[FairfieldLife] Why TM teachers cannot get Shankara's teachings

2014-04-18 Thread emptybill
TM teachers are instructed within a yogic-advaita framework - one that 
underpins their understanding about meditation and reality. Without exposure to 
Shankara's teachings and the traditional Upanishad methodology, it will be hard 
for any TM'er to entertain this original view.
  
 Shankara says:
 For there is the statement of the shruti : “The Brahman that is direct and 
immediate” (BU 3.4.1) and there is the statement, tat tvam asi “you are That” 
(CU6.8.7) which teaches [that Brahman] is already accomplished. This sentence 
“you are That” cannot be interpreted to mean you will become That after you 
are dead (i.e in heaven).
  
 Comans explains: 
 Firstly, Shankara is committed to the understanding that the Self is 
self-luminous, for it is by nature simple, sheer Awareness (BUbh 4.3.23). 
Secondly, in accord with this view of the self-luminosity of the Self as 
Awareness, Shankara has characterized the Self as “Experience Itself” 
(anubhavâtman). We should therefore expect that the experience about which 
Shankara speaks is the “intuition”, “insight”, or even “recognition” of oneself 
as sheer Awareness. It cannot be a new experience of producing something that 
did not previously exist. Nor can it be an experience involving the 
objectification of Awareness. It is rather the “experience” of oneself AS 
Awareness, without limitations. For that is what one is, and so finds oneself 
to be, when there is the apprehension of one’s own fundamental 
Awareness-nature, together with the apprehension of the “seeming”, or the 
apparent nature (mithyâtva) of all limiting adjuncts (upâdhis) - those that 
pertain to the individual body-mind (tvam), as well as to the Lordship of 
Brahman (tat). 
  
 TM teachers are not educated or trained to receive, apprehend or articulate 
such a view about the immediacy of direct realization.

Re: [FairfieldLife] Why TM teachers cannot get Shankara's teachings

2014-04-18 Thread Richard J. Williams
What our resident sage has just posted is a re-statement of the Mahayana 
Buddhism. However, he failed to mention that the notion of maya, a 
Shankara invention, is NOT what underpins a TM teachers understanding 
about meditation and reality. In fact, most of the TM teachers that I 
know never mention the unreality of the world as illusion. Go figure.


Excerpt Mandukya Karika IV by Gaudapada:

Duality is only an appearance; non-duality is the real truth. The 
object exists as an object for the knowing subject; but it does not 
exist outside of consciousness because the distinction of subject and 
object is within consciousness. (IV 25-27) Sharma, p. 245-246.


described belwo is On 4/18/2014 2:08 AM, emptyb...@yahoo.com wrote:
*TM teachers are instructed within a yogic-advaita framework - one 
that underpins their understanding about meditation and reality. 
Without exposure to Shankara's teachings and the traditional Upanishad 
methodology, it will be hard for any TM'er to entertain this original 
view.*

**
*Shankara says:*
*For there is the statement of the shruti : “The Brahman that is 
direct and immediate” (BU 3.4.1) and there is the statement, tat tvam 
asi “/you are That/” (CU6.8.7) which teaches [that Brahman] is already 
accomplished. This sentence “/you are That/” cannot be interpreted to 
mean you will become That after you are dead (i.e in heaven).*

**
*Comans explains: *
*Firstly, Shankara is committed to the understanding that the Self is 
self-luminous, for it is by nature simple, sheer Awareness (BUbh 
4.3.23). Secondly, in accord with this view of the self-luminosity of 
the Self as Awareness, Shankara has characterized the Self as 
“Experience Itself” (anubhavâtman). We should therefore expect that 
the experience about which Shankara speaks is the “intuition”, 
“insight”, or even “recognition” of oneself as sheer Awareness. It 
cannot be a new experience of producing something that did not 
previously exist. Nor can it be an experience involving the 
objectification of Awareness. It is rather the “experience” of oneself 
/AS/ Awareness, without limitations. For that is what one is, and so 
finds oneself to be, when there is the apprehension of one’s own 
fundamental Awareness-nature, together with the apprehension of the 
“seeming”, or the apparent nature (mithyâtva) of all limiting adjuncts 
(upâdhis) - those that pertain to the individual body-mind (tvam), as 
well as to the Lordship of Brahman (tat). *

**
*TM teachers are not educated or trained to receive, apprehend or 
articulate such a view about the immediacy of direct realization. *




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