Talks on spiritual and philosophical topics, mostly related to the path of knowledge and Advaita Vedanta or Non-dualism. Subjects such as the consciousness, mind, reality, metaphysics and various ways to study these are discussed.
In this concluding part of the series, we see the problem of spiritual progress and get a detailed summary of all of his teachings. Nisargadatta's philosophy is seen as a distilled form of Advaita or Nondualism. He presents this timeless knowledge in as pure form as possible and in a very direct way.
Is deep sleep my ultimate state, or my real nature? Is Nisargadatta a devotee or a gyani? What is suffering, who suffers? Why is it still there even after knowing what I essentially am?
There is no perceiver and no perceived, but only perceiving. This immediately leads us to unity, oneness. This destroys the doer. Intellect is an obstruction when used to find the absolute. There can be no re-birth. Nisargadatta discusses all these matters.
What is enlightenment? How to get it? Who gets enlightened? When does the seeking end? What are the implications of liberation? We know all these important answers as we proceed with the book.
This life is a practical joke happening in no space and no time. How did I get so involved in it? Was I born in some place at some time in the past? Or is it that a perception appeared in illusory space and time, which I mistook as myself?
Nisargadatta answers many interesting questions here, such as, the utility of spiritual knowledge in worldly life, origin of duality and illusory world, the root of ignorance, the meaning of awakening and how to achieve liberation instantly.
What was I before I was born? Nisargadatta reached the absolute by enquiring about this seemingly strange question. Here we see his train of thoughts. Absolute is, and everything else is a concept. What meaning remains, then, of this life? What should an individual do, when he knows that there is no individual?
What is whole seeing? What happens when we adopt a lifestyle which involves whole seeing every moment? Why is there a manifestation? Balsekar conveys the views of Nisargadatta on such questions.
What is unmanifest and manifest? Where does the world come from? What is the difference between awareness and consciousness? How to be the awareness? Balsekar explains the answers to these questions as given by Nisargadatta.
Reading the book - "Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj", with commentary and discussion. The author, Ramesh Balsekar, narrates the story of how the writing happened. We are introduced to the Absolute Awareness, consciousness and the illusion of the individual or I.
In the final sermon, the Breakthrough sermon, Bodhidharma plainly states that the only way to gain enlightenment is to behold the mind. The true nature of all of us is awareness, and the only practice is to abide in awareness. The rituals etc. are metaphorical and are totally useless. Realization is here and now.
In the Wakeup Sermon, Bodhidharma points at the need to go beyond mind. The words engage the mind and delusion follows. Not using the mind to know that which cannot be known via mind is Zen. When this is known, everything we do and every state of the mind is Zen.
The doctrines are useless and so are hardships or devotion. Bodhidharma delivers only one message - that of instantaneous knowledge of one's true nature, nothing more. This mind is the Buddha mind. This mind is the movement. No motion, no mind, and since its essence is emptiness, it never really moves.
We start with Bloodstream sermon. Bodhidharma explains the mind and the self-nature. He puts it clearly that the mind itself is the self-nature and trying to find the self-nature beyond this mind is impossible. This mind is the Buddha. To realize this is Zen.
Reading the book - "The Zen teaching of Bodhidharma", with commentary and discussion. Bodhidharma is the father of Zen, which is based on the path of knowledge, as taught by Siddhartha Gautama Buddha himself. We explore its similarities with Advaita and other Nondual philosophies.
Mankind's greatest discovery is realization of their own essential nature. When we act in knowledge, we reach our goals of happiness and freedom. In ignorance we remain a slave of situations and obey the will of others, we remain in misery and bondage. Rising above the lower planes is possible via mental transmutation. Know the mind, and transmute the mind. This is real magic.
The Gender is the creative principle active in all the planes of existence. Without the opposites, there is no creation, no structures are formed. Creation is a dance of opposites. The I and Me are two aspects, masculine and feminine. The I is the Will, the Me is the creative energy. I influences the Me, and hence it becomes necessary to wake up to this truth, exercise the will of the I and shield Me from undesirable influences from other minds.
The polarity is not static, the poles are reversed sooner or later. Everything has highs and lows, a rhythm. A Master understands this law and neutralizes it by staying steady amidst the flow of polarities. Nothing is uncaused and everything has an effect. One can remain unaffected by consequences by acting with awareness, and thus can rise above the law of cause and effect.
Everything exists as vibrations. The mental phenomena are just higher vibrations compared to the material. Understanding of vibrations brings powers. Everything has opposites, and they are simply different degrees of the same thing, appearing as two poles of it. This understanding enables us, to transmute that thing, into something of a higher vibration. The most important application of which, is transmutation of our own mind.
The planes of existence are experiences of various vibratory states of the ALL. Entities find themselves in one or the other vibratory plane, depending on their level of evolution. Higher the rate of vibration, higher is the level of evolution. There is a huge continuous spectrum of vibrations, which can be divided into arbitrary planes or dimensions for the purpose of study.
