Right Action

Do not go looking for people to help. You may be trying to gain virtue, which likely is ego identification. Rather, be what you are, where you are, available to respond to needs presented to you. Ishvara knows what is needed, and if you are to do it, that need will appear. Respond accordingly.

Seek the truth so that you become the light. Then people will present themselves to you with questions, or with physical needs. Responding as life unfolds, where you are, as you are, lets you respond without chasing virtue.

It is freedom that you want, not virtue. It is truth that you want, not virtue. From  freedom comes truth and virtuous action. Then when you respond, it will be right action, not some superimposition.

For The Sake of Happiness

When we are unhappy we feel that something must be wrong. We just know that happiness is our real nature. We can't argue this feeling, our inherent nature tells us this is our birthright.

However, happiness for any length of time seems fleeting. 
That tells us that we are not in right relationship to what is. Mental suffering is a messenger that tells us we are not seeing correctly.

If we can take the suffering as an indicator that we are out of sync, then that suffering is a key. That key opens us to searching for a different way of seeing.

Since our way of seeing is our way of being, we need to see differently. Some radical new way of seeing is required.

Vedanta is a new way of seeing. It is radical and not easy to accept. But if our suffering is great, and our search for truth is strong, we can try to understand that way of seeing.

Vedanta says that freedom is happiness. Who doesn't want to be free? But freedom has a price. Only those willing to pay the price receive.

What is required? Commitment to listening, to reflection, to understanding, to letting go of seeking happiness in objects: people, places, and things.

Vedanta needs no outside proof, because we are subject. If we make the effort, we become the proof. Jesus said, "The truth will set you free."

Vedanta is a means of knowledge. It reveals the truth. When the student is ready he will seek the truth. When he understands, he will apply the truth. And when the truth abides, the suffering will stop. Then happiness abides. That is the proof.   

Stillness Itself

The one thing you cannot deny is that you exist. This begs the question, "How do you know you exist?" Because you are aware.

Awareness is the knowing faculty regardless of form. Since forms are varied, they have their own particular form of consciousness. Each form of consciousness is but a focal point of awareness.

Forms come and go, but that which is essential, awareness, rests behind all forms. Awareness lights the different forms, but the  essential nature remains unchanged.

Forms come and go, but awareness does not. Only the form changes. Thus, being awareness, we do not come and go. We are existence itself, free of form, eternally at peace. Always stillness itself. 

You Are The World

When you dream, you are the creator. The dream is only there because you are there. It is your dream from beginning to end. It is an effect of your consciousness alone. In your dream you can touch, feel, see, and experience in time, and space. A physical world is there which you navigate. 

When you awake you ask, "how is this waking world any different from my dream world?" It isn't. The waking world is created by Awareness/Ishvara, the beingness that you are. The only difference is that it is not personal.

When you understand that you are that Awareness/Ishvara which manifests this world, you can relax in knowing that this waking world is also your creation. You are the world. 

Seeing Correctly

Imagine that you have poor eyesight. If you are confronted with a book, you only see pages with blurry lines. You know you are looking at a book, but you don't know what the book is about. You can't discern the meaning.

If an eye doctor prescribes you a pair of glasses that corrects your eyesight, you can discover the meaning of the book because you can read it. Now you know if it's a romance novel, a detective story, or a text book.

Vedanta is like glasses that correct your vision of the world. It doesn't tell you what to believe, or how to be good. It is a means of knowledge that allows you see factually, clearly, what is. Nothing is changed, you just see correctly for the first time.

Consciousness Is Primary

We can say that the physical world exists because we experience it. However, the obvious part, which somehow we overlook, is that it is only our experience that proves the existence of the physical world. This being the case, experience and therefore knowledge of the physical world is totally dependent on experience. Further, the only thing we can say about experience is that it is the result of awareness, a conscious experience. Therefore, consciousness is primary.

Advaita Vedanta

Vedanta is the idea that knowledge is primary over experience. Mystical, unitary,and transcendental experiences are wonderful and amazing, in so far as they are experienced. But it is the excavation of the knowledge those experiences reveal that is essential.

A mystical, unitary, or transcendental experience may last a few seconds, a month, or several years, however, they end. Most are only minutes long. However, the message they bring, the information they reveal, is knowledge that can last a lifetime.

Advaita Vedanta is an empirical distillation of these experiences revealing the incredible information experiences provide. It's interpretation has stood the test of time, even now confirmed by Quantum Physics. It is the premiere science of consciousness, validated from direct experience. It is an astounding mental achievement, awesome in its understanding of reality.

Superimposition

The superposition (pure potentiality) of quantum mechanics, superimposes upon itself this whole universe of things and beings. It is self observation alone that imagines this universe. It is not the "big bang", but the big dream. We are not the characters of this hologram, but the dreamer itself, that singular potentiality imagining and perceiving itself into this and that. Hallelujah! Enjoy the play.

I AM IS

I am tall, I am male, I am old, etc. This is how we refer to ourselves. However, tall, male, old, etc., are all qualifiers describing "I am." The "I am" is constant, whereas the qualities vary. This shows that even language assumes there is a constant reality on which qualities are added.

All these qualifiers assume that one is a body with these qualities. However, if one says, "I am a body," the "I" is the subject and the body is the object. Again, "I am" is the constant. So, I knows body, tall, male, old, etc. as objects and qualities.

The subject "I" cannot be any of these qualities because they are known. The knower of this object with qualities can be nothing other than consciousness. It exists as the body changes, and when the qualifiers change. "I am" is there if the body is female, short and young.

Is it not obvious that consciousness is the de facto reality? It changes form and qualities, and yet remains the constant without any any qualities permanently attached. "I am" is, all else is name and form.