Question: Advaita literature, even that of Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta has for me so often a negative character. A character of negation, renouncing, denying, abstinence, rejection. It seems to me based on the fear to be dragged again and again in the desires to cling to what is ever fading away.
Instead of that the universe is filled with joy and bliss not separate from me. The Self or Consciousness manifesting as everything, forms, colors. One everlasting symphony of coming and going, like the tides of the ocean. I don't like rejecting anything. That being pure dualism! Ashtavakra speaks about the senses as poison. But once seen that they cannot testify of separateness, also manifesting consciousness, they are wonderful in meeting the Self.
It makes me glad writing this to you. For me this is how it feels now. I'd like to hear your comment.
Answer: Advaita does not really negate this manifestation, but points to THAT what appears AS this manifestation. It sees the world of objects as illusory or non existent in the same way that a snake perceived in a rope is non existent. The snake is but a projection and in the same way separate objects are seen as projections. The 'label generating mind' assigns names, apparently isolating seemingly independent objects. Seeing this for what it is, there can be a recognition of the Oneness That Is.
Without labels -or during a momentary absence of thought- Awareness/Beingness 'knows' itself as a single undivided field. Nothing can be said about this without reverting to the labeling mind. Even to assert that 'nothing can be said about it' is a subtle form of labeling. Within the word game there is no escaping this paradox.
When 'joy', 'bliss' and 'me' appear in the same sentence we are most likely talking about temporal states. They are indeed manifestations of the Single Ground, but the Single Ground is forever beyond the reach of such labels. We may of course point at IT with words like joy and bliss, but dark and empty will do as well. IT is the Unknowable-Knowing-Centre from which all comes forth and to which it all returns.
There is nothing wrong with being amazed ('caught in a maze' as Alan Watts once observed) at this marvelous display we call the universe, or to experience joy and wonder in beholding this manifestation, but what you truly are is the Single Eye to which these experiences appear. This 'Eye' is for ever invisible to itself and remains when all temporal occurrences are 'negated.'
To drop in the unknown and to disappear as an 'experiencing me' may be seen as fear to engage in the play of life, but it can also be seen as the ultimate courageous sacrifice. Both positions appear to the Single-Eye-You-Are and both are part of the fleeting show of existence.
Beyond the duality of existence/non-existence, beyond the duality of duality/non duality, beyond like and dislike, closer then close, is This Beingness as the only 'thing/no-thing' that cannot be negated. As the Hindus say "Tat Tvam Asi; Thou Art That."

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Bob: The search itself is the trap. You are already what you are seeking. You think there is something to attain or to get. You have never been anything other than that, and never could be. We hear that, but how many of us really take a good look at it and stick with it, hang on to it? What do we do? "That is not good enough!" We will race a way and look at somebody else, hear somebody else, read another book or do this or do that, thinking we will get the answer somewhere else. But the only place the answer is, is with you. It is not with anybody else. You already are that. You can't be anything else or other than that.
Any questions?
Q: the basic consciousness is the separation because as soon as the consciousness starts, the separation has arrived. 'I am' is the separation.
Bob: Yes. That sense of self becomes the sense of separation. The sense of separation brings with it insecurity and vulnerability.
Q: I am using the word 'consciousness' should I say 'basic consciousness' is the separation?
Bob: It doesn't matter what concept you use. There are millions of different concepts for it. With concepts, with the words, we can only point to where to look. But it is something that cannot be grasped with a word, because the word is never the thing.
Have a look. If that sense of presence wasn't there, if you weren't that, could there be consciousness, or could there be mind or awareness, or whatever you would like to divide it into? They say it is unborn. Unborn means not originated. There is no origin to it. It wasn't created. It had no beginning. So, you can't really say it is or it is not. It is self-arising and ceaselessly arising. It is futile to try to clutch onto it, or latch on to it with a concept or a word or an idea or a thought. But basically, you can't get out of it.

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Endless Ages
Through endless ages, the mind has never changed.
It has not lived or died, come or gone, gained or lost.

It isn?t pure or tainted, good or bad,
past or future, true or false, male or female.

It isn?t reserved for monks or lay people,
elders or youths, masters or idiots,
the enlightened or unenlightened.

It isn?t bound by cause and effect
and doesn?t struggle for liberation.
Like space, it has no form.

You can?t own it and you can?t lose it.
Mountains, rivers or walls can?t impede it.

But this mind is ineffable
and difficult to experience.
It is not the mind of the senses.
So many are looking for this mind,
yet it already animates their bodies.

It is theirs, yet they don?t realize it.

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~ Bodhidarma ~
Painting by: Salvador Dali Title: Endless Enigma




The world is a spell, an enchantement, an amazement,
an arabesque of such stunning rhythm and a plot so intriguing
that we are drawn by its web into a state of involvement
where we forget that it is a game.

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~Alan Watts~
From the MTOD news letter. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/meditationtip/
Painting by: Jennifer A. Kiraly Title: Arabesque in Nature.
Found at: http://artslide.fa.asu.edu/mfaslide/kiraly/index_kir.htm



Tombstones with a Sense of Humor
In Albany NY:
Harry Edsel Smith
Born 1903-Died 1942
Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car was on the way down.
It was.
In Thurmont MD:
Here lies an Atheist
All dressed up
And no place to go.
In Ribbesford, England:
Anna Wallace
The children of Israel wanted bread,
And the Lord sent them manna.
Old Wallace wanted a wife,
And the Devil sent him Anna.
In Ruidoso NM:
Here lies Johnny Yeast.
Pardon me for not rising.
In Uniontown PA:
Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake.
Stepped on the gas instead of the brake.
In England:
Sir John Strange.
Here lies an honest lawyer,
And that is Strange.
Wimborne, England, on the grave of John Penny:
Reader, if cash thou art
In want of any,
Dig 6 feet deep;
And thou wilt find a Penny.
In Hartscombe, England:
On the 22nd of June,
Jonathan Fiddle
Went out of tune.
In Enosburg Falls VT:
Here lies the body of our Anna
Done to death by a banana.
It wasn't the fruit that laid her low,
But the skin of the thing that made her go.
In Nantucket, MA:
Under the sod and under the trees,
Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.
He is not here, there's only the pod.
Pease shelled out and went to God.
In an English cemetery:
Remember man, as you walk by,
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, you soon will be.
Prepare yourself and follow me.
(to which someone added:
To follow you I'll not consent
Until I know which way you went.)
In Boot Hill, in Tombstone AZ:
Here lies Lester Moore
One slug from a 44
No les no more
Now, no less no more.

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