advaitin Shri Atmanandas teachings -- 8. Merging back

[Guest guest]

Namaste Madathiji

 

You mention in another post in this string in response to my comments

whether maintaining a sitting meditative posture at the time of sleep

would be more appropriate to entering "knowing sleep" than a

reclining posture. I'm not sure whether posture would be a big

issue. However, I do think there are postures that are more

conducive to entering a meditative or "aware" experience (in sleep or

otherwise) than others. I think the frame of mind going into sleep –

and the overall quality of mind and consciousness – are the key

factors.

 

I have heard that some anchorite-like Tibetan Buddhist practitioners

sleep in boxes or slings or other devices to keep them in an upright

position. (As you probably know, Tibetan Buddhists have many

practices for meditation entering sleep and achieving conscious sleep

or other kinds of experiences. I would guess similar practices exist

in Hindu Tantric lineages.)

 

What was more intriguing was the comment below -- about whether we

are "consciously awake."

 

--- > I was pondering this "sleeping consciously" all through

yesterday.

> Then the question popped up in my mind: Are we *consciously*

awake?

 

My own practices have somewhat tangibly led me to the conclusion that

most persons, most of the time (myself included), are automatons – in

exactly the same way that the dream projections of ourselves are

automatons. In a dream, we go about certain dramas and have certain

reactions in an automatic way even though the dream-self thinks it's

conscious and acting and reacting with volition (and that the

dreamscape is not a modifiable projection of the dreamer's

consciousness.) If you've ever had a lucid, conscious dream, you can

experience the difference between automatic, programmed consciousness

and volitional consciousness. The same thing applies in the conscious

waking state. The ordinary self is just a program—a bundle of karmic

momentum. I don't think there's much of a volitional quality or

capacity to it. My own guru has touched on this, but I haven't heard

him go into too much detail about it when speaking to groups; it's

more for personal dialoguing. I think Nisargadatta Maharaj (who I

enjoy reading and who I see is the subject of a string on this board)

often speaks of this as well. For this reason, dissociation is drawn

between consciousness and the body-mind complex in advaita sadhana –

because the body and personality and way of thinking set up a certain

way in a person and I think it has an inexorable quality. So the

advaita Vedanta position is to accept it and also dissociate from it—

identity with it's ground, which is consciousness. Easier said than

done.

 

Two favorite passages from the Ashtavakra Gita that I've incorporated

into paintings are:

 

If you dissociate yourself from the body and rest in consciousness,

you will at once be happy, serene, and free from bondage. [yadi deham

prthakkrtya - citi visramya tishtasi- adhunaiva sukhi shanto -

bhandamukto bhavishyasi]

 

and

 

 

The body, heaven, hell, bondage liberation, and fear are mere

illusions. What then needs to be done by me? I abide as pure

consciousness. [shariram svarganarakau -bhandamokshau bhayam -tatha

kalpanamatram-evai tat kim me karyam chidatmanah]

 

 

 

 

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