Crazy maya!!

[Honza]

The outer world around me routinely goes crazy. I expect one thing to happen and the complete opposite happens. Maya is not one who enjoys being understood or taken for granted. She dances a crazy dance and tends to run circles around me.

Is your physical life peaceful or is it crazy too?

[sky]

Originally Posted by Honza

The outer world around me routinely goes crazy. I expect one thing to happen and the complete opposite happens. Maya is not one who enjoys being understood or taken for granted. She dances a crazy dance and tends to run circles around me.

Is your physical life peaceful or is it crazy too?

A bit of both , otherwise it would get a little boring

It seems it's like that for everyone. Even the saints had crazy times in their lives. But that's why it's so important to exercise discrimination, to identify with the permanent over the impermanent.

It reminds me of how, sometimes, you see the gods praised with some variation of, "you are the boat which carries us over the difficult ocean of worldly existence." It's such an accurate metaphor, and you really do feel blessed when you experience it, that, just because the body suffers, it doesn't mean you have to suffer.

[Honza]

Run for cover! Maya has gone ballistic.....

[ajay00]

Maya is just the mind with its strong desires in the form of cravings for pleasure and aversion for pain ,foolishly trying to seek permanent fulfilment in sensory pleasures from material objects, though they is of an impermanent nature.

When the mind is restrained and seeks the bliss and joy of the Self or awareness within, with determination and perseverance, Maya runs for cover.

[Miss Hepburn]

AH! But, isn't it just fun when you realize what you're feeling, thinking,

expecting, and believing inside - reflects itself outside around you?
Now that's when life gets goooood!
The dream of maya starts to alter and shape shift for you.

Example: Think about, imagine, desire and expect (believe in) you will find
money. ( and I mean BILLS of money).
Have NO doubt. And watch what happens.

Place a 20 dollar bill and a 50 and a 100 - on the wall where you can smile at them often...
wink at them and imagine more will be coming to you.
(If I told you what has happened to me on many instances - you might
think I'm making it up.)
Ah, Maya - an extension of myself...what I believe!

[ameliorate]

I have given up trying to make sense/get to grips with Maya. Recently I made a concerted effort since I was exploring non dualism/Advaita Vedanta and this includes (their version of) maya.

I got exasperated on discovering the 7 great inconsistencies/objections to this maya so I gave up although, for those interested and may not know, there is a book that tackles these. John Grimes is said to correct all these arguments.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Great.../dp/B012I61FA2

Maya originally is said to have denoted the magic power with which a god can make us believe in what turns out to be an illusion.

Non dualist's maya is the said to be the cosmic force that presents Brahman/God as the finite phenomenal world. Our real nature of self is said not to be ego but identical with Brahman.

Ultimately I don't find it beneficial to regard our world as an illusion - it's dismissive! Whilst we're here, alive, I prefer to interact in the world in a vital not reluctant or half hearted way, so if that's crazy....so be it!

[ameliorate]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

AH! But, isn't it just fun when you realize what you're feeling, thinking,

expecting, and believing inside - reflects itself outside around you?
Now that's when life gets goooood!
The dream of maya starts to alter and shape shift for you.

Example: Think about, imagine, desire and expect (believe in) you will find
money. ( and I mean BILLS of money).
Have NO doubt. And watch what happens.

Place a 20 dollar bill and a 50 and a 100 - on the wall where you can smile at them often...
wink at them and imagine more will be coming to you.
(If I told you what has happened to me on many instances - you might
think I'm making it up.)
Ah, Maya - an extension of myself...what I believe!

Hey! We prefer the same colour font Miss H!

Seriously though, harnessing the law of attraction is not the same thing as succumbing to the belief that our world is not real is it? I find maya puts a huge, unhelpful dampner on everything. We may contact our spirit/soul (e.g. via meditation) but, largely, this world is all we've got and I prefer to act as if it IS real since to believe it's an illusion is like living life through a smokescreen.

I must be studying very different things to everyone else here. I didn't even know advaita has a different definition of maya than vishistadvaita. I feel out of the loop in this conversation.

Do they still call maya 'she' in advaita?

My understanding of the Vedanta definitions is that real denotes the eternal, unreal means temporary. We can only point to the past and future as memory or ideas, and the present is always changing, whereas the one who experiences these things is more real and believed to be eternal.

I interpret the teachings to suggest that we should be grateful for pleasant things, but not so attached to them that we value this life over God.
In Shakta parlance, I would say it like this; Devi is present as both pleasure and pain, and in that mindset, one would react to both with reverence instead of attachment or aversion. We are supposed to really love her as Mahamaya, and accept the world of the senses for what it is. Whether we currently experience it as enjoyable or brutal, it is still temporary, while she is eternal.

In some of the Upanishads, there are descriptions of what someone is like when they have a solid grasp of Brahman. They are described as joyful, unafraid, leading rich lives and serving God in everyone.

Originally Posted by Aditi

I must be studying very different things to everyone else here. I didn't even know advaita has a different definition of maya than vishistadvaita. I feel out of the loop in this conversation.

Do they still call maya 'she' in advaita?

My understanding of the Vedanta definitions is that real denotes the eternal, unreal means temporary. We can only point to the past and future as memory or ideas, and the present is always changing, whereas the one who experiences these things is more real and believed to be eternal.

I interpret the teachings to suggest that we should be grateful for pleasant things, but not so attached to them that we value this life over God.
In Shakta parlance, I would say it like this; Devi is present as both pleasure and pain, and in that mindset, one would react to both with reverence instead of attachment or aversion. We are supposed to really love her as Mahamaya, and accept the world of the senses for what it is. Whether we currently experience it as enjoyable or brutal, it is still temporary, while she is eternal.

In some of the Upanishads, there are descriptions of what someone is like when they have a solid grasp of Brahman. They are described as joyful, unafraid, leading rich lives and serving God in everyone.

It's a seemingly subtle but extremely deep dialect argumentation. Earlier in the year I got about half way through "The Seven Great Untenables" however it was above my pay grade. Way above! I was still acclimating to the basics of Advaita. I'll pick it up again in a year or so. LOL!

In short Advaita posits Brahman without attributes whereas Vishistadvaita posits Brahman with attributes. Advaita posits Brahman alone is the ultimate reality whereas Vishistadvaita posits three ultimate realities: God (Isvara), soul (Cit) and matter (acit).

Advaita contends that the real, Brahman, must be unsublatable, unchanging, and therefore it follows that the changing world must be unreal or illusory, an appearance born of ignorance.

Vishistadvaita contends the plurality of the world is "internal" to Brahman and that all change belongs only to the "body" (Cit & acit) of Brahman and not to Brahman Itself which is Its unchanging essence. It's a distinction between the form and the essence of Brahman.

To Advaita Maya is an appearance of Brahman born out of ignorance and to Vishistadvaita Maya is an attribute of Brahman.

At least that's my current understanding.