Questioner: I have a question regarding niddhidhyasana. It is described as a way of assimilating knowledge gained in Shravana, the first stage of Vedanta. Is there any technique for assimilating knowledge?
Rory: This is actually a great question because nididhyasana is such an important topic. The first two stages of Vedanta, shravana and manana, listening and reasoning, are actually pretty simple as long as you have a good teacher capable of unfolding the teaching and answering any questions or doubts that arise.
Nididhyasana can be a little trickier. Whereas the first two stages work according to a set curriculum and have a certain duration in time — you start ‘learning’ Vedanta and gradually the vision of Truth becomes firmly established in the mind—the third stage is an open-ended one. In fact, some teachers suggest that nididhyasana ought to be an ongoing process; something we should keep up in some form for the duration of the incarnation.
Ignorance is so hard-wired and such a slippery customer that the moment we declared we’re “all done!”, there’s often a ‘fall’ of some kind around the corner; a fall into ignorance, that is—and usually at this stage the form ignorance takes gets subtler and subtler until it’s often impercetible to the mind. As Ramji’s guru, the great Swami Chinmayananda used to say; “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. This basically means keeping up with our nididhyasana in some form even when we’re no longer students or seekers as such.
Some translate the word nididhyasana as ‘meditation’, but I think ‘contemplation’ is a more apt word. It basically means continuing to apply the logic of the teaching, and specifically the knowledge “I am awareness”, to the mind on a consistent basis. The purpose of Vedanta is to reorient our sense of identity from the jiva, the conceptual mind/body/ego entity, to the awareness/consciousness in which it is perceived.
This is a mighty, mighty undertaking for the simple reason that ignorance is so deeply entrenched.
Even though you may be intellectually convinced of the truth that you are awareness, the mind will naturally default to identification with the body-mind-sense complex, and so it takes an almost Herculean effort to shift that sense of identification to the ever-present, yet invariably overlooked light that is our own awareness/consciousness/existence. It’s rather like training a puppy. It might be the simplest of commands, but you can never underestimate the puppy’s—or the mind’s—obstinance and resistance to change! The key to training the mind is persistence, perseverance and repetition. Basically, we keep at it and at it until the knowlege takes root.
Nididhyasana can take many forms.
Most people find it useful to continue exposing the mind to the teaching for an extended duration. This may involve watching/listening to seminars, reading Vedantic books and scriptures, commentaries and satsangs, etc. While at this point you may not be ‘learning’ any longer, what you’re doing is actively keeping the knowledge alive in the mind. Even a few minutes a day can make a big difference. Instead of getting up in the morning and reading the morning papers, which is basically a headlong dive into samsara, a healthier habit would be to read or watch some Vedanta over your morning coffee. What better way to set the mind up for the day? If you haven’t already, finding some way to incorporate Vedanta into the structure of your day will pay great dividends.
Something I found particularly helpful at all stages was to keep journals or notebooks. In the initial stages, while listening to the teaching, I would jot down what I felt were the key points or “lightbulb” moments. I also liked going through the scriptures and copying out verses and sections that I particularly liked. I also found it helpful writing things out in my own words, simply and concisely. This really helps integrate the knoweldge into the mind. These notebooks quickly become treasuries of Self-knowledge, and wonderful to have to hand so you can leaf through them again and again.
Part of the reason moksa is rarely instantaneous for the vast majority of people is that the mind contains many layers of ignorance accumulated over many lifetimes. Avidya (self-ignorance) is a tough nut to crack! Accordingly, a large part of your nididhyasana may involve learning to deal with the mind and its various vasanas and samskaras and to recondition it in the light of Self-knowledge.
It’s worth noting that enlightenment isn’t about perfecting the mind. Nothing in mithya is perfectable because this is a realm of apparent duality. For the purposes of liberation, the key is to distinguish satya from mithya, the Real from the seemingly real. This in itself won’t instanetously wash away every last samskara, although it does have a great neutralising effect. Issues may still arise in the subtle body, but you find it easier to remain as the Witness and not get pulled into identification and reactivity. Self-knowledge naturally brings with it an increasing sense of dispassion with regard to the world and its imperfections, and over time this automatically tends to neutralise binding vasanas.
However, because we want to taste the full fruits of Self-knowledge, part of nididhyasana may involve actively polishing the mirror of the mind, allowing a clearer ‘reflection’ of our true nature as pure awareness/consciousness to shine.
So, it pays to be aware when binding vasanas arise, or what we call pratibandikas— stubborn pockets of ignorance arising in the form of self-limiting thoughts, beliefs or emotions—our “stuff” basically; psychological triggers and compulsions that may lead to actions not always aligned with our dharma. Once we’ve identified these root thoughts and patterns, we can then resolve them by holding them up to the light of Self-knowledge.
I’ve found journalling to be a great tool and I recommend it to everyone. Whenever you find the mind agitated, anxious or depressed, you can take that as a sign that self-ignorance is at play. First of all, you need to identify the offending thought pattern, belief, or emotion (emotions are invariably the body’s physiological response to thought), then get it down on paper and apply self-inquiry. When you see these patterns as impersonal mechanisms based upon ignorance you can adopt the perspective of the Self and see that all suffering is based upon the erroneous delusion of separation and duality.
A key Vedantic technique is to employ what we call pratipaksha bhavana, which means seeing from the perspective of the Self and adopting the opposite thought. Thought by thought, we discard notions of lack and limitation and replace them with thoughts of wholeness and completeness. As our thinking changes and comes into alignment with the Truth of what we are, we begin to taste the deep satisfication and fulfilment of knowing ourselves to be limitless and whole. Over time, we begin to notice fewer issues and triggers coming up for the mind, and vasanas that previously held a binding quality often unravel by themselves, becoming preferences rather than compulsions.
Incidentally, I wrote an article pulling together a number of tools and techniques I found particularly helpful for dealing with vasanas and managing the mind. You can check it out here: https://www.unbrokenself.com/mind-management-101/
I’d argue that another component of nididhyasana, particularly in the earlier stages, is keeping the mind pure and qualified. This is an essential prerequisite for Vedanta working in the first place, and something that a lot of people tend to skimp on—much to their detriment. This can be a challenge for many, especially given the turbulence and adharmic qualities of our society and basic conditioning. When the mind is qualified, however, Vedanta works its magic pretty much by itself. Shankara likens it to an acid slowly eating away at the metal of ignorance. We really do make the process so much simpler and easier by ensuring that the mind remains discriminating and dispassionate, with the senses held in check and our values rigidly aligned with dharma.
Depending on what’s going on in our lives, it’s possible for these qualifications to wax and wane somewhat, but part of our commitment to our dharma as inquirers is to endeavour to keep those qualifications in place. It really is the determining factor between ‘success’ and ‘failure’ when it comes to moksa. That’s why people often find it necessary to continue their practice of karma yoga, managing the gunas and also upasana yoga, or worship of the divine. Eventually karma yoga becomes somewhat irrelevent because you realise that rather than something you apply to the mind, it is simply Knowledge, and you find yourself naturally acting out of service to Isvara while remaining unattached to the results, which are Isvara’s domain alone.
Many enlightened people continue to worship Isvara through prayer and devotional offerings (puja). This is something a lot of Western seekers shy away from, but it may be the extent of some people’s nididhyasana. Worshipping Isvara in whatever way appeals is an excellent way to keep the jiva’s ego in check by recognising that everything in the phenomenal world is in fact Isvara and belongs solely to Isvara. Because all forms of Isvara are but symbols of the one Self, the Truth of our being, worshipping Isvara helps keep the mind directed to its source and therefore aids nididhyasana beautifully.
Questioner: How do we know that the knowledge has been assimilated?
Rory: Swami Paramarthananda has a cute analogy. He likens nididhyasana to adding sugar to tea. In order to taste the sugar, it’s necessary to stir it in, otherwise it will just sit on the bottom and the tea will remain such as it is. Nididhyasana is, therefore, the act of stirring the knowledge into the mind; by both actively applying it to the mind and continuing to neutralise any obstructions in the form of ignorance and pratibandikas.
How will you know when the knowledge has been assimilated? You will taste the sweetness for yourself. You’ll find the samsaric world losing its hold over you and experience yourself as lit from within by a wonderful sense of wholeness, confidence, steadiness and peace. The outer world ceases to pull you in as once it did and you finally feel able to stop seeking fulfilment from objects because you feel so utterly happy and contented in yourself. Seeking falls away and you find yourself living simply and happilly, enjoying what pleasures come your way while remaining unattached and unperturbed when things don’t go your way.
The Bhagavad Gita provides a wonderful snapshot of how the enlightened see and experience life in the latter verses of chapter two. It serves as a neat checklist and will help evaluate how well the Knowledge is ‘sticking’. As long as the mind is turbulent and disturbed it’s a sign that more work is needed to integrate the Knowledge. There’s really no yardstick for how long this takes. It really depends upon each individual’s karma.
I hope that answers your questions.
