"Be Consciousness" vs. "Be Pure"

[Jonathan Bricklin]

Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:

> Advaita teachers have
>always said (4000+ years) that the ego is lost only by restraining
>oneself and not by doing whatever one likes ...

Teachers 10,000+ years have had to justify their existence somehow.

>Ramana Maharshi has said complete purity of mind and renunciation is
>necessary to comprehend advaita tattva.


Complete purity of mind _is_  the comprehension "advaita tattva."

>I posted his opinion on how
>purity of mind is attained.

Well, thanks for the word "opinion".  Now tell me about his results.
Serious question.


>A child of age three may think that it can jump
>from the second floor and that nothing will happen to it. It's the duty
>of the more experienced parent to warn the child. The child may think
>that the parent is being authoritarian, and that it is completely
>correct, but some things come only from experience.


As the father of a three year old I understand your commentary on
Nisargadatta's  "Anyone who tells you what to do is dangerous."  I imagine
N. would also.
Unfortunately your point begs the question.  The results of jumping out the
window are derivable from experience.  How one attains advaita tattva is
not (despite what any teacher might tell you.)  Such is lila, or as we in
the West call it, grace.

 >You can very well not follow what the veda-s and
>sages like RM say, inspite of the reasons they give, because
>enlightenment is "not like a Ph.D program".  But remember that this has
>no support in what is commonly called advaita. So, don't call it
>advaita. Call it Nisargadattism or Balsekarism or who-have-you-ism.

Teachers like Nisaargatta, Balsekar, Rajneesh, Da Free John, say many
things that are not supported by some of the traditions that have sprung up
in the name of advaita.  But then their every word (in Rajneesh's case that
extends to over 600 books) resonates and  is consistent with the
profoundest truths of  advaita, such as tat tvam asi.  Their claim to
advaita is not that they fit into a tradition, but that they are capabale
of  a coherent illumination of the key texts on which that tradition is
based.

Jonathan Bricklin



Jonathan Bricklin