Amma smiled at the boy and said in a conspiratorial whisper

[Guest guest]

During the retreat Q & A, a 12-year-old boy asked, " Amma, you tell us that

we are born again and again as a result of our karma. But what about the

very first time we were born? There was no karma then, so why were we

born? "

 

Amma smiled at the boy and said in a conspiratorial whisper, " You were

never born, my son. This is just a dream, a very long dream ... "

A Critique Of John Wheeler's " You Were Never Born " ~ Dr.

Vemuri Ramesam

http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/wheeler_ramesam.htm

<http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/wheeler_ramesam.htm>

I felt truly humbled and very fulfilled reading John's book, " You

Were Never Born " (Non-Duality Press, 2007, pp: 260, ISBN:

978-0-9553999-2-3).

 

" You Were Never Born " begins with about 25 pages on the basics

of John's approach to Advaita philosophy and proceeds to present 77

dialogues (chiefly e-mail correspondences) with seekers. At the very end

is a very candid interview given to a Dzogchen Practitioner. I am amazed

at the humility of his stance, clarity in expression and his ability to

hold the questioner's feet firmly on the ground while demystifying

Advaita, but in the same breath conveying, in simple straight forward

terms, the great Gaudapada's highest philosophy of 'ajativada' (Karika

III-48). John is not condescending in his responses to the questions nor

does he adopt a `holier than thou' attitude. No mumbo jumbo

either. He exposes in his dialogs a missed dimension in the

Questioner's perspective and patiently deconstructs our usually

taken-for-granted worldview. One is reminded of the depth of Ashtavakra

Gita (I-12) in his replies.

 

The dialogs # 52 ( " Objects Appear, But You Exist " ) at p: 145 -

148 and # 68 ( " The Simplicity of Presence-Awareness " ) at p: 185

are key essays and perhaps could have been at the head of the Book. They

constitute the heart of the matter.

 

What To Do:

 

John doesn't go with the radical positions adopted by some of the

Non-Dualists who say that there is nothing that can be done, as

" there is no one to do anything. " He is categorical that he

would never say that. He questions, " If there is nothing to do to

end seeking and suffering, why talk about all this? " (P: 97).

Similar views are repeatedly expressed in the book.

 

Richard, a pen friend of mine sent the other day a link to Mr. David

Godman's blog on What To Do?

<http://sri-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.com/2008/06/yes-but-what-do-i-do.ht\

ml> I quote from the above link:

 

" When the Guru says, `You are the Self, you are Brahman,'

the disciple often responds by saying, `Yes, I understand, but what

do I do to attain it? How do I discover this for myself?'

 

The asking of such a question means that the disciple thinks that

Brahman is something he should become, through effort, rather than

something that he already is. The assumption implicit in this world-view

is the premise behind all sadhana. "

 

To this Ramana Maharshi's response was:

 

" He who instructs an ardent seeker to do this or that is not a true

master. The seeker is already afflicted by his activities and wants

peace and rest. In other words, he wants cessation of his activities.

Instead of that he is told to do something in addition to, or in place

of, his other activities. Can that be a help to the seeker?

 

Activity is creation; activity is the destruction of one's inherent

happiness. If activity be advocated the adviser is not a master but the

killer. Either the Creator (Brahma) or Death (Yama) may be said to have

come in the guise of such a master. He cannot liberate the aspirant but

strengthens his fetters. (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no.

601.) "

 

John too does not advocate any `method' as all methods do

deflect the individual from focusing on that which really makes one

`aware.' He desists from recommending even reading his books.

But he also does not leave the seeker in a vacuum while he himself talks

from the position of ultimate Oneness. He holds his hand and

unwearyingly guides him to be `aware' of that very background

which gives him the undeniable fact of `presence and awareness'

the twin principles of `existence – knowledge', which the

Upanishadic teachings point out. He suggests a variety of pointers to

bring the gaze of the seeker on track from a misfocus on worldliness or

a " me " . His standard comment is " You have to be present to

be `aware.' You have to be aware to be `present'. So the

`presence-awareness' is undeniable. " What he suggests is to

continue questioning all that appears as a physical or mental object

until you are aware of your awareness and nothing else remains with a

subject-object differentiation. That is same as the Drik (Potent-Looker)

state beyond triputi in Vedantic argot.

 

There is no glorification of advaita or statements misleading the reader

with false hopes of redeeming one from worldly problems of hunger,

penury etc. While physical pain and sorrow are admittedly unavoidable

in the relative world, 'advaita' can free the individual from

'psychological suffering'. `Psychological suffering' for him is

" emotional turbulence, doubts, worries, fears, concern about

`myself', what people think of `me', the feeling of

being a separate individual etc. " (p: 245). The key is about one's

shifting the focus from a memory-based fictitious `persona' of

autobiographical 'self' to that very 'awareness' which 'awares' (for

lack of a better word) within oneself.

 

John's statements like " I am an advocate of taking appropriate

relative steps. The same goes with medical issues, job issues and so

on. " (p: 178) and " Appearances are meaningful at the level at which

they appear. Engage in them and make use of them at the appropriate

level. There can still be a relative enjoyment and interest in

things. " (p: 188) clearly indicate an unambiguous pointer to guide

us in our daily life at transactional level pertaining to matters in the

mundane world. At the same time, his profound words like " At this point

you can dispense with making a division between thoughts and awareness "

(p: 183) transport the reader (or what remains) to sublime unseparating

" Oneness. " The book abounds in many quotable gems, each with its own

flavor and uniqueness of appeal to individual spiritual aspirants.

 

Snake – Rope Classic Advaita Metaphor:

 

" From ignorance of oneself, the world appears, and by knowledge of

oneself it appears no longer. From ignorance of the rope a snake

appears, and by knowledge of the rope the snake appears no longer " ,

says Ashtavakra Gita (II-7) using the classic and well-known snake

metaphor to denote the apparent world. Aparokshanubhuti (Verse 96) too

holds that " the substratum being known, the phenomenal world

disappears completely. " However, John is more realistic. He thinks

that the metaphor of a mirage, which continues to appear even after it

is known that it doesn't contain any water, more appropriately

describes the position of a Jivanmukta (vide his e-mail of April 8, 2008

to me). He explains adding, " As long as there are sense organs,

mind, consciousness, etc., in working order, the appearance will be

there. The whole purpose of questioning the reality of the appearance is

to dismantle the fixation on it and identification with it, not to deny

that sheer fact that an appearance happens. "