Advaita Vedanta
Glossary
| bhakti | devotion |
| karma | selfless action |
| dhyana | meditation |
| sac | |
| cit | |
| ananda | bliss |
| mythia | dependant existence (e.g pot) |
| satyam | independent existence (e.g.: clay, brahma) |
Underlying reality Brahma
The world appears to be real unless the underlying reality is real.
Pot is nama rupa (name and form) / appearance / mythia
clay is the thing / underlying reality
if the pot 3 lbs, how much weight is added by the pot (name and form)
Pot is a name and form that exists dependant on the underlying reality clay, so this is mythia
The pot is made of clay. Clay is the underlying reality of the pot. Pot cannot exist without clay.
"the dreamer's mind is non-dual with respect to what it dreams about"
"the consciousness is non-dual with respect to what it experiences this objective universe"
"consciousness [subject] is different from objects"
"objects of consciousness is not different from consciousness"
wave is not different from the water
you are distinct from your dreams but the dreams cannot exist without you
The entire universe is an appearance in consciousness.
Maya
According to Swami Vivekananda, maya is:
- Saints die, and sinners die, kings die, and paupers die, the learner die, and the ignorant die, all must die and yet there is this tremendous clinging to life. We know it is certain we will die, and yet the most powerful clinging to life. This is Maya.
- Limits to knowledge: the more we know, the more we realize we don't know. This is Maya.
- Limits of sense pleasure: pursuit of pleasure "until crippled we are swept away by death". This is Maya.
- Limits to free-will: we feel we are free, but there are limits to our free-will. This is Maya.
- The more you increase the power of enjoyment, the more vulnerable, weak, the more prone to suffering you are. This is Maya.
- Mother and ungrateful child, she cannot shake the feeling off that keep takes care of her child. This is Maya.
- Drama of life: young, full of possibility, we become older and more disappointed and bitter. and death sweeps us away from the stage of life. Victorious or defeated, we do not know. This is Maya.
- Krishna and Narada story
- Maya of samsara
- Maya is not a theory to explain the world. Maya is simply a statement of facts, a description of the sheer paradoxical nature of life.
- All is Maya.
Any kind of expressions (name and form, in time, space and causation) is finite.
The infinite express himself not in the flow of maya but against the current.
Renunciation therefore is the basis of spirituality.
The moment we have something, we want more. Life overflows.
I am Brahma. I am that what I was looking outside. Tat tvam asi. You are that. The reality that was hidden by Maya. You were hidden by Maya. Maya did not hide the truth from you. You are the truth. You are the stage on which the drama of life has been staged.
The play of Maya is your own play. His is not hiding from you