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.
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
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.
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
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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