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If you are into Non-Duality or Advaita Vedanta, do you practice it in your daily life?
How long have you been studying, learning the philosophy?
When and how did you first get interested?
Do you pray? Do you pray to a deity?
How is your meditation going? Are you trying to reach something?
Do you feel practicing/learning has had an effect on you?
I will post my response seperatly so that this OP can remain clear.
If you are into Non-Duality or Advaita Vedanta, do you practice it in your daily life?
How long have you been studying, learning the philosophy?
When and how did you first get interested?
Do you pray? Do you pray to a deity?
How is your meditation going? Are you trying to reach something?
Do you feel practicing/learning has had an effect on you?
I will post my response seperatly so that this OP can remain clear.
I practice with meditation, study, and through monitoring of my emotions, feelings, and actions.
I have always been drawn to it and lost interest in religion or prayer in the traditional practice of my religion. But I started getting seriously into Advaita about 3 or 4 years ago and started studying Sanskrit in order to access the texts more immediately. I enjoy both learning a new language and also being able to read the text with closer proximity and immediate comprehension. I find it very rewarding.
I pray to Shiva and meditate on him daily.
My meditation lasts no more than 10 or 15 minutes. I feel I am getting comfortable with it.
My goal in meditation for now is to lose lose the definition of my physical boundary.
I feel I handle handle emotions and feeling with better and come out of any kind of funk with ease. I credit my learning for it.
I am not formally a Hindu, more of a nature mystic, but Advaita/Non duality is what I believe in. I don't bother with the Hindu parts, except being willing to use the name Brahman to describe the Source of everything . I guess I would be barebones , stripped down Advaita , just the essential non dualism parts. I looked some at Zen , but it was just too.....zenny....for me. And Buddhism seems to almost deny the possibility of anyone except another Buddha figure gaining Realization. I think they have deified Buddha to the point they can't admit to many others achieving what he is famous for. Advaita non dualism just seems to be more realistic.
I meditate twice a day if I can, usually 20 mins each, using the shikantaza method, which seems most natural to me. I read and study a lot on nature mystics and nature mysticism. The religion based mysticism doesn't appeal much to me. I try to get out into semi wild to wild nature as much as possible, and go wander off in the woods. One of my favorite pastimes is going to an area and then going off trail through the actual woods where few others walk. It greatly enhances the nature experience to be walking IN the woods rather than through the woods on a pre determined and cleared out trail. Just the need to pay attention so as to be able to get back out, instead of mindlessly walking down a dirt path, coupled with the satisfaction of being able to get back out .
The basis for my belief is the belief that we can sense with our minds what science tells us is physically true, that we are all the same stuff at the basics. Everything in the universe stems from a few basic ingredients. Mystics have experienced this Oneness . I believe they are sensing somehow, spiritually or psychologically, the scientific Reality of our common existence. Achieving this sense of Oneness is the goal with me. Not worshipping anything, just experiencing myself as one with all the universe.
As for time, I have been interested in mysticism for a long while. Became basically an agnostic near-atheist for a while but it felt incomplete. The religious stuff before that wasn't any better. I finally realized inadvertently through getting back hardcore into camping that nature did it for me, and that there was such a thing as nature mysticism. The sense of incompleteness left almost immediately. It was like finally realizing how I belonged.
Nice thread. Thanks
Last edited by NatesDude; 03-01-2021 at 07:05 PM..
I am not formally a Hindu, more of a nature mystic, but Advaita/Non duality is what I believe in. I don't bother with the Hindu parts, except being willing to use the name Brahman to describe the Source of everything . I guess I would be barebones , stripped down Advaita , just the essential non dualism parts. I looked some at Zen , but it was just too.....zenny....for me. And Buddhism seems to almost deny the possibility of anyone except another Buddha figure gaining Realization. I think they have deified Buddha to the point they can't admit to many others achieving what he is famous for. Advaita non dualism just seems to be more realistic.
I meditate twice a day if I can, usually 20 mins each, using the shikantaza method, which seems most natural to me. I read and study a lot on nature mystics and nature mysticism. The religion based mysticism doesn't appeal much to me. I try to get out into semi wild to wild nature as much as possible, and go wander off in the woods. One of my favorite pastimes is going to an area and then going off trail through the actual woods where few others walk. It greatly enhances the nature experience to be walking IN the woods rather than through the woods on a pre determined and cleared out trail. Just the need to pay attention so as to be able to get back out, instead of mindlessly walking down a dirt path, coupled with the satisfaction of being able to get back out .
The basis for my belief is the belief that we can sense with our minds what science tells us is physically true, that we are all the same stuff at the basics. Everything in the universe stems from a few basic ingredients. Mystics have experienced this Oneness . I believe they are sensing somehow, spiritually or psychologically, the scientific Reality of our common existence. Achieving this sense of Oneness is the goal with me. Not worshipping anything, just experiencing myself as one with all the universe.
I am not formally a Hindu, more of a nature mystic, but Advaita/Non duality is what I believe in. I don't bother with the Hindu parts, except being willing to use the name Brahman to describe the Source of everything . I guess I would be barebones , stripped down Advaita , just the essential non dualism parts. I looked some at Zen , but it was just too.....zenny....for me. . . Advaita non dualism just seems to be more realistic.
The basis for my belief is the belief that we can sense with our minds what science tells us is physically true, that we are all the same stuff at the basics. Everything in the universe stems from a few basic ingredients. Mystics have experienced this Oneness . I believe they are sensing somehow, spiritually or psychologically, the scientific Reality of our common existence. Achieving this sense of Oneness is the goal with me. Not worshipping anything, just experiencing myself as one with all the universe.
Can you elaborate on your sense of non-dualism? The classical advaita stance is that the separation perceived between the Cosmic Consciousness (Brahman) and Individual Consciousness (Jiva) is due to lack of understanding. The removal of this ignorance is the state of realization.
In your belief, do you see a relation between the two? If so how does that connection get established, and the separation is removed?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NatesDude
As for time, I have been interested in mysticism for a long while. Became basically an agnostic near-atheist for a while but it felt incomplete. The religious stuff before that wasn't any better. I finally realized inadvertently through getting back hardcore into camping that nature did it for me, and that there was such a thing as nature mysticism. The sense of incompleteness left almost immediately. It was like finally realizing how I belonged.
Nice thread. Thanks
Nature is perceived as a projection of our own self :-). It is Ishvara who manifests as the world, and Ishvara is within you as the Awareness. The power to create/generate the world is within us. I find this concept and way of thinking very powerful.
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
Can you elaborate on your sense of non-dualism? The classical advaita stance is that the separation perceived between the Cosmic Consciousness (Brahman) and Individual Consciousness (Jiva) is due to lack of understanding. The removal of this ignorance is the state of realization.
In your belief, do you see a relation between the two? If so how does that connection get established, and the separation is removed?
Nature is perceived as a projection of our own self :-). It is Ishvara who manifests as the world, and Ishvara is within you as the Awareness. The power to create/generate the world is within us. I find this concept and way of thinking very powerful.
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
Yup, I like the way this is laid out ...
I like that bolded line. I tell people all the time that think nature is in some super secret special resonance with itself to list what the life are actually doing. Killings, maiming, sexting, exploiting their environments to the fullest. Until something stops them or they go extinct. err, wait a min ... that means ... Just a little bill burr type humor ... but his is funny.
Can you elaborate on your sense of non-dualism? The classical advaita stance is that the separation perceived between the Cosmic Consciousness (Brahman) and Individual Consciousness (Jiva) is due to lack of understanding. The removal of this ignorance is the state of realization.
In your belief, do you see a relation between the two? If so how does that connection get established, and the separation is removed?
Nature is perceived as a projection of our own self :-). It is Ishvara who manifests as the world, and Ishvara is within you as the Awareness. The power to create/generate the world is within us. I find this concept and way of thinking very powerful.
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
There is much truth in Advaita. Unfortunately, it is mixed with a lot of misguided, misunderstood, and unsupportable woo contained within its created definitions and jargon. I owe my earliest efforts to the Buddhist version of it, but my encounter in deep meditation dissuaded me of its esoteric woo. I attained Oneness without losing my own individuality - a major and unexpected surprise. I don't like to dispute those on the path because it has significant merit - and who knows, the same thing might happen to you if you are diligent enough.
There is much truth in Advaita. Unfortunately, it is mixed with a lot of misguided, misunderstood, and unsupportable woo contained within its created definitions and jargon. I owe my earliest efforts to the Buddhist version of it, but my encounter in deep meditation dissuaded me of its esoteric woo. I attained Oneness without losing my own individuality - a major and unexpected surprise. I don't like to dispute those on the path because it has significant merit - and who knows, the same thing might happen to you if you are diligent enough.
lol, this is true of us all. Blinded by our own woo.
Can you elaborate on your sense of non-dualism? The classical advaita stance is that the separation perceived between the Cosmic Consciousness (Brahman) and Individual Consciousness (Jiva) is due to lack of understanding. The removal of this ignorance is the state of realization.
In your belief, do you see a relation between the two? If so how does that connection get established, and the separation is removed?
Nature is perceived as a projection of our own self :-). It is Ishvara who manifests as the world, and Ishvara is within you as the Awareness. The power to create/generate the world is within us. I find this concept and way of thinking very powerful.
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
My non dualism is of a non religious flavor. I think people of all religions, no religions, and even atheists have perceived this non dualism, and filtered it through their particular biases. As I said, mine is a pretty stripped down Advaita. I don't believe in the multitude of sub deities emanating from Brahman. I do believe the path to realization is through understanding, but not purely intellectual only understanding. It must be internalized somehow, and how exactly this happens is beyond me. I do not think it is some sort of reward for being a good meditator or something, but more like removing obstacles to seeing things as they really are. To me, using nature as the means and guide seems more sensible than using religious doctrines and sacred texts, because in the end what we are trying to achieve is to be at one with nature and the universe. I'm not knocking those that do use religion, but it's just not for me.
There is a guy named Adyashanti I like quite a bit. I don't like that he changed his name from Bob Jones or whatever American name he had to something with more Advaita zing within the non dualism community, seems rather silly, but nonetheless I like his insights.
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. 
Just a little bill burr type humor ... but his is funny.
