Advaita Post - Volume 13 No 19

November 6, 2012

--- Don't create any fixed images ---

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Positive sounds

Just as a few more pieces of text.

 "Tonight I have been once again to my advaita teacher Douwe and again felt the depth and the AAAAW of the One ..... and all the relativity of the rest.

Fallen again so deeply into that silence, that we are,

 Maya attracts so magically
and takes all the sufferers into her arms."

 "What I have heard is of great beauty. More beautiful than paintings, poems or music. Next time I hope to be able to come just to listen, to enjoy this beauty and share your meditation."

"... I don't even have words any more. Since I met you and your clarity, it's not even necessary to go to a satsang. Nothing more is needed. Still thank you for that, what a rest!"

 "... There was complete surrender. It took awhile, and during this period there was the feeling that my head was so full of energy, suddenly the top of my head went and everything (?) sprayed out like a fountain. This also took a while. "This is forever" went through me. Good that it happened in the group, I could adjust right away. It would be very tempting for me to stay there."

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Text Satsang

The basic unity in every situation
 From an Advaita talk with Douwe Tiemersma on Schiermonnikoog, February 6, 2005

With most spiritual traditions it's about learning to see and experience certain things. That can be beautiful experiences or great truths. But when the person who experiences these things remains more or less the same, then what really changes? The experiences can be important for the person: the person remains. In advaita it's about a realization that is so radical that everything changes. The insight that breaks through means that an entirely different situation arises. There is a self realization of how it is and simultaneously the actualization of that new. Both go together. If you want to remain at a particular location trying to understand this and that from there, it might become a little clearer mentally, but then it just stays there. You can gain wisdom of everything, but if it stays with: "I know this," "I think that's important," "Now I know this wisdom", then you get a head full of wisdom while the old situation remains the same. So you can fill your head up with all your bookshelves, but you don't accomplish much with that. It's about the total realization of the absence of the old 'I'-person, thus the absence of the 'I'-person who says: 'I think', 'I know'. It's about that 'I' disappearing. That 'I' is a set of self-images, stories, cramps. They are just stories, it's just a chunk of contraction. When you relax there's absolutely nothing more. You walk on the beach, the sea, the blue sky and there isn't a person to be seen. Actually, this situation is always already there. Only when you continue to hold on to all kinds of things in your head, the 'I' continues to emerge. When the erroneous images fall away, when the cramp ceases, it's clear. See how easily this clarity is disturbed once again when you create certain images. So it clouds the vision and narrows the consciousness. When you cease holding on to these images, it's completely clear again. It's that simple. That holding on has to do with the making of boundaries. That's the basis of all suffering. When the grasping disappears, everything is open and clear, there's not a  limit in sight. As long as things continue, they continue by themselves. There is no 'I' that needs to do anything.

You can't force that? Doesn't it just happen to you?

It's a matter of looking. You look and see: there's absolutely no 'I'. It's artificial to carry along all kinds of ideas. When you let go of the artificiality there's no longer a person to be found. You need to think about it in order to recreate a person with all kinds of ideas about qualities, functions, locations, and so on. When you just let that go, it's gone. Then they are no more than phenomena that just come and go. They remain light and transparent. There's not a clumping of something that wants to maintain itself. When these clumps dissolve, what's left over? Temporary energetic phenomena in the great space. It's a game. Therefore it's mutual: don't fasten them together. Because you just don't fix that internally, in yourself, but also in relationships. All kinds of images are projected onto a particular place with a particular name. Partially you even take it over. Also partially not, and then you emit: "I'll just show you who I am". Then you have the situation of relationships and individuals who try to fix themselves and each other onto a particular location. When you make separations there must be all kinds of external rules in order to keep things in place. There may certainly be all sorts of ideals, but if the starting point is wrong, the suffering remains. It's much more like an ocean with waves. A little wave emerges and a moment later the wave is gone and then again more wavelets arise. There is one ocean and some waves emerge therein, but that basic unity remains.

Then wouldn't you be completely unable to communicate with each other? When you use words immediately there are all kinds of images.

Of course, that's how it goes, but also, these are all things which disappear once again. All that talk about this and that is complete nonsense. You shouldn't make it more important than it is. But what is it really about? We enjoy being together and so we say something now and again. What we say doesn't matter too much. The mutual connection doesn't depend upon the conversation. It wouldn't be too good if that was the case. So when you converse, don't keep the other fixed within set words and images. When it's a relationship which rests upon this deeper connection, something may be said now and again and then it's good. You can be quiet and it's also good. Don't make fixed images.

So it's best to stay with your own openness.

That's always the most important. That must be very clear, in every situation. For every situation has a tendency to harden. Precisely in mutual conversations, in communication, in relationships, it happens so easily and is very subtle. It's not just on the level of the sentences that you speak. It also happens very directly on the feeling level, on the energetic level. When you stay with yourself, when you remain completely open, then you also see a change in your environment. Then not only has something changed in you in relation to this cramp, but also you see that the whole situation is changing through this openness. The old issues aren't so important any more. When you are open that basic unity is there. You don't even have a clear center anymore. Then it no longer matters when a particular energy comes at you from a particular body, because you're no longer imprisoned there, you no longer feel attacked by it. If, for example, aggression comes at you and from this openness you start laughing, that aggression is immediately gone.