James Swartz - Neo-Advaita.pdf

Neo-Advaita Mystics have have proclaimed the oneness of all things for thousands of years. The Science of Self Inquiry that culminated in the teachings of Adi Shankara Shankara in the Eighth Century has had a profound profound effect on Eastern religion and spirituality. spirituality. Although we see the idea of nonduality popping up in !estern thought from the time of Christ until the present day" it did not develop into a systematic means of self reali#ation and has had virtually no impact on Christianity" Christianity" Islam and $udaism" unlike Self Inquiry which deeply conditioned Indian culture. %ntil the Colonial Era" contact &etween the East and !est was limited" &ut slowly the !est &ecame &ecame aware of the social" political and religious philosophies of the once powerful 'riental nations. (uring the last half of the )ineteenth Century the )ew Thought movement sprang sprang up in America. The founders of Christian Science" %nity" Science of Mind and the transcendental transcendental poets were certainly familiar with nondual thought. Around the turn of the last century a few Indian mahatmas visited the !est and more or less formally introduced us to the idea of nonduality. nonduality. The powerful speech given &y Swami *ivekananda at the Congress of !orld +eligions in Chicago in ,-/ was a milestone in the East!est East!est spiritual relationship" proclaiming as it did the oneness of all religions. 0or some reason *ivekananda put his own spin on the traditional teachings" emphasi#ing 1oga at the e2pense of *edanta. It is possi&le that he felt that the !est was not properly prepared. !hatever the reason" the *edanta he introduced to the !est was not strictly traditional and &ecame known as )ew *edanta or Modern *edanta" a contradiction in terms if ever there was one. Multi Path Confusion

)ew *edanta introduced the idea of four paths or yogas3action" devotion" knowledge and meditation 3which were supposedly suita&le for different personality types" whereas the *edas only sanction two4 action and knowledge. The path of karma is intended for e2troverts with a heavy vasana load and the path of knowledge is for contemplative contemplative types whose vasanas are predominately sattvic. 5ow the multipath idea was meant to &e an improvement is difficult to discern. Traditionally 1oga is considered to &e a su&set of the Science of Self 6nowledge" not a separate path to enlightenment. enlightenment. The practices of 1oga are not inferior to Self Inquiry &ut" as la&oriously pointed out so far" are not suita&le as a means of li&eration. They are" however" e2tremely valua&le to prepare the mind for li&eration &ecause without a pure mind li&eration is not possi&le. So with the ascendancy of the 1oga teachings" enlightenment came to &e considered a permanent e2perience of samadhi" in contrast with the mundane e2periences of everyday life" which it o&viously cannot &e if reality is nondual. In any case" the e2periential notion of enlightenment has &een the dominant view for the last one hundred years in the !est" although it dates &ack to a few centuries 7C" where it is given voice in the 1oga 1oga scriptures of 8atan9ali. It has o&viously &een around for a very long time &ecause we can trace the 1oga Sutra:s origins to the %panishads which are records of mankind:s mankind:s earliest spiritual thinking. Air travel increased the East!est East!est dialogue. 7y and large" the tsunami of e2port gurus that inundated the !est in the )ineteen Si2ties peddled Modern *edanta. The emphasis on 1oga was necessary &ecause materialism had corrupted corrupted the !estern mind. Although there was a strong spiritual hunger in the !est" it was not really prepared to assimilate assimilate the essence of Self Inquiry. Materialists are doers and en9oyers and the idea of e2periencing enlightenment enlightenment is good enough for them. As the world &ecame increasingly interconnected and spirituality gained respecta&ility" the &ond &etween East and

!est deepened. Ramana Maharshi, Osho, Papaji and the rise of Neo-Advaita

In the Eighties the !estern spiritual world &ecame reacquainted with +amana Maharshi" a great Indian sage" who had achieved a certain degree of international recognition around the middle of the last century" &ut who had &een all &ut forgotten since his death. +amana reali#ed the nondual nature of the self and taught Self Inquiry and 1oga. )eoAdvaita" sometimes called 8suedoAdvaita" the !est:s latest idea of the wisdom of the East" came a&out mainly through a disciple of +amana" 5!; 8oon9a9i" commonly known as 8apa9i" although $. 6rishnamurthi" $ean 6lien" +amesh 7alsekar and others contri&uted to it. 8apa9i" who was virtually unknown in India during his life" came to the attention of the !estern spiritual world shortly after 7hagawan Shree +a9neesh" the notorious ninetythree +olls +oyce guru died. +a9neesh" the horse:s mouth concerning the topic of enlightenment for !esterners for many years" was a particularly clever man who created a very large following &y wedding two largely incompati&le concepts" sense en9oyment and enlightenment. 5is <=or&a the 7udda: idea gave a whole generation of re&ellious disaffected communityseeking !esterners good reason to party hearty on their way to >od. !hen +a9neesh" who rechristened himself 'sho to avoid the &ad karma his notoriety produced" died" his devotees" ever on the lookout for the ne2t master" omati river" a tri&utary of the >anges. 8apa9i" like 'sho" was a clever man with an outsi#ed personality. 5e was a shaktipat guru with a super a&undance of
Neo-Advaita versus Traditional Vedanta

'n the surface )eoAdvaita" which has no worthwhile methodology" seems fairly reasona&le. 7y and large it teaches that you are not the &odymindego entity and that you are nondual awareness" &oth of which are in harmony with tradition. If reality is nondual" then there is no one that is ignorant of his or her self &ecause knowledge and ignorance are duality. If there is no ignorance of who we are" there is no need for a teaching" a teacher or a student. In nondual reality there is no &ody and mind to &e something other than the self3awareness3so there is no &ondage and no li&eration" no suffering and en9oying" no 9oy and no sorrow. If you are nondual awareness you cannot do anything" so there are no right and wrong actions. 1ou were never &orn and you never die and e2perience does not e2ist. This teaching causes a pro&lem &ecause it does not take e2perience into account. So you either have to deny the e2istence of e2perience" which can only take place in duality" or modify the teaching. 1ou cannot deny the e2istence of e2perience3although )eoAdvaita does its level &est3&ecause it e2ists. So to tell someone caught in the e2periential world that he or she does not e2ist" or that nothing can &e done to attain enlightenment is not helpful. The sages who gave us Self Inquiry were considera&ly more sophisticated and worked out an intelligent solution. They assigned a provisional reality to duality which is in harmony with the e2perience of everyone and then proceeded to destroy it" using teachings which correspond with the common sense logic of the seeker:s own e2perience. !ithout the notion of a provisional or apparent reality" which e2perience confirms" you are forced to superimpose the idea that all is consciousness on empirical reality. )eedless to say" it does not apply to this level of reality. A verse in the scriptures on 1oga that says"
If reality is nondual and a special e2perience of consciousness or a dead mind is not enlightenment" only self knowledge could &e enlightenment. 7ut )eoAdvaita does not accept the view that ignorance" which shows up as a lack of discrimination" is the pro&lem" &ecause it says that ignorance does not e2ist. This is a convenient teaching that plays to the strong antiintellectual &ias of modern seekers. It is true that it does not e2ist from the self:s point of view" &ut a seeker does not know that he or she is the self or he or she would not &e seeking" so this teaching is not a teaching at all. It leaves the seeker with no avenue to actuali#e the desire for freedom that attracts him or her to the idea of enlightenment and is tailor made to produce frustration. That enlightenment is a &lank mind or the a&sence of ego is an equally illconsidered notion that inevita&ly produces suffering" when it is pursued. 7oth of these ideas are the result of level confusion" assigning the same degree of reality to pure consciousness and reflected consciousness3the e2periential world.

'f course" if there is no knowledge and no ignorance" there is no seeker either. And if there is no seeker" there necessarily cannot &e a path. 5ow )eoAdvaita squares this idea with its very e2istence is difficult to determine. If there is no knowledge and no ignorance" there is no teacher to pass on the knowledge that there is no path" seeker" knowledge" ignorance" no doer etc. This is not to say that negation is not useful. Traditional Self Inquiry employs negation li&erally. 7ut it is half the loaf. The other half is the teachings that reveal the self" using the positive methods descri&ed throughout this &ook. The self is not a &ig empty void. 7ecause )eoAdvaita is a nihilistic denial of the o&vious" it has no methodology apart from its mindless negations. %ein# Present, &roppin# Sufferin#

Another popular teaching" <&eing present": is unskillful &ecause it does not take the vasanas into account. It is the vasanas that keep the mind worrying a&out the future and o&sessing a&out the past. (esire needs to &e addressed" not repressed" with the technique of <&eing present.: The a&surdity of such a teaching is evident when we look at it from the self :s point of view too. !hen are you not present 0or you to know that you are not present" you would have to &e present. If you were a&sent" how would you know The karma yoga view is a simple and o&vious solution to this pro&lem" &ut )eo Advaita has not discovered it" even though it is as old as the hills. A further teaching" an in9unction actually" informs the none2istent seeker to
8erhaps the &est way to approach )eoAdvaita is not &y what it teaches as &y what it does not. 8ro&a&ly the most o&vious omission is the notion of qualifications necessary for enlightenment. )eo Advaita is &urdened with an understanda&ly democratic ethos" the idea &eing that anyone who walks into one of its meetings off the street can gain instant enlightenment" which is possi&le if you define

enlightenment as an epiphany. 7ut then you can as well fall down a nondual flight of stairs and have an epiphany. 7ecause Self Inquiry defines enlightenment differently" however" it insists that a person &e discriminating" dispassionate" calm of mind and endowed with a &urning desire for li&eration along with secondary qualifications like devotion" faith and perseverance. In other words" it requires a mature adult with a onepointed desire to know the self. The reason for these qualifications" which were discussed in chapter four" is the fact that enlightenment is a hard and fast recognition &y the mind of its nonseparation from everythingD only a very rare individual will let go of his or her sense of individuality to gain another" al&eit greater" identity. The mind must &e capa&le of inquiring into" grasping and retaining the knowledge
8erhaps the centerpiece of neoAdvaita teachings is the idea that there is nodoer" a traditional teaching that was carefully unfolded at the &eginning of chapter seven. It has achieved considera&le popularity in the )eoAdvaita world &ecause it appeals to the something for nothing mentality. <1ou mean I can get enlightened without doing anything !here do I sign up: It also dovetails nicely into the idea of enlightenment as the a&sence of ego. If I do any spiritual work" I am strengthening my ego" or so the logic goes. It is true that the ego can coopt the practice" &ut only if practice is done without the right understanding. This teaching" as is the case with all dogmatic statements from the self:s point of view" contradicts e2perience. Everyone sees his or herself as a doer and identifies to some degree with the actions done &y the &ody and mind at the &ehest of the vasanas. If a teaching denies my e2istence" it condemns me to remain as the doer I think I am. Traditional *edanta agrees that you cannot do anything to &e what you are" &ut it suggests that you allow the Science of Self Inquiry to help you remove your ignorance of who you are" &ecause enlightenment is a matter of understanding" not action. $mportance of !arma )o#a for Self $n*uir+

It would &e impossi&le to underestimate the importance of 6arma 1oga for Self Inquiry. 6arma 1oga is not taught in the )eoAdvaita world &ecause it is for the doer. 0urthermore" it requires discipline and considera&le patience" qualities not in evidence in people seeking instant enlightenment. It also requires continuous monitoring of one:s motivations and reactions to events. Additionally" it requires a willingness to change one:s attitudes. 0inally" it demands a pure lifestyle &ecause the vasanas continually divert attention away from the self. )one of this is possi&le if I do not e2ist. And if I do e2ist" it is hard work. )ot doing will not create karma" good or &ad. 7ut" &ecause it is impossi&le not to do" the idea that there is nothing to do means that the entry level seekers will 9ust continue to do what they have always done. )o &lame" &ut the idea that there is nothing to do will not result in enlightenment or growth. To fill the nondoing void" )eoAdvaita" thanks to +a9neesh:s =or&a the 7uddha idea" keeps the seeker hooked with an apparently positive in9unction"
cannot have its cake and eat it too. The desires that e2trovert the mind need to &e sacrificed for the sake of a quiet mind" one capa&le of meditating on the self" reflecting on the nondual teachings and assimilating the knowledge. !hen actions conform to dharma" &inding vasanas are neutrali#ed. (harma means that I do what has to &e done" irrespective of how I personally feel a&out it. I do not want to pay my ta2es" &ut I pay my ta2es. I may not get a vasana for paying ta2" &ut I will certainly eliminate any agitation associated with non compliance. 7ut when my desires are all that matter" is it any wonder that whatever nondual e2perience happens in the satsang when the mind is temporarily arrested &y the group energy" quickly vanishes with the appearance of the ne2t &inding desire This is why the )eoAdvaita world is little more than thousands of people" including the teachers" who have had scores of nondual e2periences" &ut who at the end of the day are still prisoners of their desires. Enlightenment is freedom from dependence on desired and feared o&9ects. +amana Maharshi" who had an e2perience of the Self at the tender age of seventeen" understood the wisdom of practice in so far as he sat in meditation on the self in caves for twenty years and studied the te2ts of &oth 1oga and Self Inquiry after he was awakened" although this is not the party line of +amana devotees. 5ad he &een a )eoAdvaitin" he would have immediately advertised satsang and &egun instantly enlightening the world. 7ut he had the wisdom to understand that while the epiphany was the end of his seeking" it was not the end of his work. 5ad it &een" he could have returned home" eaten this mother:s iddlies and played cricket like any normal seventeen year old Tamil &oy. Is it unreasona&le to assume that he applied the knowledge he gained during his e2perience" until the mind:s dualistic orientation was reduced to ash in the fire of self knowledge The notion that his epiphany destroyed his sense of duality once and for all does not 9i&e with common sense. &evotion to od

Another essential component of any valid spiritual path is devotion to >od" as e2plained in chapter nine. +amana gave devotion to >od" meaning glad acceptance of the fruits of action equal status with Self Inquiry as a spiritual path &ecause devotion to >od e2hausts vasanas and &reaks down the concept of doership. <)ot my will" &ut Thine.: It also teaches that >od" not the ego" is the dispenser of the fruits of one:s actions. 7ut )eoAdvaita sees devotion as
anything that lives" dies" anything that wakes" sleeps. The Self never slept nor does it awaken. The mind does. This waking up and going &ack to sleep3all of which takes place in the waking state incidentally3is a consequence of the play of the gunas in the mind. !hen the mind is sattvic" the reflection of the awareness shining on it causes the individual to
0inally" Self Inquiry has survived as a via&le means of knowledge &ecause it reveals the truth with a refined methodology. Many reali#e nonduality within and outside the tradition &ut are incapa&le of teaching nonduality &ecause they are either unsuited to teach or lack a via&le method3or &oth. )eo Advaita:s statements to <&e the space for the thoughts: or <&e as you areF are not skillful teachings &ecause they deliver a nondual teaching of identity in e2periential language. Such teachings give the impression that something can &e done to achieve awareness and that self reali#ation can come a&out through an act of will. In traditional Advaita" not only should the teacher have reali#ed his or her identity as the self in such a way that he or she never reidentifies with the &elief that the
There is no way to know for certain" &ut )eoAdvaita seems to &e more a&out emotionally unfulfilled individuals looking for an alternative to a hectic modern lifestyle" one that offers a sense of community" than a proper spiritual path. 0ar from the idea of relying on the self to supply emotional

needs from within" most &elieve that enlightenment will help them gain the worldly things that have so far eluded them" particularly love. The attenuated hugs that the followers of 'sho made famous and are favored &y devotees of the famous 5ugging Saint are much in evidence in the meetings of popular )eoAdvaita teachers. And it is clear from the &ehavior of many of the teachers of )eo Advaita who have supposedly od wife" founders of the illustrious 'neness %niversity. This compassionate team will3for the modest fee of G,,"H for a two week enlightenment course3direct special energy from a golden &all into your poor confused human cranium and rewire your &rain for enlightenment. As an added &enefit you will miraculously survive the glo&al calamity a&out to &efall the earth in J,J" which is slated to wipe out a significant fraction of humanity. Evidently this promise of personal and glo&al enlightenment is thinning the ranks of the )eoAdvaitins who" in typically !estern fashion" are always looking for the most efficient shortcut to limitless &liss. (oes )eoAdvaita have any redeeming virtues $ust as high school is a prerequisite for university" seekers need to start somewhere and )eoAdvaita" imperfect as it is as a vehicle for spiritual practice or self reali#ation" provides entrylevel access to the idea of nonduality. 0inally" &ecause )eoAdvaita is pro&a&ly more a support group of likeminded spiritually inclined individuals than a rigorous investigation into the truth" it will continue in some form or other for the foreseea&le future. 7ut will pro&a&ly remain a lifestyle fad unless it investigates its roots and discovers the teachings of Self Inquiry.

B, Upadesha Saram