[Advaita-l] An anecdote

[sreenivasa murthy]

Dear Sri Ryan Armstrong,Thank you for your nice reply.What is the reason for the student, even after listening to the teaching, cannot know the vastu? Is there something lacking  in the student because of which he cannot know the vastu?Or there is something wrong with the method of teaching by the Guru ? Is it that the student has not been taught by the Guru the standpoint from which the teachings have to be intereorized? Is it that the Guru himself has not the capacity to help / guide the student to cognize the vastu within himself by himself?I request you to provide the relevant replies to remove these doubts of mine. Thanking you in anticipation,With respectful namaskars,Sreenivasa Murthy
 

    On Sunday, 1 April, 2018, 3:25:57 AM IST, Ryan Armstrong <ryanarm at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Dear Sreenivasa Murthy
Thank you for a beautiful anecdote - one to which there is an affinity.
This could be the fundamental point - who do I BELIEVE that I am.
The sruti says:
अहंब्रह्मास्मि - I am Brahman
This I know, because I have read and ingested this information.
But in saying "I know" in this way, I have betrayed my belief that I am the person who knows, and my lack of belief that "I am Brahman"

The English word "Knowledge" is used to translate both the Sanskrit roots vid and jnaa.
Vid conveys the type of knowledge that can be learned, but jnaa seems to me to be more of the type of knowledge which I would describe as:
"That which, in the present moment, enters the being through the senses and provides all required information about that moment, in that situation, at that time"
This is direct knowledge and is brought about by the manas performing the solitary duty of presenting the appearance of sense-objects via the senses to the buddhi.
Usually it wanders - I have experienced its contemplation of how "holy I can become" while studying scriptures - which prohibits the correct functioning of mind, and thus gives a distorted view of reality.
In the Chandogya Upanishad, Uddalaka asks his son who had learned all of the Veda over 12 years:
येनाश्रुतꣳश्रुतं भवत्यमतं मतमविज्ञातंविज्ञातमितिBy what does the unheard become heard, the unthought become thought, the unknown become known?
When Shvetaketu does not have an answer, he requests instruction.
After not only the high instruction of his father, but also after the practice of austerities directed by his father he is told the words :
तत्त्वमसि - that thou art.
In his honesty, he says "Please instruct me again O Blessed one"
This goes on a few times, each time Uddalaka presents an allegory and each ends with the statement:
सय एषोऽणिमैतदात्म्यमिदꣳसर्वं तत्सत्यꣳ स आत्मातत्त्वमसि
That which is this subtle essence, all this has got That as its Self. That is the Truth. That is the Self. That thou art!
Finally, within himself, he understands - he knows who is is.
Not a mental concept form of knowledge, but the direct realisation of his own nature - and the nature of all that is presented by the senses in every moment.

This knowledge is not achieved through learning, but by the stilling of the mind.
This cannot be achieved by anything, since it is already fully complete.
It is what you already are...

 
ॐतत् सत्
Ryan

On 31 March 2018 at 16:48, sreenivasa murthy via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

Dear friends,Pranams to you all.
   Please permit me to share a very interesting anecdote .

Quote; " I actually had some guy thatcame to my meeting one time, he came and he said, “I’ve been into Vedanta forthirty years. I know everything. I’ve read everything. I’ve studied everything.I don’t need anymore knowledge.” He said, “I seem to be missing one littlepoint, a little something.” He says, “It’slike I know everything about it. I just don’t know what it is.”            [John Wheeler : Transcriptions]
Unquote.What is the reason for such a situation?

With respectful namaskars,Sreenivasa Murthy

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Regards

Ryan Armstrong
+27 82 852 7787
ryanarm at gmail.com