[Advaita-l] On the date of Adi Shankara

[Michael Shepherd]

May I round off this matter of saakshin with a little dignity, as a thank
you to those who helped with this ?

The question originated with a lady asking about peeling potatoes and
carrots : should she be aware of 'the witness' in giving attention to the
job in hand, or  simply aim to be 'fully present' and let the job get done ?

And I remembered an incident from years ago, which really annoyed me at the
time..

I was doing ashram seva, and was given the instruction 'Let the knowledge do
the work !'
It didn't mean much. But later I was vacuuming a carpet, and afterwards was
asking about the experience. The guru asked 'Where was the vacuum cleaner ?'

I said, it had disappeared... there was just myself and the work doing
itself... and the guru roared with laughter; and I didn't see the joke..

Now I realise that I had been given the answer. In terms of saakshin, there
appears at first to be a duality of witness and what is witnessed. But that
duality can disappear since the real saakshin, which witnesses all, can
subsume man, vacuum cleaner, carpet, the action, the mind and the emotions,
into itself; and then 'the knowledge does the work'. And the work brings the
knowledge.

Well that satisfies me; I hope it makes sense.
It's good when the theoretical and the practical meet at last.

Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org]On Behalf Of Jaldhar
H. Vyas
Sent: 04 January 2010 18:04
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] On the date of Adi Shankara



On Mon, 4 Jan 2010, Michael Shepherd wrote:

> I did indeed enquire about kutastha earlier; you have a good memory.
(Could
> you ask someone who's not so busy to provide a basic subject index to this
> valuable site, if that's possible ?)

Unfortunately I'm really the only one who can do that.  It is one item on
a long long todo list of improvements to this site.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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