GAUDAPADA RETREAT
At night, one shuts out the outer senses and takes on the inner senses. Therefore we have subtle elements and subtle senses too.
Turn your senses off; then the objects will go away.
Turn off your mind, and the senses and objects will both go away. Then search for origins.
The soul creates the rays of the mind, which are individual.
The earth is a state of your consciousness, and your body is the vehicle. Your dream state is also a state of consciousness, and there your dream body is your vehicle.
Vedavyas says you have to have seen a real snake in order to mistake a rope for a snake.
Do not intensify an impure mind. Purify the mind with spiritual practices, then intensify your efforts.
The moment we assign sentiency to anything other than Brahman, then we give rise to “mystery-mongering” and all the superstition that arises from it
Neti neti is weeding the garden. The weeds are spoiling the whole mental landscape. Removing them leaves the garden of Original Mind (OM) in its natural state.
Why do fundamentalists, ordinary practitioners, and pseudo spiritualists rely so much on hope? Because they are devoid of striving. This is usually the case with ritualists as well. As Swami Vivekananda has observed, “I know why they busy themselves with these old effete ceremonials. Their spirit craves for work, but having got no outlet they waste their energy
ringing bells and all that. Lying complacently on the bed and ringing the bell now and then
is a sort of disease, pure and simple.” Therefore, he urges us into the practice of Advaita Vedanta Sadhana.
Soul is pure Being; nature is becoming.
There are karmic seeds lying dormant in one’s individual deep sleep state. When one seeks to purify the mind, then negative karmas get neutralized. Along the way, one sees the ocean of universal suffering, which is in the collective dream state. As purification moves to concentration, samadhis begin. When one sees the immensity of the prajna state, this is seeing the seeds of the Mahat, resulting in knowledge-bliss, on up to ego and ripe ego bliss, until one is so saturated with bliss, that one dives into the ocean of Bliss.
Gaudapada states, “Beings are unborn and deathless by nature. By waiting for birth and death, they deviate from their true nature.”
Cause and effect is not only at the physical level, it is most definitely at the psychological level. The exploration of this latter level signals the beginnings of spiritual life.
Do not ask what came first, the chicken or the egg; both are unreal. Get the nondual position and see how maya works. You cannot see how it works from inside maya; it is too deft at covering and distorting. You have to get out of maya first in order to see it working.