In Vedanta the goal of seeking is moksha. Moksha is usually translated as freedom from bondage. But it isn't really bondage that goes - it is the IDEA of bondage that goes. It is not actually being bound now and then later being freed. It is finding out that this bondage was never true, that the idea of bondage is false.
What does that mean? That means you are not now nor never were bound. You are not now nor never were limited, separated, isolated, small or insignificant.
The bondage is the idea of limited, finite existence. You believe that you are a limited, finite being. You've believed this as long as you can remember. It is the very root idea you have about yourself and reality. Your idea of reality is built upon the idea that there are things which exist on their own, standing alone, independently, existing independently. You believe that when a form appears, that "thing" has been born or created. Then when that form disappears, dissolves, dies - you believe that existence to be extinguished, that individual existence.
It is this idea that Vedanta says is false. If that is true then it is only the idea you have that needs to go. You don't need to change anything, manipulate anything, control anything. You only need to challenge this idea and see if it's true. Look deeply into it - it's likely you never have once questioned this.
This entity we call "person" is false - it is a false idea. It is this idea you believe which is the only bondage. Freedom is seeing that this idea was always false, therefore you were never bound, you were never limited, you were always whole - in fact you ARE the WHOLE.
It seems this is the last place we want to look, the last thing we want spiritual seeking to be about. We want to retain that individuality and achieve some spiritual goal. It cannot be done. We want spirituality to be about something great we achieve, then our life will be great where it once sucked.
Give up that idea, the sooner the better. Directly question your own birth, your own beginning, the seeming beginning and independence of existence itself. The individual cannot achieve anything. The individual falls away as false, naturally, when it is looked into. There is no individual "I". It's just false. Look for it - once and for all dive in and see if you can find an independent "I" anywhere.
There is only this singular happening, this singular Intelligence, this singular Life/Existence/Reality - whatever you want to call it. It is HERE/NOW. It is whole.
You are that. Either believe it or find out for yourself.
10 comments:
I have seen exactly what you are pointing to here many times in the past few days...exactly that. Is is nothing more than an idea..In fact..even just a few hours ago, i knew the reality of it. Then, very quickly..the painbody returns..and the 'idea'of bondage suddenly seems more like a concrete reality. haha. All i know is when the 'painbody' takes over, bondage can seem quite real...EVEN WHEN I QUESTION IT. even when i read a post like this. I try to vow during these times, that should i ever completely reach 'the other shore' as it were, that i never fail to forget just how real this 'idea' can feel to people who still have it. Smiling through my pain.
Jonathan.
Jonathan,
What you call the "pain body" is just another pattern. Everything you know can be reduced to what it really is - just a patterning going on. Notice that we apply a lot of ideas to that raw patterning but all we can truly know with certainty is the raw patterning.
What is called "I" is just a combination or bundle of these patterns, a complex idea which has been solidified due to inattention. In reality the one who is there seeking, trying, remembering, forgetting, questioning - this one can never be found.
Whether or not the patterning is there, you remain as you are. You aren't changed when the pattern changes, comes and goes, or returns. You are what you are.
So stay with the inquiry into the idea of separated, finite existence as what you are. Whether that pattern called "pain body" comes or not is irrelevant. You are either separated or you are not. There is no becoming whole.
love
randall
"Believe it or know it" ... believing isn't much use. I believe it, but this body-mind accumulation insists on running the show.
A few thorns -- Bondage is one of many conceptual threads in the endless tapestry of false beliefs "a person" holds about the separate me. The idea that one is in bondage is a fundamental misidentification about your true nature, about who you really are. Don't take my word for it. Look inward. See if you can find that bondage in anything but thought. Don't take anyone's word for it because that would be just another belief about bondage.
Love to you, Randall
Netineti - nicely said, my friend.
love to you
randall
Malcolm,
Is that true? Does the body-mind run the show? Isn't the body-mind, that changing pattern we have learned to "call" body-mind, isn't that actually just raw experience, raw patterns? Can you truly find a "thing" which stands absolutely and independently upon which to place the label "body-mind"?
We have taken patterns and applied labels. We believe this beyond doubt, beyond question. Yet even if you sit in meditation for a few moments you can begin to notice that what you call "body-mind" is more like a set of passing patterns - unless you rely on your beliefs and past experiences you cannot really place any absolute reality on anything called a "body" and "mind" is non-existent other than what we call "thoughts".
Begin to see these things - notice that you don't really know anything with absolute certainty. The entire world you have inserted into little boxes of convenience. Drop all those and just see if you can notice that you really don't know anything. You don't really know anything at all. You don't know WHERE you are. You don't know WHAT anything is. You are knowing and what you know is 100% unknown to you. Without those labels, you are surrounded by the unknown.
Play with that a bit and you are welcome to email if you have any questions.
love
randall
I seem to be holding the "mistaken" belief that my hubbie is driving me crazy! The concept of annoyance...it seems to arise alright.
He's back in the good books btw. The story of a complex relationship within utter simplicity...heaven.
Randall,
I question that idea and it is still there. I inquire into the beliefs and there are still there. It seems to me that it is not a thought only, but it is a feeling-idea. It feels that I am the body, so I behave and think as it was true. I question the feeling/idea which says that I am the body. I get it intuitevely that I cannot be that what I am aware of, i.e. bodily sensations. But, I still have that idea and it still feels that I am the body and that something is not right.
I know there is no how to it, so I keep questioning and exploring I guess?
Rudolf,
Yes, and that is natural. However it is important to ask - how do you know that the present "feeling" is that of "being a body"? Unless you've experienced the alternative you cannot truly assert it - all you can truly assert is that it's what you've always believed or been told. Vedanta merely asks that you question these long-standing assertions. It doesn't offer any alternatives but only suggests that you are already the whole itself. If that is so then the present feeling is the feeling of the whole, yes?
That means we aren't looking for something to change, for the present feelings to change, for new experiences to arrive. We are only inquiring into the ideas we have about what we are, about what the world is.
Were you born? We can't come to a definitive answer, which doesn't prove anything but it sheds doubt on the existing idea you have, that you were born, that you are an independent and finite existence, that existence itself comes and goes.
Look at it from every angle - trace back the bundle of cells we call body to it's origins, to it's beginning. See if you can determine, not from beliefs but from what really makes sense to you, about how that body came to be, about how YOU came to be.
Because you know your own presence, and with a little poking around you understand that anything you can be aware of cannot be what you are. See if you came about brand new with that body. See if that knowledge is an absolute truth or if you can shed real doubt on the nature of your existence as temporary and separate.
love
randall
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