RE: Atmananda's "witness" teaching different from idealism "Famous" surf wax can you believe this?

[Guest guest]

Hello Michael,

 

You wrote:

> I posted in reply to Greg before I spotted your delineation

of

> the position of Shri Atmananda. "it is through mind that objects are

known.

> An object is never known directly, but always through mind..... And it

makes

> knowledge of an object indirect, thus distancing the known object from

the

> self that knows."

>

> This position is technically known as mediate realism and it is an

> inherently unstable one. Under pressure it tends to degenerate into

> Idealism and likewise Idealism tends to mutate into it. Putting it

bluntly,

> if all you know is a mental appearance how do you know that there is

> anything 'outside' corrosponding to it. Nothing in your data tells you

so.

 

I agree and this is my stand in terms of Advaitin view I have. I

think the next step for Human consciousness is when some people start

realizing, through love and concentration of mind, that there is in fact no

outside. There is simply one experience which has two sides seemingly

different, but this difference is only in relation to the body. When you

dis-identify with the body, even if only in a temporary Samadhi, you see

that what you perceive is in fact not OUT THERE, there is no world apart

from you. And then things might start to get funny if you start to interpret

this world as one big movie with lots of metaphores, and what is outside is

in fact linked to you in ways you previously had not expected. This is also

frightening, or at least it was to me...

It happened to me some months ago I was meditating on

non-duality. After the meditation I decided to go get wax for my surfboard.

I started to think which brand I would buy. As I parked the car, I thought

"well I'm going to buy the most famous one I find in this store". When I

walked through the store, A-HA, what is the first brand of wax I see? One

named "FAMOUS SURFING WAX". Hmmm... to me this was very suggestive that

there are many ways to interpret the non-dual experience and perhaps all are

valid from each point of view. In Tibetan Buddhism one of the deities of

great importance is the Akshobya Buddha. This Buddha is represented seated

in lotus posture with one hand in the meditation gesture and the other with

fingers down touching the earth. The teaching of Akshobya Buddha is called

"the great Mirror" and it is a teaching that in fact whatever you perceive

is not different from you, hence the name "mirror".

Best Wishes,

Fred