So, that was the transition from this two weeks retreat with Swami Suddhananda, back to Tiruvannamalai, happening kind of simultaneous with the passing over of the remnants of cyclone Thane that brought here a severe storm accompanied with a day and a night of heavy rains. In the state of Tamil Nadu there were dozens of casualties and in for instance Auroville a lot of trees have been uprooted.
Then, how to report of a fortnight of strongly detailed information on a classic advaita vedanta text, the Mundaka Upanishad in this case, presented by a super enthusiastic and gifted speaker with the speaking speed of someone that wants to share all he knows, while at the same time radiating as a mystic and glowing in the intellectual joy of having understood this vast body of knowledge that is contained in the Upanishads.
Two possibilities come up:
1. to give a enumeration of 1 liners from my notes, and
2. supply a link to a youtube that must be around as sure as the pony in this joke that,
now I am reminded of it, I also will supply as number 3.
1.
*In ignorance you have the right to be stupid, to be arrogant, etc. The teacher does not
have this right.
*Love your past. Memories are for reference, not for interference.
*If you can live without something, you have earned the right to live with it.
*In the case of knowing the Self, words are the appropriate means of knowlegde.
*Repeating a question does not produce the answer.
*Also the I-thought is no subject, cause we are aware of it.
*Happiness gained in time will be lost in time.
*To be conscious you don’t need a thought, To see a thought you need to be conscious.
*We are (always) relatively ignorant but fully conscious.
*Knowledge covered by ignorance gives projection//Appearance//superimposition
//adhyas//rope seen as real snake.
*Belief does not create anything nut confusion for the believer. Same same for disbelief.
*For any creation (the pot), it is needed to have an efficient cause (the potter) and a material cause (the clay). God, creator and creation are the same.
*Trinity: Brahman/creator//Vishnu/sustainer//Shiva/destroyer.
*Each individual is a mini Trinity. We are the creator/sustainer/destroyer of our life.
*Without a body there is no access to the physical world.
*Logic does not create reality, it facilitates your understanding of it.
*Ignorance goes/disappears by knowledge, not by action.
*There are thousands of ways to go to a place where you are not, there is only one way to
go to a place where you are: knowledge.
*Wisdom is not an action. Someone who knows himself is wise.
*Freedom of speech belongs to the animals: a dog barks to everybody passing.
To speak or not to speak must be my freedom.
*That what puts a limit on thinking is a disaster.
*Scrabble. You take 7 letters unseen: your karma. What you do with it: free will.
*One who knows himself is a rishi. So, even when you don;t realize it yet: you are a rishi.
*Happiness is our nature.
Unhappiness is like a dustparticle in your eye: removal is natural.
2.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waMjrzVcxHQ&feature=related
3.
Once upon a time, there was a mom and dad that had two children. One of them was an optimist, the other a pessimist. Wanting to understand why the two children were so different, they consulted a psychiatrist, who set up an experiment to help figure it out. The psychiatrist led the first child into a room that was full of brand new toys. Immediately the child burst into tears. The psychiatrist asked why, and the child replied “all of these toys are new, and if I start playing with them I’m afraid I might break one.” Obviously, this was the pessimist. So the psychiatrist led the other to a room that was full of horse manure. The child immediately dove in, scooping out handfuls of the disgusting stuff. The psychiatrist asked why the child was doing that, he replied “with all this horse manure, there has to be a pony around here somewhere, and I’m gonna find it.” ( link )
