Dennis Waite - Introducing (small) self to the group

[Dennis Waite]

I have been studying and, (to not quite the same degree!), practising,
Advaita Vedanta for the past 8 or 9 years. I am a student at the School of
Economic Science in England. This has, for about the past 25 years received
guidance from Sri Santanand Saraswati, ex Shankaracharya of the North. I
attend classes there once a week and also act as tutor to a more recent
group once per week. The disciplines are based primarily on Gnana and Karma
Yoga with a little Bhakti. We meditate twice daily, initiated by the London
School of Meditation, originally an off-shoot of TM. I am also attempting to
learn Sanskrit.
During all of this time, I have been open to related ideas from any other
discipline. (e.g. I have been looking into general thinking in Western
Philosophy and particularly modern thoughts on the nature of mind and
consciousness.) But of all the material I have read, that which rings with
the truth stems from such sources as Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sri Ramana
Maharshi, Swami Chinmayananda and, of course (though more difficult to
understand), Sri Sankara himself.
When I obtained a modem and subscribed to an Internet Provider at the
beginning of last year, my principal reason was to search for related
information on the net and, in particular, an Advaita mailing list.
Initially I didn't have a tremendous amount of success but then I began to
track down a number of sources which have proven (and are proving) to be
excellent. Amongst these are 'Truespeech' in California who promulgate both
traditional and very much up-to-date teachings in Direct Path Advaita; SAT,
also in California who have a good bookstore on traditional Advaita; the
Chinmayananda Trust who have some good pages on the web and, more recently,
the Alan Watts mailing list, which has carried some excellent material over
the past few months.
I have to admit to thinking too much, despite knowing that this is not
always helpful in seeking the truth, and I continue to read extensively and
enjoy discussing related topics. Only yesterday, I came across some comments
from Sri Ramana Maharshi which highlighted the futility of this - how the
mind creates the apparent multiplicity. "Existence plus variety is the
world. Existence plus individuality is the soul. Existence plus the idea of
the all is God. In all the three, Existence is the sole element of reality.
Variety, individuality and all-ness are unreal. They are created and imposed
on Existence by the mind." He uses the analogy of the room, cluttered up by
furniture etc. If we want to make space, we can't bring space in from
outside; it is there all the time. What is need is to clear the things out
of the room. Similarly, the truth is not going to be found in all this
reading and discussing - outside. What is needed is to clear out the ego and
all its creations and the Self will be re-discovered - there all the time.
Although I have still to print out all of the back issues, I already
recognise some of the names of the members. I have been in contact with many
or at least read their postings to various newsgroups and am honoured to
have access to such a group of serious and knowledgeable minds. In
particular I noticed  K. Sadananda amongst the contributors. Some months
ago, I downloaded his excellent article on 'Reflection: Who is the Deep
Sleeper I?' off the WWW and sent him some queries on this. Principally, as I
understood, owing to the unfortunate death of a relative of his, subsequent
discussion never materialised. I wondered if, with his permission, we might
put his original article and my comments onto the list and throw the topic
open for general discussion. It is certainly one of the more fundamental
issues in Advaita, about which much has been (and no doubt will be) said and
I would be very interested in hearing the learned views of the group.



Dennis Waite
dwaite at aladdin.co.uk