"All sentient beings, if only they were able to realize it, are already in Nirvana." - Ashvaghosha
Such a huge statement, how is it that we live our lives largely unawares? Well, huge distractions exist, beginning first and foremost with the frenetic buzzing of our minds and the stampede of our senses rushing to and from ceaseless stimuli. There is the past. There is the future. There pervades our every thought and action instincts to survive and to propagate and protect.. There is ego everywhere. If we are to penetrate these many veils, we must act, and this involves taking up some manner of genuine spiritual exercise and with the purest of motivation.
"To believe that their use either constitutes enlightenment, or guarantees it, is mere idolatry and superstition. To neglect them altogether, to refuse to find out whether and in what way they can help in the achievement of our final end, is nothing but self-opinionatedness and stubborn obscurantism." - Aldous Huxley
The "final end" is not so much an achievement but more an unraveling of distractions. It is a ripening of "alert passivity in relation to Reality" that persistently subverts distractions, takes back the weed bed, so that "when distractions appear in the foreground of consciousness, we take notice of their presence, then, lightly and gently, without any straining of the will, we shift the focus of attention to Reality which we glimpse, or divine, or (by past experience or an act of faith) merely know about, in the backgound. In many cases, this effortless shift of attention will cause the distractions to lose their obsessive 'thereness' and, for a time at least, disappear." - A.H.
For me what began as an act of faith is now daily experience. The path has taken many turns over 25 years, and ultimately it has found a home in Advaita Vedanta. For me, blind faith in dogma will never endure. To take this path, I need the promise of personal revelation and confirmation of those who went before me.
"They could go beyond the bounds of senses and catch a glimpse of that which is beyond. We shall believe that when we are able to do it ourselves, and not before." - Vivekananda
Such a huge statement, how is it that we live our lives largely unawares? Well, huge distractions exist, beginning first and foremost with the frenetic buzzing of our minds and the stampede of our senses rushing to and from ceaseless stimuli. There is the past. There is the future. There pervades our every thought and action instincts to survive and to propagate and protect.. There is ego everywhere. If we are to penetrate these many veils, we must act, and this involves taking up some manner of genuine spiritual exercise and with the purest of motivation.
"To believe that their use either constitutes enlightenment, or guarantees it, is mere idolatry and superstition. To neglect them altogether, to refuse to find out whether and in what way they can help in the achievement of our final end, is nothing but self-opinionatedness and stubborn obscurantism." - Aldous Huxley
The "final end" is not so much an achievement but more an unraveling of distractions. It is a ripening of "alert passivity in relation to Reality" that persistently subverts distractions, takes back the weed bed, so that "when distractions appear in the foreground of consciousness, we take notice of their presence, then, lightly and gently, without any straining of the will, we shift the focus of attention to Reality which we glimpse, or divine, or (by past experience or an act of faith) merely know about, in the backgound. In many cases, this effortless shift of attention will cause the distractions to lose their obsessive 'thereness' and, for a time at least, disappear." - A.H.
For me what began as an act of faith is now daily experience. The path has taken many turns over 25 years, and ultimately it has found a home in Advaita Vedanta. For me, blind faith in dogma will never endure. To take this path, I need the promise of personal revelation and confirmation of those who went before me.
"They could go beyond the bounds of senses and catch a glimpse of that which is beyond. We shall believe that when we are able to do it ourselves, and not before." - Vivekananda
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