Advaita Vedanta.
When your mind and heart are truly open abundance will flow to you effortlessly and easily.
Question:
Please help me understand this. If there is no individual as the Advaita Vedantists say. Then who is it that is making choices that are not in alignment with the higher individual?
Response:
As you indicate, there must be an experiencer for there to be experience or choice. Advaita Vedanta says that life is one. Advaita means non-dual, so advaita vedanata is the knowledge that reality is a unified dynamic nonlocal field of consciousness that we experience as our true self. The appearance of duality or separation gives rise to a false self, or experiencer that conceives of itself as independent and separate from the world it experiences. It is that apparently separate self that sees itself as making choices in a dualistic world. But from the point of view of Vedanta, all these apparent differences are in fact one underlying spiritual reality of consciousness. Just as ice, water and steam can be seen as separate things or as one thing– H2O –appearing in different forms.
However, Advaita Vedanta is not a philosophy, it is preeminently a state of consciousness that only becomes practical by living that unity in enlightenment. You don’t attain that nondual reality intellectually, you can only live it.
Love,
Deepak
Advaita Vedanta.
When your mind and heart are truly open abundance will flow to you effortlessly and easily.
Question:
Hi Deepak,
I like your teachings, I’m reading your books, learning to meditate with you, etc., but I feel a little confused, as some sources say you’re a New Age’s guru, (which actually I don’t believe), others associates you to New Thought. Also I read a book by Amit Goswami about God and quantum physics and this was monism pantheism, and I also read that you teach Hindu monism, which makes sense to me. Is there a name for your teachings or philosophy? Is it anything or a mixture of the things I mentioned? Although I’m not too worried about giving it a name, I would like to know how I should regard to my new concept and beliefs about God and lifestyle when I talk to others.
Namaste
Response:
My core teachings derive from Advaita Vedanta. It means the knowledge of the non-dual nature of life. Pure human awareness is identical with universal consciousness, or existence. That realization is a direct experience of our Being and it is available and accessible to everyone in the world. This experience of our true nature is the attainment of our full human potential where we then live our life with love, contentment and wisdom.
Love,
Deepak
I think that this is where the whole experience falls apart for me, and I fall back into my ordinary state of consciousness. Twenty years ago I had a transforming experience in meditation, samadhi. My way of perceiving the world permanently changed, but I also lost a lot of the experience. I was in well being, knowing, and clarity. I witnessed from that state of being, separate from thoughts and feelings(ego) and could make choices based on them if the information was relevant or ignore the troubling things. I was not moved by them. I felt I had infinite possibilities, or as it came to me I had the whole world in my hands. I was told to return to who I am when at that time I had never heard the term, and that I would never be able to recover what fit or feels right in life. My life was essentially destroyed from that perspective. I learned to meditate only to know what to do with my life, to fix very real tangible damage to it. That is the closest I ever came to achieving that. That is the source of my despair, and it is catastrophic destruction of love and work in my life. Nothing fits. It's all loss. I've had the experience that everything is okay just as it is transmitted to me. It was a similar experience, but as soon as I try to find a path in life, know what to do, the experience vanishes. I've been so much just in the state of love and well being, having cultivated that love, that things manifest, but not a life that isn't destroyed, with meaning and purpose. Just Being, I think it's safe to call this Being. I have been at a healing with a woman who could not resolve losing her husband. I experienced healing too. I left the building, walked into one of the busiest places on earth, Times Square, and I realized I was free and at peace. I looked down through an eye of a storm. My attachments had fallen away, and I felt I had infinite possibilities, infinite peace, infinite power. I was in NOW. THE MOMENT, and the power and possibility is unimaginable. Until I didn't have the answer, and the experience fell apart. I'm doing something wrong, and I don't know what it is. I so don't know what it is that I don't know how to put it into words. If I could put it into words I could find the answer. I'm certainly not going to intend and then let go and live waiting for the intention to manifest. I don't have an intention. I keep asking though, doesn't this technique actually require a very advanced skill in Dharna, Dhyana, Samadhi? Is it possible to do without focused awareness in Samadhi? Otherwise, it's wishful thinking, put on the back burner so that one can just go on living? I probably don't understand this, but isn't Samadhi a state of consciousness in pure awareness where everything is already known, and that is required along with focused awareness in that state to manifest and intention. That is what I think I experienced 20 years ago, and it has sent me down my current path that has now ended in loss and frustration. There's detachment or acceptance, or both, that allowed me momentary freedom, in that mind of pure awareness, but with no direction, and I lost it. There's love, abandon, that is an amazing place to be, but still I end up with no direction. It feels as if, or is actually true, that the reason I came to this life was destroyed by monster, and I don't want what's left, and what's left I don't want. A magical life isn't enough. I'm at a loss for words. I'm at a loss for understanding. I at a loss about where to turn for help with this. It's not as if I haven't tried, books, classes, teacher, healers, gurus over the last 20 years the list is long. I don't even know what to ask.
I think that this is where the whole experience falls apart for me, and I fall back into my ordinary state of consciousness. Twenty years ago I had a transforming experience in meditation, samadhi. My way of perceiving the world permanently changed, but I also lost a lot of the experience. I was in well being, knowing, and clarity. I witnessed from that state of being, separate from thoughts and feelings(ego) and could make choices based on them if the information was relevant or ignore the troubling things. I was not moved by them. I felt I had infinite possibilities, or as it came to me I had the whole world in my hands. I was told to return to who I am when at that time I had never heard the term, and that I would never be able to recover what fit or feels right in life. My life was essentially destroyed from that perspective. I learned to meditate only to know what to do with my life, to fix very real tangible damage to it. That is the closest I ever came to achieving that. That is the source of my despair, and it is catastrophic destruction of love and work in my life. Nothing fits. It's all loss. I've had the experience that everything is okay just as it is transmitted to me. It was a similar experience, but as soon as I try to find a path in life, know what to do, the experience vanishes. I've been so much just in the state of love and well being, having cultivated that love, that things manifest, but not a life that isn't destroyed, with meaning and purpose. Just Being, I think it's safe to call this Being. I have been at a healing with a woman who could not resolve losing her husband. I experienced healing too. I left the building, walked into one of the busiest places on earth, Times Square, and I realized I was free and at peace. I looked down through an eye of a storm. My attachments had fallen away, and I felt I had infinite possibilities, infinite peace, infinite power. I was in NOW. THE MOMENT, and the power and possibility is unimaginable. Until I didn't have the answer, and the experience fell apart. I'm doing something wrong, and I don't know what it is. I so don't know what it is that I don't know how to put it into words. If I could put it into words I could find the answer. I'm certainly not going to intend and then let go and live waiting for the intention to manifest. I don't have an intention. I keep asking though, doesn't this technique actually require a very advanced skill in Dharna, Dhyana, Samadhi? Is it possible to do without focused awareness in Samadhi? Otherwise, it's wishful thinking, put on the back burner so that one can just go on living? I probably don't understand this, but isn't Samadhi a state of consciousness in pure awareness where everything is already known, and that is required along with focused awareness in that state to manifest and intention. That is what I think I experienced 20 years ago, and it has sent me down my current path that has now ended in loss and frustration. There's detachment or acceptance, or both, that allowed me momentary freedom, in that mind of pure awareness, but with no direction, and I lost it. There's love, abandon, that is an amazing place to be, but still I end up with no direction. It feels as if, or is actually true, that the reason I came to this life was destroyed by monster, and I don't want what's left, and what's left I don't want. A magical life isn't enough. I'm at a loss for words. I'm at a loss for understanding. I at a loss about where to turn for help with this. It's not as if I haven't tried, books, classes, teacher, healers, gurus over the last 20 years the list is long. I don't even know what to ask.
I think that this is where the whole experience falls apart for me, and I fall back into my ordinary state of consciousness. Twenty years ago I had a transforming experience in meditation, samadhi. My way of perceiving the world permanently changed, but I also lost a lot of the experience. I was in well being, knowing, and clarity. I witnessed from that state of being, separate from thoughts and feelings(ego) and could make choices based on them if the information was relevant or ignore the troubling things. I was not moved by them. I felt I had infinite possibilities, or as it came to me I had the whole world in my hands. I was told to return to who I am when at that time I had never heard the term, and that I would never be able to recover what fit or feels right in life. My life was essentially destroyed from that perspective. I learned to meditate only to know what to do with my life, to fix very real tangible damage to it. That is the closest I ever came to achieving that. That is the source of my despair, and it is catastrophic destruction of love and work in my life. Nothing fits. It's all loss. I've had the experience that everything is okay just as it is transmitted to me. It was a similar experience, but as soon as I try to find a path in life, know what to do, the experience vanishes. I've been so much just in the state of love and well being, having cultivated that love, that things manifest, but not a life that isn't destroyed, with meaning and purpose. Just Being, I think it's safe to call this Being. I have been at a healing with a woman who could not resolve losing her husband. I experienced healing too. I left the building, walked into one of the busiest places on earth, Times Square, and I realized I was free and at peace. I looked down through an eye of a storm. My attachments had fallen away, and I felt I had infinite possibilities, infinite peace, infinite power. I was in NOW. THE MOMENT, and the power and possibility is unimaginable. Until I didn't have the answer, and the experience fell apart. I'm doing something wrong, and I don't know what it is. I so don't know what it is that I don't know how to put it into words. If I could put it into words I could find the answer. I'm certainly not going to intend and then let go and live waiting for the intention to manifest. I don't have an intention. I keep asking though, doesn't this technique actually require a very advanced skill in Dharna, Dhyana, Samadhi? Is it possible to do without focused awareness in Samadhi? Otherwise, it's wishful thinking, put on the back burner so that one can just go on living? I probably don't understand this, but isn't Samadhi a state of consciousness in pure awareness where everything is already known, and that is required along with focused awareness in that state to manifest and intention. That is what I think I experienced 20 years ago, and it has sent me down my current path that has now ended in loss and frustration. There's detachment or acceptance, or both, that allowed me momentary freedom, in that mind of pure awareness, but with no direction, and I lost it. There's love, abandon, that is an amazing place to be, but still I end up with no direction. It feels as if, or is actually true, that the reason I came to this life was destroyed by monster, and I don't want what's left, and what's left I don't want. A magical life isn't enough. I'm at a loss for words. I'm at a loss for understanding. I at a loss about where to turn for help with this. It's not as if I haven't tried, books, classes, teacher, healers, gurus over the last 20 years the list is long. I don't even know what to ask.