underpins all knowledge. It is the Truth upon which all truth stands. Self-knowledge is taught in various ways in many other teachings but the problem with other teachings is that the teachers claim the teachings. And although they may contain aspects of Self-knowledge, they are not backed up by a valid and independent means of knowledge, such as the teachings of neo-Advaita. They are a mixture of ignorance and knowledge.
Ignorance is taught as knowledge because the teacher is not clear on the difference between nonduality (that which is always present and unchanging, satya) and duality, that which is always changing and not always present, mithya. This applies to Byron Katie as it does to many other well-meaning teachers. Having said that, the technique she came up with to investigate the validity of thoughts is good and definitely fits in with karma yoga, so use it. For the rest, it is best to stick with Vedanta because other teachers will only confuse you, for reasons mentioned above, as you have already experienced.
Mark: Also, when I contemplate on Isvara and satya-mithya, I like using imagination. Does imagination help to understand or is it an obstacle to see the reality as it is?
Sundari: What else is imagination but the creative application of independent thought? It is a function of the Subtle body and an aide to self-inquiry if correctly applied to it. Of course, imagination can get out of hand and become an obstacle too, if it goes off on a tangent not supported by the scripture. Self-inquiry requires a thinking mentality. But the problem is that most people have a predetermined way of thinking set by their mental filters, the vasanas, a mold into which thinking is poured and which only comes out one way—the way that fits personal filters. So thinking is very uncreative and restricted, it is very difficult to assimilate the teachings or anything else that does not fit with the personal thinking mentality.
If you do not want to think creatively, imaginatively, and independently, you take the main proposition of Vedanta: I am limitless unborn ever-free Awareness, and look at it from various points of view removing all objections to your thesis. It may make you a scholar, but not necessarily a simple person who knows the truth. Scholarship that misses the truth of the I and only adds another identity to the conceptual person. Instead of becoming simpler, you become more complex and conflicted.
Vedanta encourages you to think creatively and independently. Independent from what? From the conceptual subject/object split born of identification with the physical body, which produces suffering. And what kind of thinking is that? It is not impulsive involuntary thinking, habitual automatic thinking, or deliberate thinking. If it can be said to be thinking at all it is spontaneous thinking based on the actual experience of what you are in every moment. It is thinking based on seeing what is. Seeing is not thinking. It is experiencing.
Mark: By the way, I feel so grateful because Isvara helped me to discover Vedanta and wise teachers like you. I will work to be worthy of it. There is nothing valuable in this world than this teaching. All I must do is learning, assimilating, and being this teaching lifelong. Much love and gratitude to you and Ramji.
Sundari: You are very blessed to have found the only thing that truly matters in life so young. It is grace and grace is earned. You do not need to become worthy of anything, how can you? Anything you do to become worthy simply reinforces the doer instead of negating it. Do you think there is something you can add to yourself that will make you worthy? We teach the Self to the Self, so there is no teacher and no student. We are just instruments, mouthpieces, for Isvara. You are apparently a jiva with an ignorance problem, who is actually the Self pretending to be ignorant. We do not need you to prove anything, our only intention is to assist your inquiry, and for that, you need to be dedicated to it for your own sake, not ours. But thank you all the same for your sentiments, it is the right attitude if you want to be properly taught.
Much Love
Sundari