Celtic Advaita

Celtic Advaita .... you know ..... Druids.

From the root "Dru", meaning immersion, and the root "vid" meaning knowledge, in the original Sanskrit.

And so, a "Druid" is one who is immersed in knowledge; a knower - a jnani; a gnostic.

Yes .... I did say Sanskrit.

The linguistic link between Irish and Sanskrit is undeniable; the cultural similarities ... staggeringly so.

A connection acknowledged not only on the Irish side, but on the Indian/Hindu side, as well; including this overview, from the magazine Hinduism Today, which goes into quite a bit of detail.

Why is this important?

Because, to many of us raised in a European, or European-derived culture, Advaita -- non-duality -- can seem like a bit of an aberration.

Not so.

It is the control-based teachings of mainstream religion which are the aberration; advaita is original.

Does this matter? Which philosophy, view, or outlook is original?

In and of itself, no.

When connected with the fact that Advaita accurately maps and describes actuality, including the actuality of fulfilled consciousness .... yes.

When connected with the fact that Advaita can help you enjoy fulfilled consciousness; freedom beyond imagination ... in your own experiencing .... it can become very important, indeed.

The two oldest spiritual systems in the world: Kabbalah -- which pre-dates Judaism as a formal religion, and Shaiva Advaita, as discussed in other posts in this blog); which pre-dates Hinduism, and has been tracked back as far as the Indus Valley civilization .. are both advaitic, in essence, as are all the oldest spiritual systems found anywhere; Druidism in the Celtic countries, for instance.

There are hundreds of non-dual, gnostic gospels, verified as historically legitimate ... and only twenty-seven dualistic books authorized for inclusion in the Christian Bible.

A little food for thought ...... or for taking you into the infinite freedom here beyond thought, now, perhaps.

Christian Shaivism / Christian Advaita

One of the aspects of inter-religious dialog and understanding which makes communication between religions difficult, is that the teachings of religion or philosophy can seem to say that reality is dualistic (i.e. God is God, and you are not), while spiritual experiences, especially the deepest ones, are experiences of the formless non-dual reality underlying the distinctions of day to day life and conceptual mind.

And so, Advaitic schools within Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism (Kabbalah), Islam (Sufism), or any other "ism" can seem to be teaching something inherently and radically different than "mainstream Christianity" (or even the "mainstreams" of those religions, as well) teaches -- which, in the minds of many Christians, would therefore mean that these systems, at best, have nothing to offer Christians -- and at worst, could be harmful to Christian faith.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Literally.

Paying serious attention to this could be useful, because ... well .... knowing the truth *is* what makes you free.

Are you free?

If so, you're knowing you're free, right now.

If there's any doubt ... this post may be very, very important for you, in terms of ... well, everything that can possibly matter in your life.

No kidding.

And, yes, of course --- I could hypothetically be: lying, delusional, influenced by dark forces, messing with you, simply yet actually wrong, etc. etc. etc.

How to know whether I am (any of those things listed above) or not?

Find out.

Know the truth; be free.

Drop all ideas -- especially all Christian ideas (and before you respond, please just read/listen ... I'm here to help enhance faith/relationship/knowing truth .... not to diminish or challenge or debate).

And I'm most certainly not "picking on" or singling out Christianity in any way -- the reason for the focus in the rather amazing, revolutionary article, linked at the bottom of this post.

I'm not saying to discard all ideas or beliefs -- I'm just saying to drop preconceptions, for now. It's not ideas that will save you -- it's knowing.

And - cutting to the chase, so to speak - there's a parish priest in Australia, by the name of Rev. Dr. John R. Dupuche who has noticed some beautifully deep, and deeply beautiful correspondences between the teachings of the philosophy of non-dual Kashmir Shaivism, and Christianity - correspondences which he finds so meaningful, that he says he is hoping to facilitate the start of a Christian Shaivism (Shiva is not actually different from Christ; Shiva is simply a different term for Christ).

How deeply has Father Dupuche gone, in order to develop his views?

He's been a parish priest for quite some time, he has written several books on related matters -- and, he has his Ph.D. ... in Sanskrit.

He has written a brief (10 page) paper outlining his views on Christian Shaivism // Christian Advaita; I highly recommend it.

NOTE: The link below opens the PDF article by Rev. Dr. John R. Dupuche, directly.

Renewing Christian Anthropology In Terms of Kashmir Shaivism

http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/aejt_4/dupuche.pdf

Is That Atemporal Tantra You're Having?

A lot of people associate the term Tantra with sex; vastly improved sex, if the marketing materials are to be believed (and some of them are definitely not to be believed!)

As one respected academic who researches and writes about the esoteric depths of Tantric philosophy (David Gordon White) notes:

(Phony, modern) "Tantra is about ritualizing sex", whereas original Tantric practices where about "sexualizing ritual".

Beyond the standard "beats filling your sinuses with oily incense" .... what's up (pun fully intended) with that??

Are sex and spirituality mutually exclusive?

Au contraire -- Tantric philophies and systems are arguably the most ancient spiritual systems in the world ... and were developed long before sex stopped being seen as a natural aspect of life - every bit as natural (strange as it may sound to social conditioning; obvious as it will seem to anyone paying attention and willing to drop social conditioning) as breathing, eating or sleeping.

And, per the meaning of Tantra (from the Sanskrit "Tan" - to expand, and "Tra" - means of saving) -- Mantra is a tool which can be used to be "saved" (back into original consciousness) by mind ("Man", in Sanskrit) -- Yantra is a tool which can be used to be saved by form ("Yan", in Sanskrit), and Tantra is a tool-set which can be usedto be saved by expanding ("Tan", in Sanskrit) awareness via various methods, utilizing body-mind ... including, but not limited to, practices involved breath, bodily position (yogic asanas), mudras, mantras, sex, and whatever else proved useful.

Hence, a conventional meaning, in ancient India, for "Tantra" was also instruction-set, or, if you will: user's guide.

For instance: the Vijnanabhairava Tantra - 112 techniques for accessing conscious awareness of the true natura of Self (just one example amony many).

Which includes, quite actually, becoming aware that awareness itself precedes, supersedes, succeeds, comprises, creates, maintains and dissolves space-time itself.

And, *SAUH* - here's intending All Full-Blown Atemporal Tantra!

Advaita, Already!

I Give Up!

Hey, I One!

How simple; how true -- who knew??

Okay, so .... a lotta people are into Advaita these days (which is kind of ironic, considering the originally Advaitic/Tantric views pre-date recorded history, and were codified by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century C.E. (Advaita Vedanta) in India, and by Abhinavagupta, and those who came just before and after him, in the 9th-11th centuries C.E. (Kashmir Shaivism, aka Advaita Shaiva), in (as coincidence would have it), Kashmir (and yes, Kashmir is part of India today - I'm not sure if it was in those times).

What is Advaita?

Advaita is simply and literally the Sanskrit term for Non-Dual (from Dvaita - "of two", or "from two", aka "dual"; the application of the "a-" prefix negates the meaning of the word - just as the prefix "Non" does, in English -- so Advaita literally means Non-Dual).

Saying that reality is non-dual can seem either obvious, mystifying or utterly crazy, depending on how long and thoroughly one (pun fully intended) has been meditating and/or engaging in other mind-inquiry practices.

There are some (so-called) neo-advaita teachers who say "This is it!" - but say this from the standpoint of limited, dualistic mind ... which can literally obscure the experiencing of advaita.

There are others who say the duality of the world is illusory, either because all appearance is illusion (Advaita Vedanta), or because the mistaken, conceptually-limited views of the ego-mind (aka the "thought called me") is illusory (Advaita Shaiva).

Advaita cannot be understood with the thinking mind, which is inherently based in thought-construct, language and dualistic perception-conditioning .... and therefore, unable to understand/know advaita, using these means/methods.

Advaita can be realized in experience, once it is intuited that non-duality is quite literal and available, and simply refers to the (scientifically validated fact) that everything which appears in consciousness, is appearing with/as/from a single, contiguous field of awareness.

This moment is usually experienced as: thought-called-me-->thinking-conceiving-->thought-called-world.

As practices/inquiry expand, it comes to be known that "all of the above" are actually objects in awareness .... arising, displaying, dissolving .... in the pure experiencER ... the true nature of the self, which doesn't change moment-by-moment as the thought-self, and everything the thought-self thinks, does.

Have you noticed?

Then, ultimately it is noticed that even the most cosmic, infinitely expanded sense of mind-body-self ... is yet and object in the greater field of meta-awareness ... the pure still, silence which simply has nothing to do with what goes on in any level of the awareness-manifestation spectrum (aka mind-body, aka body-mind) -- yet ever is.

Advaita is real.

Advaita is all that's real.

Have you realized?