An Interesting Conversation

S.

I have been reading a book here called loving kindness .. It is written by a Buddhist meditation guide and talks about compassion towards self and extending it as loving kindness to immediate kin and evolving from there to loving all of creation. It's beautifully structured meditative approach to healing.

It got me thinking in term of our scriptural guides for prema, daya, karuna, and where those references were...
I started reading this to help myself and my patients with finding compassion for self and it was tremendous . Awhile ago I read Pujya Swami Dayananda's essay titled " asti bhaati priyam"...  it was like a 1000 watt bulb!!!  Could you guide me to more on this subject?

U.

Sure.

Asti = exists

Bhaati = shines

Priyam = loveable.

In the self, asti bhaati priyam is independent as the nature of the self.

In the non-self (body mind complex and world) these are dependent on another. 

Every thing in creation is associated with asti bhaati priyam (to different degrees, ranging from negative to positive) . Brahman is asti bhaati priyam absolute. 

Think of two levels of asti bhaati priyam.... Absolute and relative.

The relative is dependent on the absolute.
The relative is name and form assoiciated with asti bhaati priyam.

The absolute is asti bhaati priyam free from name and form.

S. Could you expand on the relative and its nama, roopa based asti bhaati priyam and how it is dependent on the absolute? For example, when I’m praying and then gently guiding my attention to breathing and quietening the mind, I notice the emotion of love arise. It is peaceful, pleasureable, but still in the realm of my body-mind self… just another emotion. True?

I carry this feeling with me all day. There are moments during the day I see this awareness rise as a general sense of comfort with oneself. At the end of the day it is gratitude. A lot of times I open my eyes after japa and breathing, and have an overwhelming sense of existence...the ‘is’-ness. The truth of it is overwhelming, emotional. All positive but dramatic and distractingly emotional. All of this is only experience, however long lasting, Hence it is relative because it is in the realm of body-mind and world. Right?

Thinking further, love, compassion, gratitude and peace are all relative, for as long as there is the experience and the experiencer, there exists relative and absolute. For, the absolute is precisely that which is beyond experience. Hence the experience of emotions and a sense of wellbeing is the nama roopa version, dependent on the absolute which is beyond experience.

U.  

There are experiences and there is experience. Experiences are relative, experience is absolute. The absolute is variously termed as mind of the mind, breath of the breath, eye of the eye and ear of the ear. So I would term the absolute as the ‘experience of the experience’. It is. the constant uniform experience in and through every experience. It is similar to space which is experienced in and through experience of various objects.

The absolute is not another experience. It is ‘one’ uniform experience that manifests as many discrete experiences. There is no experience of objects without the ‘I am’ experience. I am the ‘experience’ – the conscious entity because of which all experiences are possible.

Like the sun which is self-lighted, I am the conscious self-aware entity.
The sun is not lighted up by the ray of the sun which lights up objects in the dark.
The sun need not be lighted up because there is no darkness in the sun.
The sun is light.
Similarly, the absolute need not be experienced separately.
There is no non-experience of myself at any time whatsoever.

I am self-experienced.

The self-aware experience is the only experience that exists in reality.
All other experiences involving subject-object limitations are appearance.
Creator and created, experiencer and experienced…  are all appearances of the absolute.
No essential difference between subject -object, creator - created, knower - known.

Within the phenomenal universe, there is ignorance and knowledge, experiencer and experienced, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant. Our lives are rooted in the phenomenal universe, and we cannot escape the creation at will. But we can live in harmony with the universe to enjoy serenity, joy, love, beauty, contentment, light-heartedness and liveliness. Spirituality and ethical living allows us mental comfort and keep us feeling good. Living with awareness helps us harmonize the ego and play our role in the grand drama of the universe.

The knowledge of Vedanta, too, applies to the relative life alone. It is the relative seeker who has the problem of limitation, while the absolute is untouched. Duality of Seeker and sought, teacher and student, knower and known, relative and absolute, ignorance and knowledge, bondage and freedom ... are all part of the relative universe. Hence the statement - na muktir na bandah chidaananda roopah shivoham shivoham.

Moksha is not a condition to be experienced, but a fact to be realised.
'I am' is the common experience.

I am 'All and Always' is teaching.
'I' is a standpoint that merges with 'Am All Always'. 'Am All Always' is a fact that exists here and now, and not something that needs to be created.

'I' is just a standpoint that does not need to disappear for 'I' to become 'All'.
A standpoint remains in harmony with fact and is not opposed to it.
Sunrise is compatible with the fact that the sun never rises....
It is the earth that is setting and moving around the sun.
So I don't have to miss sunrise because science tells me the sun does not rise!

A physicist does not dismiss gold as mere protons and electrons when he exchanges wedding rings with his beloved!
Vedanta does not dismiss any experience... Vedanta only redefines experience. And therein lies the beauty....
The lotus remains in water and still untouched by it.

S.

Beautiful... It was indeed as if I needed your permission to authenticate all of what I had written earlier.  

It's been a revelation ... I have so much more to reflect on with your message ... For now I’m just assimilating the word meaning ...

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Mananam Pages

i-am	The Aha Experience:   speakingtree	the-search-for-elusive-i
the-painted-canvas	message-of-upanishads	vedanta-what-you-are
mithya Appearance	one-and-many	moksha Liberation
sat Reality	chit Awareness	ananda Fullness
brahman Ultimate Reality	Anubhava Experience of Self	Svayamprabha  Self Awareness
adhikari Competency for Vedanta	swadharma  My duty	karma Reap what you Sow
acceptance-of-loss	death-transition	my-thoughts-kedarnath-tragedy
an-interesting-conversation	from-darkness-towards-light	vedanta-short-notes-by-lalita
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