Corresponding with Will 1

Hey folks, I thought I'd post some nice correspondence I've had recently with my friend Will. Enjoy!

 

Hi Will,

a nice reply!

There is a verse in the Bhagavad-Gita where it is said "Those who are on this path (of bhakti-yoga / love of God) are resolute and their aim is one, yet the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many branched"

I think you are absolutely correct. It's impossible to analyse all the relationships between things. In doing so, one simply becomes bewildered by duality and many-branches of intelligence. It is better to investigate the unchanging aspects of our lives - to discriminate between the eternal and the temporary.

There is indeed a centre and source of all this duality - the original source of all existences. However, in investigating the absolute, I believe the duality itself has qualities of the absolute, relative ones perspective. seeing it is the key to peace of mind and balance within the dynamic equilbrium.

I often think of a person walking along a beach and seeing the sunlight glitter on the water. As they walk, the glittering light follows them. Yet there is another person, walking behind who is also seeing the glittering light, and they are thinking "this light is following me". How can the light be simultaneously following two people at once? it is, I believe, the paradoxical mystery of the absolute nature of relative subjective experience. The light is indeed simultaneouly appearing to both people at once.

We are each, at every moment, attuned perfectly to the source of all life. It is whether we are conscious of that relationship or not, that is the question. I used to train rats in a maze for a psychology experiment. The rats were only interested in chocolate chips. They weren't interested in the big picture. I would watch them and wonder who was watching me - thinking about the big picture.

Another example, imagine a group of people looking at a photograph of a Saint looking into the camera. Each person is thinking "ah, the Saint is looking at me" but how can this be? how can the saint be simultaneously looking at everyone at once?.  Each person is seeing their absolutely relative moment of time.

Because the absolute truth transcends time and space, it is beyond the bounds of our relative conception.

There is a saying in sanskrit Vedanta philosophy "acintya bhedaabheda
tattva" which translates to "The truth is inconceivably one and different"

subarashii desu ne.

"Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself"

David.


----- Original Message -----
From: "William Yong" <will_yong@yahoo.co.uk>

Hey David,
Sorry I wasnt so responsive yesterday - I was half way through writing this when you signed off.

 ....I guess though that when we get caught up in
 analysing the relations that bring things into being
 we find that there are an infinite number and thus no
 fact can ever be pinned down. dualities are only the
 beginning of the spinning out from the centre, the
 oneness that lies at the source of things - IS the
 source of things. If we get too caught up in what is
 and what is not I think we must lose a sense of simply
 being. I guess this is one motivation behind
 asceticism.
    So you have a sitar - does this mean that you've
 been to India by any chance? I'm very interested in
 visiting an Ashram that my friend knows this winter
 and love to talk India with you...
    My summer plans are being thrown into confusion by
 my half brother's wedding in Iran in August which my
 other brothers may also be going to. though it would
 be nice for my mum to have all four of us together in
 the motherland I really want to go to this temple too.
 Decisions decisions...

 ok. catch you online another time.

 peace be with you my brother,

 W i l l