Jnana Yoga: The Path of Knowledge

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

***

Am enjoying this thread ... best to keep quiet and listen!

***

Am also enjoying this thread ... best to keep quiet and listen!

I just started reading this speech in the book.

https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.i...nd_freedom.htm

"The Âtman is the only existence in the human body which is immaterial. Because it is immaterial, it cannot be a compound, and because it is not a compound, it does not obey the law of cause and effect, and so it is immortal. That which is immortal can have no beginning because everything with a beginning must have an end. It also follows that it must be formless; there cannot be any fond without matter. Everything that has form must have a beginning and an end. We have none of us seen a form which had not a beginning and will not have an end. A form comes out of a combination of force and matter. This chair has a peculiar form, that is to say a certain quantity of matter is acted upon by a certain amount of force and made to assume a particular shape. The shape is the result of a combination of matter and force. The combination cannot be eternal; there must come to every combination a time when it will dissolve. So all forms have a beginning and an end. We know our body will perish; it had a beginning and it will have an end. But the Self having no form, cannot be bound by the law of beginning and end. It is existing from infinite time; just as time is eternal, so is the Self of man eternal. Secondly, it must be all-pervading. It is only form that is conditioned and limited by space; that which is formless cannot be confined in space. So, according to Advaita Vedanta, the Self, the Atman, in you, in me, in every one, is omnipresent. You are as much in the sun now as in this earth, as much in England as in America. But the Self acts through the mind and the body, and where they are, its action is visible."




By the way, since the Atman (Paramatman vs. jiva-atman) does not obey the law of cause and effect It is not touched by the law of karma. That chain only binds the jiva-atman.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

By the way, since the Atman (Paramatman vs. jiva-atman) does not obey the law of cause and effect It is not touched by the law of karma. That chain only binds the jiva-atman.

From Swami Sivananda:

Jivatman is the individual soul, a reflection of Brahman in Avidya (ignorance) or the mind. Paramatman is the Supreme Soul, Brahman or the Atman. From the empirical viewpoint, the Jivatman is a finite and conditioned being, while the Paramatman is the infinite, eternal, Sat-chitananda Brahman. In essence, the Jivatman is identical with Paramatman when Avidya is destroyed.

Peace

[Miss Hepburn]

Yes, jiva...little individualized beings...I always picture MIB, the first movie,
with the
Monk/Shaloub actor in the pawnshop that has all these little heads coming out of him...they are all 'him'.
They each have feelings and pain and thoughts ---and it all goes back to the One.

https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.i...parent_man.htm

"There is then but one all-comprehending existence, and that one appears as manifold. This Self or Soul or Substance is all that exists in the universe. That Self or Substance or Soul is, in the language of non-dualism, the Brahman appearing to be manifold by the interposition of name and form. Look at the waves in the sea. Not one wave is really different from the sea, but what makes the wave apparently different? Name and form; the form of the wave and the name which we give to it, "wave". This is what makes it different from the sea. When name and form go, it is the same sea. Who can make any real difference between the wave and the sea? So this whole universe is that one Unit Existence; name and form have created all these various differences. As when the sun shines upon millions of globules of water, upon each particle is seen a most perfect representation of the sun, so the one Soul, the one Self, the one Existence of the universe, being reflected on all these numerous globules of varying names and forms, appears to be various. But it is in reality only one. There is no "I" nor "you"; it is all one. It is either all "I" or all "you". This idea of duality, calf two, is entirely false, and the whole universe, as we ordinarily know it, is the result of this false knowledge. When discrimination comes and man finds there are not two but one, he finds that he is himself this universe. "It is I who am this universe as it now exists, a continuous mass of change. It is I who am beyond all changes, beyond all qualities, the eternally perfect, the eternally blessed.""

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.i...parent_man.htm
"There is then but one all-comprehending existence, and that one appears as manifold.
This Self or Soul or Substance is all that exists in the universe. That Self or Substance or Soul is, in the language of non-dualism,
the Brahman appearing to be manifold by the interposition of name and form.

Look at the waves in the sea. Not one wave is really different from the sea, but what makes the wave apparently different?
Name and form; the form of the wave and the name which we give to it, "wave".
This is what makes it different from the sea. When name and form go, it is the same sea. Who can make any real
difference between the wave and the sea?

So this whole universe is that one Unit Existence; name and form have created all these various differences.
As when the sun shines upon millions of globules of water, upon each particle is seen a most perfect representation of the sun, so the one
Soul, the one Self, the one Existence of the universe, being reflected on all these numerous globules of
varying names and forms, appears to be various. But it is in reality only one.
There is no "I" nor "you"; it is all one. It is either all "I" or all "you".
This idea of duality, calf two, is entirely false, and the whole universe,
as we ordinarily know it, is the result of this false knowledge.
When discrimination comes and man finds there are not two but one, he finds that he is himself this universe.
"It is I who am this universe as it now exists,
a continuous mass of change. It is I who am beyond all changes, beyond all qualities, the eternally perfect, the eternally blessed."

(I changed the format from 'block' so I could read it easier.
I didn't know what calf two meant.)
Thank you.
It was, well, how can I say... made me very emotional because...well, Truth does that.
I did realize as The Course In Miracles (ACIM) is 365 Lessons - the first ones get the mind
used to looking at things 'not naming them' - to break that habit - within 28 days I saw a huge mind shift that 'just happened'.

Not to talk about ACIM - it's just I see more clearly how the Course works.
The above is quite inspiring- in what way? I guess to stay on this Path
of Awakening...to not get distracted
or complacent in this world of form - and names...to hold the Truth precious.


(A line he said made me wonder if it inspired the ACIM book -''The Disappearance of the Universe.''
When we are free - when we 'know' ---the whole Universe then disappears.)

[Miss Hepburn]

Another excerpt from there:
If one millionth part of the men and women who live in this world simply sit down and for a few minutes say,
"You are all God, O ye men and O ye animals and living beings, you are all the manifestations of the one living Deity!"
the whole world will be changed in half an hour.

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I didn't know what calf two meant.)

I'm familiar with calving from astronomy. It's when a chunk separates off from a comet. I guess it was his way of saying multiplicity.

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

Can we say that true oneness is Samādhi ... anything else being interconnectedness but not oneness?

***

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

***

Can we say that true oneness is Samādhi ... anything else being interconnectedness but not oneness?

***

This from "Vivekananda: The Yogas and Other Works" page 30 in the biography by Swami Nikhilananda.

Nerandra, understanding the fatal nature of Sri Ramakrishna's illness and realizing that the beloved teacher would not live long, intensified his own spiritual practices. His longing for the vision of God knew no limit. One day he asked the master for the boon of remaining merged in samādhi three or four days at a stretch, interrupting his meditation now and then for a bite of food. "You are a fool," said the master. "There is a state higher than that. It is you who sing: 'O Lord! Thou art all that exists.'" Sri Ramakrishna wanted the disciple to see God in all beings and to serve them in a spirit of worship. He often said that to see the world alone, without God, is ignorance, ajnāna; to see God alone, without the world, is a kind of philosophical knowledge, jnāna; but to see all beings permeated by the spirit of God is supreme wisdom, vijnāna.