Monday, February 1, 2010

Advaita


The benefits of Vedic Meditation are only part of the truth. The reason we practice Vedic Meditation is closer to the Truth. The reason is to experience Oneness -- Advaita.

If one approaches Advaita from an intellectual understanding, they may understand the concept "all is one" but that understanding is incomplete. Advaita is experience. Fully aware -- full of love.


And just as with the explanation of love - something is missing if one attempts to explain Advaita from the point of view of intellectual understanding. It is not just physics and the unified field. Advaita is not a concept. It has no rules, no borders, no limitation.


When we close our eyes in Vedic Meditation and drop to the simplest state of awareness, we experience That. Consciousness. In all glory, in all simplicity. I am That. Thou art That.

This past weekend I attended satsang with Francis Lucille. His expression of Advaita, his teaching, is full of love and a deep impersonal understanding of the individual's struggle to find the path. You can find a lovely description of Advaita on his website but I have re-printed it here and give him full acknowledgement:


  • Advaita is a sanskrit word that literally means "not two". Synonyms of Advaita are non-duality (nonduality, non duality). Advaita is not a philosophy or a religion. Non-duality is an experience in which there is no separation between subject and object; a "me" and the rest of the universe; a "me" and God. It is the experience of consciousness, our true nature, which reveals itself as absolute happiness, love and beauty. Consciousness is defined as that, whatever that is, which is aware of these very words right here, right now.