Advaita Post 11-20

Volume 11 No. 20 (December 19, 2010)

--- Precisely when forms disappear, there is the greatest chance to release your attachment to all that is relative ---

This is the last Advaita Post of this year, the eleventh year. It's nice to see that the publication has had such a useful function.  When the next AP will appear is not clear. In the short term I will undergo an operation which is referred to as very difficult. A tumor on the border between the esophagus and the stomach needs to be removed.

Yes, the physical organism is a miracle of functioning but it is both fragile and fleeting. Sooner or later, there is a disturbance that halts this piece of life. The body has its own laws.

Concerning the identification of self-being with the body, enough has been said and written about it here. Of course there is a physical incarnation and a bodily life in the world. But that's not the whole story. As self you have a depth in which you realize that you're free from bodily and worldly conditions. From this depth, the bodily condition is very relative. "I am free".  From there, at the end of life, the last connection to the body disappears.

In this situation it is more apparent than ever that the assembled love was and is and will be. This was experienced together through an increased awareness of the origin and foundation of life and society. That meant joy and happiness. So, it has continued on in a good way in and around the Advaita Center for quite awhile. With a number of people everything broke completely open. For many, there was a development which lead to the edge. Then there is hardly anything else required...

How it will go on from here is not clear. The management has decided to continue to hold the Retreat Day/ Advaita Day on December 28 in a modified form. From 13:00 to about 15:30 there will be a guided meditation on CD (from Douwe). The retreat on Schiermonnikoog for the first week of February has been canceled.

It is best not to send any e-mails to my computer. Messages by postal mail are more convenient. If you want to send an email, please send it to William Steetskamp, Chairman of the Board, who will collect messages for me. The plan is that a new Advaita Post will appear now and then containing news about developments but also with texts.

It

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Text
From a talk in Gouda on December 15, 2010

The meetings here have had their function. What's most important now is: what's happening with yourself? Life gives sufficient teaching-opportunities for learning everything you need to learn. Perhaps this situation now is a very good learning experience. To the extent that you have gone the way your teacher has indicated to you, you have relied upon the teacher. That is what I also experienced with Nisargadatta Maharaj. To the extent that support in a form, even a rarefied form, disappears, there is a great chance for you to realize what it's all about, because every form is a veil. When the veil falls away, there is clarity.

In our relationship there have always been different levels on which we have spoken with one another. The most important level, to which I repeatedly appealed, was the deepest in yourself in which you are free, independent, open and one.
This point was and remains the most important, precisely as the forms disappear. Then the highest remains in its purity. That is the greatest opportunity now, your big chance, possibly the greatest chance you've ever had: to release your attachment to everything that is relative.

You see that your orientation is the most important: where you focus yourself. The focused orientation on forms can return to its origin. It opens up there. You can remain aware there. Then the whole world of phenomena appears as relative. Let the return to your origins and your being-awareness therein be concrete. Through this all boundaries disappear and there appears to be perfect unity. This has nothing to do with a person. This is your true nature.
In this opening and unification there is a great joy, in the release from being stuck in limitations. This letting go, this expansion, that is bliss.

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Given the responses, the classic texts which were included in the last issues of the Advaita Post, were greatly appreciated by many. Apparently they have an important function. What is that function?  It lies not so much on the level of people who are inspired by texts. Rather it's about a total change of self and reality such as is experienced by merging with the essence of the text. This is possible by focusing on the essence of the text and through that focus letting the distance to that essence disappear. Therefore a clear consciousness and dedication are necessary. So then, let this merging happen.

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Text Ribhu Gîtâ

I, indeed, am the substratum of everything.
I, indeed, manifest as all.
I, indeed, am the One devoid of anything else.
I, indeed, am the Self of all.
I, indeed, am the undivided Supreme Brahman.
I, indeed, am the nature of the nondual.
I, indeed, exist as just myself.
By such conviction of being the one Brahman, be steeped in serenity.

I, indeed, am of the nature of Knowledge.
I, indeed, am of the nature of Bliss.
I, indeed, am of the nature of the imperishable.
I, indeed, am of the nature of the undivided Absolute.
I, indeed, am of the nature of the one Absolute.
I, indeed, am of the nature devoid of anything else.
I, indeed, am of the nature of myself.
By such conviction of being the one Absolute, be steeped in serenity.

I, indeed, am also what appears as this.
I, indeed, am also what appears as "I" and "you".
I, indeed, am also what appears as That.
I, indeed, am also what appears as something else.
I, indeed, am also whatever appears as whatever.
I, indeed, am all at anytime.
I, indeed, am the wonderful Supreme Brahman.
By such conviction of the undivided Absolute, be steeped in serenity.

The rest of the text can be found at: Ribhu Gita

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A warm greeting from very close by,

Douwe Tiemersma