Introduction to a new review of Vedanta Analogies & Vedanta–like Analogies

[for a while, the following will preface all these blogs – so please skip over if seen before]

100 Billion

In order to hint at how serious this Blog is, let the author unequivocally state that the Knowledge here imparted, none of it original, none to be credited to the author, that Knowledge is THE MOST VALUABLE treasure that exists. If hypothetically offered 100 Billion dollars to forgo this Knowledge, that offer or any other would be disregarded in the blink of an eye.  Even with all the good that might be accomplished with $100B, this Knowledge is beyond the World & comes from beyond the Mind. This is no hyperbole.

Some classic Vedanta Analogies in brief:

"The 10th" is about10 ignorant fools who forded a stream & on reaching the other shore counted themselves to be nine only. They grew anxious & grieved over the loss of the unknown 10th man. A wayfarer, on ascertaining the cause of their grief, counted them all & found them to be 10.  But each one of them had counted the others leaving himself out. The wayfarer gave each in succession a blow telling them to count the blows. They counted 10 & were satisfied. The moral is that the 10th man was not got anew. He was all along there, but ignorance caused grief to all.

"The Necklace" is about a woman who wore a necklace round her neck but forgot it. She began to search for it & made enquiries. A friend of hers, finding out what she was looking for, pointed out the necklace round the seeker’s neck. She felt it with her hands & was happy. Did she get the necklace anew? Here again ignorance caused grief & knowledge happiness.  [more about these & other such analogies to follow]

[Selections from Michael James’ Happiness & Art of Being]

Happiness lies deep within us, in the very core of our being. Happiness does not exist in any external object, but only in us, who are the consciousness that experiences happiness. Though we seem to derive happiness from external objects or experiences, the happiness that we thus enjoy in fact arises from within us.

Desire and fear agitate our mind, and obscure from its view the happiness that always exists within it. When a desire is satisfied, or the cause of a fear is removed, the surface agitation of our mind subsides, and in that temporary calm our mind enjoys a taste of its own innate happiness. Happiness is thus a state of being – a state in which our mind’s habitual agitation is calmed. The activity of our mind disturbs it from its calm state of just being, and causes it to lose sight of its own innermost happiness. To enjoy happiness, therefore, all our mind need do is to cease all activity, returning calmly to its natural state of inactive being, as it does daily in deep sleep.

The science of being is incredibly simple and clear. The science of being begins with observation and analysis of something that we already know but do not fully understand.  This science does not study any object of knowledge, but instead studies the very power of knowing itself – the power of consciousness that underlies the mind, the power by which all objects are known.

[The above themes & 1600 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com ]