RE: WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">Dear Rasa and EveryOne,

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On Behalf Of Rasa Von Werder

Saturday, November 19, 2005

9:55 PM

[

- Ramana Guru] WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">RASA WROTE:

10.0pt">WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

Rasa Von Werder

TastingSugar/

[mb writes]

When you mention “TRUTH”,

if you mean the “TRUTH” of Life in a spiritual or philosophical

sense, then nothing even close to the “TRUTH” can be told.

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">RASA WROTE:

Oct. 15, 2005

Part I - What is Ego?

There seems to be a bit of confusion about who is

Enlightened and who

is not, about ego and no ego, about dualism and

nondualism. Let us

look into some facts.

First of all, no human can function with any

facility WITHOUT ego.

What is ego? Identification with the flesh,

the time/space world, the

human mind and all that. I hear so much talk

in yoga circles that

really is a lot of nonsense. The idea being

that in our normal waking

state, our everyday life, we should have no ego at

all. Let me share

with you what we'd be like with no ego.

There have been many cases, and still are, of

beautiful souls in God,

who have no ego. They sit in a trance under

a tree, or in a garden,

or in some lonely temple, and they remain absorbed

in God. People

notice them and kindly souls - one or more -

provide for them. They

have to be given food and shelter. They

become unkempt, dirty, their

hair matted, their nails like claws.

Sometimes, they turn into skeletons.

SNIP

10.0pt">Ego is not a sin! Ego is something natural that one must have in

order to survive in daily

living!

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">[mb writes]

12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">You seem to imply that the only egoless

person is one who is absorbed in trance and that a person who appears to be

functioning normally in daily activities must have an ego. This may or

may not be true. But ego, like beauty, is in the “eye” of the

beholder. Ego exists or doesn’t exist only in the mind of the one

who is attempting to judge such a thing.

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">It is true that “ego” is a

major topic of debate in yogic and advaitic circles; but it may be a nebulous

discussion because what does it matter if there is eqo or not ego?

SNIP

12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">RASA wrote:

Part IV Dualism vs

NonDualism

Probably the funniest claim of all time is the

'Nondualist'. The

nondualist is like the one without ego. If

you are without ego, as I

said, you forget your body. And the

processes of your body can run

havoc in appearence and smell.

In order to be in a nondualistic state, you must

also forget your

body. It is really the same thing.

Look at these things which are

the same or almost the same:

No ego

Nondualistic state

No desires, no ambition

Unless you want to 'drop out' of normal life, you

cannot live in a

'nondualistic' state. The best there is -

the state of Avatars,

Saints, is the dual-nondualistic state. The

nondualistic state again,

like no-ego state, has to be temporary. You

see or experience God for

a while. It could be seconds, minutes,

hours, weeks or months. Then

you come out of the 'other world' and you are

normal again. For those

who claim to be 'nondualistic' all the time, to

give them the benefit

of the doubt, it is partial nondualism. If

you are functioning as a

separate human being, doing things as an

individual, then you are

dualistic. When you talk to people, send e

mails, you are being

dualistic, and so on - take it from there.

The best of this world is

to understand nondualism and keep it in your

psyche, perhaps

experiencing it from time to time. Anyone

who is saying they are

nondualistic all the time will have to prove it to

me. And they can't.

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">[mb]

12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">“Nondualistic” is simply a

concise term for a particular concept about Life. “Advaita”

or “nondualism” is a concept about Life as a “whole”. Nondualism

is not a concept that one should apply to the condition of any individual

person or persons because the philosophy maintains that the individual has no “real”

separate existence.

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">Advaita and nondualism are only

concepts. Life is not a concept. Life is not contained by concepts.

Concepts are terribly dull and drab when they are allowed to mask the

unimaginable beauty and bliss of Life itSelf. A Life without concepts is a

wonderful life.

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">RASA wrote:

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Part V Can You Tell Who is

Enlightened?

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[mb]

Assuming that there is

any such thing as “enlightenment”, why would it possibly matter, “Who

is enlightened”?

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color:blue">Warmest regards,

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue">michael