Summary of the teaching
Dear Friend,
I prefer to say "summary of the teaching," rather than "summary of Maharaj's teaching, " because, for me, the essence of what Maharaj taught is not different from what his Master, Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, taught, or what his co-disciple, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, taught. Of course, each of them used his own terms and emphasised certain aspects over others, according to his own personality and experience. In this way, each Master's teaching is both unique and, at the same time, universal, because it is essentially a restatement of the same ancient wisdom.
Here is a first attempt at a summary of a suitable length for a letter, using the terms that Maharaj used as far as possible. For more detail on the terms used here, see the glossary.
1) Final reality is reflected in each individual being as knowledge. Pure awareness becomes self-awareness and the individual gets the knowledge “I am, I exist.” This reflection of the oneness of reality as knowledge creates duality, because when there is the sense of “I,” there is also the sense of “not-I.” This false sense of separation is the fundamental illusion, in which the whole world of separate names and forms appears. This is why it is said that knowledge is the greatest ignorance.
2) Although knowledge is a reflection of final reality, it is time-bound. It depends on the food consumed by the gross physical body for its continuation, just as a fire depends on its fuel. The objects of the world appear as movement in knowledge just as flames appear in fire or waves appear on the ocean. Objects exist as the perceiving of them and the perceiving of them is what the objects are. So-called birth and death are only the beginning and end of this movement of knowledge in a particular form. However, human beings fear death because they believe that they are the individualized forms of knowledge that have appeared. This is impossible. How can the ocean be the wave?
3) There are no individual “persons” anywhere, no “you” and no “me.” This illusion is created in knowledge, by knowledge, through a process of objectifying. “I” take myself to be an object and so "I" see other objects everywhere. Individuals exist only as one anothers’ concepts. The “I” or “ego” that makes the individual feel real is just a thought. In reality, “I" don’t exist.
4) Whenever there is the thought of “me” as a separate personality, there is what is called “bondage.” “Liberation” is the disappearance of this false concept of individual “I.” When there is no objectifying, as in deep sleep, there is no knowledge, no “I,” and no world. However, we remain as pure awareness. When we realize this, we never worry about anything.
5) There can never be any knowledge or experience of the pure awareness that we are, because all experience is objectifying and there is never any objectifying in the final reality, which is pure subjectivity. The world is nothing but experiencing and so we say that the world is not true.
6) In sleep, when there is the smallest movement of knowledge, that is, when a thought arises, a dream begins and the dream includes an “I” to experience the dream events. In the morning, when the waking state comes, the dream state disappears. Another “I,” or series of "I's," appears to experience the events of the waking state. This state appears to be real, in comparison to the dream state, but it is essentially no different from it, being also just a state that appears and disappears. For this reason, we say that life is a long dream.
7) The "problem" of spiritual seeking is that as long as there is the false concept of “I,” then that which is seeking is an object and an object cannot know reality, any more than a shadow can know its substance. The seeker and the search are therefore both illusory. The seeker is already what is being sought. The only problem is the belief in the illusory “I.” Ultimately, the seeker and the search have to be given up so that He, the reality, can realize Himself. In this teaching, it is said that "when you are not, He is there."
8) The world appears but has no reality of its own. However, it is a mirroring of reality and so is not separate from it. The underlying substance, the “being,” of the world is reality itself. The limited known appears in the unlimited unknown. Reality is unmanifest, unknown, and the objectifying of the world (which means the perceiving or experiencing of it), is the manifest, known, aspect of that reality. Therefore everything we see or perceive is in fact He, the reality.
This summary of course leaves out a lot of important ideas, but hopefully it touches on the really essential ones,
Andrew Vernon
http://www.wayofthebird.com/Unsent_letter6.htm
I prefer to say "summary of the teaching," rather than "summary of Maharaj's teaching, " because, for me, the essence of what Maharaj taught is not different from what his Master, Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, taught, or what his co-disciple, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, taught. Of course, each of them used his own terms and emphasised certain aspects over others, according to his own personality and experience. In this way, each Master's teaching is both unique and, at the same time, universal, because it is essentially a restatement of the same ancient wisdom.
Here is a first attempt at a summary of a suitable length for a letter, using the terms that Maharaj used as far as possible. For more detail on the terms used here, see the glossary.
1) Final reality is reflected in each individual being as knowledge. Pure awareness becomes self-awareness and the individual gets the knowledge “I am, I exist.” This reflection of the oneness of reality as knowledge creates duality, because when there is the sense of “I,” there is also the sense of “not-I.” This false sense of separation is the fundamental illusion, in which the whole world of separate names and forms appears. This is why it is said that knowledge is the greatest ignorance.
2) Although knowledge is a reflection of final reality, it is time-bound. It depends on the food consumed by the gross physical body for its continuation, just as a fire depends on its fuel. The objects of the world appear as movement in knowledge just as flames appear in fire or waves appear on the ocean. Objects exist as the perceiving of them and the perceiving of them is what the objects are. So-called birth and death are only the beginning and end of this movement of knowledge in a particular form. However, human beings fear death because they believe that they are the individualized forms of knowledge that have appeared. This is impossible. How can the ocean be the wave?
3) There are no individual “persons” anywhere, no “you” and no “me.” This illusion is created in knowledge, by knowledge, through a process of objectifying. “I” take myself to be an object and so "I" see other objects everywhere. Individuals exist only as one anothers’ concepts. The “I” or “ego” that makes the individual feel real is just a thought. In reality, “I" don’t exist.
4) Whenever there is the thought of “me” as a separate personality, there is what is called “bondage.” “Liberation” is the disappearance of this false concept of individual “I.” When there is no objectifying, as in deep sleep, there is no knowledge, no “I,” and no world. However, we remain as pure awareness. When we realize this, we never worry about anything.
5) There can never be any knowledge or experience of the pure awareness that we are, because all experience is objectifying and there is never any objectifying in the final reality, which is pure subjectivity. The world is nothing but experiencing and so we say that the world is not true.
6) In sleep, when there is the smallest movement of knowledge, that is, when a thought arises, a dream begins and the dream includes an “I” to experience the dream events. In the morning, when the waking state comes, the dream state disappears. Another “I,” or series of "I's," appears to experience the events of the waking state. This state appears to be real, in comparison to the dream state, but it is essentially no different from it, being also just a state that appears and disappears. For this reason, we say that life is a long dream.
7) The "problem" of spiritual seeking is that as long as there is the false concept of “I,” then that which is seeking is an object and an object cannot know reality, any more than a shadow can know its substance. The seeker and the search are therefore both illusory. The seeker is already what is being sought. The only problem is the belief in the illusory “I.” Ultimately, the seeker and the search have to be given up so that He, the reality, can realize Himself. In this teaching, it is said that "when you are not, He is there."
8) The world appears but has no reality of its own. However, it is a mirroring of reality and so is not separate from it. The underlying substance, the “being,” of the world is reality itself. The limited known appears in the unlimited unknown. Reality is unmanifest, unknown, and the objectifying of the world (which means the perceiving or experiencing of it), is the manifest, known, aspect of that reality. Therefore everything we see or perceive is in fact He, the reality.
This summary of course leaves out a lot of important ideas, but hopefully it touches on the really essential ones,
Andrew Vernon
http://www.wayofthebird.com/Unsent_letter6.htm
