From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 21:40:50 EDT
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Vedanta Night 2006
Dear Friends,
i'm forwarding to you a description of an upcoming evening discussion of Advaita Vedanta in Iowa City. i hope you find it interesting.
bax
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Dear Fellow Bookclubbers,
Our next meeting will be on May 18th. The book is called, 'No Mind - I am the Self' by David Godman. It contains the stories and teachings of two amazing people, Lakshmana Swamy (a man, now age 81) and Sarada Ma (a lady, now age 46).
Lakshmana was a direct disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi, who passed away in 1950 and is widely considered to have been one of India's greatest spiritual teachers of the last century. Lakshmana Swamy realized the Self (i.e. got enlightened) through a spontaneous act of self-enquiry in the presence of Sri Ramana and, in turn, was able to bring Sarada Ma to the same exalted state, although in her case it was devotion to her Guru (Lakshmana) that was her path.
The book is divided into four parts,
1. his story
2. his teachings on the theory of Vedanta
(the philosophy of non-duality)
and the practice of self-enquiry
3. her story
4. her teachings on devotion
It is an amazing blow-by-blow account of their respective paths (knowledge and devotion) and also shows just how real and how rare it is to realize the Self. In this day and age, in which so many people believe that they may have 'slipped into enlightenment', it serves as a sobering and practical reminder.
At the same time, although liberation from ignorance is a daunting goal for anyone to undertake, the book provides excellent advice for those who feel that one or both of these paths may be right for them. In particular, there are two sections that i'd like to highlight before you begin reading the book.
First, there is a wonderful summary of both the theory and practice of Vedanta written by David on pages 14-15. And second, there is a diagram on page 194 (with accompanying text on pages 193 & 195), which was originally drawn by Sarada Ma, and which is the most clear and informative diagram I've ever seen in any spiritual text.
In preparation for our meeting, I've combined David's verbal summary with Sarada's graphic one and am drafting seven diagrams of my own which show the sequential unfolding of the teaching. I hope to be able to send these to you before we meet.
I'm also having a lot of fun making a board game (which I call 'Buddha Chess') to introduce you to the practice of self-enquiry. As we did at our last Vedanta Night, I suggest that we practice the technique together for a few minutes when we meet, and we can use this board game as a structure by which to do this.
Finally, I'm attaching a page on 'how to do self-enquiry'. It would be great if we could all spend even 1-5 minutes a day on this technique before we get together, so as to have a mutual experiential context in which to discuss the book. According to Sri Ramana, practicing self-enquiry amounts to 'reading the inner book'.
As he put it, when asked what books to read for personal growth, "The Self is the real book. You can glance anywhere in that book and nobody can take it away from you. Whenever you are free, turn towards the Self. Thereafter you may read whatever you like."
Intesar and I are looking forward to seeing you on Vedanta Night 2006!
bax
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how to do s-e.doc
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