Mind & Happiness 92

Who am I ?

Though our Sense of identification with this Body is the foundation of all that we experience in our present Waking State, we cease to identify this Body as "I" as soon as we fall asleep, or go into a coma or any other such State.  In sleep, we either remain in the state of Deep Dreamless Sleep, in which we are not aware of any Body or any other thing, or we dream some imaginary experiences.  In Dream, as in Waking, we identify our self with a Body, & through the 5 Senses of that Body we perceive a seemingly external World consisting both of inanimate objects & of people & other sentient beings like our self.

While we are in a Dream state, we identify a Dream-Body as "I" in exactly the same manner that we identify our present Body as "I" in this Waking State, & we take the Dream World that we see to be real in exactly the same manner that we take the World that we see in this Waking state to be real.  But as soon as we wake up from a Dream, we understand without the least doubt that all that we experienced in that Dream was only a product of our own imagination, & was therefore unreal.  

Thus the Dream State clearly demonstrates to us that, by the power of its Imagination, our Mind has the ability not only to create a Body & World, but also simultaneously to delude itself that that imaginary Body is "I" & that that imaginary World is real.  Knowing that our Mind possesses this wonderful power of creation & self-deception, can we reasonably avoid doubting whether the Body we take to be "I" & the World we take to be real in our present Waking state are in fact any more real than the Body & World we experience in a Dream ?

Do we not have good reason to suspect that our Body & this World that we experience in our present Waking State are merely imaginary creations of our own Mind, just as the Body & World that we experienced in Dream were ?  What evidence do we have that our Body in this Waking State & the World we perceive through the Senses of this Body are anything other than a creation of our Mind ?

The above themes & 2500 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 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Different blogs available on:

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"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."

–  the "no creation" school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada

 for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see:  www.ajatavada.com/

[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators.  Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways.  Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi.  Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course  degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science.  I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]

also:  Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.

Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.