Vedanta
(A presentation given by Nicole Scoppetuolo at a
Yoga University Continuing Education day,
Sunday, July 14th, 2013)
[NOTE: Pictures were added by me, not in Nicole’s original presentation.]
Key Terms:
Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy dealing with the Upanishads
Veda means “knowledge” and anta means “end” or “culmination”, so it translates to “the end of the Vedas”, or “the end of knowledge.” This is literal – the Upanishads are at the end of the Vedas, being the appendices of the Vedic hymns. It also means they are seen as the highest knowledge, the highest teaching.
Advaita the most well-known subschool of Vedanta
Advaita — “not two”
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Key Texts:
Upanishads
Brahma Sutras – commentary on the Upanishads
The Bhagavad Gita – “Song of the Lord” – Upanishadic philosophy in poetic dialogue
Adi Shankara was an eighth-century philosopher who played an important role in formulating the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. One of his works, Vivekachudamani, contains a line that really encapsulates the entire philosophy of Advaita:
“Brahman is the only truth, the world is an illusion (maya), and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and the individual self (atman).”
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Key concepts:
Brahman
Brahman is different from Brahma, the creator God. Brahman is not an anthropomorphized being, but perhaps better described as the ultimate reality, or the ground of all being. It is transcendent, absolute, eternal, formless, the One. We can use these words to help us understand, but ultimately Brahman is beyond all words and definitions.
Atman
Atman is the self or soul – however, according to Advaita, it is not an individual self or soul. What we actually are, at our innermost core, is Brahman.
So, atman = Brahman
Maya
Maya, or illusion, is basically the world of form. Brahman is the formless that manifests within the world of forms, appearing to be many different things. Consider the world as a play in a cosmic theatre, with one actor (Brahman) playing all the different roles (you, me, a tree, etc.).
Another simpler way of saying all this is:
Tat Tvam Asi, or Thou Art That!
In other words, you are the ultimate reality.
Passage from The Chandogya Upanishad:
“It is everywhere, though we see it not.
Just so, dear one, the Self is everywhere,
Within all things, although we see him not.
There is nothing that does not come from him.
Of everything he is the inmost Self.
He is the truth; he is the Self supreme.
You are that, Shvetaketu; you are that.”
…
“In the city of Brahman is a secret dwelling, the
lotus of the heart. Within this dwelling is a space,
and within that space is the fulfillment of our desires.
What is within that space should be longed for and
realized.
As great as the infinite space beyond is the space
within the lotus of the heart. Both heaven and earth
are contained in that inner space, both fire and air, sun
and moon, lightning and stars. Whether we know it in
this world or know it not, everything is contained in
that inner space.”
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Other Religious Traditions:
Judaism – Kabbalah
“Before anything emanated, there was only Ein Sof. Ein Sof was all that existed. Similarly, after it brought into being that which exists, there is nothing but it. You cannot find anything that exists apart from it. There is nothing that is not pervaded by the power of divinity. If there were, Ein Sof would be limited, subject to duality, God forbid! Rather, God is everything that exists, though everything that exists is not God. It is present in everything, and everything comes into being from it. Nothing is devoid of its divinity. Everything is within it; it is within everything and outside of everything. There is nothing but it.”
– Elimah Rabbati, 16th century work by Rabbi Moshe Cordovero
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Christianity
“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, [Jesus] answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
— Luke 17:20-21 (King James version)
“The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.”
– Meister Eckhart, medieval German Catholic mystic
The Cloud of Unknowing – 14th century anonymous work
Saint Teresa, The Interior Castle (1577)
Saint John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul (1578/79)
Bernadette Roberts, The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center (1991)
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Gnosticism
“Jesus said to them,
‘When you make the two into one,
when you make the inner like the outer
and the outer like the inner
and the upper like the lower,
when you make the male and female into a
single one,
so that the male will not be male
and the female will not be female,
when you make eyes replacing an eye,
a hand replacing a hand,
a foot replacing a foot,
and an image replacing an image,
then you shall enter the kingdom.”
— “The Gospel of Thomas,” Saying 22
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Islam – Sufism
“There came one and knocked at the door of the Beloved.
And a voice answered and said, ‘Who is there?’
The lover replied, ‘It is I.’
‘Go hence,’ returned the voice.
‘there is no room within for thee and me.’
Then came the lover a second time and knocked and again the voice
demanded,
‘Who is there?’
He answered, ‘It is thou.’
‘Enter,’ said the voice, ‘for I am within.’
— Jalal ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi, 13th century Persian Sufi poet
Hafiz, or Hafez – Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi, 14th century Persian Sufi poet
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Sufism: The Transformation of the Heart (1995)
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Science
“Inconceivable as it seems to ordinary reason, you – and all conscious beings as such – are all in all. Hence, this life of yours you are living is not merely a piece of the entire existence, but is in a certain sense the whole…Thus, you can throw yourself flat on the ground, stretched out upon Mother Earth with a certain conviction that you are one with her and she with you. You are as firmly established, as invulnerable as she, indeed a thousand times firmer and more invulnerable.” Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist
The Science and Nonduality Conference
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Neurotheology
Also check out Jill Bolte Taylor’s “Stroke of Insight” – TEDTalk available online
Advaita Vedanta teachers Other Teachers…
Ramana Maharshi
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Nisargadatta Maharaj
U.G. Krishnamurti
Ramakrishna
G.I. Gurdjieff
H.W.L. Poonja, aka Papaji
Douglas Harding
Ramesh Balsekar
James Swartz
Eckhart Tolle
Adyashanti
Gangaji
Mooji
Osho
Jeff Foster
Unmani (Liza Hyde)
Byron Katie
Nirmala
Jean Klein
Frances Lucille
Sailor Bob Adamson
Nick Gancitano — Boca Raton
Neo-Advaita Teachers Disclaimer :
I am not necessarily endorsing all of these
teachers, although I do think they are worth
checking out to see if any of them speak to you.
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Recommended Texts
The Upanishads – Trans. Eknath Easwaran
The Secret Teachings of Jesus: Four Gnostic Gospels – Trans. Marvin W. Meyer
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966) – Alan Watts (or anything by Alan Watts)
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1999) – Eckhart Tolle
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (2005) – Eckhart Tolle
The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment (2008) — Adyashanti
Wake Up Now: A Guide to the Journey of Spiritual Awakening (2008) – Stephan Bodian
When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening (2007) – Jan Frazier
Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (1989) – Editors Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof
Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief (2001) – Andrew Newberg, M.D., Eugene D’Aquili, M.D., Ph.D., and Vince Rause
Anything by Jiddu Krishnamurti
Any book of Rumi’s poetry (Coleman Barks has particularly good translations)
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