message to my friends

[f. maiello]

Prashant Sharma wrote:
>
>         Yes, but isn't this human nature simply a manifestation of mental
> conditioning? Isn't the slate wiped out clean when jnAna is attained? So
> what truth lies in these experiences other than that similar experiences
> lead to similar feelings. But since attainment of jnAna is not an
> experience, rather a dissolution of the experiencing structure, how can
> you extrapolate this similarity?

Yes, it is technically not an "experience," since there is
no identifiable subject witnessing an objectifiable event.
I can only speak from my own "experience" associated with
what I had previously undertook in Zen Buddhism, which was
an unfoldment of the intuitive faculty embracing what is
referred to as kensho (which is the precursor to satori,
being a temporary visitation [to the satori state], which is,
in turn, the Zen equivalent of sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi).
And this so-called kensho was *identical* to my subsequent
repeated visitations of the turiya state, via savikalpa
samadhi (where the ahamkara is temporally transcended yet
remains latent due to vasanas and thus continues to reappear).
So that, there was the pattern for an identical outcome as
a result of undertaking two different approaches.  This is
why I maintain that non-duality is universal, in principle
as well as "experience."  It's interesting to note the
parallels infact associated with these respective methods:
Zen postulates the satori state to be a direct product of
mu-shin or no-mind.  Advaita postulates the sahaja state
to be a direct product of manonasa or destroyed mind.
Zen utilizes the paradoxical koan to affect this end, while
advaita calls for tracing the ego-mind to its source, via
Self-enquiry.  The marked [superficial!] difference between
them is that Zen refuses to even acknowledge the existence
of the atta or reincarnating soul; whereas advaita proclaims
its eventual dissolution (viz. of the jivatman).

I will not comment further on this, since I must respect
Ravi's parameters in this forum.

namaste