For those who are serious about studying Vedanta please read my blog post about the books you need to study to deepen your knowledge of Vedanta jasongregory.org/books-for-studying-vedanta/
@Joe Publico I would concur with Being Self...being monistic by nature (i.e. everything -and most importantly what you think of YOU- is GOD, and it's all a unique ultimate reality feigning to be different things -but that's MAYA-, then all ways, all schools, all religions, all beliefs are equally holy and true and useful as long as you understand that one thing and its opposite are two sides of THE SAME coin; that they don't exist as separate you recognize or think to recognize them as opposite but in fact wouldn't exist without each other so they MUST be the same...therefore you can combine this truth with any other spiritual practice and belief (and ALL other practices&beliefs as well) ;D
@Joe Publico actually yesterday I watched this answer from Mooji tackling precisely this very issue (I was researching on Advaita Vedanta in general and fell into this): ua-cam.com/video/IbuJTIgkyng/v-deo.html Hope it helps; basically, if you feel they do, then they are not understanding nondualism properly...so please don't disqualify the concept by a few deluded mis-followers! Peace to you my brother.
Jason Gregory this is new too me and Totally Amazing and Awesomeness thank You So Much i Subbed Brother!! 🔥⭕️🔥 Ǘ̴̡̮̩̥͚̗̝̹͈̠̬͙̯͍͉̗̦͔̣͂̊̄́̎̕ͅR̵̻͂͑̚Ị̴̢̧̛̛̛̻̗̦̰̟̜͖͕̥̫̱̖͉͖̦̈́̇̽̒̓͂̇͌̈̏̃̾̋̏̽E̷̝̻̱̘̲̞̫̓ͅL̵̡̞͖̘̘̯͓̩̥̠̬͇̭͋̈́͌̆̇̔̕
Thank you for the gratitude my friend. It is sad that Western education has taken over education in India. My hope that Sanatana Dharma will be implemented in schools eventually. If you know any schools that I could teach at then I'm open to hearing your suggestions.
Jason Gregory If you're serious, you could approach Delhi University or Benaras Hindu University. Needless to say, you need to have some sort of a degree, indicating your proficiency regarding the topic.
Here is the Advaitic teaching distilled into a simplified Q&A format. www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf The answers are Ramana Maharshi's own words. It is a short booklet, just read it with a calm and focused mind. If you understand the contents of this book and implement it in your life, there is no need of any other spiritual practice or knowledge.
Very well researched and solid introduction to the ideas of Vedic Philosophy. As a person still identifying as an Indian Hindu, this video definitely has helped me on my path towards self discovery. As mentioned, mere intellectual understanding of the concept is not nearly enough, and and a persistent personal experience of the Truth is what is to be craved. As a westerner, your video has much value in spreading the knowledge among people who may not have been otherwise aware of it, or had plenty of misconceptions. And so, thank you and Pranam.
Promit I'm grateful for your kind words and acknowledgement of the work that I am presenting. Your comment has reinforced why I must continue to serve Eastern philosophy, especially Vedic philosophy, in its truest form. Vedanta is a system I have studied and followed in my practice for many many years. My goal for this show is to clarify Eastern thought for everybody, especially Westerners, so that we can understand the importance of philosophies such as Vedanta and how they can lead humanity to a deeper wisdom of life and oneself. People like you who understand the deeper essence of such philosophies inspire me and make me happy to see the Vedic life is still vibrant in the world. Pranam.
I appreciate your heartfelt gratitude my friend. Thank you for acknowledging the many years I have studied Advaita Vedanta. I'm working hard to bring real Eastern philosophy to the modern world.
Really appreciate the comments on trauma and spiritual bypassing. So important to deal with this stuff and not dissociate or use spirituality as a displacement mechanism.
Wow this is an awesome video. The answer to 20th century "WHO AM I" lies in 8th century "AdiShankaracharya Nirvana/Atma Shatkam". You should have mentioned about it while speaking about advaita. I am a follower of advaita and Visisht advaita. A great explanation on "No Beginning,No end" from 26:45-27:00. When the beginning happened it was still present on that day, When end happens it is still present on that day. We are always living in the present. I am adding you to my devotional playlist. Every word from you in this video is worth it. I watched it 3 times in order not to miss any info or to misunderstand any.
Thank you for the gratitude Mani. There is a lot in this episode to take in but I'm glad you took the time to soak it all in. A pleasure to meet you my friend.
Although Buddhism and Jainism are offshoots of Hinduism, there was a time when Buddhists and Jains had exceeded Hindus. Shankaracharya used to have poorvapakshas (debates) with Buddhist and Jain scholars, and many of them became his followers. Contrary to what people think, Buddhism is Vedic, but it is just that shankara's interpretation was clearer
@ Rohan Thakare You're only referring to sectarian buddhism, not to actual buddhism. It's not a coincidence Bhagavad Gita explains buddhi and brahma-nirvana.
Hustle Loy - not true. Mahavira taught the same things as taught by last 23 Thirthankars. Buddha taught about sufferings. Vedanta is complete different thing. Only Advaita Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism share significant similarities. And it is other way round.
This is the only time I've heard someone express the potential pitfalls and limitations of advaita. Any spiritual pursuit comes with risk, and advaita is particularly ruthless and potent. It's so important to talk about these things plainly. Much love for your work.
Only love for you my friend. It was good to see you at the livestream last week. I'm so glad you appreciate the negative impacts of Advaita I spoke about in this video.
This is deep! I'm a Hindu by birth but actually I don't know any of this except from the terms. It's sad that our schools don't teach these when they should be to make one attain more inner peace. Thanks for making helpful videos like this.
Thank you for your kind words Indrasish. I'm humbled by them. I'm glad you appreciate my videos. I visit India every year and am hoping to live there one day. Which part do you live? I would love to teach Vedanta and classical yoga in schools in India. I'm actually sad that a lot of the real tradition is not taught.
How can our schools teach this . You know we are a secular country and anything related to Hinduism must be suppressed by our vote loving minority appeasing politicians and anti national media . Sushma Swaraj proposed Bhagwat Gita to be studied in schools but you know how vehemently it was opposed by Marxist Communist anti Hindu lobby including your own states chief minister Begum Mamta
For many years, I have been very wary of persons thrusting Sanskrit terminology, as there have been many hucksters pandering to the vulnerable aspects of culture in the US. Thank you for addressing spiritual bypassing.
32:17 Such a beautiful and expressive phrase! Interenstingly enough, a Person actually literally means a Mask. Alan Watts points this often. Now that you used it like that, it even makes more "sense". Thank You, Jason.
According to Karma siddhanta one has to reap what one sows. One's Freewill leads to actions and words, they in turn make one’s own karma. This accrued karma must be resolved in order to reach the goal of mukti or moksha. If karma is not resolved then atman takes up another body (janma) and starts a new life cycle all over. Thus birth -> death -> birth cycle continues until mukti is attained. The Upanishads say that God is Brahman and It is neither male nor female, god has no form or gender. Advaita (non-dualism) asserts It is everywhere, in everything and everything is in It. Dvaita (dualism) school of philosophy says God is separate from the Sristi (creation or cosmos). The deities we see are prati rupams, mere representations of the Brahman to serve as conduits to focus on during puja (dhyana or meditation). Unlike some faiths which admonish and condemn non adherents to eternal hell, Hinduism applies its karma siddhanta to all sentient beings without any discrimination. There is no original sin, no Satan and there is no permanent hell. Almighty will not create something he can not control. Supreme being will not remain punitive with the eternal hell fire punishment to us. Because Brahman is very loving and graceful. One gets many chances to resolve accrued karma..'Sarvejana sukhino bhavantu' means may all live happily. ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbhakam (google)’ means all universe in one big family are the popular slogans of the religion.
Thought provoking. Thanks for this contribution. My two cents, if I may: This spiritual bypassing is a tricky concept. In a way it is denying the whole philosophy. Saying, yes the philosophy is all very nice but first solve your personal problems. Liberation solves by definition all your personal problems. In fact having these personal problems is the very reason you pursue it. We all have a big psychological problem. It called the Ego. It leads me to think that spiritual bypassing if it exists can only occur if you misunderstand the philosophy. Brahman cannot be a process as it must be immutable. There is nothing to measure the change against. But then again any concept of Brahman must be false, you can only express it in negatives like limitless and so on. Neti Neti.
I love your thoughts Jeroen. I understand your point on liberation. But by the same token you need to understand spiritual bypassing as well. It is not a mere concept but something that people do deal with and also a phenomenon discovered by psychology. We have all seen the person who follows a nondual path but can be very arrogant and explode in rage, essentially having no humility. This is spiritual bypassing. Also, sometimes people who follow a nondual path come off as being better then other people because they think they "know" the truth, which again is spiritual bypassing. I love your comment. If you want to know more about spiritual bypassing then hit this link ua-cam.com/video/x7p1DyL8zzw/v-deo.html
Thanks for your reply. Watched the video you linked to. I really admire your courage and please carry on the good work! I know now what is meant with spiritual bypassing. I have seen it in others and have surely been guilty of it myself. As you also point out, it is based on misunderstanding or partial understanding of spirituality. I don't see a real difference though between psychology and spirituality. All spiritual philosophy and practices are psychological in nature. They address the mind as the deluded mind is the obstacle. The goal is to liberate the mind from its delusion. Perhaps you could say that real spirituality is the ultimate psychology. Once liberated, I imagine, you are no longer in need of spirituality or psychology.
Without ADVAITA - The final philosophy all the other school are incomplete! - Welcome To Vedanta! - Visit Sri Ramakrishna Mission - Read Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna & you will find all Advita there!
@@JasonGregoryAuthor Yes, that's me! Just recently I watched The Art of Effortless Living again, and it reminded me again of why it's one of the most inspirational things I've ever seen. It realigns me with the Universe and what I've always known intuitively deep down. Listing to your content often makes me retreat in an effortless "Yin" state of love, surrender and trust where I feel embodied and perfectly at home. It's a practice and wisdom I really want to learn so much more about. I'm loving your podcast format, too. Thank you for your work and sharing your wisdom, it's such a service to the world ❤️!
Isn't the ultimate goal to eliminate the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping in order to abide in the absolute. Annihilation if you like. Wasn't this the destiny of Ramana, Nisargadatta etc.
This is true Mae. The elimination of the personality to abide in the Self. But this shouldn't be confused with a blank state. People such as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj from all accounts were quite some interesting characters. So the question is can the personality really be let go of, or is it that we don't identify with it anymore. This is why people in Vedanta believe its not really the personality that is the problem but instead it is the belief in the identity. Thank you for watching my friend.
This video of yours from 7 years ago showed up in my feed. I realize, damn Jason, you've been at this for a long time!! Kudos!! This was an excellent summation. Namaste!! ✌❤🔥👁🙏🎸
Very great explanation regarding advaita Vedanta. The idea that the true self can distant itself from the activity of the mind and observe it from outside is a very misunderstood process. So I have always wondered if brahman and the physical world have a similar relationship and therefore we being 'that' can also mimic the true nature of reality within us.
I think your essay on the identification of the personality is really insightful. Terrence McKenna had a saying that society is not your friend. The subtle influences from external sources and internal affirmations begin to create a persona. Ultimately seeing thiis as false allows for the identification of the real, unchanging atman. If I grew up in Malaysia with parents who were politicians I would be very different from growing up in the Amazon with parents who were indigenous forest dwellers. However my atman would be the same. We so strongly identify the persona with our societal conditioning that it becomes obviously that the unchanging in us must be something different. Not two..no second. GREAT VIDEO!!!
Neti,neti, means you are not the body, mind, intelligence, or ego. As Krishna says in the Bhagavid-gita 3:42, " The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [ the soul ] is even higher than the intelligence."
Well-researched information; thank you so much for deciphering Vedanta spirituality and posting this information. I would like to read some of the books you've suggested! Kudos!
That is great Teena. You will learn a lot from my reading suggestions. Also, I have plenty of other videos just like this one. Hope you get a chance to check them out. Gratitude to you my friend.
thanks for your clear and generous presentation. I have been listening to Tony Parsons (UK) and getting something re: non dualism but he is a bit trite in explaining and says that "he" - Tony Parsons doesn't really exisit ?
Thank you for your kind words Bernadette. Haha, yeah you get a lot of teachers making bold claims like that. It all ends up being a form of spiritual oneupmanship. Nonduality should naturally lead to humility, and if someone is making bold claims abut their state of being then that surely is not humility. I love your input my friend.
I always thought that the ego didn't exist, it's just a role we play and who we think we are is a result of other people's projecting these things upon us? Such as "you are Jason, you are such and such's son,you are male" and so on.
Yes you are right my friend. But you have to be careful about how you define ego and it can be viewed differently among many traditions. For example Advaita Vedanta might have a staunch opposition to our ego and so we resist it as much as possible, but Zen believe that this very resistance is in a round about way accepting that the ego exists. So we develop this split which actually isn't there, we've just bought into the role and image of ourselves that we believe we are, as you point out.
Really enjoying your videos... had to look up 'extant' lol. Read your article last night (brought me here) "The Trap of Devotion to God and Guru". Good reading, many thanks.
Love it my friend. Haha, yeah "extant" isn't a word used much these days. I'm glad you read that article and are interested in this work. I truly appreciate your gratitude my friend.
I'll push for a little more of your time (won't drag or go on)... even a very short/condensed wrap up/advice would be greatly appreciated. 1.Thoughts on Eckhart Tolles teachings? It is he who put me on the spiritual path, into my 2nd year but have been near exclusive as I find his method of comms and teaching 'fairly' easy & appealing. 2. Thoughts on Ayahuasca... DMT? Can't imagine ever doing myself but... wow... from what people say. Interesting at the very least. 3. Seem to be entering into a somewhat common 'spiritual loneliness 'stage'... not so bad, but a bit taken aback as didn't see it coming. Presence seems to overcome/be the best 'tool'. Same with stress, anger, fear and the like. 4. Given your gained knowledge... have you yourself found any preferred/more specific spiritual path? Or tell of your preferences? 5. I feel that given the extent of spiritual knowledge that is 'out there' that one could spend a lifetime exploring and never really know which is best. Tends to want me to remain nearly exclusively to ET's teachings if just to avoid complexity and confusion, becoming overwhelmed...
May I step in with opinions just for fun?... 1. Tolle is a very good at explaining what the numinous experience is and knows his history, but he makes it sound as if you can get there by a technique. Zen practice shows that it is not under one's control. If it was, Zen adepts would be pouring out of the zendos with the "Good News". The Tao has a mind of its own, unfortunately. 2. Psilocybin mushrooms are much gentler than Ayahuasca. 3. That is normal and easy to get used to and enjoyed the older you get. 4. Reading religious and philosophical texts as a form of meditation. The poetry of the Eternal. Taoist, Zen texts; Zhuangzi and Schopenhauer for me. 5. Tolle is teaching Awareness. So you are done with his teaching... now you can practice (which is the rest of your life). Awareness won't overwhelm you - it will center you. The trick to entering the numinous realm is getting rid of all dualistic human opinions and ideas and becoming like the Tao (Reality). In all cultures. "His disciples asked him: If we are infants will we enter the Kingdom? Jesus responded: When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the upper like the lower, and thus make the male and the female the same, so that the male isn't male and the female isn't female. Then you will enter the Kingdom." - Gospel Of Thomas, Line 22b "The sage embraces all things. Ordinary men discriminate among them and parade their discrimination before others. The sage harmonizes with both right and wrong and rests in Heaven the Equalizer. So I say, those who discriminate fail to see." - Zhuangzi ☯
I greatly appreciate this Jeff. I did imagine Jason is very likely extremely busy with his endeavours so wasn't counting on a super fast response. I felt somewhat lucky that he responded to my 1st comment given the extensive amount of info he is as has already put 'out there'. Without doubt, he is surely and certainly busy. Yes, I'd agree that Tolle does use what seems to be a 'technique' base which agrees well with me as my spiritual side is well countered by my... more human (than being) practical side. Thus I prefer a 'formulae' to refer to, to bypass the power of my minds thoughts, THEN move to being rooted in the present. Thankfully the time it takes me and being aware of ... when I'm there, the transition is easier and more defined if I can put it that way... words :oS I'm sure you know what I mean. I greatly appreciate the mushrooms vs. Ayahuasca comment. I know someone who seems to more take it for recreation/fun but having had conversations with him I feel he doesn't really 'get' the extra value of having an understating of spiritualism. In any case, fascinating. Getting used to the spiritual loneliness... and knowing it eases over time is comforting, thank you. I had an idea but is always good to hear from others. I'll do some research on suggested philosophers, luckily I currently have time and certainly over the next few days. Though a new/next phase of life is fast approaching. I take comfort knowing that learning of spiritualism will well serve me, life beforehand... surely saw some bad times, and yet in others ways I had a lot to be grateful for. Yes, I have sometimes thought it's time to move on from ET's teachings, but as I am not a fast learner I tend to have to go over more complex matters more than others. I regret that this slows me down and is frustrating given the huge amount of information that there is and always has been. As I said before... overwhelming. Which of course has me reviewing your last line, 'awareness will never overwhelm you'. This of course is the answer though of course the mind wants to go a full 10-15 rounds until both 'I' and my mind are exhausted. The obvious is yet a tad elusive from my being at times, the mind (& ego) hangs on tight and does not want us escaping! Many thanks and of course any expansion and/or further discussion on the matter(s) will be welcomed.
I like everything you wrote and feel bad you are in the ring punching it out - with yourself. haha... Just to balance out your intensity read a little about Zhuangzi and his sense of zany Zen humor. Intense is good, then relaxing is good. Do what comes natural and do things you like to do. There's nothing wrong with Tolle or anything else that attracts you. And don't worry and fret, you already are what you are searching for ...and will realize it after "a bump on the head". "Enlightenment is the emotional accepting of reality and your true Self, so you already are where you're supposed to be but just don't recognize it yet. Very similar to Carl Jung's Depth Psychology. "The mind is everything. What you think you become." - Buddha
It is said: If you say you are enlightened you are not. It is because you are already enlightened. You realize yourself every time you do something, you just don't want to believe it. Pure Advaita says "Brahman is true. The World is false. The World is also true." It is because of lack of identity being in World itself. "Maya" means not real in Sanskrit. Your concept of neti neti is good but the correct interpretation from Adiguru Shankara is "It is not that there is Brahman, but what you think as Brahman is not it because it cannot be compared to a thing."... Hari OM TATSAT
@@JasonGregoryAuthor Yes, I am finding that my Buddhist and Taoist studies seem to all circle back and have some origin or commonality to India Yogas to some aspects. I am least think the Indian explainations are somewhat more clearer, especially in regards to the obscure writings of Neigong/Taoist Alchemy.
Without application in real life words are only words .we must try to incorporate these values in our life. Feel grateful to see your in depth understanding of advaita.
I’m late to this but it’s a great video! Thank you for the insights. Having grown up influenced by this philosophy, this video is a great place to relearn these concepts as an adult. A couple of thoughts. A good symbolism for the concept of Vairagya is the lotus leaf. The lotus leaf does not let the water/marsh stick to it. Another aspect of evolution is acceptance of past trauma and healing it with kindness and compassion. I think balanced self-love is a difficult state to achieve.
Lord Krishna 8th Avatar of lord Vishnu 6000 yrs ago said in the battelfield of Kurukshetra "Without and within all beings the unmoving and also the moving; because of Its subtlety, unknowable; and near and far away is That( brahmAn )". --- Bhagavad Gita,Ch.13,Verses 15 "Om purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purnamudachyate,purnasya purnamadaya purnamevaavashishyate" "That (consciousness) is full (perfect) ; this (the manifest universe of matter; of names and forms being maya) is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness."--- Isa Upanishad 'Aham brahmAsmi' - I am the totality.,,Vedas (written down after 40000 yrs of Oral route 5000 BCE)
shunyata(emptiness) doesn't equal to Purnata(full) Universe is changing but not Brahman . Like wave r changing but not the Water. So wave is water, yes?
My brother....thou art that! What you have said is valid and beautiful, but what you have said and taught is still said with judgement, everything is one....our existence is unreal and our existence is one. Om
Hi Jason. Out of curiosity, how long did you practice self inquiry to decide it was exactly the same as mindfulness? Also what leads you to believe Ramana Maharshi often still had thoughts but was simply "removed" from them? I'm just curious as personally I find Mindfulness to be an entirely different practice as there is always a duality implied of subject-object e.g. the subject or "doer" watching the "doing" e.g. the breath. Self inquiry attempts to negate any notion of a doer. I get what you're saying but I just feel nobody can really know the answer for sure unless they follow inquiry all the way to the "end" (as vedanta aptly means!) like Ramana Maharshi did. You've admitted you gave up on self inquiry and didn't do that so how can you really know?
Great to hear from you Michael. I still practice self-inquiry every day, but also do other things like typing to you right now. I'm not hung up on thinking like a lot of the New Age crowd, who actually misinterpret Eastern thought. You and I here are using thought to communicate, nothing wrong with that. But what the East does explain is when we are lost in thoughts, basically the stories we tell ourselves, then we are off the path and this can lead to suffering and delusion. So you need to be clear on what you mean by thoughts. Ramana Maharshi reading newspapers, conversing with his students, absorbing traditional conceptual frameworks designed for liberation, is all using thought. There is nothing wrong with that. It only becomes a problem with the New Age crowd because everything is seen in the dim light of good and bad, and this is projected onto thoughts itself. One of the fundamental teachings of Eastern thought is to not be at odds with your own humanity and this is why Ramana and other teachers always told people to not be hung up if they "think" because thoughts will come and go, that's the nature of human cognition. So if you are a human then you have cognition and so you think. But the difference between Ramana and the average joe is he did the work to settle the mind stuff through his practice, but that is not to say that mind stuff does not continue to bubble up. Of course it does, and to assume otherwise is to believe Ramana took his brain and nervous system out of his head and continued to live. Self-inquiry is about being cognizant of the mind stuff bubbling up and the one who acts on those thoughts. Ramana's tenacity for practice loosened the grip thoughts had over him, which evoked the deepest level of presence. Though I don't want to assume that I knew him personally like everybody else these days, but I do know he was human and did human thing which means he thought, but his thoughts had lost influence over him. Well, other than I want to read the news today, so on and so forth. As for mindfulness and self-inquiry being the same, if you look at the semantics surrounding them then of course they appear different. But if you research and study the mind and human cognition then the end result of both practices is the same on our cognition. They both have the same cognitive effects. Hence, there is no difference, unless you think the words and concepts are what the practice is about, which would be odd to assume. So I hope that helps you understand better Michael. If you want to understand Eastern thought with clarity its best to study cognitive science, psychology, and not just one Eastern tradition. This will give you structure and framework, and obviously cognitive science gives you a real model for understanding the function of the mind through the dual-processing model.I hope you dive deeply into understanding the science of mind and looking into what I'v suggested. And please don't fall into the New Age trap of being overly concerned about concepts, words, what one philosophy said, what one guru said, and so on. I'm not into the he say she dais bullshit. You are as great as Ramana and I'm ok with not turning him into a God. But I deeply appreciate the self-work he did and the liberated life he lived. He was a true inspiration as you are too.
Jason Gregory Interesting you should mention cognitive science, this neuroscience study demonstrates the particular "nondual state" that self inquiry leads to: psychologytomorrowmagazine.com/jeff-warren-neuroscience-suffering-end/ The person who took part in this study (Gary Weber), also took part in a study alongside experienced 10,000+ hours mindfulness meditators. They discovered every single Mindfulness meditator HAD to meditate to get into a state of mental stillness. Gary's mental resting state demonstrated the same level of stillness without him having to "meditate" to get there. He was described by the scientist who conducted the study as the "most still" person they'd ever scanned. In other words, self enquiry lead him to a constant state of stillness (or nonduality) whereas mindfulness meditation for 10,000+ hrs meditators didn't. If mindfulness and self enquiry produced the same result, it wouldn't be only now that some mindfulness teachers are starting to encompass self enquiry into their teachings. Both practices clearly produce different mental states.
If mindfulness is practiced earnestly it has the same effect on cognition. That's just a fact. If you want to know more you need to study dual-processing theory and maybe start with Daniel Kahneman's book on the subject. If you favor the practice of self-inquiry then that's great, but I wouldn't make it out to be the be all and end all, which is a massive problem when Westerners come across Eastern thought. If get into the scientific work and compare ancient texts, plus verify from your own experience then you might see what I mean. But again, this is just older info that I'm speaking about. Remember, even if you experience a nondual state you will think again because you have a body. A lot of New Age people suffer from the mysterious East syndrome, meaning they take simple practices and states of mind and make them more than they are. Hence, people believe Ramana just stayed in a nondual state forever which sounds wonderful but its not how human cognition works since we have a body. Unless you subscribe to the disembodied mind myth that Western philosophy promotes. Cognition is fundamentally embodied. But that doesn't mean consciousness doesn't move on after death (a whole other conversation haha). So, when you dive into the two system theory in cognitive science then you will be able to understand why I'm saying what I say. Until then. Good luck.
Jason Gregory I would perhaps be more sceptical about Ramana's state myself if it wasn't for the works of Gary Weber, who I stumbled upon by chance (much like your channel!) If he himself has reached this state (as the studies demonstrate) surely Ramana, who spent eleven years living in a cave in silence, did as well. As you mentioned these traditions are mysterious. Perhaps our limited scientific understanding of the brain-mind connection can only determine what physical effects these practices have on the brain, but not necessarily on the mind. I will look into the book you've mentioned but from my own personal experience, self enquiry has produced "different" results. It certainly doesn't appear mindfulness produces persistent "nonduality" whereas there's some anecdotal and even some empirical evidence to suggest self enquiry does (the study mentioned). Also would just like to add I think this is a great channel and love the time and research you put into each video. I loved your videos on Chuang Tzu and chakras and again appreciate your reply.
True.... but that's Ramana Maharshi. Many of his disciples and devotee's who practiced the method he taught (most famous being Papaji) have since underwent awakenings. So I guess its best if us unenlightened folk stick to his teachings for now! ;)
When one distances themselves from the activity of the mind (the ego), the ego is still present. Only by burning the seed of the ego, will it be gone. This is done by silencing the mind and then.... letting the great void of emptiness swallow you up. The ego unravels like a ball of yarn. Rapid expansion of consciousness follows.
It is my understanding that jnana knowledge was gained through holy name meditation (so called "mindfulness" meditation on the breath) in which one practice of observation of one's perceptual-eye/act of perceiving; in a mind's-eye way, watching one's self watching (so to speak), in a sustained and protracted fashion over first minutes, then hours, then you do hours of heavy, and multi-tasking while meditating as you can, or even allday, everyday, if possible, and as a serious discipline of self-directed focus explicitly to condition your mental faculties to magnify your ability to negotiate your passions, morality, rationality, and often giving you the marginal ability to achieve feelings of self-actualization, or the appearance of extraordinary impulse-control/willpower, and many of the gifts of presence of mind, coupled with the gifts of controlled detachment. Its this protracted "real-time" self-awareness grants lots gifts, when its being maintained, and it's effects are cumulatively often called "Grace," but I've also heard it spoken about as though it were sidhi, or holy-magic, Ouija's, Sakti, or even prana, though usually special mantras, yantras, or body-postures are "coupled" with the meditation to claim such magic-y or Wo stuff is involve with their "grace." I think most people think of the grace as something perhaps equally Woo-woo sounding, but which is true, though through a more generalized, and psychological lens; that the "grace" from the meditation is something like "good" karma "in action" like a force being generated, though truly more psycho-social, game-theory and population statistical force. In truth I think it isn't more than it's parts; I remember that heavy protracted holy name meditation can also become "meditation-psychosis-syndrome" with an uncontrolled, reason-impairing, and detrimental, even "dismaying" sense/hallucination that reality is less real, some-how unreal, or that they are in fact actively dreaming, or hallucinating the waking world around them (just as heavy-does exposure to psychedelic drugs, or repeated childhood/Chronic "channeling" of the Loa spirits/or being "possessed" by the voodoo gods, or ghosts again and again can also cause "meditation psychosis syndrome"). While I look with admiration at the Theravada Buddhists who instead of terrorizing others with violence, protest the injustices done to others by displaying their ability to burn themselves alive while meditating until dead, but I also remember what high suicide rates Santmat and Buddhism have. I suppose I believe in the right to death with dignity, and not in punitive deterrence, but its vital to all of us that we make every life worth living in our society; and similarly, when we (humans) are suicidal, we are almost never correct about their being "no hope" in this incarnation. In any case, this meditation is a serious life long discipline that I see un-noticed behind the array of Upanishads, and Vedanta philosophies, and Santmat and Buddhist religion (and I think the Jains and Sikhs as well). My best summation of the healthy effects that this meditation provides is from developmental and educational psychology, where it was vary well studied and evidenced how this meditation practice enabled the practitioner to effectively climb Maslow's Pyramid, enabling maturity insights otherwise unavailable to them, regardless of there actual current state of need or security through actively meditating. I went looking for the psycho-active discipline, or practice and experience underlying the western abrahamic religions, and I have only had dubious and ambiguous evidence that their is any at all. The tetragramarians and kabbalahist Rabbi have a variety of linguistic contemplation, incantation, gematria and guided visualization exercises they call meditation but its not remotely structurally like holy name meditation. Likewise paring theistic prayer with guided contemplation exercises are truly not remotely functionally similar to that of mindfulness meditation. Strangely, apparently the chronic practice/discipline of entering trances, and channeling the Vondun (voodoo) Loa spirit-identities grants a number of the same/similar psychological effects and some of the same psychological abilities, though it dosen't seem structurally, or functionally similar at all (at least form my outsider's eye, or w/out deeper research).
Very informative. So after attaining moksha in this body (jivan-mukta), our ego, our mind's content, our individuality etc. don't disappear but we the Atman simply stop identifying with them ... Now i have a question. What happens on videha-mukta when a liberated sage dies? Does the ego/mind/individuality still continues to exist in some higher spirit realm, or do we completely lose our separateness and merge with Brahman? Thank you :=)
Nice to meet you Sheetal. I was born in Australia and I am 37 years old. But I do not belong to Australia, even though I know that is a common phrase in India.
Hey Jason just finished watching this video again. I have a thought, that kind of pops up around these kinds of topics for me, not just now but in general. While I find myself leaning towards non duality thinking, but still learning where I fit in in all this spiritual knowledge and philosophy I find myself questioning a lot of things, this one is more of a devils advocate kind of question; If everything is Brahman, which I lean towards, why is it that we try to avoid ourselves, our ego or our so called negative thoughts? If everything is Brahman then our ego, our person is Brahman too, literally everything is. So why this battle to “erase” ourselves when we ourselves are Brahman in one form or another? This is just one of those kind of things that pop into my mind while trying to understand certain philosophical and spiritual thinking. Any thoughts on this?
Interesting primer. I'm new to the world of (conscious) non-dualism/non-duality. In my life, to finally "begin with consciousness" as what is real has been such a blessing, after years and years of denying consciousness as somehow "merely physical"... it feels like western culture has pulled the rug from under us... Clearly, these philosophies have explored such ideas like no western one before and we have much to learn. On the point of unidentifying; of course we should learn to observe the process, just as it is. We may not BE the person but the person is STILL THERE. We should not neglect that; even if it's pretend, let's pretend to be good vessels for truth. Let's not let our expectations and intentions - or our troubles - rule us and distract us. Be healthy if you can be 🙂
I love the introduction of your videos with the Buddha wearing a suit etc... makes a lot of sense! and also is cool! ALSO, this video about Vedanta and Indian philosophy has always been confusing and also overwhelming. I wonder if you may suggest one book or how to get a handle on the basics so that after that, I can read and have the material make sense. For now it is all over the place. I know Buddhism is very connected to this and I am NOT overwhelmed by the teachings of Buddhism; but I am not a scholarly person but love to know principles and understand them and then apply them in my life if I have not already. My questions is what should I start with to give me a foundation from where I can explore more re Vedanta and Indian philosophy/spirituality? Thank you!
I am here in oman brod actually i found myself here with my twin flames i meet him in coincidence no i cant find any books like what you discuss for of course i love reading books but how can i buy like that here in oman..
Thank you Jason! Loved it!! I'm hoping Eastern spiritual concepts can continue to be transcribed more clearly (as your doing) and make it easier to use, for us hypnotized westerners. Lol 😉
Shoonyata and Brahman are two different terms with different meanings (even conceptually they are NOT THE SAME! One is quite negative in its approach and the other is way positive) But I don't want to miss a more Important point for which I initiated writing it, so I won't go into details of that. The concept of Shoonyata is a Sanatana Hindu concept, Buddhism has taken the "Saankhya" philosophy of Hinduism and rebranded it, Buddhism was just another branch of Hinduism but since the politics of the time demanded a separate sect (the old play of divide and rule, you must be questioning my argument since west does not know democracy was prevalent in India way before the Greeks), it came to existence and later on got turned into a "religion". Gautam Budhha never created any separate religion from "Hindusim", those were the people after him, specially politically motivated sectarian forces from north east of that times India created it, so when you say "Aadi Guru Shankarachaarya" was a "Crypto" Buddhist, it is not only insult to the great saint but also ancient Sanatana Hindu Dharma, from which many so called "religions" such as Jainism, Buddhism etc sprouted out :( Had there been a USA that time, being proprietor of Sanatana Hindu Dharma, Gautam Buddha and Mahaveer would have been sued for IP rights' theft!! Kindly go through the Saankhya philosophy among the "Darshans" of Sanatana Hindu Dharma and you will know the reality. Have you ever questioned that if Gautama Budhha never acknowledged the "Atman" or "Aatma" then why is he termed as "MAHAATMA Budhha" by his own disciples? Question yourself more and please don't read the western writers' books on Sanatana Hindu Dharma or Buddhism or Jainism because their "agenda" is different as compared to what they claim to be doing :(
Hi Jason Just stumbled into your blog recently. I note all the posts are about 2 years old in this clip. Very touched to see how you have explained such a difficult yet so simple topic. Einstein was probably the best exponent of non dualism of expression of same energy as different mater? Many thanks for your post. It will help lot of seekers, which we are all ultimately. Preteek from U.K. *PS Have you read Complete works of Vivekananda? I found it soul transforming
PS. I am looking for contacts and friends to discuss like satsang. If you would like to be in touch as a friend please email me. supratikbasu@me.com Would be very nice to have like minded friends
Hmmm... trauma can take lifetimes to heal. Even if you know you are not the ego, you still have to work on that trauma more than the rest of your self. I have trauma. I can work on myself in many ways, but the hardest parts are trying to overcome the trauma I suffered. I to try very hard to overcome it, but it's like a scar on your psyche that cannot heal unless you somehow overcome the pain and suffering. I guess buddhist teachings are a good thing to learn such as mindfulness and realising that the self is an illusion. The best you can do with trauma is work of yourself every day and continue to "fight the good fight" so to say, to try to overcome that specific trauma. Even though I know I am not the ego, it is like an instant reaction that floods me with emotions. It does it automatically. I need to try to let those specific emotions pass and I have tools, so to speak, to help, but it still persists. I just have to work on understanding my ego more and hopefully, by understanding what is and isn't me more deeply by contemplating, I can release such things and can be healed. But every day I fight the trauma to try to release it and forgive what has happened to me. It may take me forever, but I will continue to try. Trauma is a horrible thing. I hope I am not out of place by saying this, but trauma is a VERY distressing and hard thing to overcome, so I say, have some empathy for those who are struggling with it. It doesn't invalidate their spirituality, but it does make it harder to overcome the ego because of the invisible scars that haunt your mind. I continue to contemplate on not identifying with the mind to overcome this, but you know what they say, only time heals.
@Aryavarta Bharat I'm sorry but the words of Bhagavad Gita and Krishna is entirely inconsistent with Advaita vedanta. Please do not imagine interpretations. Throughout the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna recommends to surrender to him alone. He says this do many times. If advaita vedanta is correct then why is Krishna talking about devoting ourselves to him alone as per B.g 18.66. Furthermore, there is no mention of merging into Brahman. Instead Krishna talks about attaining his spiritual abode. In fact as per B.g 7.19 he states that after several births and deaths one may come to a stage and realise that Vasudeva (Krishna) is the cause of all causes (Vasudeva sarvam iti). If non-dualism is true, and we are all brahman then how can brahman come under maya and ignorance. That means maya is superior to brahman then which is just not true. That itself is dualism with brahman!
@@ktailor1980 Brahman (pure conciousness) never comes under maya or ignorance. Reflected conciousnes (chidabhas) comes under maya or ignorance & reflected conciousnes is one which attains knowledge. Brahman is always unaffected , unchanging pure conciousness :sat chit anand. Krishna speaks in Bhagwat Gita (10.20) chapter 10, verse 20.Aham atma gudakesha sarva bhuta ashyasthit.O! Arjuna I am atma situated in everyone's heart .Krishna does not speaks vibhu or anu.Krishna glorifies himself and everyone as atma (brahman)in B.G.
I am waiting the time when western will understand the vedantic philosophy and this will be spread all over world...Bcz things which come from america will be accepted by whole world...My brother and sister of america
The intro of your video gautama the Buddha walking in suit is very humorous. And the way you say advaita vedanta is way more funnier! Anyway nice work. Respect.
Thank you so much for such a rich video. Can you please Jason englighten me on the issue of the Caste System in Hinduism. I personally do not think such a great religion/philosophy would encourage something so absurd and contradict it's own core beliefs and teachings. Did the Brahmins misinterperet the Bhagavad Gita on this for their own selfish needs? Did the British enforce or make the already existing problem worse for their advantage? Anything on this would be highly appreciated. Light to you.
Thank you Ahmed. You're best bet is to read my book 'Enlightenment Now' or 'Fasting the Mind' where I speak about this briefly. I'll give you a brief overview here but its just a big topic. First you don't want to think of the caste system from a modern standpoint, or Western, otherwise we can be misguided into believing the caste system was not moral or something inherently bad. When we think back to ancient times they had to find what was best for a society to be established. The caste system was created because it took away people's egocentric self-interests as they had to submit to the caste they were born in. This kept the society moving along. So that is the spiritual component of the caste system, because it eliminates the ego. Is it fair, well that's another story. The idea is you crucify yourself to the caste system (social dharma) and then when one fulfills their social duty, usually around the age of 40, then one can become a Vanaprastha (worldly renouncer/forest sage). But definitely the origins of the caste system were created by the Aryans who invaded the Dravidian culture, and as a result the Aryans became the upper two castes and the Dravidians became the lower two. Again is this fair, of course not, but the whole Vedic culture is built on this reluctant marriage of both cultures. At the time its not fair, but now we are reaping the rewards of a rich blending of culture that gave birth to Sanatana Dharma. The Brahmins (Aryans of that time) did misinterpret the Dravidian culture somewhat but they also added to it. Keep in mind that the Vedas were orally spoken among the Dravidians until the Aryans arrived and then they created the written texts. This knowledge would have been lost if it remained only orally transmitted. Fortunately when Aryan rule began to diminish the Vedic mysticism pre-Aryan invasion began to resurface. As for the British, well they did a lot more than just that which is a whole other conversation. I could go on and on haha. Maybe I should just make an episode on this topic. I appreciate your kind words Ahmed.
Ar Ra lol show the proof..which studies are saying that..the word Aryan was no where..Muller itself said that in his book..before his death that this is just his theory..he coined the Aryan from Arya making it race from character..that is what Arya..show me the research proof which supports Aryan invasion theory..
The word Aryan would never had come..what u mean by Aryan?tell me how you achieve to conclusion that they will be called Aryans?lol..on what basis you coined this term that they are Aryans..?
Ar Ra lol..don't divert..I simply asked show me proof or shut up..when you don't have data to claim your arguments..then you should not blabber anything
I want to say sorry to you years ago I made comment criticising you down here just with very little understanding back then 😭🙏 now as I'm grown up I just want to apologise just childish me back then feeling offended over everything
For those who are serious about studying Vedanta please read my blog post about the books you need to study to deepen your knowledge of Vedanta jasongregory.org/books-for-studying-vedanta/
@Joe Publico You can combine advait with other schools, practices. Religions.
@Joe Publico I would concur with Being Self...being monistic by nature (i.e. everything -and most importantly what you think of YOU- is GOD, and it's all a unique ultimate reality feigning to be different things -but that's MAYA-, then all ways, all schools, all religions, all beliefs are equally holy and true and useful as long as you understand that one thing and its opposite are two sides of THE SAME coin; that they don't exist as separate you recognize or think to recognize them as opposite but in fact wouldn't exist without each other so they MUST be the same...therefore you can combine this truth with any other spiritual practice and belief (and ALL other practices&beliefs as well) ;D
@Joe Publico actually yesterday I watched this answer from Mooji tackling precisely this very issue (I was researching on Advaita Vedanta in general and fell into this): ua-cam.com/video/IbuJTIgkyng/v-deo.html
Hope it helps; basically, if you feel they do, then they are not understanding nondualism properly...so please don't disqualify the concept by a few deluded mis-followers! Peace to you my brother.
Jason Gregory this is new too me and Totally Amazing and Awesomeness thank You So Much i Subbed Brother!!
🔥⭕️🔥
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@@urielzahriel-official-4942 thank you my beloved friend. I'm glad you are getting a lot out of my work.
I'm a hindu but don't know about my own Dharma because of my education system. Thank you for sharing my own knowledge to me
Thank you for the gratitude my friend. It is sad that Western education has taken over education in India. My hope that Sanatana Dharma will be implemented in schools eventually. If you know any schools that I could teach at then I'm open to hearing your suggestions.
Jason Gregory from now you are my teacher, we pray our Gurus. Please sir make more videos likes this. I'll remember you and what have asked me to🙏🙏
Jason Gregory If you're serious, you could approach Delhi University or Benaras Hindu University. Needless to say, you need to have some sort of a degree, indicating your proficiency regarding the topic.
Here is the Advaitic teaching distilled into a simplified Q&A format.
www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf
The answers are Ramana Maharshi's own words. It is a short booklet, just read it with a calm and focused mind.
If you understand the contents of this book and implement it in your life, there is no need of any other spiritual practice or knowledge.
Check out the Lecture Videos of Swami Sarvapriyananda on UA-cam!
Very well researched and solid introduction to the ideas of Vedic Philosophy. As a person still identifying as an Indian Hindu, this video definitely has helped me on my path towards self discovery. As mentioned, mere intellectual understanding of the concept is not nearly enough, and and a persistent personal experience of the Truth is what is to be craved. As a westerner, your video has much value in spreading the knowledge among people who may not have been otherwise aware of it, or had plenty of misconceptions. And so, thank you and Pranam.
Promit I'm grateful for your kind words and acknowledgement of the work that I am presenting. Your comment has reinforced why I must continue to serve Eastern philosophy, especially Vedic philosophy, in its truest form. Vedanta is a system I have studied and followed in my practice for many many years. My goal for this show is to clarify Eastern thought for everybody, especially Westerners, so that we can understand the importance of philosophies such as Vedanta and how they can lead humanity to a deeper wisdom of life and oneself. People like you who understand the deeper essence of such philosophies inspire me and make me happy to see the Vedic life is still vibrant in the world. Pranam.
The speaker has studied Advaita philosophy extensively. He is a v good teacher. Liked his presentation !
I appreciate your heartfelt gratitude my friend. Thank you for acknowledging the many years I have studied Advaita Vedanta. I'm working hard to bring real Eastern philosophy to the modern world.
Its just so awesome that a non-Indian is so passionate about Advaita Vedanta, just melts my heart ❤️
They r passionate about truth
Two books dealing with Advaita Vedanta that I have found to be of great value are Vasistha's Yoga and Ashtavakra Samhita.
Mine too, Tripura Rahasya with it
Ya, yog vasishth is very good but very difficult to comprehend...
Yoga Vasishta is very direct and crude..
Really appreciate the comments on trauma and spiritual bypassing. So important to deal with this stuff and not dissociate or use spirituality as a displacement mechanism.
Wow this is an awesome video. The answer to 20th century "WHO AM I" lies in 8th century "AdiShankaracharya Nirvana/Atma Shatkam". You should have mentioned about it while speaking about advaita. I am a follower of advaita and Visisht advaita.
A great explanation on "No Beginning,No end" from 26:45-27:00. When the beginning happened it was still present on that day, When end happens it is still present on that day. We are always living in the present.
I am adding you to my devotional playlist. Every word from you in this video is worth it. I watched it 3 times in order not to miss any info or to misunderstand any.
Thank you for the gratitude Mani. There is a lot in this episode to take in but I'm glad you took the time to soak it all in. A pleasure to meet you my friend.
Although Buddhism and Jainism are offshoots of Hinduism, there was a time when Buddhists and Jains had exceeded Hindus. Shankaracharya used to have poorvapakshas (debates) with Buddhist and Jain scholars, and many of them became his followers. Contrary to what people think, Buddhism is Vedic, but it is just that shankara's interpretation was clearer
Love it my friend.
Not as per Veda. Veda recognize existence of Jainism before Hinduism. Jains never exceeded Hindus. Buddhists were wiped out by Islamic forces.
Buddhism is as vedic as Vikings are Eskimos.
@ Rohan Thakare You're only referring to sectarian buddhism, not to actual buddhism. It's not a coincidence Bhagavad Gita explains buddhi and brahma-nirvana.
Hustle Loy - not true. Mahavira taught the same things as taught by last 23 Thirthankars. Buddha taught about sufferings. Vedanta is complete different thing. Only Advaita Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism share significant similarities. And it is other way round.
This was absolutely brilliant. You explained everything so clearly. Thank you.
Thank you for watching Bas. I appreciate the gratitude my friend.
Terrific video.
This is the only time I've heard someone express the potential pitfalls and limitations of advaita. Any spiritual pursuit comes with risk, and advaita is particularly ruthless and potent. It's so important to talk about these things plainly. Much love for your work.
Only love for you my friend. It was good to see you at the livestream last week. I'm so glad you appreciate the negative impacts of Advaita I spoke about in this video.
This is deep! I'm a Hindu by birth but actually I don't know any of this except from the terms. It's sad that our schools don't teach these when they should be to make one attain more inner peace. Thanks for making helpful videos like this.
Thank you for your kind words Indrasish. I'm humbled by them. I'm glad you appreciate my videos. I visit India every year and am hoping to live there one day. Which part do you live? I would love to teach Vedanta and classical yoga in schools in India. I'm actually sad that a lot of the real tradition is not taught.
I live in the Eastern part, West Bengal you might have heard. There's a big city in West Bengal called Kolkata. I live in there.
Excellent Indrasish. I've been to Kolkata many times.
that's great. hope to meet you some day personally!
How can our schools teach this . You know we are a secular country and anything related to Hinduism must be suppressed by our vote loving minority appeasing politicians and anti national media . Sushma Swaraj proposed Bhagwat Gita to be studied in schools but you know how vehemently it was opposed by Marxist Communist anti Hindu lobby including your own states chief minister Begum Mamta
For many years, I have been very wary of persons thrusting Sanskrit terminology, as there have been many hucksters pandering to the vulnerable aspects of culture in the US. Thank you for addressing spiritual bypassing.
I appreciate it Thomas. Thank you my friend.
so interesting! I did not realize there was a term for this. I've naturally come to a lot of these conclusions over the years
At 23:19 I felt divine insight into the combination of spiritual practice and psychological/personality development
This geezer is deep.
Haha, this geezer loves your appreciation Mark.
No problem man .
Thanks!
Thank you for your kind support, my friend. I appreciate you.
Thanks much
Thank you for your support, my friend.
32:17 Such a beautiful and expressive phrase!
Interenstingly enough, a Person actually literally means a Mask. Alan Watts points this often. Now that you used it like that, it even makes more "sense".
Thank You, Jason.
According to Karma siddhanta one has to reap what one sows. One's Freewill leads to actions and words, they in turn make one’s own karma. This accrued karma must be resolved in order to reach the goal of mukti or moksha. If karma is not resolved then atman takes up another body (janma) and starts a new life cycle all over. Thus birth -> death -> birth cycle continues until mukti is attained.
The Upanishads say that God is Brahman and It is neither male nor female, god has no form or gender. Advaita (non-dualism) asserts It is everywhere, in everything and everything is in It. Dvaita (dualism) school of philosophy says God is separate from the Sristi (creation or cosmos). The deities we see are prati rupams, mere representations of the Brahman to serve as conduits to focus on during puja (dhyana or meditation).
Unlike some faiths which admonish and condemn non adherents to eternal hell, Hinduism applies its karma siddhanta to all sentient beings without any discrimination. There is no original sin, no Satan and there is no permanent hell. Almighty will not create something he can not control. Supreme being will not remain punitive with the eternal hell fire punishment to us. Because Brahman is very loving and graceful. One gets many chances to resolve accrued karma..'Sarvejana sukhino bhavantu' means may all live happily. ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbhakam (google)’ means all universe in one big family are the popular slogans of the religion.
Yagyavalkya and Ashtavakra ware 1st to advaita vedanta. 1st book of Advaita Vedanta is Ashtavakra Gita which is older Buddhism and Adi Shankaracharya.
Such a great explanation!! I really appreciate the critique as well!
I appreciate the gratitude Eric. Thank you for watching.
Thought provoking. Thanks for this contribution. My two cents, if I may:
This spiritual bypassing is a tricky concept. In a way it is denying the whole philosophy. Saying, yes the philosophy is all very nice but first solve your personal problems. Liberation solves by definition all your personal problems. In fact having these personal problems is the very reason you pursue it. We all have a big psychological problem. It called the Ego. It leads me to think that spiritual bypassing if it exists can only occur if you misunderstand the philosophy.
Brahman cannot be a process as it must be immutable. There is nothing to measure the change against. But then again any concept of Brahman must be false, you can only express it in negatives like limitless and so on. Neti Neti.
I love your thoughts Jeroen. I understand your point on liberation. But by the same token you need to understand spiritual bypassing as well. It is not a mere concept but something that people do deal with and also a phenomenon discovered by psychology. We have all seen the person who follows a nondual path but can be very arrogant and explode in rage, essentially having no humility. This is spiritual bypassing. Also, sometimes people who follow a nondual path come off as being better then other people because they think they "know" the truth, which again is spiritual bypassing. I love your comment. If you want to know more about spiritual bypassing then hit this link ua-cam.com/video/x7p1DyL8zzw/v-deo.html
Thanks for your reply. Watched the video you linked to. I really admire your courage and please carry on the good work! I know now what is meant with spiritual bypassing. I have seen it in others and have surely been guilty of it myself. As you also point out, it is based on misunderstanding or partial understanding of spirituality. I don't see a real difference though between psychology and spirituality. All spiritual philosophy and practices are psychological in nature. They address the mind as the deluded mind is the obstacle. The goal is to liberate the mind from its delusion. Perhaps you could say that real spirituality is the ultimate psychology. Once liberated, I imagine, you are no longer in need of spirituality or psychology.
Explained so simply and eloquently. Thank you.
Thank you my friend. I appreciate it. Best to you.
Without ADVAITA - The final philosophy all the other school are incomplete! - Welcome To Vedanta! - Visit Sri Ramakrishna Mission - Read Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna & you will find all Advita there!
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - free in PDF format
Thanks to RAMAKRISHNA VEDANTA VERENIGING NEDERLAND:
www.vedanta-nl.org/GOSPEL.pdf
@Nikhil Kumaar thank you for guiding back to a source! Fine idea!
Listening to this and getting to understand it, is like a meditation in and of itself
Thank you Nona (Donna?). Been a while since I heard from you.
@@JasonGregoryAuthor Yes, that's me! Just recently I watched The Art of Effortless Living again, and it reminded me again of why it's one of the most inspirational things I've ever seen. It realigns me with the Universe and what I've always known intuitively deep down. Listing to your content often makes me retreat in an effortless "Yin" state of love, surrender and trust where I feel embodied and perfectly at home. It's a practice and wisdom I really want to learn so much more about. I'm loving your podcast format, too. Thank you for your work and sharing your wisdom, it's such a service to the world ❤️!
Very insightful introduction to Advaita Vedanta. Great play brother.
Great talk Jason. Really, it gave me a good insight into the advaitha philosophy.
Thank you my friend. I'm grateful you gained something from this episode.
I really appreciate your healthy approach . It being a process and not activated by turning one's back to the humanity is refreshing. Thanks!
I'm so happy you enjoy my content my friend. Thank you for your support and gratitude.
Spiritual bypassing...insightful. Thank you Jason!
Isn't the ultimate goal to eliminate the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping in order to abide in the absolute. Annihilation if you like. Wasn't this the destiny of Ramana, Nisargadatta etc.
This is true Mae. The elimination of the personality to abide in the Self. But this shouldn't be confused with a blank state. People such as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj from all accounts were quite some interesting characters. So the question is can the personality really be let go of, or is it that we don't identify with it anymore. This is why people in Vedanta believe its not really the personality that is the problem but instead it is the belief in the identity. Thank you for watching my friend.
This video of yours from 7 years ago showed up in my feed.
I realize, damn Jason, you've been at this for a long time!! Kudos!!
This was an excellent summation.
Namaste!!
✌❤🔥👁🙏🎸
Thanks after meditation we are understanding what you said in this video .. it means you're in next level of evolution...
Thanks man for this video..
Very great explanation regarding advaita Vedanta.
The idea that the true self can distant itself from the activity of the mind and observe it from outside is a very misunderstood process.
So I have always wondered if brahman and the physical world have a similar relationship and therefore we being 'that' can also mimic the true nature of reality within us.
I'm glad you enjoyed this episode Gyan. I appreciate your gratitude.
Very good in depth knowledge. Thanks.
Great to see people around the world enjoying the fruits of vedanta !! This is the age of end of suffering !!
I think your essay on the identification of the personality is really insightful. Terrence McKenna had a saying that society is not your friend. The subtle influences from external sources and internal affirmations begin to create a persona. Ultimately seeing thiis as false allows for the identification of the real, unchanging atman. If I grew up in Malaysia with parents who were politicians I would be very different from growing up in the Amazon with parents who were indigenous forest dwellers. However my atman would be the same. We so strongly identify the persona with our societal conditioning that it becomes obviously that the unchanging in us must be something different. Not two..no second. GREAT VIDEO!!!
Thank you for your perspective on Vedant, it appeals to reason the way it has been put !
Neti,neti, means you are not the body, mind, intelligence, or ego. As Krishna says in the Bhagavid-gita 3:42, " The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [ the soul ] is even higher than the intelligence."
Namaste
"God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man."
Ibn Arabi
I've rarely heard it being explained this clearly
Thank you my friend. My aim is to present the Eastern teachings as clear as possible.
I am really surprised to see such a clear understanding of the vedantam. Thank you for your detailed description 👍
Well-researched information; thank you so much for deciphering Vedanta spirituality and posting this information. I would like to read some of the books you've suggested! Kudos!
That is great Teena. You will learn a lot from my reading suggestions. Also, I have plenty of other videos just like this one. Hope you get a chance to check them out. Gratitude to you my friend.
thanks great to hear your explanation, perspective and practicality of advaita. cheers
I appreciate the gratitude Jonathan. Feel free to share this episode with those you know.
Very lovely talk. What struck me was that Brahman can be perceived as a verb, an ongoing process.
thanks for your clear and generous presentation. I have been listening to Tony Parsons (UK) and getting something re: non dualism but he is a bit trite in explaining and says that "he" - Tony Parsons doesn't really exisit ?
Thank you for your kind words Bernadette. Haha, yeah you get a lot of teachers making bold claims like that. It all ends up being a form of spiritual oneupmanship. Nonduality should naturally lead to humility, and if someone is making bold claims abut their state of being then that surely is not humility. I love your input my friend.
I always thought that the ego didn't exist, it's just a role we play and who we think we are is a result of other people's projecting these things upon us? Such as "you are Jason, you are such and such's son,you are male" and so on.
Yes you are right my friend. But you have to be careful about how you define ego and it can be viewed differently among many traditions. For example Advaita Vedanta might have a staunch opposition to our ego and so we resist it as much as possible, but Zen believe that this very resistance is in a round about way accepting that the ego exists. So we develop this split which actually isn't there, we've just bought into the role and image of ourselves that we believe we are, as you point out.
Jason this is wonderful. I hope you'll share more with us about Advaita Vedanta during your next livestream. Mike B.
I plan on it brother. Special livestream next week.
Really enjoying your videos... had to look up 'extant' lol.
Read your article last night (brought me here) "The Trap of Devotion to God and Guru".
Good reading, many thanks.
Love it my friend. Haha, yeah "extant" isn't a word used much these days. I'm glad you read that article and are interested in this work. I truly appreciate your gratitude my friend.
I'll push for a little more of your time (won't drag or go on)... even a very short/condensed wrap up/advice would be greatly appreciated.
1.Thoughts on Eckhart Tolles teachings? It is he who put me on the spiritual path, into my 2nd year but have been near exclusive as I find his method of comms and teaching 'fairly' easy & appealing.
2. Thoughts on Ayahuasca... DMT? Can't imagine ever doing myself but... wow... from what people say. Interesting at the very least.
3. Seem to be entering into a somewhat common 'spiritual loneliness 'stage'... not so bad, but a bit taken aback as didn't see it coming. Presence seems to overcome/be the best 'tool'. Same with stress, anger, fear and the like.
4. Given your gained knowledge... have you yourself found any preferred/more specific spiritual path? Or tell of your preferences?
5. I feel that given the extent of spiritual knowledge that is 'out there' that one could spend a lifetime exploring and never really know which is best. Tends to want me to remain nearly exclusively to ET's teachings if just to avoid complexity and confusion, becoming overwhelmed...
May I step in with opinions just for fun?...
1. Tolle is a very good at explaining what the numinous experience is and knows his history, but he makes it sound as if you can get there by a technique. Zen practice shows that it is not under one's control. If it was, Zen adepts would be pouring out of the zendos with the "Good News". The Tao has a mind of its own, unfortunately.
2. Psilocybin mushrooms are much gentler than Ayahuasca.
3. That is normal and easy to get used to and enjoyed the older you get.
4. Reading religious and philosophical texts as a form of meditation. The poetry of the Eternal. Taoist, Zen texts; Zhuangzi and Schopenhauer for me.
5. Tolle is teaching Awareness. So you are done with his teaching... now you can practice (which is the rest of your life). Awareness won't overwhelm you - it will center you.
The trick to entering the numinous realm is getting rid of all dualistic human opinions and ideas and becoming like the Tao (Reality). In all cultures.
"His disciples asked him: If we are infants will we enter the Kingdom? Jesus responded: When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the upper like the lower, and thus make the male and the female the same, so that the male isn't male and the female isn't female. Then you will enter the Kingdom." - Gospel Of Thomas, Line 22b
"The sage embraces all things. Ordinary men discriminate among them and parade their discrimination before others. The sage harmonizes with both right and wrong and rests in Heaven the Equalizer. So I say, those who discriminate fail to see." - Zhuangzi ☯
I greatly appreciate this Jeff. I did imagine Jason is very likely extremely busy with his endeavours so wasn't counting on a super fast response. I felt somewhat lucky that he responded to my 1st comment given the extensive amount of info he is as has already put 'out there'. Without doubt, he is surely and certainly busy.
Yes, I'd agree that Tolle does use what seems to be a 'technique' base which agrees well with me as my spiritual side is well countered by my... more human (than being) practical side. Thus I prefer a 'formulae' to refer to, to bypass the power of my minds thoughts, THEN move to being rooted in the present. Thankfully the time it takes me and being aware of ... when I'm there, the transition is easier and more defined if I can put it that way... words :oS I'm sure you know what I mean.
I greatly appreciate the mushrooms vs. Ayahuasca comment. I know someone who seems to more take it for recreation/fun but having had conversations with him I feel he doesn't really 'get' the extra value of having an understating of spiritualism. In any case, fascinating.
Getting used to the spiritual loneliness... and knowing it eases over time is comforting, thank you. I had an idea but is always good to hear from others.
I'll do some research on suggested philosophers, luckily I currently have time and certainly over the next few days. Though a new/next phase of life is fast approaching. I take comfort knowing that learning of spiritualism will well serve me, life beforehand... surely saw some bad times, and yet in others ways I had a lot to be grateful for.
Yes, I have sometimes thought it's time to move on from ET's teachings, but as I am not a fast learner I tend to have to go over more complex matters more than others. I regret that this slows me down and is frustrating given the huge amount of information that there is and always has been. As I said before... overwhelming.
Which of course has me reviewing your last line, 'awareness will never overwhelm you'. This of course is the answer though of course the mind wants to go a full 10-15 rounds until both 'I' and my mind are exhausted.
The obvious is yet a tad elusive from my being at times, the mind (& ego) hangs on tight and does not want us escaping!
Many thanks and of course any expansion and/or further discussion on the matter(s) will be welcomed.
I like everything you wrote and feel bad you are in the ring punching it out - with yourself. haha... Just to balance out your intensity read a little about Zhuangzi and his sense of zany Zen humor.
Intense is good, then relaxing is good. Do what comes natural and do things you like to do. There's nothing wrong with Tolle or anything else that attracts you.
And don't worry and fret, you already are what you are searching for ...and will realize it after "a bump on the head". "Enlightenment is the emotional accepting of reality and your true Self, so you already are where you're supposed to be but just don't recognize it yet. Very similar to Carl Jung's Depth Psychology.
"The mind is everything. What you think you become." - Buddha
It is said: If you say you are enlightened you are not. It is because you are already enlightened. You realize yourself every time you do something, you just don't want to believe it. Pure Advaita says "Brahman is true. The World is false. The World is also true." It is because of lack of identity being in World itself. "Maya" means not real in Sanskrit. Your concept of neti neti is good but the correct interpretation from Adiguru Shankara is "It is not that there is Brahman, but what you think as Brahman is not it because it cannot be compared to a thing."... Hari OM TATSAT
Amazing video. Glad I found it.
Thanks for explaining buddy very informative ☮️🙏 Namaste
Thank you for watching my friend.
Excellent presentation, thank you for your channel and sharing.
Thank you, Matthew. Glad you enjoy the content my friend.
@@JasonGregoryAuthor Yes, I am finding that my Buddhist and Taoist studies seem to all circle back and have some origin or commonality to India Yogas to some aspects. I am least think the Indian explainations are somewhat more clearer, especially in regards to the obscure writings of Neigong/Taoist Alchemy.
Jason it was enlightening listen to your explanation with varied examples....India is full with experiences of spiritual awareness. Hari Om
Nice video Mate it is a complicated topic but you explained it pretty well thanks
I appreciate it my friend. I'm glad you appreciate the work that goes into these episodes.
Without application in real life words are only words .we must try to incorporate these values in our life. Feel grateful to see your in depth understanding of advaita.
I’m late to this but it’s a great video! Thank you for the insights. Having grown up influenced by this philosophy, this video is a great place to relearn these concepts as an adult. A couple of thoughts.
A good symbolism for the concept of Vairagya is the lotus leaf. The lotus leaf does not let the water/marsh stick to it.
Another aspect of evolution is acceptance of past trauma and healing it with kindness and compassion. I think balanced self-love is a difficult state to achieve.
Jason, thank you. Are the names, "Maharshi," and "Maharishi" equivalent?
Thank you for watching Thomas. They are the same but spelt differently. Maha means great and rishi means seer. The Great Seer.
Thank You
Thank you Jayan for watching.
Lord Krishna 8th Avatar of lord Vishnu 6000 yrs ago said in the battelfield of Kurukshetra
"Without and within all beings the unmoving and also the moving; because of Its subtlety, unknowable; and near and far away is That( brahmAn )". --- Bhagavad Gita,Ch.13,Verses 15
"Om purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purnamudachyate,purnasya purnamadaya purnamevaavashishyate"
"That (consciousness) is full (perfect) ; this (the manifest universe of matter; of names and forms being maya) is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness."--- Isa Upanishad
'Aham brahmAsmi' - I am the totality.,,Vedas (written down after 40000 yrs of Oral route 5000 BCE)
Very good ty
You have a great mind
Thank you for your kind words Paul. I'm glad you appreciate the work.
Nice
Thank you Mansi
This is excellent!!!
Thank you, Uma.
@@JasonGregoryAuthor you have some very neat videos .. just discovered you 🙏🏽
shunyata(emptiness) doesn't equal to Purnata(full)
Universe is changing but not Brahman . Like wave r changing but not the Water. So wave is water, yes?
waves are the small part of the ocean
like wise numerous universe are the part of brahman
My brother....thou art that! What you have said is valid and beautiful, but what you have said and taught is still said with judgement, everything is one....our existence is unreal and our existence is one. Om
Hi Jason. Out of curiosity, how long did you practice self inquiry to decide it was exactly the same as mindfulness? Also what leads you to believe Ramana Maharshi often still had thoughts but was simply "removed" from them? I'm just curious as personally I find Mindfulness to be an entirely different practice as there is always a duality implied of subject-object e.g. the subject or "doer" watching the "doing" e.g. the breath. Self inquiry attempts to negate any notion of a doer.
I get what you're saying but I just feel nobody can really know the answer for sure unless they follow inquiry all the way to the "end" (as vedanta aptly means!) like Ramana Maharshi did. You've admitted you gave up on self inquiry and didn't do that so how can you really know?
Great to hear from you Michael. I still practice self-inquiry every day, but also do other things like typing to you right now. I'm not hung up on thinking like a lot of the New Age crowd, who actually misinterpret Eastern thought. You and I here are using thought to communicate, nothing wrong with that. But what the East does explain is when we are lost in thoughts, basically the stories we tell ourselves, then we are off the path and this can lead to suffering and delusion. So you need to be clear on what you mean by thoughts. Ramana Maharshi reading newspapers, conversing with his students, absorbing traditional conceptual frameworks designed for liberation, is all using thought. There is nothing wrong with that. It only becomes a problem with the New Age crowd because everything is seen in the dim light of good and bad, and this is projected onto thoughts itself. One of the fundamental teachings of Eastern thought is to not be at odds with your own humanity and this is why Ramana and other teachers always told people to not be hung up if they "think" because thoughts will come and go, that's the nature of human cognition. So if you are a human then you have cognition and so you think. But the difference between Ramana and the average joe is he did the work to settle the mind stuff through his practice, but that is not to say that mind stuff does not continue to bubble up. Of course it does, and to assume otherwise is to believe Ramana took his brain and nervous system out of his head and continued to live. Self-inquiry is about being cognizant of the mind stuff bubbling up and the one who acts on those thoughts. Ramana's tenacity for practice loosened the grip thoughts had over him, which evoked the deepest level of presence. Though I don't want to assume that I knew him personally like everybody else these days, but I do know he was human and did human thing which means he thought, but his thoughts had lost influence over him. Well, other than I want to read the news today, so on and so forth. As for mindfulness and self-inquiry being the same, if you look at the semantics surrounding them then of course they appear different. But if you research and study the mind and human cognition then the end result of both practices is the same on our cognition. They both have the same cognitive effects. Hence, there is no difference, unless you think the words and concepts are what the practice is about, which would be odd to assume. So I hope that helps you understand better Michael. If you want to understand Eastern thought with clarity its best to study cognitive science, psychology, and not just one Eastern tradition. This will give you structure and framework, and obviously cognitive science gives you a real model for understanding the function of the mind through the dual-processing model.I hope you dive deeply into understanding the science of mind and looking into what I'v suggested. And please don't fall into the New Age trap of being overly concerned about concepts, words, what one philosophy said, what one guru said, and so on. I'm not into the he say she dais bullshit. You are as great as Ramana and I'm ok with not turning him into a God. But I deeply appreciate the self-work he did and the liberated life he lived. He was a true inspiration as you are too.
Jason Gregory Interesting you should mention cognitive science, this neuroscience study demonstrates the particular "nondual state" that self inquiry leads to:
psychologytomorrowmagazine.com/jeff-warren-neuroscience-suffering-end/
The person who took part in this study (Gary Weber), also took part in a study alongside experienced 10,000+ hours mindfulness meditators. They discovered every single Mindfulness meditator HAD to meditate to get into a state of mental stillness. Gary's mental resting state demonstrated the same level of stillness without him having
to "meditate" to get there. He was described by the scientist who conducted the study as the "most still" person they'd ever scanned. In other words, self enquiry lead him to a constant state of stillness (or nonduality) whereas mindfulness meditation for 10,000+ hrs meditators didn't.
If mindfulness and self enquiry produced the same result, it wouldn't be only now that some mindfulness teachers are starting to encompass self enquiry into their teachings. Both practices clearly produce different mental states.
If mindfulness is practiced earnestly it has the same effect on cognition. That's just a fact. If you want to know more you need to study dual-processing theory and maybe start with Daniel Kahneman's book on the subject. If you favor the practice of self-inquiry then that's great, but I wouldn't make it out to be the be all and end all, which is a massive problem when Westerners come across Eastern thought. If get into the scientific work and compare ancient texts, plus verify from your own experience then you might see what I mean. But again, this is just older info that I'm speaking about. Remember, even if you experience a nondual state you will think again because you have a body. A lot of New Age people suffer from the mysterious East syndrome, meaning they take simple practices and states of mind and make them more than they are. Hence, people believe Ramana just stayed in a nondual state forever which sounds wonderful but its not how human cognition works since we have a body. Unless you subscribe to the disembodied mind myth that Western philosophy promotes. Cognition is fundamentally embodied. But that doesn't mean consciousness doesn't move on after death (a whole other conversation haha). So, when you dive into the two system theory in cognitive science then you will be able to understand why I'm saying what I say. Until then. Good luck.
Jason Gregory I would perhaps be more sceptical about Ramana's state myself if it wasn't for the works of Gary Weber, who I stumbled upon by chance (much like your channel!) If he himself has reached this state (as the studies demonstrate) surely Ramana, who spent eleven years living in a cave in silence, did as well.
As you mentioned these traditions are mysterious. Perhaps our limited scientific understanding of the brain-mind connection can only determine what physical effects these practices have on the brain, but not necessarily on the mind.
I will look into the book you've mentioned but from my own personal experience, self enquiry has produced "different" results. It certainly doesn't appear mindfulness produces persistent "nonduality" whereas there's some anecdotal and even some empirical evidence to suggest self enquiry does (the study mentioned).
Also would just like to add I think this is a great channel and love the time and research you put into each video. I loved your videos on Chuang Tzu and chakras and again appreciate your reply.
True.... but that's Ramana Maharshi. Many of his disciples and devotee's who practiced the method he taught (most famous being Papaji) have since underwent awakenings. So I guess its best if us unenlightened folk stick to his teachings for now! ;)
Thank you for this clear explanation
Thank you my friend.
When one distances themselves from the activity of the mind (the ego), the ego is still present. Only by burning the seed of the ego, will it be gone. This is done by silencing the mind and then.... letting the great void of emptiness swallow you up. The ego unravels like a ball of yarn. Rapid expansion of consciousness follows.
It is my understanding that jnana knowledge was gained through holy name meditation (so called "mindfulness" meditation on the breath) in which one practice of observation of one's perceptual-eye/act of perceiving; in a mind's-eye way, watching one's self watching (so to speak), in a sustained and protracted fashion over first minutes, then hours, then you do hours of heavy, and multi-tasking while meditating as you can, or even allday, everyday, if possible, and as a serious discipline of self-directed focus explicitly to condition your mental faculties to magnify your ability to negotiate your passions, morality, rationality, and often giving you the marginal ability to achieve feelings of self-actualization, or the appearance of extraordinary impulse-control/willpower, and many of the gifts of presence of mind, coupled with the gifts of controlled detachment. Its this protracted "real-time" self-awareness grants lots gifts, when its being maintained, and it's effects are cumulatively often called "Grace," but I've also heard it spoken about as though it were sidhi, or holy-magic, Ouija's, Sakti, or even prana, though usually special mantras, yantras, or body-postures are "coupled" with the meditation to claim such magic-y or Wo stuff is involve with their "grace." I think most people think of the grace as something perhaps equally Woo-woo sounding, but which is true, though through a more generalized, and psychological lens; that the "grace" from the meditation is something like "good" karma "in action" like a force being generated, though truly more psycho-social, game-theory and population statistical force. In truth I think it isn't more than it's parts; I remember that heavy protracted holy name meditation can also become "meditation-psychosis-syndrome" with an uncontrolled, reason-impairing, and detrimental, even "dismaying" sense/hallucination that reality is less real, some-how unreal, or that they are in fact actively dreaming, or hallucinating the waking world around them (just as heavy-does exposure to psychedelic drugs, or repeated childhood/Chronic "channeling" of the Loa spirits/or being "possessed" by the voodoo gods, or ghosts again and again can also cause "meditation psychosis syndrome"). While I look with admiration at the Theravada Buddhists who instead of terrorizing others with violence, protest the injustices done to others by displaying their ability to burn themselves alive while meditating until dead, but I also remember what high suicide rates Santmat and Buddhism have. I suppose I believe in the right to death with dignity, and not in punitive deterrence, but its vital to all of us that we make every life worth living in our society; and similarly, when we (humans) are suicidal, we are almost never correct about their being "no hope" in this incarnation.
In any case, this meditation is a serious life long discipline that I see un-noticed behind the array of Upanishads, and Vedanta philosophies, and Santmat and Buddhist religion (and I think the Jains and Sikhs as well).
My best summation of the healthy effects that this meditation provides is from developmental and educational psychology, where it was vary well studied and evidenced how this meditation practice enabled the practitioner to effectively climb Maslow's Pyramid, enabling maturity insights otherwise unavailable to them, regardless of there actual current state of need or security through actively meditating.
I went looking for the psycho-active discipline, or practice and experience underlying the western abrahamic religions, and I have only had dubious and ambiguous evidence that their is any at all. The tetragramarians and kabbalahist Rabbi have a variety of linguistic contemplation, incantation, gematria and guided visualization exercises they call meditation but its not remotely structurally like holy name meditation. Likewise paring theistic prayer with guided contemplation exercises are truly not remotely functionally similar to that of mindfulness meditation. Strangely, apparently the chronic practice/discipline of entering trances, and channeling the Vondun (voodoo) Loa spirit-identities grants a number of the same/similar psychological effects and some of the same psychological abilities, though it dosen't seem structurally, or functionally similar at all (at least form my outsider's eye, or w/out deeper research).
Very informative. So after attaining moksha in this body (jivan-mukta), our ego, our mind's content, our individuality etc. don't disappear but we the Atman simply stop identifying with them ... Now i have a question. What happens on videha-mukta when a liberated sage dies? Does the ego/mind/individuality still continues to exist in some higher spirit realm, or do we completely lose our separateness and merge with Brahman? Thank you :=)
Brilliant ! Thank you. ♥️🙏♥️
Thank you, Jerri.
whats your age brother and from which country you belong
Nice to meet you Sheetal. I was born in Australia and I am 37 years old. But I do not belong to Australia, even though I know that is a common phrase in India.
What is a way to step outside the conditioned mind and absorb/view the world in its full beauty? Is meditation the best way to decondition the mind?
Logic Seeker He mentioned Yama Yoga as a path emphasised in Advaita Vedanta.
Hey Jason just finished watching this video again. I have a thought, that kind of pops up around these kinds of topics for me, not just now but in general.
While I find myself leaning towards non duality thinking, but still learning where I fit in in all this spiritual knowledge and philosophy I find myself questioning a lot of things, this one is more of a devils advocate kind of question; If everything is Brahman, which I lean towards, why is it that we try to avoid ourselves, our ego or our so called negative thoughts? If everything is Brahman then our ego, our person is Brahman too, literally everything is. So why this battle to “erase” ourselves when we ourselves are Brahman in one form or another?
This is just one of those kind of things that pop into my mind while trying to understand certain philosophical and spiritual thinking.
Any thoughts on this?
Interesting primer. I'm new to the world of (conscious) non-dualism/non-duality. In my life, to finally "begin with consciousness" as what is real has been such a blessing, after years and years of denying consciousness as somehow "merely physical"... it feels like western culture has pulled the rug from under us...
Clearly, these philosophies have explored such ideas like no western one before and we have much to learn. On the point of unidentifying; of course we should learn to observe the process, just as it is. We may not BE the person but the person is STILL THERE. We should not neglect that; even if it's pretend, let's pretend to be good vessels for truth. Let's not let our expectations and intentions - or our troubles - rule us and distract us.
Be healthy if you can be 🙂
I love the introduction of your videos with the Buddha wearing a suit etc... makes a lot of sense! and also is cool! ALSO, this video about Vedanta and Indian philosophy has always been confusing and also overwhelming. I wonder if you may suggest one book or how to get a handle on the basics so that after that, I can read and have the material make sense. For now it is all over the place. I know Buddhism is very connected to this and I am NOT overwhelmed by the teachings of Buddhism; but I am not a scholarly person but love to know principles and understand them and then apply them in my life if I have not already. My questions is what should I start with to give me a foundation from where I can explore more re Vedanta and Indian philosophy/spirituality? Thank you!
Advaita vedanta and madhyamaka buddhism are identical except for the semantics.. Hinduism posits the ' Self' ..Buddhism says 'No self'
I am here in oman brod actually i found myself here with my twin flames i meet him in coincidence no i cant find any books like what you discuss for of course i love reading books but how can i buy like that here in oman..
Good
Good video..
Jason is our Guru in the dark Kaliyuga❤
Love your interpretation on Aatman And brahman and how to Marge
Thank you Jason! Loved it!!
I'm hoping Eastern spiritual concepts can continue to be transcribed more clearly (as your doing) and make it easier to use, for us hypnotized westerners. Lol 😉
Cheers brother. I hope my videos are contributing to that somewhat. Appreciate hearing fro you always brother.
Shoonyata and Brahman are two different terms with different meanings (even conceptually they are NOT THE SAME! One is quite negative in its approach and the other is way positive) But I don't want to miss a more Important point for which I initiated writing it, so I won't go into details of that. The concept of Shoonyata is a Sanatana Hindu concept, Buddhism has taken the "Saankhya" philosophy of Hinduism and rebranded it, Buddhism was just another branch of Hinduism but since the politics of the time demanded a separate sect (the old play of divide and rule, you must be questioning my argument since west does not know democracy was prevalent in India way before the Greeks), it came to existence and later on got turned into a "religion". Gautam Budhha never created any separate religion from "Hindusim", those were the people after him, specially politically motivated sectarian forces from north east of that times India created it, so when you say "Aadi Guru Shankarachaarya" was a "Crypto" Buddhist, it is not only insult to the great saint but also ancient Sanatana Hindu Dharma, from which many so called "religions" such as Jainism, Buddhism etc sprouted out :( Had there been a USA that time, being proprietor of Sanatana Hindu Dharma, Gautam Buddha and Mahaveer would have been sued for IP rights' theft!! Kindly go through the Saankhya philosophy among the "Darshans" of Sanatana Hindu Dharma and you will know the reality. Have you ever questioned that if Gautama Budhha never acknowledged the "Atman" or "Aatma" then why is he termed as "MAHAATMA Budhha" by his own disciples? Question yourself more and please don't read the western writers' books on Sanatana Hindu Dharma or Buddhism or Jainism because their "agenda" is different as compared to what they claim to be doing :(
@Jason Gregory Between, thanks for your sincere effort :)
Adi shankaracharya refers as god in india....In stories it is written that shankaracharya entered into a dead body to know about kaama
Hi Jason
Just stumbled into your blog recently. I note all the posts are about 2 years old in this clip. Very touched to see how you have explained such a difficult yet so simple topic. Einstein was probably the best exponent of non dualism of expression of same energy as different mater?
Many thanks for your post. It will help lot of seekers, which we are all ultimately.
Preteek from U.K.
*PS Have you read Complete works of Vivekananda? I found it soul transforming
PS. I am looking for contacts and friends to discuss like satsang. If you would like to be in touch as a friend please email me. supratikbasu@me.com
Would be very nice to have like minded friends
Hmmm... trauma can take lifetimes to heal. Even if you know you are not the ego, you still have to work on that trauma more than the rest of your self. I have trauma. I can work on myself in many ways, but the hardest parts are trying to overcome the trauma I suffered. I to try very hard to overcome it, but it's like a scar on your psyche that cannot heal unless you somehow overcome the pain and suffering. I guess buddhist teachings are a good thing to learn such as mindfulness and realising that the self is an illusion. The best you can do with trauma is work of yourself every day and continue to "fight the good fight" so to say, to try to overcome that specific trauma. Even though I know I am not the ego, it is like an instant reaction that floods me with emotions. It does it automatically. I need to try to let those specific emotions pass and I have tools, so to speak, to help, but it still persists. I just have to work on understanding my ego more and hopefully, by understanding what is and isn't me more deeply by contemplating, I can release such things and can be healed. But every day I fight the trauma to try to release it and forgive what has happened to me. It may take me forever, but I will continue to try. Trauma is a horrible thing. I hope I am not out of place by saying this, but trauma is a VERY distressing and hard thing to overcome, so I say, have some empathy for those who are struggling with it. It doesn't invalidate their spirituality, but it does make it harder to overcome the ego because of the invisible scars that haunt your mind. I continue to contemplate on not identifying with the mind to overcome this, but you know what they say, only time heals.
Great Explanation...
Can you make video on Achintya bhedabhed which harmonize with dvaita and Advaita
@Aryavarta Bharat I'm sorry but the words of Bhagavad Gita and Krishna is entirely inconsistent with Advaita vedanta. Please do not imagine interpretations.
Throughout the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna recommends to surrender to him alone. He says this do many times. If advaita vedanta is correct then why is Krishna talking about devoting ourselves to him alone as per B.g 18.66. Furthermore, there is no mention of merging into Brahman. Instead Krishna talks about attaining his spiritual abode. In fact as per B.g 7.19 he states that after several births and deaths one may come to a stage and realise that Vasudeva (Krishna) is the cause of all causes (Vasudeva sarvam iti).
If non-dualism is true, and we are all brahman then how can brahman come under maya and ignorance. That means maya is superior to brahman then which is just not true. That itself is dualism with brahman!
@@ktailor1980 Brahman (pure conciousness) never comes under maya or ignorance. Reflected conciousnes (chidabhas) comes under maya or ignorance & reflected conciousnes is one which attains knowledge. Brahman is always unaffected , unchanging pure conciousness :sat chit anand.
Krishna speaks in Bhagwat Gita (10.20) chapter 10, verse 20.Aham atma gudakesha sarva bhuta ashyasthit.O! Arjuna I am atma situated in everyone's heart .Krishna does not speaks vibhu or anu.Krishna glorifies himself and everyone as atma (brahman)in B.G.
I am waiting the time when western will understand the vedantic philosophy and this will be spread all over world...Bcz things which come from america will be accepted by whole world...My brother and sister of america
Great explanation. Maya means illution, now we think illution as real.. You did not explain cyclic creation and distraction of universe.
The intro of your video gautama the Buddha walking in suit is very humorous. And the way you say advaita vedanta is way more funnier! Anyway nice work. Respect.
I'm glad you like it Saroz. Thank you for all the appreciation my friend.
Can you do a video on what happens when your physical body dies?
Thank you so much for such a rich video. Can you please Jason englighten me on the issue of the Caste System in Hinduism. I personally do not think such a great religion/philosophy would encourage something so absurd and contradict it's own core beliefs and teachings. Did the Brahmins misinterperet the Bhagavad Gita on this for their own selfish needs? Did the British enforce or make the already existing problem worse for their advantage? Anything on this would be highly appreciated.
Light to you.
Thank you Ahmed. You're best bet is to read my book 'Enlightenment Now' or 'Fasting the Mind' where I speak about this briefly. I'll give you a brief overview here but its just a big topic. First you don't want to think of the caste system from a modern standpoint, or Western, otherwise we can be misguided into believing the caste system was not moral or something inherently bad. When we think back to ancient times they had to find what was best for a society to be established. The caste system was created because it took away people's egocentric self-interests as they had to submit to the caste they were born in. This kept the society moving along. So that is the spiritual component of the caste system, because it eliminates the ego. Is it fair, well that's another story. The idea is you crucify yourself to the caste system (social dharma) and then when one fulfills their social duty, usually around the age of 40, then one can become a Vanaprastha (worldly renouncer/forest sage). But definitely the origins of the caste system were created by the Aryans who invaded the Dravidian culture, and as a result the Aryans became the upper two castes and the Dravidians became the lower two. Again is this fair, of course not, but the whole Vedic culture is built on this reluctant marriage of both cultures. At the time its not fair, but now we are reaping the rewards of a rich blending of culture that gave birth to Sanatana Dharma. The Brahmins (Aryans of that time) did misinterpret the Dravidian culture somewhat but they also added to it. Keep in mind that the Vedas were orally spoken among the Dravidians until the Aryans arrived and then they created the written texts. This knowledge would have been lost if it remained only orally transmitted. Fortunately when Aryan rule began to diminish the Vedic mysticism pre-Aryan invasion began to resurface. As for the British, well they did a lot more than just that which is a whole other conversation. I could go on and on haha. Maybe I should just make an episode on this topic. I appreciate your kind words Ahmed.
Jason Gregory so you're prorogating Aryan invasion theory?huh?there is no proof of it brother..be it genetic..or linguistic..it was just a theory..
Ar Ra lol show the proof..which studies are saying that..the word Aryan was no where..Muller itself said that in his book..before his death that this is just his theory..he coined the Aryan from Arya making it race from character..that is what Arya..show me the research proof which supports Aryan invasion theory..
The word Aryan would never had come..what u mean by Aryan?tell me how you achieve to conclusion that they will be called Aryans?lol..on what basis you coined this term that they are Aryans..?
Ar Ra lol..don't divert..I simply asked show me proof or shut up..when you don't have data to claim your arguments..then you should not blabber anything
This may have been said already but is Brahman considered 6 in Advaita Vedanta? Meaning, is Brahman itself conscious in this philosophy?
It's not a philosophy, it's a statement of fact
Please listen to acharya prashant to gather more about advaita vedanta
This was brilliant. Thanks a lot
Shunyata: nothing Ness
Brahman: All inclusive. These are exactly opposite?
I want to say sorry to you years ago I made comment criticising you down here just with very little understanding back then 😭🙏 now as I'm grown up I just want to apologise just childish me back then feeling offended over everything
No problem my friend. I didn't take it personally. I'm glad you came back to this video. I hope you are having a great day.
🙏🙏🙏