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    Advaita Vedanta

    Advaita Vedanta is a school or philosophy of ancient India. It derives its teachings from the Vedas. Vedanta is a term denoting the end of the Vedas. In other words some feel that Advaita is the end of all knowledge as it is the highest.

    Advait posits that everything is Consciousness. Every thought, feeling, emotion, and judgement is an appearance in Consciousness.

    Ignorance is what has caused mankind to embrace separateness. Through ignorance we superimpose our ideas and concepts onto reality. This causes us to suffer and to want to seek truth to escape suffering.

    Nisargadatta Maharaj says: "Even for a moment do not think that you are the body. Give yourself no name, no shape. In the darkness and the silence reality is found."

    "I can find little solace in the profound " I think, therefore I am" solution. In the first place Descartes never proved that it was he doing the thinking"(Richard Rose).

    David Carse says: "Everything, including the body/mind organism you call yourself, does not exist as something separate in itself, but only as an apparent functioning in Consciousness. There is no separate self or mind, only dream characters in Self or Consciousness. There is only thinking happening in this apparent organism, in these dream characters. We experience this. We experience thoughts happening; but the assumption that they originate inside these heads in something we call a mind is an unwarranted leap. It's the basic misperception from which everything else, all of dualism, all of the illusion of separation, all saMsAra [cycle of death and birth] follows"

    A book im currently enjoying that I got these quotes from is called "Back to the Truth: 5000 years of Advaita" by Dennis Waite.

    #2
    Re: Advaita Vedanta

    "Ramana Maharshi recommended that one investigates by asking the question "Who am I?" When asked who you are, there might be a hesitation as to what to answer; but when asked if you exist, there is no such doubt. The answer is a resounding, "Yes, of course I exist," When the answer to the first question is as clear as the answer to the second question, there is understanding.

    The realization is that both questions have in fact the same answer. That which is sure of its existence - the innermost certainty of I am - is what you essentially are. In other words: I am this knowing that knows that I am. The Hindus say "tat tvam asi" (thou art That). In the Old Testament, God says, "I am that I am." This undeniable "I am" is not you in the personal sense, but the universal Self. Ramana Maharshi called the fundamental oneness of "I am" and the universal Self "I-I".

    Watching from this understanding, I see how thoughts appear in "my" awareness like clouds in a clear sky and then, without a trace, dissolve back in to it. There's even no need to proclaim that thoughts appear in my awareness. In Awareness suffices. Thoughts and everything else simply happen. Everything is, without a "me" orchestrating it from behind the scenes. The go is as non-essential to thinking or to the general functioning of the body-mind organism as Atlas is to supporting the heavens. Just as the ancient Greeks at some point realized that, in fact, there never was a titan named Atlas supporting the firmament, you can realize there never was an actual ego supporting the absolute certainty of "I am". (Awakening to the Dream by Leo Hartong)

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