Wisdom Teachings of Nonduality with Ira Schepetin #2

you can everyone can remain quiet I'll just do a short prayer and then we'll begin Sadashiva samaarambhaam Shankar Acharya madhyama asmath aachaarya paryanthaam vande guru paramparam guru brahma guru vishnu guru devo maheswara guru sakshat parabrahma tasmai sri-gurave namah om shanti shanti shanti okay so the case does anybody here who was not here last time and just as a short review just some of the points a few of the points that were brought up in the last class so that I can continue from there we mentioned that these talks were called ancient wisdom teachings and those teachings were basically the teachings of a bunch of texts that collectively are called the Upanishads they're the most ancient of all philosophical spiritual texts in the East and the question was what relevance does such ancient texts have for us in modern times when we've learned so much more about the world and how it works and things that in ancient times they couldn't have known what relevance does it still have for us and we bought I brought up the point that these teachings are based on everybody's every human beings common Universal experience they can be verified in each of our own experience in the same that the people in the eighth century the people at the time of Christ and the people 800 BC when these teachings first were being promulgated that same experience that they were talking about is available to everyone here and now because these experiences and the writings by which they were written down don't constitute some type of revelation from an omniscient being that we must accept on faith it's not a dogmatic theology that we could you couldn't either believe it or not believe it but it has nothing to do with your experience nor is it a teaching about some ancient times some Yogi's maybe they had some special experiences because they were meditating and they were doing mantras and all sorts of magical stuff and and they were able to produce experiences that we don't have and based on those mystical experiences these teachings came about but they this teaching this ancient teaching is not based on any mystical experience it's based on the common everyday universal experience regardless of whether you're an Indian an American an African a male a female the only requirement is being human this is the common experience of all humanity that's what the basis of this teaching is so that was one kind of unique point about it the teaching has to be within everyone's own experience and whatever is claimed has to be verifiable by your own experience if this teaching were to say fire is called because that contradicts everyone's experience fire is hot we universally experience it like that we would have to reject that it's not really because it's an ancient teaching if it says something contrary to our experience it's not to be accepted that's one important point so what does this teaching that's based on everyone's common experience ultimately teach and I said last week it teaches that there's just one reality and other than that reality there is no other second reality it is odd victim vitam it is without a second it is called sat-chit-ananda meaning that reality which were going to be able to verify in our own experience exists beyond time and space is pure consciousness with no objects in it and is bliss not caused by anything and that's such it and under absolute reality which is one without a second this ancient teaching says you whoever you are whoever you think you are your most inner and deepest nature that inner self in every being is that non-dual infinite bliss you are that taught pharmacy that's the essential teaching it's a teaching that we're not to accepted for any other reason that we can verify it and let me just say another thing about verify it somebody could say that there's a heaven and you can verify it when when you go to heaven then you'll verify it but you can't verify it now that type of verification is not within anyone's experience it's just a hope and a prayer but here that truth that you are that unborn undying ever-blissful self that can be realized right here right now in this life and that realization the truth of that put an end to the misconception about ourselves that we are finite temporary suffering beings in our true nature now this satchitananda this one reality which you which we all are no words can describe this whatever were it's not a thing and words can describe things that have qualities but this reality has no qualities it has no relation because there's no second thing it has no way of conceiving it so the mind can't grasp it words can't describe it the mind can't grasp it so if there is such a reality that I have to verify in my own experience that I'm not aware of right now obviously how is it that these ancient wisdom teachings are able to convey to the person who has a desire to know about this how can it convey to them the truth that they are that reality in spite of the fact that no word can describe it and the mind can't think of it whatever you think of is not it whatever concept you bring up of it is not it so I said last time there was a method that these ancient teachings these Upanishads utilize so that we in our own experience here and now can verify the truth of the teaching and I said that that method can be described as in the beginning merely for the purpose of teaching that truth certain things are said but in the end of the teaching those very things that were taught in the beginning uh negated this is the one methodology that all the Upanishads every Upanishads when it teaches this truth in the end whatever it says it negates it if you study the Upanishads these ancient wisdom teachings you'll find teachings about the seer and the seen you'll find teachings about the universal and the particular you'll find teachings about that which is changing and that which is unchanging you'll find teachings about the five sheets you'll find teachings about you are ignorant and you have to get self-knowledge you'll find teachings that the self has to be known and that your're knower and endless other methods that I can't fully exhaust the methods are only are almost endless but there's just one method taking a variety of forms because in the end there's no seer and scene if there was reality wouldn't be Nandu there's nothing coming and going and another thing that's remaining that gets negated if it didn't do ality would be real they can't be anyone ignorant and some people who are not ignorant because then duality would be real that reality can't be known but it says you have to know that reality then it says it can't be known whatever it says in the beginning it negates that very thing nobody ever knew the self if they did they'd be a knower of the self the self would be an object known and it wouldn't be a comedy with iam one without a second which is the highest teaching the final teaching of these texts you are that non dual reality you don't have to know it you can't know it no one ever knew it but the beginning of the teaching is etat though brahma jijnasa we must inquire into the nature of that it begins like that but it ends with neti neti not this not this so there are so many varieties of this method and this is what's actually called the tradition of Vedanta this is the parampara how the teacher teaches the student this method slowly in steps and then that student now knowing the method he's in the sampradaya in the parampara parampara means what has come down teacher to student shankara's cherien one of the greatest writers on this ancient wisdom teachings writes Assam per day Aveda pea service Astra vid more Kivar opium he says even if a person has memorized all the scriptures he knows the whole Upanishads by heart he can recite all 700 verses of big eateth he knows all 555 sutras of the Brahma sutras if he knows all the scriptures if he doesn't know this method of Vedanta whatever is said in the beginning is only for the purpose of teaching in the end it must get negated if he doesn't know that method more kaha a Vulpix iam he says he should be ignored as though he were an ignoramus a fool Morka this is the tradition of Vedanta every Upanishads this methodology even though the varieties are different it's the same method whatever is said for the purpose of teaching in the end because nothing is really needed to make the self or reality brahmin known when you negate everything that it's not when everything else is negated including the knower the knowing the known if you can remove every phenomenal object that self would self shining self illumined self established which doesn't need anything to make it known because it's in the light of that self that everything is known but it doesn't need another light to light itself up all that needs to be done is to negate other than the negation of the phenomenal manifold there is no other way to teach this truth but before that negation many things are said have been given you that as an introduction I'm now going to move on to one particular Punisher this ancient teaching wisdom teaching the Manuka Upanishads is not the oldest of the Upanishads but nor is it the biggest in fact it's the smallest of all the Upanishads it only has 12 verses some of the Upanishads have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of verses big books pretty ronica chandogya are massive but what is taught in those big books is only one thing that there's just one reality without a second they have no other ultimate purpose that same teaching is taught in all the other upon assurance and it is taught in the most concise way in the smallest of the Upanishads the man dukhia Upanishads the whole of this ancient wisdom teachings are contained within these twelve verses if a person could understand the meaning of these l versus correctly there'd be no need to study any other text any other scripture to go to any other guru all that's required is to understand by verifying the teaching in your own experience that's what I mean by understand if you were able to do that the whole goal of these ancient teachings would have been achieved this man Dukie Upanishad the name is kind of funny there's somewhat of a debate about it it's one idea is that it's the name of an ancient Rishi an ancient sage an ancient seer because even the Rishi's are not said to be the ones who came up with this teaching but that it was that infinite consciousness which when they turn their minds towards that it revealed itself to them so in a certain sense this is a revealed knowledge to the Rishi's but not just to the Rishi's because that same infinite consciousness is in us if we are willing to turn our minds back the same apologetic wisdom will be revealed to us in the same way so these Rishi's they became the poet sages who composed the different two Punishers that contained this teaching about the one reality which is the self of all that is infinite unborn bliss so there may be a sage by the name of madhu Kia but there's another meaning for mandu Kia which is man Dookie is the name of a very peculiar type of frog this frog is supposedly covered with a gel his whole body he's got this very shiny gel around it and because of that if he jumps into the mud when he comes out of the mud none of the mud sticks to this man dukhia frog he's always clean even while moving through the muddy swamps because of this translucent covering on his body he never gets affected by his surroundings and the teaching of this Upanishad makes us like this type of frog that even though the world of birth and death and old age and disease seems to be all around us and we seem to be in it in fact when we raise our heads up our bodies up we see it doesn't cling to us at all so that's why it's called the mandu Kea Upanishad it makes you like the Frog for the world of duality it can't touch you it can't stick to you it can't affect you so what does this man do Kea Upanishad teach I told you all the Upanishads just have one method but many many different varieties of that method in the mandu kyo parashat there are two jewels of methods perhaps the best methods of all of them and one is called the examination of the three states of us the three approach' and the other that's also when the same upon Ishod is called the examination of cause and effect now remember what I said whether it's the three states or cause and effect in the end there's no three states in the end there's no cause and effect but in order to teach this first certain deliberate things are being said in order to remove some more gross misconceptions and then in the end those very things that we used to remove other misconceptions they themselves get negated so I'm gonna talk to you about tonight the first method the first variety the examination of the three states and how this enables us to realize I am that one non dual infinite lists how does this examination lead one to the direct experience of that truth of that reality even though it's not just a bobble by words nor is it conceivable by the mind yet by Johanna Barton taya proper Manassas AHA that from which all words returned having failed to reach along with the mind the mind can't conceive of it but this methodology has the capacity when understood correctly to bring about the direct knowledge the direct experience of yourself as that non-dual truth now let me give you a little personal background if I may indulge myself which is that in 1970 that's some fifty years ago I went to India on a spiritual journey seeking what I thought would be truth freedom peace happiness and by 1970 somehow I was came in contact with a Swamiji his name was Swami by Ananda Saraswathi and he even to this day is considered one of the great teachers of this ancient wisdom teachings and for two years I had the privilege of studying with him and during those two years this man dookey upon assured and the waking state and the three states were talked about discussed there may have been a few classes on it and I got introduced to it let me say one more thing about this Upanishad the Upanishads must scholars place may be a couple of hundred years before the time of Christ it's not very old compared to the most ancient and some even place it one or two hundred years AD in the fifth century an indian philosopher sage by the name of god the pada took this upanisad with the twelve verses and he wrote a commentary on it that consists of four chapters and what has happened is after the fifth century after Gorda pada composed his commentary they called car Rica's verses concerning the twelve mantras in four chapters other people interested in this subject when they would study the madhu kiamana shot they would study it along with Gorda padas car Regas so the book gets a little bit bigger and it becomes somewhat of a larger study although if you can understand the twelve verses they called mantras these twelve mantras you don't need the curry cos he wrote them to clarify the meaning because even though this is the most brief of all the Upanishads it's considered the most difficult to understand it's really not for beginners even though it's based on everyone's common Universal experience additionally this teaching was taught to renunciants who had already studied a tremendous amount of this type of literature and still did not quite get it and we're now at the point where the teacher thought that the student had the qualifications to be able to appreciate the Gumby hram the profundity that's contained in these twelve verses on the three states on these on these twelve verses concerning the three states why is it only taught to renunciates people who have given up so-called worldly life and have retreated to some quiet place some ashram and they they're not earning money and they're living somewhat of an ascetic life and these people why was it taught to them and not to everybody that had an interest in this and the reason being this that this can be taught to anybody I'm going to try to the best of my ability convey the meaning of it to observer listening here and I'm hopefully I don't think I'll be wasting my time I think that quite a few of you will be able to understand what I'm trying to convey even though it's beyond words and concepts and that there will be some benefit but that benefit that you're most likely to get from this will be a kind of intellectual satisfaction some doubts may get answered some new way of look things may be appreciated but the final knowledge that I am that that requires a type of mind that is willing to be totally I would say obsessed totally gripped by these type of pursuits and thoughts because this Madhu coupon assured wants to point out that this waking state that we're all in right now and what a state it is we're all in lockdown my god just waking state which we all take to be 100% real according to this man Dukey you Punisher it's exactly the same as a dream that waking and dream from the point of view of this ancient teaching that they're the same that the waking is just like a dream it appears and dissapears to you it comes and goes to you just like a dream appears and dissapears to you and comes and goes to you the dream is an object to you the waking is an object to you and therefore it concludes the sameness but this teaching for somebody who's in the waking world whose interests are to get this and avoid that whose minds are extroverted who are totally enraptured with the duality and mind is out to get this to avoid that to enjoy this to not suffer to get security fame and whatever else we decide is desirable outside in the world and there's nothing wrong with this because in fact that's exactly how we're wired we're born with our senses out and we do have to find food and shelter and a mate so this is where our interests lie but in order to realize that waking and dream are the same well that you are not this waking ego it requires a mind that at least for a period of time at least for the time while you're listening to this teaching you can introvert your own mind you can become introspective look within and examine what are the facts what are the real facts of your own experience now that's not easy most people don't even have the time to do it or the to question their experience and what is the object and who is the subject what is coming and going what is remaining this type of discrimination people don't see any benefit to it and they have no interest in it so obviously it's not taught to everybody because it will be nice prior ginam it won't have much benefit there are other teachings that precede this type of teaching that are probably more beneficial and then eventually a desire for this can be developed but what is going to be brought out here is nothing that any normal person should have too much difficulty if they pay attention and be willing to just without bias examine their own experience so I studied this text with Swami Dai Ananda for two years along with the Caritas aboard the pardon after two years I met another teacher so I was 21 at the time so but when I was 23 I met another teacher also teaching the Mundaka Upanishad and he had a slightly different take on it and I started trying to study it and found his way of presentation extremely appealing and but at that point I was 23 he was 90 93 years old when I met him and he didn't have time to teach me much he would allow me to come twice a week for about an hour and a half on Tuesdays and Thursdays so what happened was I told him it wasn't enough and he put me in charge in touch with his direct disciple his student who had been an expert on this man dukhia Upanishad so I started studying every day in the morning and evening with him he was at he wasn't a monk this person he had nine children and he also had to do a job during the day so I would come in the morning before he went to work and I would come in the evening when he came home from work before dinner and we'd have our two classes and for two years I studied this man Dookie Upanishad primarily with him along with God the Potters commentary on it just for your information 300 years later the great Shankar Acharya the greatest of all writers on advisor on this non-dual wisdom teaching wrote a commentary on the Manduca Upanishads and on Gorda padas caritas versus so now when people study this text they study the man dukhia the characters and Schanker acharyas commentary are both of these decks don't panic nobody's gonna have to do this step I'm just telling so that all teacher that I spent two years with he died two years later and that was it he wrote a book on the Mundaka Upanishad and that book was called man dukhia raha see abrir Italy which literally means in English the unfoldment of the secret of the man dukhia Upanishad the explanation of the secret teachings contained in the Madhu kiya Upanishad mandu Kyra hacia rewritten the book was written I think probably be 60s towards the end of his life he must have been in his eighties after a lifetime of studying he wrote this book but he wrote in his Sanskrit and this book has never been translated into English and after my four years in India although I had started to try to study Sanskrit it was like kindergarten Sanskrit I couldn't totally read it at all so this book was not available to me over the years I learned more and more Sanskrit and after about 30 years I mastered enough Sanskrit that I could read the man dukhia raha Theory ritty in the original language and understand it 95% so in the very beginning of that sanskrit introduction there is one part that when I was able to finally read it because nobody would translate it for me nobody seemed to be even able to it's just a few people that can do this sort of thing and I couldn't get them to work with me and I was back in America in school and working etc so I had to do it myself so when I got to the stage where I could read and understand this the one part was the five unique characteristics of the examination of the three states that was the heading of us the three approach' the examination of the three states by the way the three states are our waking state which everybody knows you're in it right now the dream State which everybody I'm sure has had a dream I'll tell you more about the exact definition but we all know what a dream is we've all had that experience and the third state which is called deep sleep which is defined as that state in which I'm not aware of anything I'm not aware of by waking I'm not aware of the dream I'm not aware of myself I'm not aware of anything that's deep sleep and then we wake up again so these are the three states that we're all familiar with it's called server 3 Garneau bhava the common experience of all people we all know about it and this examination is what is done in a very peculiar way in the mandu Kea manager and unless these unique characteristics a sadhana Dharma the unique qualities of this teaching have to be brought out in order to really appreciate the subtlety the profundity that's contained within this tiny Upanishads why it takes a lifetime and you probably won't truly understand it like myself so what I thought I was gonna do tonight was to give you the synopsis or an abstract of these five unique things that this Swami ji his name is Swami satchitananda Nura Saraswathi in his book the secret the explanation of the secrets of the mandu Kea he mentioned this and I'm gonna paraphrase and try to share with you these five unique things that almost all other students of this Upanishad never took note of if you've understood these five things you'll have understood the Upanishads and be able to study it in a way that without appreciating these five points it would be very difficult now Swamiji in his book goes into great reasoning inland and I could read it to you and translate it but I think the better way is for me to try to summarize each of the five points so the very first point has to do with what I've already said about the method of Vedanta which is this what is called the examination of the three states its purpose is not to examine the three states waking dream and deep sleep but to determine that the one who's experiencing those three states taught Anubhava to who the experiencer of that what his true nature is the one who's aware of waking the one who's experiencing the waking the experiencer of the dream the one who experiences deep sleep determining the true nature of that as the oneself without a second is the purpose of what's called examining the three states it has nothing to do with the States there are no States it's to show that there's only one non-dual self and saw that there ever was is or will be from the point of view of myself I'm a knower and I know this waking world I see it I touch it I smell it this waking world is existing out there and it's established and it's real and there's no doubt about it when I look from the point of view of I'm a knower and the only way I can be a knower is if I have senses like my eyes and my ears and my skin and my tongue in my nose then I could know the objects of color and taste and sound that's how I know it so I have to have senses to be a knower and those senses are not just floating around anywhere they exist in this body these senses are in this body so I'm a knower who has a body and a mind and a senses and this is my self this is Who I am I'm the knower who uses the means of knowledge to know the objects of knowledge and I'm an individual and this is my self and I exist in the world that's outside of this and there are many other selves for knowers and they have bodies and minds and senses and they're also seeing the world that's what everybody takes this doesn't seem to be much to be thought about that but this Upanishad gives us another viewpoint it's the viewpoint by which that the states like the waking state in that state this body mind and senses and my knower ship is appearing and I'm the witness of the whole state when I take myself to be the witness of the whole state then I'm not the ego who's in the waking state this is from the viewpoint of the actual experience of the state the whole state appears to me and in that state this knower that's delimited by this body and mind and senses is an individual and I was born I'm getting old I'm gonna get sick and I'm gonna die from that point of view but if you take it that all of that is within this waking state and that the waking state is an object that appears to you then that you is called the witness you are the witness in which the whole waking state appears this is called the Shastra Christi how the scripture wants us to recognize what our true experiences of the state when you look at it from the point of view of the waking intellect I'm an individual myself as in the world but when I look at it from the point of view of experience what is my experience of the state the state is an object it's something known to me and everything that's existing in that state is also an object to me and the waking ego is in that state and it's an object to me so I am NOT the waking ego I'm the witness and that witness unlike the ego never changes because it never changes it's not in time and because it's not in time it has no birth or old age or disease or death that's the self that's taught in this ancient teaching that the true self is the witness of the waking state when there's the waking state appearing who does it appear to just like when the dream state appears check your experience the whole dream appears to you and this dream time and dream space and dream laws of nature and there's a dream knower and he has a dream body in which the senses are there and he sees a dream tiger and it's all in the dream real but the whole dream is appearing to you you're the presence in which the whole duality of the dream appears it can't appear without you that same witnessing consciousness that witnesses that is the same witnessing consciousness that are seeing the whole of the waking by examining who's the real experiencer of the waking state is it the waking ego or does the waking ego experience things in the waking world but he doesn't experience the whole state just like the dream ego is experiencing the dream things in the dream world but the dream ego doesn't experience the whole of the dream state that's me I'm the witness of the dream and I'm the witness of the waking it is through this examination of the states not the world that appears in the states but the states themselves that one is able to determine I am NOT this ego I'm not this body a census of the waking or the dream I am pure consciousness that lights up the presence and the absence of both of these I'm unchanging and therefore I'm the only reality so in the end if I'm the only reality then what a waking and dream they're just appearances that have no reality all the remains is that one self it's not even a witness anymore then you are that non dual reality this is exactly what the Upanishads says in the second verse the second mantra is a verse that says so I am Atma grama the self is that non-dual Brahman so I am NOT much reduced apart and this non dual self has four parts shahtoosh the part that's how it begins because it says it has the waking it has the dream it has deep sleep and then it has a state that's free from them the fourth the tortilla we'll get to that later when we take the text but these three and the true nature of the self the fourth constitutes the four parts obviously the self doesn't have four parts but in the beginning for the purpose of teaching because everybody thinks that every everyone thinks that they are having I have three states I was awake I had a dream I slept I woke up I have these states the Upanishads accepts for the time being that Atman the self has three states merely for the purpose of teaching to teach but it has four states wakingdream deep sleep and its true nature courier but in the end it says now anta pregnant abayas pregnant not a pregnant it has no dream it has no waking it has no deep sleep it is a comet with iam it negates the idea that it was the witness of the dream only if you think there's a dream we call that consciousness the witness of the dream but when you see the dream had no reality and the waking had no reality then the self is not a witness it's a comic victim one without a second so the first secret of this examination is that the examination is not about the states it's not about the witness of the states it's only to teach the oneness of the self one without a second that's the first point in brief the second unique a sadhana Dharma unique characteristic of this teaching of the three states is this this ancient wisdom teaching says that if one were to examine all of their experience without any bias towards any one particular experience and to look at each one as it's actually experienced at the time that you experience it we could determine the truth of our experience of our life of reality but someone might object and quite reasonably so you say that by examining waking dream and deep sleep you've covered the whole gamut of human experience that's not true why because there are other states of experience there's coma there's faint you could faint that's a different experience there's hypnotist hypnotic states that people have there's sleepwalking is a state it's not quite dreaming but not quite awake that's another experience that people have people say they have near-death experiences whatever that that may be different than waking dream and deep sleep and then there are Yogi's who say they've had the experience of Samadhi which is not waking dream of deep sleep a trance state in which they're totally in Samadhi not aware of anything but totally conscious there's that state that's different from wakingdream and then the Scriptures say there's a state that people can experience perhaps called liberation so there are so many other states besides waking dream and deep sleep why should we think that merely by examining these three it's sufficient to know the truth of reality when you've left out so many other possible experiences and how about drug experiences people say they take LSD or mescaline peyote in different hallucinogens and in that state they experience the things that they say they have spiritual experiences that is different than waking drinks so how about those experiences you're not including those so what is the reply why is it sufficient to merely examine waking dream and deep sleep and that is sufficient to cover the whole gamut of human experience it is because of this if you really look at it closely if you really examine your experience you'll see that there's only two possible experiences that any human being can have the sanskrit is called darshan of rit the adoption of Ricci and what it means is we can either have the experience wherein I'm aware of something or the two we could have the experience in which we're not aware of anything those are the only two you are either aware of something or you're not aware of anything every individual experience can be put into that category if you think about it when you're awake are you aware of something yes when your dream are you aware of something yes when you're hallucinating are you aware of something yes when you're daydreaming are you're aware of something yes when you're in savikalpa samadhi are you aware of something yes so all of those fall under the category of I'm aware of something and what's the other category I'm not aware of anything well what is that suppose you get hit by a bat and you're in a coma you're not aware of anything suppose you faint there may be different than a coma you're not aware of anything how about him nearly Kulpa samadhi they say in that Samadhi the Yogi's not aware of anything and how about deep sleep in deep sleep I wasn't aware of anything so those are the only two possibilities whatever how about on LSD were you aware of something yeah there falls into that category on mescaline even what it whenever you're aware of anything that's Darci nivritthi whenever you're not aware of and not you're not aware of anything that's a darshana pretty not seeing anything not aware of anything so now the question is if you take the first category when you're aware of something you can divide that into two portions you can either be aware of something that's real like in the waking State I'm aware of the real cup the real computer I see it touch it smell it it has causal efficacy other people can see it so I'm aware of something that's real that's the equivalent so if I examine waking that's an example of amongst I'm aware of something real and then I could also be aware of something unreal like a hallucination or a drug-induced experience but in dream I'm aware of all sorts of things that are not real that Tiger never was at any time was just an imagination he's not real but I'm aware of it so that's darshana pretty so darshana pretty is either I'm aware of something real and that's the equivalent of the waking state or I'm aware of something unreal but that's the equivalent of the dream state or I'm not aware of anything but that's included within the sleep so by examining waking dream and deep sleep you've covered the whole gamut of human experience you're aware of something you're not aware of anything and if you're aware of something that thing can either be taken as real it appears is real or it appears as unreal and need the case you're aware of it so by examining these three states that is sufficient to determine the truth of your own experience you haven't left out anything and you don't have a bias towards any particular one we shouldn't look at the other states like dream or deep sleep from the lens of the waiting experience because from the waking dream is just an imagination of my waking mind and deep sleep is when my waking mind shuts down and I'm and I'm unconscious but if you look at the experience not from the waking point of view but from the point of view of the actual experience of the state then it opens up a new Vista because just like in the waking I say what is real and what is unreal when the dream appears whatever I see touch smell I say that's real whatever um is like a ghost I say that's unreal in the dream I make the same distinctions the real and the unreal appear equally in both states but they're both just appearances to me so that's the beauty of that everybody hasn't had Samadhi or drugged states or coma but everybody has had waking dream and deep sleep and that covers the whole gamut of human experience and for that reason this examination of be a bustah Trier is sufficient to determine the truth because all other states are included in these three that's the second unique teaching about the three things where are we okay so I did the first there are five unique points I told you the first two the purpose of examining the states is only to show that there's one non-dual self it has nothing to do with the states second point this examination of the states encompasses the full gamut of human experience it leaves nothing out so by examining this very closely it is sufficient to determine what is the reality I'm gonna leave it at those two points and what I'll do is for ten minutes or so or whatever a couple of minutes so we'll see what's if anybody has any questions about what I said about what Vedanta teaches what is the method of Vedanta why this Upanishad is using the three states what is the what is two of the unique things any of those points that I brought up if anyone has any questions then you can unmute I guess Evelyn are you with us yes sure sure sure so you can unmute each one can everybody can whoever wants to ask a question just as I'm in it if you want to ask a question on mute yourself state your question correct so consciousness consciousness your soul that spirit of you that's unchanging what state is that so that has no state consciousness is a come at Vidya it's one without a second this teaching is not to say that there's any States it's to say that there's only one reality there never was any States even though it talks about waking dream and sleep and the fourth state that's not the purpose it's merely for the purpose of teaching that those things abroad but in the end the seventh mantra we're gonna get to this it says now unto pregnant now by he's pregnant not aware of the inside dream not aware of the outside waking not a mass of consciousness like in deep sleep it negates everything and says sad month sobbing 'yeah that is the real self that is to be known the self has no States if there are no States if there were states duality would be real and there'd be no adviser so era the newest research on psilocybin shows that instead of it being excitatory what it does is negate it and I thought that is so interesting when a person takes the type of drug and it gives them this feeling of oneness or oneness with everything it may be because the the the systems that make us feel like an individual get negated symptom is called the default Network system in the brain itself and that gets affected and our sense of individuality goes and we kind of feel like everything is one and that feeling of oneness is a very spiritual feeling a very ecstatic feeling and people really like it the problem is usually the drug wears off the feeling of oneness tends to evaporate and you can't even understand how is it that you're one with everything you were the only one thing but when you study Vedanta it's not dependent on taking any drug you'll be able to realize it here and now and always that you are that non-dual reality in fact after you realize it for certain reasons that I'll try to explain you'll never lose it this is if you were to lose it it would not be worth much miss knowledge once you have it duality doesn't exist there's not even time anymore so it can't go away but that's another discussion that'll come up good questions Roni I'm glad you're on the case here anyone else yes IRA please hi this is bill white I bill all right I was wondering if you could comment on where compassion enters into non-duality so compassion plays this role a person who wants there's a couple of ways that compassion comes in and one is this there's only one self true self in all beings the self and me who I really am and the self in you bill and all of the listeners is the same self a got my servo boot a shoe that one witnessing consciousness is not divided it's it's like one space in all the cups so he who sees himself in all beings and all beings in himself that person with no moral injunction will naturally feel compassion for human beings they will feel that that person is myself and since the highest love is to the self well we always take ourselves to be this when I see myself and everyone that love that was directed exclusively here becomes directed towards the other people too in fact their suffering is our suffering so there's a natural compassion that comes with this wisdom wisdom in combat you can't say I've realized the self and I hate that guy over there that would be against the realization the second thing is this even before a person realizes this in order to realize this I said the mind has to be made fit so qualities such as humility lack of boasting not wanting to hurt anybody and compassion are all excellences that a person who's trying to be on this path must try to cultivate through effort the person who's realized the self his compassion is with no effort at all it's just the outcome of his realization but for the student he must practice compassion so that his ego gets smaller and smaller this eye that we identify with so strongly in order for that selfishness to come down an attitude of compassion is to be developed through effort a conscious effort to be compassionate so that's the two places for the sadaqa for the spiritual practitioner he must try to become more compassionate in his life but the person who's realized this truth he's naturally compassionate not because of some moral precept but because he sees himself in all beings Thank You IRA that was that was terrific hmm David oh hello I can't see IRA now okay um yeah IRA hello I'm Shanti and I you mentioned that Vedanta is not based on mystical experience but for me when I have a glimpse of such it Ananda beyond time and space beyond ego it's usually associated with a mystical experience and I can maybe the duality of it what's a mystical experience and a non mystical experience should be dissolved as well but also I have this trouble that I see I feel might not of trouble but I still feel my capacity my witness this is is really bound by my neural network based in the sensation and that will die with me but other than that the fullness of consciousness while it exists is wonderful and I appreciate all your ideas okay let me just say two things if we first let me say something about mystical experience oh yeah that to see that you are the witness of waking and dream and their absence is not a mystical experience anybody who is able to introvert their mind conceive this fact of experience that that's the actual experience that when the dream comes there's no waking when the waking comes there's no dream that they mutually sub late each other at the time of dream it's not even a dream what I mean by a dream is that state that when you're in it you take it as waking if you're taking it as at a dream that's not a dream it's only from the waking point of view we call that state a dream but in that state we take it as real until we wake up that's what I mean by a dream so they both seem real at the time of their appearance dream seems like waiting when it appears and waking appears is waiting when it appears but the fact of the matter is that we have to see the fact that they equally not only does the waking when it comes totally sub lates the dream that as soon as the dream comes it totally sub lates our waking experience that they both are objects that cancel each other whereas the one who's aware of the waking and the dream that witness that is not changing that remains it's not a mystical experience nor is it a private experience that only some Yogi's it's everybody's verifiable that this is how we all experience the states that the waking does cancel the dream the dream de and we all have the experience of deep sleep which cancels both waking and dream in deep sleep we're not aware of any waking or of any dream I negate any objective knowledge now how now what kind of experience is that am i the witness of the absence of waking and dream when I say I knew nothing by that I can't be the waking ego he's gone with the waking state it can't be the dream ego that's gone with the dream when I say in deep sleep I know nothing that I is the witnessing consciousness but unlike when it was witnessing the waking or the dream it's not witnessing anything it's just pure consciousness that witness that remains in all the three states that never chain Changez is the existence beyond time and space because later on in the next there are three more unique things that I didn't get to I'm gonna point out how even time and space are in the States the states are not in time that first is waiting and then dream because waking time is in the waking state dream time is in the dream state hmm there's no time outside the states where you could say first there was waiting then came dream they mutually cancel each other so the witness is not in time it's timeless awareness if you can take that perspective hmm if you take the waking perspective then consciousness is wired to your brain or when your brain goes that consciousness goes absolutely true I'm asking you to adopt another expect perspective the perspective of your actual your own direct experience and to look at it with the idea that maybe there's something to be discovered that this phenomenological analysis reveal something that I've overlooked a fact of experience that I haven't taken note of that this teaching points me and I can verify the truth of that by examining is this really my experience or is this just something that somebody is saying but just like fire is called it contradicts my experience as we proceed with this I hope to be able to make this clearer like it's not easy and you have to have a motivation to stick with it but all I'll say now is that that witnessing consciousness in you is not a mystical experience it's everybody's common experience there's never a time when it's not there it's not a private experience that only some Yogi's get it's because that I'm the witness of my dream of my waking is verifiable by all I'll talk about more a best in the next class okay okay iris oh I don't know does anyone else have a question but I don't want to occupy too much time but I have a problem with phenomenology and this last explanation is the second time you use the word tonight so if you could maybe send us something or explain phenomenology I will I will tell you what I mean by that next class but I'll just give you a hint what I mean by phenomenology is an examination of anything that I'm aware of any phenomena that comes up the study of that phenomena is called phenomenology what is the phenomenology of experience what is the facts of it am I in the phenomena or is the phenomena an object to me right this is the analysis so phenomenology is the study of what is appearing whatever appears is the phenomena that ology is what I mean by phenomenology a phenomenological analysis of our direct experience we'll talk about it more in this class good okay nama daya or nama shitai on Shanthi the Jean he that is fullness this is fullness from that fullness this fullness came take this fullness away fullness alone remains so sweet yes thank you

Channel: Drs. Moschetta

Views: 5,947

Rating: 4.8554215 out of 5

Keywords: Mandukya Upanishad., NonDuality, Ancient Wisdom Teachings, Wisdom Teachings of NonDuality

Id: Ik83NstR91k

Length: 88min 12sec (5292 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020