Opening points:
- People get polarized in different perspectives. The more they focus exclusively on their perspective, the more justification for it they find.
- Learning to appreciate paradox; accommodating different viewpoints within a broader perspective.
- Enlightenment as Totality. Only Totality can realize Totality.
- Totality has no difficulty reconciling paradoxes.
- Getting comfortable with paradox might be conducive to our realization of Totality.
Examples of contradictory realities:
- free will vs. determinism
- personal self vs. no-self
- Are we already enlightened, or must enlightenment be attained?
- Is practice an aid or an obstacle?
- Is the guru model dead?
- Does non-duality imply that there are no stages of spiritual growth?
- direct vs. progressive paths
- patience vs. determination on the spiritual path
Additional points covered:
- Acting in accordance with your own experience, not a concept of someone else’s.
- Absolute reality does not negate relative realities.
- Radically different realities at different levels of nature’s functioning are perfectly compatible with one another.
- Incorporating universal and individual perspectives – ocean and wave, boundless and boundaries.
- My experience in doing BatGap.
Recorded at the Science and Nonduality Conference, October 27, 2019.
Summary and transcript of this talk.
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Previous talks on BatGap:
- 2018 SAND Conference Q&A and Interview by Shakti Caterina Maggi
- SAND 2017: “The Ethics of Enlightenment”
- Talk at Berkeley Open Circle Center
- Talk at SAND 2015
- Interviewed by Fax Gilbert
- Interviewed by Richard Miller
YouTube Video Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Different levels of consciousness
- 00:01:49 – Perspectives and Justifications
- 00:03:04 – The Knower of Brahman is Brahman
- 00:04:32 – The Debate on Free Will
- 00:05:40 – The Concept of Freewill
- 00:07:03 – The trouble of taking someone else’s perspective
- 00:08:24 – Debating the Existence of Reincarnation
- 00:09:27 – Mithya: The Concept of Dependent Reality
- 00:10:43 – Subsuming Perspectives and the Totality of Brahman
- 00:12:14 – Shift in Perspective and the Sun’s Perspective
- 00:13:30 – Rising to the Experience
- 00:14:49 – The Role of Practice in Spiritual Development
- 00:16:08 – The Role of Gurus in Contemporary Spirituality
- 00:17:21 – Respect for Different Spiritual Paths
- 00:18:43 – The Seamless Wholeness of Existence
- 00:20:05 – Progress in Spiritual Practice
- 00:21:19 – The Progressive Dyeing Process
- 00:22:36 – The Value of Life and Balance
- 00:23:57 – Levels of Complexity and Hierarchical Arrangements
- 00:25:25 – Different Levels of Reality
- 00:26:38 – Embracing Paradoxes and Ambiguities
- 00:28:05 – Cultivating Awareness and Focus in Meditation
- 00:29:34 – Finding Freedom in Confinement
- 00:30:53 – The Ethics of Feedlots and Advanced Beings
- 00:31:56 – Paradoxes and Personal Judgment
- 00:32:55 – The Beauty and Diversity of Life
- 00:34:11 – The Thrill of Interviews and Exploring Different Perspectives
- 00:35:22 – Being of Service to Others
- 00:36:42 – Surrendering to the Moment in the Spiritual Experience
- 00:37:44 – Comparing Yourself on the Spiritual Path
- 00:38:52 – Paths of Devotion, Intellect, and Meditation
- 00:40:05 – Balancing Heart and Mind
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