Guest guest Posted February 10, 2000 Report Share Posted February 10, 2000 namaste, In Sri Shankara's words: dR^ishhTi.n j~naamayii.n kR^itvaa pashyedbrahmamaya.n jagat.h . saa dR^ishhTiH paramodaaraa na naasaagraavalokinii .. 116.. Aparokhaanubhuuti Converting the ordinary vision into one of knowledge one should view the world as Brahman Itself. That is the noblest vision, and not that which is directed to the tip of the nose. [Tr. Sw. Vimuktananda] >Gummuluru Murthy <gmurthy >advaitin >advaitin > looking at things from a different perspective >Thu, 10 Feb 2000 11:39:55 -0330 (NST) > > > > > > > > > > ____ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 10, 2000 Report Share Posted February 10, 2000 namaste. What I am writing here is nothing new. We have discussed this a few times before. There may be one or two additional points brought in here. Right from birth, our mind was indoctrinated to look at things in one way and in one way only, to consider the world to be real. We are educated, to be ready to survive and to flourish in that 'real' world. Everything else is secondary. Now, when we see the falliability of that approach, and that what we have been indoctrinated up till now is a wrong way to go by, we venture (some cautiously, and some boldly) into looking at things in a different perspective. When we see things in a different perspective, we realize ourselves facing a fresh, and essentially simple world full of joy and bliss. Gone are the miseries that we had faced all these years. Once in a while we have the masters telling us to look at things differently, but either we ignored them or didn't pay too much attention to them, or were afraid to look at things differently. There are scriptures (upanishads) telling us all the time pointing out alternate approach which we didn't pay attention. - if only we look at things in a different perspective - if only we look at bhagavadgItA from Krishna's perspective - if only we question and force our mind to look at things differently - it is easy to look at things from a different perspective, only we need to will to do that. The recent superbowl commercial by Budweiser is a good example. In this commercial, a very simple situation: a person and his dog are playing outside and after playing, the man comes in and will have a beer. The scene is looked at from the dog's perspective. The dog says, the guy is a very nice fellow, plays all the time and he (the dog) would provide him only the best type of beer. Looked at from the dog's perspective, the commercial is a cute one and certainly makes an impression. - I saw a National Film Board of Canada film a few years ago about two aliens visiting the Earth and at how things take place on the Earth. They are looking at rush-hour traffic, but they interpret it from the car's perspective. That is, they take the car as the intelligent being and humans as side characters. They marvel at how orderly the life is on the Earth from the time the car leaves home in the morning, travelling on the freeway, parking orderly and coming back in the evening. It is a twenty minute film, all looked at considering the car to be the inhabitant of the Earth and the human simply a dependent character. Seeing things from a different perspective provides tremendous insights. However, seeing things from a different perspective (of looking at bhagavadgItA from Krishna's perspective as an example) is not open to all. First, we should be willing, and second we should have the cittashuddhi. Then only we will have even the thought of looking at things from the other perspective. AtmavidyA is simple and natural. We only have to get rid of our past misconceptions. When kaTha upanishad says It (AtmavidyA) is like walking along a razor's edge, it may be referring to people who are unwilling and afraid to shed their misconceptions. But, if ever by God's grace we do that, there is no turning back and there is infinite bliss. Regards Gummuluru Murthy --- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 10, 2000 Report Share Posted February 10, 2000 Murthygaru, That was excellent. If only we can dissociate ourselves from 'our' viewpoint and look at the world and its events from 'outside' of it, we may learn not only a lot but learn that lot very fast. What does an animal think of us? What does an extra-terrestrial being think of us? Every day every minute, can we learn to get out of this body-mind-intellect, which we think is 'we', and look at the real 'us' as if it is a third person? What treasures of illumination will it not unfold? Thank you, you have prescribed a wonderful medicine for this samsAra-disease. PraNAms to all advaitins. Profvk ===== Prof. V. Krishnamurthy The URL of my website has been simplified as http://www.geocities.com/profvk/ You can access both my books from there. Talk to your friends online with Messenger. http://im. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 12, 2000 Report Share Posted February 12, 2000 Hi! If we break our own patterns (created and stored in our minds) everything begins to look quite different. If we break our patterns repeatedly then everything looks wonderful and beautiful. Often times Ramana Maharishi's simple question "Who are you" can help know our own minds and patterns. -- Vis Gummuluru Murthy wrote: > Gummuluru Murthy <gmurthy > > namaste. > > What I am writing here is nothing new. We have discussed this > a few times before. There may be one or two additional points > brought in here. > > Right from birth, our mind was indoctrinated to look at things > in one way and in one way only, to consider the world to be > real. We are educated, to be ready to survive and to flourish > in that 'real' world. Everything else is secondary. > > Now, when we see the falliability of that approach, and that > what we have been indoctrinated up till now is a wrong way to > go by, we venture (some cautiously, and some boldly) into > looking at things in a different perspective. When we see > things in a different perspective, we realize ourselves > facing a fresh, and essentially simple world full of joy > and bliss. Gone are the miseries that we had faced all > these years. > > Once in a while we have the masters telling us to look at > things differently, but either we ignored them or didn't pay > too much attention to them, or were afraid to look at things > differently. There are scriptures (upanishads) telling us all > the time pointing out alternate approach which we didn't pay > attention. > > - if only we look at things in a different perspective > > - if only we look at bhagavadgItA from Krishna's perspective > > - if only we question and force our mind to look at things > differently > > Seeing things from a different perspective provides tremendous > insights. However, seeing things from a different perspective > (of looking at bhagavadgItA from Krishna's perspective as an > example) is not open to all. First, we should be willing, and > second we should have the cittashuddhi. Then only we will have > even the thought of looking at things from the other perspective. > > AtmavidyA is simple and natural. We only have to get rid of our > past misconceptions. When kaTha upanishad says It (AtmavidyA) is > like walking along a razor's edge, it may be referring to people > who are unwilling and afraid to shed their misconceptions. But, > if ever by God's grace we do that, there is no turning back and > there is infinite bliss. > > Regards > Gummuluru Murthy > --- > > --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- > > Get what you deserve with NextCard Visa. Rates as low as 2.9 percent > Intro or 9.9 percent Fixed APR, online balance transfers, Rewards > credit you deserve! Apply now! Get your NextCard Visa at > <a href=" http://clickme./ad/NextcardCreative2 ">Click Here</a> > > ------ > > Discussion of the True Meaning of Sankara's Advaita Vedanta Philosophy focusing on non-duality between mind and matter. Searchable List Archives are available at: http://www.eScribe.com/culture/advaitin/ Contact Email Address: advaitins > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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