A Book That Peers into Eternity

The following is the essence of Nisargadatta's teaching from the book. For some minds I think it is helpful not to get lost in much reading but to follow simple instruction and see what happens. Something happens that is very tangible and one cannot be mistaken when it occurs:

I am now 74 years old. And yet I feel that I am an infant. I feel clearly that in spite of all the changes I am a child. My Guru told me: that the child, which is you even now, is your real self (swarupa). Go back to that state of pure being, where the 'I am' is still in its purity before it got contaminated with 'this I am' or 'that I am'. Your burden is of false self-identifications - abandon them all. My Guru told me - 'Trust me. I tell you; you are divine. Take it as the absolute truth. Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too. All comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done.' I did believe him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words. I did not condition my mind by thinking: 'I am God, I am wonderful, I am beyond.' I simply followed his instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared - myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.
Nisargadatta, "I am That", p. 228-229.

...and if you wish to see Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj in person doing a question and answer session, you can see few minutes of it on youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtF_Ud2M0HU
This black and white footage is part of a 90 minute film shot in 1979 to 1982 that will be released in full, translated from Marathi, by Neti Neti films in the next few months...
The full 30 minutes Q&A is presented in the DVD "I Am That I Am"
www.netinetifilms.com

maurizio (NetiNetiFilms)

While I have only dabbled there, I have found Nisargadatta's writing attractive and compelling. Nevertheless, I have also found this to be helpful: knowing when "I am NOT that." This enables me to avoid stepping in things that are best walked around. I realize this makes some nondualists cringe. Should I be sorry for THAT? Hey, the awakened state invites alertness, not that I am that, either.

~eric.

“I am that” is our birthright consciousness but it must be reclaimed. Each one coming to planet earth has this “I am” awareness. Few want to go to Baggage Claim and pick it out among the baggage of this world. Forget the suitcases full of definitions and acquirements. Look for the one that is empty. Grab it. Discover emptiness for yourself. Let the baggage carousel continue to whirl. You can’t stop it and you don’t need to. You are the “I am.” You are the emptiness. You are “that.”

Vicki Woodyard
http://www.bobwoodyard.com

From an open letter to Jerry Katz:

When I read Nisargadatta, and it was the awe struck serious inflection in my friend’s voice over the phone that drew me to Nisargadatta, I read him every waking moment I could, from my hour long bus ride to work, in restrooms and lunch breaks at work, on the way home, and last thing before I went to sleep, a session chapter of two or three – depending on the reflection time – before lights out. For month’s.

I read rebelliously not allowing myself to be persuaded by the Master, but challenged his every teaching in my mind. I could not allow that I was not the body, not the mind, and tried to poke holes in his answers – and became exhausted trying to do so. And could not. Still, I heard in his voice and tone, disarming answers – and they really disarmed the questioner, frequently with a response which twisted the question 180 degrees around – turned the question around back on itself. I dissected these in my mind word by word until I heard the words behind the words. And then the silence...the mind numbing silence...

It took six months of introspection – and out of nowhere – click! As if a switch inside the base of my neck was flipped on, the rush of understanding coursed upward, light speed and infused, permeated and radiated in my mind. That a-ha moment! It was, I am sure, the section half way thru the book in which a questioner pins down Nisargadatta to defining and elaborating on his distinctions, uses and meanings of Mind, Consciousness and Awareness. For once a questioner’s mind did not stray from Nisargadatta’s responses as other questioners usually did.

The first half reading and wrestling with the book took six months, the second half with an understanding mind took six days. Amazing. And just as I was wrapping up my reading – the book was ’Orange’at the time – do you remember that first popular orange edition? – then a stranger stuck his head in the door at Café La Boheme and in the bay window section cubicle where I was also sipping a coffee, he informed me about Jean Dunn’s works Seeds of Consciousness and Prior to Consciousness and rushed off to Field’s and gobbled these up too... I tried to engage the stranger, but he excused himself and disappeared as quickly as he appeared.

I would go to Field’s Bookstore and mine the works for deeper understandings, and in desperation, a prayer rose from my heart – God why do you always send me ’dead teachers’...and shortly after I met Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati Udasina, the stroked (like Ram Das) master performing the fire ceremony at the Yoga Society in San Francisco. I will be brief just to say he was the living embodiment demonstrating infallibly our authentic state with the message that this is our state, not just his, and to pay attention to our self.

He used to say "You are not the body, you are not the mind. You have a body, you have a mind. You are like the Big Blue Sky. You are that pure Self. Beingness-Consciousness-Bliss. Realize that Self!"

And then you would feel it...there was no mistaking...once I had to open my eyes to see if I was still living in the flesh, more than that energized field of pulsation and vibration...only to realize Nisargadatta admonishing us that we are not what we experience...what am I? Still?

Well – I have some key points I shall be writing about – and which will be honed in MySpace and transferred to a website. I bounce these off a good friend for reality checks. Some day reality will check spontaneously. Some days it does.

The points I refer to are in defining terms often used in spiritual teachings but then confusion arises because of multiple notions. These terms are the many for God, Om, Mind, Awareness, Consciousness, Salvation and Liberation. For example what is the teacher’s take on Consciousness? Is Consciousness epiphenomenal and what implications does this understanding of Consciousness have?

In other words is there mind because there is Consciousness; or, is there Consciousness because there is mind. And what is mind?

Best answer concerning Mind is in the Sankhya Yoga paradigm - Buddhi & Manas. Simple and most comprehensive explanations and definitions of these terms are in Swami Rajarshi Muni’s Awakening the Life Force and the most precise expositions are contained in Rammurti S. Mishra, M.D.’s Textbook of Yoga Psychology.

Concerning liberation and salvation my friend George says in response to correspondence we exchanged about one of my gifted yet suffering ’pot’ smoking friends:

"I wonder how people would react if they were told that there was and is a method to move toward that state of liberation, the very one which Jesus was immersed in, and that high which the smokers seek. It must seem outlandish or madness. But they would not have to throw the gospels at one another, would they?"

The best definitions for Om (In the beginning was the Word...) I have found are in Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati’s tapes and written commentaries of the Mandukya Upanishad, while the base foundation of the meaning of Fire Ceremony and Myth I have found in Joseph Campbell’s Mythos series...I am not sure if this is still available...but it is a treasure.

Then there is the definition of myth I believe I got from your NDHighlights which came from The Quest for Spiritual Freedom—the Gnostic World View by Stephan A. Hoeller in Jay Kinney’s The Inner West:

"The term ’myth’ should not here be taken to mean ’stories that are not true’, but rather, truths that are expressed as stories."

My mind grates when the ears hear "Oh...it’s just a myth" thrown about flippantly.

David Godman has the best working definitions for ’Truth’ where he elaborates on the meanings of the terms for the ’Absolute’: the Self, Sat-chit-ananda, God, the Heart, Jnana, Turiya & turyatita, and Sahaja Sthiti & Svarupa, and finally – Silence as used by Ramana Maharshi in his introduction of Be As You Are...

Nisargadatta really nails the meanings of Mind, Consciousness and Awareness on the head in I Am That bottom p. 220 to top p. 224

Salvation & Liberation – these are all terms of our final and ultimate estate; and depending on the ’myth’, are expressed in terms by which all our misery happens because we identify with the Ethnic or Folk myths, rather than understanding the Elementary Ideas common to all religions and contained in the various Ethnic expressions of the myth (from Campbell’s Mythos DVD where he expounds Adolf Bastian’s work).

Wars arise by identifying with the accidentals; peace comes from understanding of the essential.

Well this will be my thrust...shall keep you apprised.

All the best for your continued inspiration for humanity, and my humble appreciation for your fine work!

Robert

see blog at: www.myspace.com/vedicfire

And open letter posting at NonDuality site: http://www.nonduality.com/hl3196.htm

Here is a link to the book:
http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf