Total Thoughts – Monday, Nov 9, 2009 - Observance of one’s own duty

Observance of one's own duty (Tattva Bodha pages  20-24)

•  It is while performing our dharma we are able to use control our senses and continuously withdraw them, to reach a stage where the mind stops reveling in the field objects
•  Uparama is achieved by focusing on every day and occasional karma, while avoiding thoughts and actions driven by atonement, desire and prohibition
•  Beginning with focusing on an ideal, and then by constantly exerting effort to remove and confront ignorance, the texture of the mind changes to become more calmer and decisive
•  With the removal of ignorance, all that remains is the subject aware of the ignorance in the field of objects. Through this constant awareness, the mind exhibits calmness, decisiveness and fortitude.
•  The constant effort then becomes effortless. This ability lies in all.

Total Thoughts – Monday, Nov 2, 2009 - Control of the Senses

Control of the Senses (Tattva Bodha pages 17 - 18)

• By succumbing to the incessant demands of the senses we grow physically and mentally weak - sense control is important for secular success, is required for spiritual success
• All successful people know their minds to a certain degree - with this awareness of themselves they are better able to execute what they set out to
• We have to renew our aspiration to develop discipline for the sense organs - this is facilitated by shama or discipline of the mind
• Whenever we are in a satsanga we are spiritually brilliant and unambiguously peaceful - when we are not in satsanga our strength falters and the only way to remain stong is to 'carry' satsanga everywhere and 'remember' satsanga all the time
• The mind will remain immortal until Self Knowledge shows us the truth of the mind's mortality - compassion, or the ability to suffer with another, is a potent means to drop the erroneous notion of 'my mind'

Total Thoughts – Monday, Nov 12, 2009 - Control of the Mind

Control of Mind (Tattva Bodha page 16 - 17)

• Boredom is a choice - we never ever have to be afflicted by boredom if we develop an interest in all we do
• We should strive to do what we value and value what we do - do we practice either
• By discovering what we are passionate about all negative afflictions like boredom, lack of concentration, restlessness, etc. fade away - to know what we are passionate about requires us to know who we are first
• The projecting mind which causes us to suffer only exists in the past and future - by focusing on the present, only the perceiving mind remains empowering us to excel in any / all fields
• A disciple is one who is ready for discipline - shama is discipline of the mind

Total Thoughts – Monday, Oct 5, 2009 - The Four-Fold Qualification

This past Monday we began reflection upon the nature of objects by using viveka to define the unreal and introduced dispassion, vairāgya, to understand the temporary joy observed from the unreal. Dispassion is the strength to give up the sorrow-giving, impermanent and joyless objects, mentally or physically.

Total Thoughts – Monday, Oct 5, 2009

The Four-Fold Qualification, Tattva-Bodhah, pg 17-19

• As long as we feel that objects have joy, we cannot prevent likes or dislikes for them
• Through constant reflection on the nature of objects we determine firmly that they have no joy
• By giving up impermanent joy through dispassion, we attach ourselves to the Real through constant reflection and right thinking
• Vairāgya and viveka  are forms of right thinking through constant reflection that help us detach from the lower and attach to the higher
• Ones dharma should be performed through vairāgya and out of love for the higher
• Vairāgya fuels viveka, and viveka fuels vairāgya. By serving the ultimate, we function in society with the greatest joy

Foundation for our Upcoming Discussion:  The Six- Fold Wealth

Total Thoughts – Monday, Sep 28, 2009 - The Four-Fold Qualification

• All expressions of life are impermanent, life itself, is permanent
• Change is the only constant in the world. The moment we understand this, the happier we become as we stop pursuing temporary happiness in objects, people, places, things, and time
• By changing our inner perspective through discrimination of real vs. unreal we shed light upon that which brings us closer to Reality
• Even the desire of desirelessness fades as we become our goal, similarly, right thinking becomes our nature once we overcome wrong thinking
• Only with oneness can there be peace, not with duality
• Although limited, we fail to use our body, mind and intellect effectively. We have the power of discrimination, yet we employ it in meaningless actions and thoughts. Through correct thinking and viveka we are able to use the limiting, and go beyond it to the limitless.

  

Foundation for our Upcoming Discussion:  The Four-Fold Qualification, pg17 onward

Total Thoughts – Monday, Sep 21, 2009 - Invocation

Invocation, Chapter 1, Tattva-Bodhah

• Scriptures bring happiness that foster conviction. Conviction leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to discrimination.
• Vedas teach Dharma and Brahman. Dharma is that which we cannot learn by ourselves, Brahman is how to transcend the "I".
• The finite cannot perceive infinity. Therefore, self awareness is not available for direct perception.
• Since Atman is beyond the mind (time, space, causation), it must be infinite. The infinite cannot be 2. Therefore, the Real Man is the omnipresent Spirit. The apparent man is only a limitation of the Real Man.
• Existence and awareness are the same. If there is no awareness, there is no existence. If there is no existence in awareness, awareness doesn't exist.
• Man has the subtle power of discrimination which separates him from other beings. It should be used as a tool to discriminate between that which brings happiness (real) vs that which does not (unreal). It is not restrictive, rather, offers liberation.

  

Foundation for our Upcoming Discussion:  Qualifications required for liberation

Total Thoughts – Monday, Sep 14, 2009 - Tattva Bodha

Tattva-Bodhah (pg 1-5)

• Happiness is within us, outer happiness is fleeting and elusive. It is here and now, and not in the past or the future.
• Anything that is finite is subject to change, anything that changes, cannot bring permanent happiness: time, objects, status, people.
• Sadness is not our natural state, happiness is our true nature.
• We are happiest when asleep. Why? Because there are no thoughts!
• Therefore, happiness is a thoughtless state where there is no "I and my, you and yours…"
• The mind, whose nature is ignorance, cannot lead us to happiness.
• Our query begins with identifying the qualities (tamas, rajas, sattva) of everyday life, and optimizing the sattva in the mind: compassion, love, patience, independence
• "That (Brahman), the Light-of-all lights, is said to be beyond darkness; Knowledge, the Object-of-Knowledge, seated in the hearts of all, to be reached by Knowledge." Srimad Bhagvad Gita, Chapter 13, verse 18.

  

Foundation for our Upcoming Discussion:  Factors required for knowledge