Living Skillfully: part 2

[Guest guest]

At the other, enlightened end of the scale from

from Bush et al, is the example of Swami Sivanada. He

was engaged in satsang with the people of Rishikesh

at his ashram when a disgruntled man attacked him

with an axe. Swami Sivananda made no effort to protect

himself. But his disciples quickly disarmed the man. At

that moment, Swami Sivananda was fully identified with

Brahman and regarded his body as being of no consequence

(if he regarded it at all). It made no difference to

him whether he had a body or not because either way

he was identified with Brahman. His disciples, on

the other hand , were less enlightened, jumped in to

save Swami Sivananda’s temporal body. Even in the face

of death, Swami Sivananda continued to teach. One of

the kleshas that Patanjali says that we have to

overcome in order to be Fully-Realized is abhinivesah,

fear of death, or, more precisely, fear of loss of

identity. But the reactions to the events of September 11

focus on death and avoiding future deaths. There

reactions contain the seeds of future karma.<br><br>Your

other point of questioning the response to ‘natural

phenomena’ such as earthquakes, etc. shows an awareness of

the karmic genesis of such events. But throughout

your posts on this subject, you seem to be asking for

a perspective not only on karma but also for a

perspective on your own awareness of karma. In other words, a

perspective on who you are. Again, you provide your own

answer through your i.d, Tat Twam Asi or That Thou

Art. <br><br>Sri Ramana Maharshi advocated

atma-vichara or self-inquiry. Not in the sense of asking, “Who

am I?” but in the sense of asking, “Who is aware of

all this.” The object is to find out who is aware of

the body, thoughts, emotions, ideas, images and the

subtle energy phenomena. The idea is to withdraw your

attention and awareness from all events, objects, and

phenomena and concentrate on awareness itself. Eventually

it becomes clear you are that pure formless

awareness. The trick in life is to maintain that awareness

of yourself as awareness and still move through the

events of your daily life without stooping to identify

with those events. You must not believe that you are

the doer of actions. You must recognize constantly

that you are not this body or mind but That which is

aware of the body or mind.<br><br>Finally, I just want

to comment on the some of the replies that you have

receive to your questions. The cryptic comments of

Baba108 I find less than useful. These comments seems to

me to be attempts of someone who is not

Fully-Realized to imitate the comments of someone who is

Fully-Realized. They do not have the ring of authenticity and

authority about them. Having known people who are

Fully-Realized and who embark on a teaching or stewardship role,

I can say that they would not answer in such an

unhelpful manner. The comments of s v c s are more to the

point and consist of helpful quotations from Sri Ramana

Maharshi as well as interpreting the Bhagavad Gita for

us.<br><br>Hari Om Tat Sat<br><br>omprem