‘Satisfaction’


From ‘Nondual Clarity’ – Feb. 12, 2017

David Aldridge. As Liberation matures you notice how much of life is devoted to the search for stimulation and excitation. Once all that is dropped, there is a release into true Satisfaction.

SA. Satisfaction of what? There is nothing to be satisfied from. Nothing to accomplish. Nothing to lose and nothing to gain. Nothing to be satisfied about.

DK. Liberation cannot “mature”. It is an unchanging state. No events, no things. No past and no future.

DK. David Aldridgepoints to the moon (of experience) and y’all get busy talking about the finger. Can you not distinguish poetic metaphor vs literalism? I myself know exactly what he is trying to say; I have experienced this very same thing.

M. ‘Safaction’ (HM!)… ‘Prajapati said: ‘The self which is free from sin…old age…death…grief — that is the self which should be searched out.’ On hearing this, the devas (gods) and asuras (demons) went searching for it, Indra being the first. On being told so, Prajapati made them to dwell with him for 32 years to receive the teaching. Then, after he suggested to them the body to be the reality (“Look at yourself in a pan of water…”), they all believed that that is the self and were satisfied… all except Indra (“I do not see any good in this doctrine”). Virochana satisfied in heart went to the demons and taught them to worship the body only.

Indra spent another thirty two years with Prajapati. After that period, it was the turn of the dreams to be the reality, as suggested to by the latter (“He who moves about, exalted, in dreams – this is the Self, immortal, fearless”). But after some deliberation, Indra thought: ‘I do not see any good in this doctrine’, and went back to Prajapati. Then, after another thirty two years, the doctrine taught to Indra was that deep sleep is what is real. Again, Indra deliberated, concluding at the end that in deep sleep one reaches utter annihilation. After living with Prajapati for a final five years, Indra came to learn the truth: The Self enjoys all pleasures as an inner spectator only; He perceives in all things His Self only. What from the relative standpoint are called objects, are to Him Brahman only. (From Chandogya Upanishad).

Notice that here there is a progression from physical body to subtle body (dreams) to deep sleep (causal body) to no-body (no-thing, the fourth ‘state’).

 

 

 

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About amartingarcia

General surgeon (retired). Studied Western philosophy at U of Toronto. Afterwards interest turned to advaita vedanta and non-duality for past 20 yrs, plus a long interlude in Sufism coinciding with that period. Now contributing in ’Advaita Vision’ with regular posts and discussions.
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2 Responses to ‘Satisfaction’

  1. derek says:

    What is this extracted from? Thanks.

    • The Upanishads – Breath of the Eternal, trans. by Sw. Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester, being selections of the Upanishads (128 pp.). I like the elegant English, and is easy to read.

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