Sahara71 Wrote:
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> A good Youtube clip which I found helpful in
> understanding the pitfalls of Advaita was this one
> (which I've shared before):
>
> [
youtube.com]
Yes, that video is priceless :-) I think I've been in that trap also, and still getting out of it. The thing about it that's so hard to talk about, is that there exists the phenomenon of an intense "awakening" experience in which you recognize that what you really are, the true subject of experience, was never located in this reality (spacetime), because it's timeless and spaceless. This experience comes with intense energy and bliss, and a feeling of having arrived, having found the truth, and often with a desire to share this truth (some would call it "zealotry"). But it's only half of the truth; there is still identification with separation (with what's called "the watcher dimension" in this description of the ox herding metaphors for 10 stages of enlightenment~ [
blog.buddhagroove.com] , see stage 7).
It's unfortunate that such an unknown and un-understood phenomenon plays a big role in this discussion, and in the discussion of many other guru-types. They often have had some actual awakening but it's a partial truth that they've seen, and they're stuck there. As soon as they start teaching, they take on the role of the one who knows, who has arrived. But they don't and they haven't. They're stuck is a stage where their identification has been focused on an untouchable position, but it's untenable, because it's not true, as I tried to describe in my earlier post. The dismissal of the reality of the world is based in this identity-position, and because they use this dismissal as their coping-strategy, they can't leave this position; they're stuck. It's a case of arrested development, and I think Advaita is especially prone to producing this problem. Or maybe the problem is with Neo-advaita.
Anyway, this is the last I'll write about this topic on this forum, because like Corboy said in an earlier case I brought this up, it's not particularly fruitful to discuss privileged experiences that aren't available for assessment to everyone (I'm paraphrasing).