Mind & Happiness 93

Who am I ?

In this Waking state we understand that the Bodies & Worlds we experience in our Dreams are merely products of our Imagination & exist only within our own Mind.  Yet we generally assume without question that  the Body & World we now experience are not mere products of our Imagination, but exist independently, outside our Mind.  We believe that this Body & World exist even when we are unaware of them, as in Dream & Deep Dreamless Sleep, but how can we prove to our self that this is so ?

"Other people who were awake when we were asleep can testify that our Body & this World continued to exist even when we were unaware of them."  

This is the answer that immediately comes to our Mind.  However, those other people & their testimony are themselves part of the World whose existence during, our sleep. we want to prove.  Relying on their testimony to prove that the World exists when we do not perceive it is like relying on the testimony of a confidence trickster to prove that he did not swindle our money.

The people we meet in a Dream may testify to us that the World we perceive then in Dream existed even before we perceived it.  But when we wake up we realize that their testimony proves nothing, because they were just a part of the World that our Mind had temporarily created & deluded itself into believing to be real.  There is no way we can prove to our self that the World exists independent of our perception of it, because any proof we may wish to rely upon can come only from the Senses & World whose reality we are doubting.

"But the Body & World that we experience in Dream are fleeting & insubstantial. They appear one minute, & disappear the next.  Even within one Dream, we flit from one scene to another – one moment we are in a certain place, & the next moment it has become another place; one moment we are talking with a certain person, & the next moment that person has become someone else.  In contrast, the World we experience in Waking is 'consistent'.  Each time we wake up from Deep Dreamless Sleep or from a Dream, we find our self to be in the same World that we were in before sleeping. Though the World we see in the Waking state is constantly changing, those changes are all happening in a reasonable & comprehensible manner.  If we are in one place now, we do not suddenly find our self to be in another place the next moment.  If we are talking to a certain person, that person does not suddenly become some other person. Therefore what we experience in Waking is definitely more 'real' than what we experienced in Dream."

In this way we reason with our self & convince our self that it is reasonable for us to believe that the Body & World that we experience in Waking are not merely a product of our imagination, like the Body & World that we experience in Dream, but really exist independent of our Imagination.  However, none of these superficial differences that we can point out between our experience in Waking & our experience in Dream can actually prove that what we experience in Waking is any more real than what we experienced in Dream.

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.