End Of Knowledge

Tag: Vedanta

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 87

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 87

    I am neither bound nor free because bondage and freedom are illusory concepts. The universe, though appearing in me, only appears to exist because of ignorance.  Knowing I am the self, my belief in the illusion ceases. 
    -Ashtavakra Samhita 2:18
    Meditation

    I appear to be bound by the universe when I believe it is real.  But the universe cannot be real because it continuously changes in the waking state; it is periodically replaced by an ever-changing dream universe in the dream state; and it is completely absent in deep sleep. How real is that? 

    Perhaps the universe is still there when I don’t see it in the state of dream or deep sleep?  Even if it is, that does not establish its reality.  For if it were real, it would continue to be evident in dream and deep sleep.  For that which truly exists is self-evident and does not need to be established any means of knowledge such as perception.  The self alone is self-evident and self-established.  I am that self and I alone exist. There is no bondage to escape from and no freedom to strive for.  OM. 

    Read Series Introduction

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 86

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 86

    I am neither the doer nor the enjoyer.  There is no karma for me, past or present.  I have no body nor is the body mine.  There is only me so what could be mine or not-mine? 
    -Avadhuta Gita 1:66
    Meditation

    The thoughts, “I’m doing this” and “I’m enjoying the results of my actions” are just that: thoughts.  Because those thoughts are transient, they can’t be real.  Because they’re known to me, they can’t be me.  Therefore, I am neither the doer nor the enjoyer.  For the same reasons, I am not the body. 

    Because I am not the doer nor the body I perform no karma.  Because I perform no karma, I don’t reap the results of karma. 

    But considering the fact that I am non-dual, it’s improper to say “I am not the thought of doership nor is the thought of doership mine” or “I have no body nor is the body mine” or “I have no karma nor is the karma mine” because I do not admit the existence of the doer, the enjoyer, the body or karma in myself, the one reality.  And that which does not exist can neither belong to me nor not belong to me.  OM.

    Read Series Introduction

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 85

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 85

    I am the self, the essence from which the universe arises and into which it dissolves, like waves and foam arising and dissolving into the sea. 
    -Avadhuta Gita 2:34
    Meditation

    When waves arise from water and dissolve back into water, nothing is added or subtracted from the water—its nature as water remains completely unchanged.  And while the waves depend entirely on the water for their existence, the existence of water is completely independent of the existent of the waves.

    Similarly, when the universe arises from me, pure being, and dissolves back into me, nothing is added or subtracted from me—my nature as pure being remains completely unchanged.  And while the universe depends entirely on me, pure existence, for its illusory existence, I am completely independent of the illusory existence of the universe. 

    Therefore, let the universe come and go—I remain the same.  I do not depend on its illusory existence to be the limitless reality that I naturally am.  OM. 

    Read Series Introduction

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 83

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 83

    I have no attributes.  I am action-less, eternal, ever-free and indestructible.  I am not the body which is unreal. 
    -Aparokshanubhuti V.27
    Meditation

    This much is obvious: The body possesses attributes such as tallness, shortness, thinness, fatness etc.; the body performs action; the body is subject to beginning and end, to creation (birth) and destruction (death). 

    This much is also obvious:  Because the body is an ever-changing collection of attributes that has a beginning and end, it is unreal; I am reality itself so I cannot be the body; further, I am the knower of the unreal body so for this reason too, I cannot be the body.

    My firm conviction is: Because I am not the body, I am not bound by it; I am not defined or limited by its attributes; I perform no action whatsoever; I have no beginning, no end and I cannot be changed.  OM. 

    Read Series Introduction

  • Steady Wisdom: Day 82

    Steady Wisdom: 108 Verses On Changing My Thinking

    DAY 82

    The body comes and goes. Since I am the self that neither comes nor goes, there is no reason to mourn. 
    -Ashtavakra Samhita 15:9
    Meditation

    The fact that I can say, “The body comes, goes and changes” proves that I, the witness of the body, do not come, go or change.  I must exist prior to the thought, “Here is the body” because if I came into existence along with the thought of the body I would be unaware of the thought’s previous non-existence owing to the fact that I too would have been previously non-existent (and therefore not present to recognize the arising of the thought of the body).  By the same logic, I must exist after any particular thought of the body otherwise I would disappear along with the thought (and therefore not be present to recognize the disappearance of that particular thought of the body). 

    Nor do I change when the body changes, such as when the body changes from childhood to adulthood.  Because if I were identical with the changing body, then when the childhood body changed into the adult body (and thus no longer existed) I too would no longer exist.  And a non-existence entity would not be present and able to say, “Now here is my adult body.”

    So unlike the body, I do not come, go or change.  I am ever-present and immutable.  OM. 

    Read Series Introduction