I’ve been a fan of Michael for awhile. But this is my first time coming across Hareesh, and I’m blown away! Just bought your book on Amazon. Thank you for the enlightening, I mean, awakening wisdom :)
"Zen spirituality isn't thinking about God when you're peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is peeling potatoes." Alan Watts One of the best discussions of nonduality and embodiment I've heard! And at an uncannily appropriate time for me to hear...
🙏 Hareesh, You continue to validate my opinion that the most valuable teachers of the Dharma (in the West?) are those able to verbally articulate and communicate the most subtle and "inner most" concepts regarding our "experiencing." I say this because we are SO VERY "conceptually" based here in the West. Thank you and please continue 🙏
Wonderful about the near enemy of truth. Spiritual kitsch is shallow and hackneyed like " All is vibration, the universe responds to your vibration". Or " The universe is an illusion, nothing is real. You are oneness " etc. Spiritual kitsch is the main obstacle to higher forms of knowledge and realisation.
Loved the last part about purifying and embodied practices. I remember listening to this podcast a few months ago but it was still very interesting the second time around.
Hareesh millon thanks for your continuous teachings and care, enjoyed the podcast It was so clear and profound explained 🪷 looking forward to learn more OM NAMAH SHIVAYA 🙏🕉️🌸🔥🙏
“How else would it work?…How, by what mechanism would that work?” I’m not going to be evasive at all. Forget all the mysticism. Give all those deities their walking papers. Even though Self realization is a profoundly spiritual experience. I want to set that aside in order to lay down the basic foundation and speak purely from a secular point of view. We are born into this world with desires, no one disputes that. It is something totally natural, we can’t escape that fact. Everyone agrees the mind is finicky, unsteady and seemingly impossible to control. The mind’s desire for happiness is also seemingly insatiable. So exactly how do we bring this finicky/chattering mind under our control? There are two aspects to the craving mind that are working in tandem which will bring it under our control. First of all, the craving mind has the ability, on its own, to turn our conscious attention towards those things which it finds pleasurable. For example, try reading a book when your favorite song begins to play on the radio or the smell of something good cooking in the kitchen. It is so natural for the mind to turn its attention towards pleasure, without any effort on our part and without any belief system(mysticism). Tied into this is the fact that the greater the joy/happiness that the mind experiences, the greater its steadfastness on that enjoyment. The more endorphins(joy) that will flood the brain. The craving mind wanders here and there because it is deprived of happiness. That deprivation of happiness can be to such an extend that the craving mind, on its own, will begin to daydreaming. For example, boredom triggers the craving mind to daydream. This is totally independent of your own consciousness will to control. The conscious mind will then be taken into an imaginary reality. For those people, they can not distinguish reality from that which is purely fantasy. This is what Krishna meant when he says the mind can be your best friend or your greatest enemy. The conundrum facing Man is being put into this sensory corporeal world with a mind that craves and desires. In meditation, we are allowing our craving minds to turn its attention inwardly towards the Absolute. This is the royal path. Our own craving minds now acting as our best friend. It is not mantra meditation, nor Tantra, nor mindfulness, nor a breathing exercise, nor focusing your attention on an aspect of the divine. Again speaking from purely a secular perspective. We have conscious thoughts which are arising from within our subconscious. Those thoughts of ours do have an origin, a source. The experience of transcending into the subconscious is a very natural and enjoyable experience therefore attracts the craving mind’s attention to turn inwardly. If our conscious minds goes deeper and deeper into the subconscious, eventually you will arrive at the source of thought. This is union, the goal of Yoga. Just as within the center of a magnet, there is no magnetism or at the center of our earth there is no gravity. At the source of thought there are no thoughts. Without thoughts, only Being remains. Without mentation, your psychophysical identity as Bob, Sue, etc. is totally wiped out as a subjective experiencer. You now become purely an objective observer, the Atman. Technically speaking, it is no longer a subjective experience because Bob and Sue are gone. The individual psychophysical identity of “I” myself becomes the “I” myself as the universal identity of the whole universe. This physical corporeal sensory world completely disappears because without the mechanism of thought(mentation) the sense organs of taste, smell, etc. simply fail to function. This is the pinnacle of human experience, nothing else compares. From that experience of the unattached/unmoved/untouched/unstained nature of Atman, the entire cosmology surrounding the Absolute is derived. Returning back into the corporeal world, mentation returns with your subjective sensory perception functioning as well as your imperfect psychophysical self identity but the mind retains an imprint of the “Absolute Self” experience.
@@christopherwallis751, I normally do not comment at all on what people believe and just let things go. But associating the Vedas with imagination did get to me.
Not sure what your problem with imagination is -- when we entrain the faculty of imagination to our sādhana process, it's highly beneficial. The Vedic seers were beautifully imaginative.
@@christopherwallis751,Mr. Wallis I’m really not here to attack you or anyone else. The problem with imagination is that it is all just a mental construct, ultimately having nothing to do with reality. The Vedic seers did not use imagination for their insights. They used the nature of the mind. That which comes naturally, never forced upon for their insights. If you give me your permission, I would very much like to post here exactly how it is done. The complete step by step mechanic. You can then read and make up your own mind if what I’m saying has any value or toss it all in the garbage.
The most infuriating cliche for me is " Each one has their own path". Its like saying each person can have their own laws of physics. Cant happen. Its a license to practise whatever one feels like, cherry pick what suits their sensibilities and propensities. Things will change when spirituality is presented like a scientific model with internal coherence and logic, parsimony, application, elegance, reproduciblity. All the hallmarks of good science. Someone needs to do that. A properly defined ontology and epistemology. In words and language that suit the modern man. Maybe we need a new avatar for that to happen!!!
I’m sorry but I feel uncomfortable with spiritual teachers that talk very calmly about spirituality while charging large amounts of money for retreats in fancy locations. It seems less about spiritual development and more about small groups of wealthy people enjoying being able to say they are spiritual. It seems if people are led to god they don’t need much money but they do desire to get money to help support people who are in poverty not have fancy vacations that they call spiritual. That’s one reason I have serious doubts about Eckhart Tolle. He talks about renunciation and detachment while already being very rich and still charging large amounts for his talks and retreats. Keep things simple, turn to God, help others. I just decided to comment after looking at the fancy retreat venues in California and Costa Rica that name up when I did a search on Taft.
But you might be missing the fact that high-ticket items like retreats make it possible for a full-time teacher to also offer teachings for free in various ways. For example, I have hundreds of hours of teaching videos here on RUclips, and so does Michael Taft. He also has like 100 in-depth conversations on his podcast, all free. As for Tolle, everything he has to teach is available in free videos and inexpensive books, and his retreats are just for people who want high-end retreats, cuz there's nothing he's saying or transmitting on retreat that isn't also available for free.
@@christopherwallis751 thanks for the reply. I have been a subscriber to your group and I have your books. I guess my issue is probably because my nondual journey started with the ramakrishna order. I’m involved with a small Vedanta center that is basically run out of an old house. Monks that visit sleep in simple settings in an old room. All retreats are great and feee based on just donations that come in from people that believe in it. Also I see them doing a tremendous amount of charity work with the order feeding and treating thousands every year. In the west unfortunately it seems the Shaiva tantra movement seems to mainly be run as a business that is enriching many but I’ve very rarely heard any real talk of charity work or helping others other than comments about how that would be good. I do realize that the shaiva community is smaller and therefore the donation option would be more difficult and I know that I don’t know others hearts. So I try not to judge and I love the teachings but these things have bothered me for a while and I finally just decided to say how I feel. I do appreciate your free teachings and I wish you the best in your endeavors. For myself I continue to work on not being judgemental while have many things to work on for myself in my journey.
It's great to say how you feel! just FYI, last year I donated around $15k to children's charities in India, and will continue doing so every year I make a profit. You never know what folks are doing behind the scenes with the extra $ they make. :)
I’ve been a fan of Michael for awhile. But this is my first time coming across Hareesh, and I’m blown away! Just bought your book on Amazon. Thank you for the enlightening, I mean, awakening wisdom :)
"Zen spirituality isn't thinking about God when you're peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is peeling potatoes." Alan Watts
One of the best discussions of nonduality and embodiment I've heard! And at an uncannily appropriate time for me to hear...
So beautiful. Thank you so much for your holistic & integrative view of awakening and yoga 🙏🏽💜
🙏 Hareesh,
You continue to validate my opinion that the most valuable teachers of the Dharma (in the West?) are those able to verbally articulate and communicate the most subtle and "inner most" concepts regarding our "experiencing."
I say this because we are SO VERY "conceptually" based here in the West.
Thank you and please continue 🙏
So helpful 🙏🏽
Thanks a lot for sharing this podcast! ❤ Clarifying ❤
Wonderful about the near enemy of truth. Spiritual kitsch is shallow and hackneyed like " All is vibration, the universe responds to your vibration". Or " The universe is an illusion, nothing is real. You are oneness " etc. Spiritual kitsch is the main obstacle to higher forms of knowledge and realisation.
Hareesh, I am so grateful for these new podcasts! I'm very excited for what is to come! Aum Namah Shivay! 🔱🙏
Many more to come! new episodes every week for the first six months at least! :)
Loved the last part about purifying and embodied practices. I remember listening to this podcast a few months ago but it was still very interesting the second time around.
😊❤ahhhh ahhhh ahhhh
Hareesh millon thanks for your continuous teachings and care, enjoyed the podcast It was so clear and profound explained 🪷 looking forward to learn more
OM NAMAH SHIVAYA
🙏🕉️🌸🔥🙏
Awakened to your true Self (Shiva) while being liberated from your small self (association with the body)
Awakening can go on for ever but liberation can reach a point of done....?what do you mean by this...?
“How else would it work?…How, by what mechanism would that work?” I’m not going to be evasive at all. Forget all the mysticism. Give all those deities their walking papers. Even though Self realization is a profoundly spiritual experience. I want to set that aside in order to lay down the basic foundation and speak purely from a secular point of view. We are born into this world with desires, no one disputes that. It is something totally natural, we can’t escape that fact. Everyone agrees the mind is finicky, unsteady and seemingly impossible to control. The mind’s desire for happiness is also seemingly insatiable. So exactly how do we bring this finicky/chattering mind under our control? There are two aspects to the craving mind that are working in tandem which will bring it under our control. First of all, the craving mind has the ability, on its own, to turn our conscious attention towards those things which it finds pleasurable. For example, try reading a book when your favorite song begins to play on the radio or the smell of something good cooking in the kitchen. It is so natural for the mind to turn its attention towards pleasure, without any effort on our part and without any belief system(mysticism). Tied into this is the fact that the greater the joy/happiness that the mind experiences, the greater its steadfastness on that enjoyment. The more endorphins(joy) that will flood the brain. The craving mind wanders here and there because it is deprived of happiness. That deprivation of happiness can be to such an extend that the craving mind, on its own, will begin to daydreaming. For example, boredom triggers the craving mind to daydream. This is totally independent of your own consciousness will to control. The conscious mind will then be taken into an imaginary reality. For those people, they can not distinguish reality from that which is purely fantasy. This is what Krishna meant when he says the mind can be your best friend or your greatest enemy. The conundrum facing Man is being put into this sensory corporeal world with a mind that craves and desires. In meditation, we are allowing our craving minds to turn its attention inwardly towards the Absolute. This is the royal path. Our own craving minds now acting as our best friend. It is not mantra meditation, nor Tantra, nor mindfulness, nor a breathing exercise, nor focusing your attention on an aspect of the divine. Again speaking from purely a secular perspective. We have conscious thoughts which are arising from within our subconscious. Those thoughts of ours do have an origin, a source. The experience of transcending into the subconscious is a very natural and enjoyable experience therefore attracts the craving mind’s attention to turn inwardly. If our conscious minds goes deeper and deeper into the subconscious, eventually you will arrive at the source of thought. This is union, the goal of Yoga. Just as within the center of a magnet, there is no magnetism or at the center of our earth there is no gravity. At the source of thought there are no thoughts. Without thoughts, only Being remains. Without mentation, your psychophysical identity as Bob, Sue, etc. is totally wiped out as a subjective experiencer. You now become purely an objective observer, the Atman. Technically speaking, it is no longer a subjective experience because Bob and Sue are gone. The individual psychophysical identity of “I” myself becomes the “I” myself as the universal identity of the whole universe. This physical corporeal sensory world completely disappears because without the mechanism of thought(mentation) the sense organs of taste, smell, etc. simply fail to function. This is the pinnacle of human experience, nothing else compares. From that experience of the unattached/unmoved/untouched/unstained nature of Atman, the entire cosmology surrounding the Absolute is derived. Returning back into the corporeal world, mentation returns with your subjective sensory perception functioning as well as your imperfect psychophysical self identity but the mind retains an imprint of the “Absolute Self” experience.
bought yerself a soapbox yet?
p.s. it's completely untrue that "without the mechanism of thought the sense organs of taste, smell, etc. simply fail to function".
@@christopherwallis751, I normally do not comment at all on what people believe and just let things go. But associating the Vedas with imagination did get to me.
Not sure what your problem with imagination is -- when we entrain the faculty of imagination to our sādhana process, it's highly beneficial. The Vedic seers were beautifully imaginative.
@@christopherwallis751,Mr. Wallis I’m really not here to attack you or anyone else. The problem with imagination is that it is all just a mental construct, ultimately having nothing to do with reality. The Vedic seers did not use imagination for their insights. They used the nature of the mind. That which comes naturally, never forced upon for their insights. If you give me your permission, I would very much like to post here exactly how it is done. The complete step by step mechanic. You can then read and make up your own mind if what I’m saying has any value or toss it all in the garbage.
The most infuriating cliche for me is " Each one has their own path". Its like saying each person can have their own laws of physics. Cant happen. Its a license to practise whatever one feels like, cherry pick what suits their sensibilities and propensities. Things will change when spirituality is presented like a scientific model with internal coherence and logic, parsimony, application, elegance, reproduciblity. All the hallmarks of good science. Someone needs to do that. A properly defined ontology and epistemology. In words and language that suit the modern man. Maybe we need a new avatar for that to happen!!!
I’m sorry but I feel uncomfortable with spiritual teachers that talk very calmly about spirituality while charging large amounts of money for retreats in fancy locations. It seems less about spiritual development and more about small groups of wealthy people enjoying being able to say they are spiritual. It seems if people are led to god they don’t need much money but they do desire to get money to help support people who are in poverty not have fancy vacations that they call spiritual. That’s one reason I have serious doubts about Eckhart Tolle. He talks about renunciation and detachment while already being very rich and still charging large amounts for his talks and retreats. Keep things simple, turn to God, help others.
I just decided to comment after looking at the fancy retreat venues in California and Costa Rica that name up when I did a search on Taft.
But you might be missing the fact that high-ticket items like retreats make it possible for a full-time teacher to also offer teachings for free in various ways. For example, I have hundreds of hours of teaching videos here on RUclips, and so does Michael Taft. He also has like 100 in-depth conversations on his podcast, all free. As for Tolle, everything he has to teach is available in free videos and inexpensive books, and his retreats are just for people who want high-end retreats, cuz there's nothing he's saying or transmitting on retreat that isn't also available for free.
@@christopherwallis751 thanks for the reply. I have been a subscriber to your group and I have your books. I guess my issue is probably because my nondual journey started with the ramakrishna order. I’m involved with a small Vedanta center that is basically run out of an old house. Monks that visit sleep in simple settings in an old room. All retreats are great and feee based on just donations that come in from people that believe in it. Also I see them doing a tremendous amount of charity work with the order feeding and treating thousands every year. In the west unfortunately it seems the Shaiva tantra movement seems to mainly be run as a business that is enriching many but I’ve very rarely heard any real talk of charity work or helping others other than comments about how that would be good. I do realize that the shaiva community is smaller and therefore the donation option would be more difficult and I know that I don’t know others hearts. So I try not to judge and I love the teachings but these things have bothered me for a while and I finally just decided to say how I feel. I do appreciate your free teachings and I wish you the best in your endeavors. For myself I continue to work on not being judgemental while have many things to work on for myself in my journey.
It's great to say how you feel! just FYI, last year I donated around $15k to children's charities in India, and will continue doing so every year I make a profit. You never know what folks are doing behind the scenes with the extra $ they make. :)
@@christopherwallis751 that’s great to hear. Thanks for the replies and being open to hearing my feelings on things.
What do you mean by you are on the spectrum.... ?
@@vishalmehtaWHATSNEXT I can't remember now, but I probably meant the spectrum of Awakening
@@christopherwallis751ok 👍