Today's lecture is about Renunciation, the ultimate ideal of Indian philosophy and the secret to happiness in life. You will learn the Four Principles of Non-Duality (Advaita Vedanta) which are:
1. Upadhi : mistaking yourself to be something you are not as the cause of suffering)
2. Sakshi : developing the Witness to create more intimacy with experiences in life)
3. Adishtana : recognising Awareness as the ground and substance of the world to awaken agape, all-encompassing love)
4. Viverta : recognising the world as an appearance in Awareness and thereby recognizing your own innate purity and invulnerability. This creates a tremendous fearlessness because you know whatever the scenes of the movie, you, the movie screen, will remain unchanged/untarnished/unharmed.)
Even the mere intellectual understanding of these Four Principles can radically alter one's life to make room for more spaciousness, peace and joy.
However once you go beyond an intellectual understanding to truly internalize and manifest these principles in life, you will awaken to fearlessness, perfect compassion, perfect non-attachment and unspeakable bliss that is your birthright
The philosophers of ancient India certainly saw the quest to understand (and master) the natural world as valuable however much more interesting to them was the quest to understand the "inner" world, the psychological landscape of what it means to be human. As early as 2000bce, the philosophers of India dared to ask "what is the secret to happiness? How can a human being come to live in a meaningful and purposeful way in a world of impermanence such as ours? Is there more to life than the fleeting pleasures of the body and ego?"
And over the millenia, we have developed subtle and profound (and most importantly, effectual) systems describing what a human life is for. The ultimate teaching, the essence of all this inquiry is...
(drumroll please)
RENUNCIATION!
Renounce the world and you will come to enjoy it in a way you could never have expected!
OM Shantih Shantih Shantih
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
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