I have this eyesight difficulty (AMD) that’s here to stay it seems. When I browse through my old books from before it got to be like this, I’m looking for something that has a slightly larger font, and a wider space between lines (US publications are best), and if a particular book gets my attention, but the readability of it is not good, I can sometimes find it in the right format online and read the part that I need on screen, with enlarged font and spacing. There is the likelihood of headaches peering closely at text on a backlit screen but I can take some precautions.
So, I found what I was looking for: ‘Chakra Therapy’ by Keith Sherwood, printed in 2011. I’d decided to finally get round to learning about the Chakras but it stayed mostly unread because there were some Christian references in the contents list that at a glance put me off. It was this that caused me to put the book aside all those years ago. The fact is, I’m an isolated lapsed Christian living with the Thais for 30 years as a Buddhist in a Buddhist country, and no actual contact with Western people.
Since I decided to follow the Buddha’s Teaching, long ago, the “Thou Shallt Not” shadow of the Church of Scotland, I experienced as an adolescent, still conditions my thought. I forget that this book was written for people living in a Western culture looking out from there into the same universal field we are all part of. There’s a familiarity about this that pulls me out from my contained reality status, living in someone else’s country and into a kind of recognition I can’t find words for yet.
The book is about interacting energy fields and “the universal field,” the atman, meaning “pure consciousness,” or “self,” since the unified field is the true identity of everything in nature. A flicker of attention here because, for me, the sense of Self is illusory in the anthropocentric sense of the word. However, I’ve come round to seeing it another way; if I think of it as Brahma/Atman, devoid of any individualizing influence, no problem because I can wear my Advaita Vedanta hat to blend in with the surroundings.
‘You are an energy being. Each individual is composed of a system of energy fields which interact with each other and the environment they interpenetrate. The universe is permeated by these fields and a human being can be thought of as a localization or concentration in the universal field.’
I understand this immediately and there are these bursts of energy as I read the text. For a moment there’s a sense of joyful déjà vu… I know this fundamentally! But then there’s confusion; all those years ago I chose not to pursue it, unwilling to engage with something I knew nothing about, embedded in my Western separationism and now I’m stuck with age-related eyesight difficulty and headaches (PHN). It’s the Judeo-Christian Tradition I was born into: “The notion that humans are incomplete and that they can become separated from the universal field is held as an objective reality in the Judeo-Christian world.” That’s what it is! The book straightens out tangled thoughts about Christianity I’ve been burdened with for years
“The doctrine of separation, which is at the root of orthodox theology and is the cause of so much misunderstanding and unnecessary suffering, is the foundation of orthodox psychology as well. Orthodox psychology built its towers on the shoulders of Newtonian and Cartesian thought which saw separation as the natural condition.”
There are so many worthwhile sections on separation and duality here but I need to paraphrase this text to get it to completion. Man faced a continual striving between what was base in his nature and what was noble. He chooses to identify with what is noble in his character and reject what is base which includes the inevitable repression of those elements in his character which he considers ignoble. They are rejected, and rather than being integrated, they are judged, sentenced and become the “others” within himself.
The writer describes how he learned the principles of psycho-spiritual integration a little at a time and thus remembered those hitherto lost and unwanted parts of himself and could recollect “the others” buried within himself. The energy imprisoned within began to be released and the system by which this was developed is presented here in this text, out of necessity in order to understand and integrate the seemingly contradictory parts of how he managed to do it. (More about this later)
Inherently
Ultimate bodhicitta is basically Buddha Nature. We all have Buddha Nature. Every being, every sentient being has Buddha Nature. Every being IS Buddha Nature; not has, but IS Buddha Nature. We are all Buddha Nature; we all are Buddha. […]
Buddha Nature can never be defiled; it can never be polluted. No matter how much darkness, how much evil we might do, or think, or say, for however long, never, ever, ever can contaminate the nature of the mind. The nature of the mind is beyond all that. Inherently we are completely pure. Inherently we are completely light, no worries. [Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo]
Link to: Great Middle Way, Venerable Tashi Nyima :https://greatmiddleway.wordpress.com/2023/08/04/inherently/
Top micro image: Pollen, Middle micro image: leaf structure ,Lower micro image: oil drops on water
dhamma footsteps 
Thank you for that. I’ve come to understand that ‘separation’ is at the heart of psychology and also central to our necessary experience of egoic development. If self moves towards Self (Atman or Buddha Nature) then then the intellectual gains of the mind – such as subtle discrimination- can add to the abilities of the Self operating through the egoic self and into the world. in this way, creation expands its scope, and we make good on our journey into matter.
Thanks Steve, Rupert Spira says something like, the reason for the Self (Atman) evolving from self (individual) is that it has to experience itself as separate… then forgets why it came here 🙂
Yes, that’s a good way of expressing it. The ‘new bit’ in my understanding was that the whole cycle of egoic development was a necessary growth of the cosmos, achieved through apparent separation. Almass is a good source of psycho-spiritual understanding, too.
I read a little about ‘The Point of Existence’ by A. H. Almas and The Diamond Approach. Sorry but there’s too much for me to read here before knowing what it’s about, and eyesight difficulty makes that impossible.
‘The Point of Existence’ is recommended!
A fascinating exploration T. Thank you.🙏🏻 I notice that I am past the analysis and drive to unravel and seek. Advaita resonates so strongly now that the intellectual mind becomes secondary to connecting to a deeper knowing.
Good to hear from you Val. ‘Intellectual mind becomes a a deeper knowing,’ thanks for these signposts. Sounds like an observation arrived at over a long period of time. Can I ask, does this come up in the dialogue with your Yoga students, or is it something arrived at through your own observation?
Good question T. It has come into my awareness over time and through my own personal experiences. My teachers and guides are John J Prendergast, Mooji, Adyashanti as well as traditional yogis including Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
I don’t know about John J Prendergast but intend to. I’ve read/ listened to Mooji, Adyashanti and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj but not at length. Thanks for: “(the) intellectual mind becomes a deeper knowing.”
Interesting read!
Very interesting. I am easily the most ignorant person here. I have flitted about from being a very devoted Catholic though baptized Protestant, then followed by a fallow period of psychosis in which I found Synchronicity everywhere and unexplainable mysticism. What followed?
Yogananda, Mooji, Thay, Eckhart Tolle and Sadhguru with some gurus pushed on me by friends. And your Buddhism blog which i have followed fir 11 years and the Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron. I have learned from them all. Love from Yogananda, selflessness from your blog and other Buddhists including Pema Chodron.
I have learned things from all and find unusual overlapping with disparate views. But am ending my life with Daaji and Raja Yoga. I learned to breath from Thay. And have learned very many things from your blog. I don’t understand and can’t express the similarities and differences about Advaita Vedanta so will not make a fool of myself further. But Daaji will take me to my death. And, in my flittiness, have found overlapping beliefs but different language. And different beliefs but Daaji brings me peace in a way no other has. I am not proselytizing here. Just found this post of yours most interesting and wanted to add my two cents. 🙏🏽
Hi Ellen,
I’d like to ask you some time about Yogananda and Sadhguru, these are the ones in your field of experience I’m really unfamiliar with. Also, Daaji of course but that’s your on-going study.
I can tell you what I know about Advaita; it means ‘not-twoism’. It’s the idea that Brahman alone is real and the changing, every-day world is an illusion(maya) of Brahman. The ordinary self is ultimately not different from Ātman-Brahman, the highest Self or Reality – you just have to ‘wake up’ to it
For me Advaita is the same as Hinduism without having to depend on all the rituals, etc., of all the Hindu deities. The name: Advaita Vedanta suggests that it goes back to the really ancient Vedas and Upanishads.
Hope that is helpful
T
Sorry for this late reply. Thanks for dropping in, I’m glad you found it interesting. Please come again
Tiramit
Oh, yes, Tiramit, that clarifies things a lot. I should just look up these terms and try to understand fully. I will do that. Thank you for your clarifications. I’d be happy to write about Yogananda, who was described to me as guru of the heart and Sadhguru who is such a force of nature,whether talking at the U.N. or at a university. An amazing man and mystic.