Ego, Vedantic practice, Realization

[Guest guest]

Only the gate

of the abbey is left,

on the winter moor.

 

-Shiki

 

 

Dear list,

 

Thank you for the long and interesting

discussions on vedantic practice and for the

many touching stories about meetings with

personal gurus. It's been fascinating to read.

 

Thanks also for the "ego measurement scale".

In re. the first ego problem, that of the

uncontrollable emotion, you forgot one thing:

That of the frozen-up-unable-to-move kind

of uncontrollable emotion.

> Thu, 23 Dec 1999 14:26:26 -0500

> Ram Chandran <chandran

>Practice of Advaita

>No faith can be based on 'expectations' and

>when we begin to expect returns for our faith, >it erodes! I have seen people

>deal with the ishta devata as though it is a >business proposition. They offer

>currencies or goods or services and in return >expect more favors. That is not

>'true faith' nor it is 'true surrender.' >Consequently, those people do lose

>faith and all such faith will eventually fail.

 

This is an interesting observation.

Thank you for sharing.

 

I don't want to argue, just express some

other observations, which are highly personal:

I apologize if they are off topic for the list.

After all, I'm here to learn.

 

I strongly feel that the faith and

spiritual practice does not exist for my

sake but that actually,

I exist for the sake of doing spiritual

practice and for having a faith.

 

On the point of realization:

I strongly feel that it is not the individual

Atman which realizes the Self, it is the

Self which realizes the Atman.

How else could realization come about ?

 

On the point of ego:

Are not individual egos part of the

single ego, are not the individual egos

merely refracted shades of the single ego,

like colors are part of the white light

when funnelled through a prism ?

 

And lastly, on the point of surrender:

Is not the surrender, i.e. acceptance

to a perceived inability

to surrender also surrender ?

 

Ananda wrote:

>However during this process, the major >obstacle

>I have found is the erosion of faith. Many a >time you will find

>your selves receiving blows from the world. >For want of a reason

>you may turn to your ishta devata to find no >help coming.You might

>have been used to help streaming from your >Ishta devata, but suddenly

>you will find he does not respond anymore. >This can cause a huge unsettlement

in mind.

 

It may not be so unfortunate to try and walk

"naked" for some while, i.e. try and be without

any kind of faith. I found it a life

hard to balance, but once experienced, it may

not be feared again.

 

A merry Christmas to everyone.

 

Few ppl here may share the faith of

Christianity, but I strongly feel everybody here

share the spirit of Christmas.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Amanda.

 

 

 

Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com