Q&A - 4

[Guest guest]

* Many times, people present Advaita in a question and answer format.

Here, I will attempt to do the same. I recommend that nobody ever take

what is said here as authority, as I am no authority. What I offer here is

only for consideration, for the opportunity for you to examine these

questions and answers yourself and see if they make sense. In the process,

much learning may take place, because in the view of jnana yoga, only

through questioning can we arrive at truth. Only through constant

questioning is ignorance cleared up. *

 

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Q: What is moksha, or enlightenment?

 

A: It is nothing. It is not an event that occurs, but is ever-present,

already existing in everything. This needs to be strongly emphasized,

because most people make the mistake of thinking of it as some kind of

dramatic happening, some kind of "spiritual experience." No, it is simply

the fading away of ignorance, and the realization of our true nature, which

is unbounded, limitless, beyond the realm of space and time. This fading

of ignorance is happening slowly in everything and in everybody.

Everything is moving back toward the knowing of reality, which is revealed

only when ignorance is gone.

 

Yet this process can be accelerated, and that is why there is meditation

and other yogas and practices. All of these have but one goal: The

acceleration of the dissolution of ignorance. When ignorance dissolves,

our true nature is revealed. Such dissolution cannot be forced or willed,

cannot be made into an event that occurs, because it is really already

present forever. There is only freedom, only pure consciousness free of

attributes. The modifications of the mind make us think that there is

more, and that is ignorance.

 

This identification with these puny bodies and minds has to go. Somehow,

we became associated with ignorance, and think that we were born and that

we will die. Nothing can be further from the truth. Only the body was

born, and only the body will die, not we. We do not go anywhere, nor come

from anywhere. We have always existed and will always exist. Yet when we

identify with the physical body, or the mind, or the emotions, we think

these things are real, that they are "I," and because of this we think it

is *we* that get sick, that feels pain, that dies, and this causes misery

and suffering. It is only this ignorance that prevents us from knowing who

we are, nothing more. We think that we are bound, when there is only

freedom everywhere. In the words of Swami Vivekananda, we put our hands

over our eyes and weep that it is dark.

 

Much of this is due to the ego's fear of dissolution. Some gurus actually

increase this fear by saying that we must "die while still alive," or some

such nonsense. This is only a mental idea, and we need not look at it this

way. Rather, we must begin to become selfless, to give without a single

thought of return. We can meditate, and do those things which tend to show

the way through the fog of ignorance, yet these things should be done for

their own sake, and not with a goal in mind. There is no need to think of

moksha in terms of "dying while still alive," for that may increase the

ego's fear of its own dissolution, not decrease it. That which increases

fear is not usually helpful.

 

We must encourage that which promotes the loss of ignorance, and encourage

*only* that. Beyond that, there is nothing to be done. Brahman is already

ever-present, and is the only reality. The mind makes other things seem

real, but they are essentially unreal. They are not illusions, but they

are as unreal as a shadow. They are reflections of the reality, as the sun

may be reflected off the surface of a pond. And ultimately, nothing need

be done. All of creation is returning to its source, and will return by

itself. But there is no need for misery and suffering, and so we can speed

up this process of dissolution of ignorance by various means.

 

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"Truth is One; Sages call It by various names."

 

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