Rahul N Singh host of The Bearded Mystic Podcast explores the Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta or Nonduality in a very simple, direct and practical way.
Episodes include discussions into eastern scriptures like The Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads etc and discussions about everyday spirituality.
Rahul has been on the spiritual path for over 20 years and has an open-minded approach to spirituality and finds that there is no one size fits all approach.
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This is the 1st episode of Direct and Unfiltered with The Bearded Mystic! The question is: I have been following Nonduality for many years, read books, watched hours on YouTube but I still don't feel at peace? What am I missing?
Rahul (The Bearded Mystic) covers the pitfalls of not having a strong foundation of knowledge and intellect when studying Non-duality!
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Hello and welcome to this episode of Direct and Unfiltered with the Bearded Mystic. This is a new series where you get to ask your questions. Now, I received a question. Hi, Rahul, that I, I have been following non-duality for many years. I've been reading books, watched hours on YouTube, but I still don't feel at peace. What am I missing? Well, first of all, if you're following non-duality, one needs to ask who is doing the following? Is it the name and form, the body and mind, or is it the Atman? The, you know, or Pure Consciousness, or is it Awareness? Non-duality is very simple in the sense of that non-duality is just about showing you what you really are.. Now that's not saying that you do not have a manifestation. All it is saying is that that which is manifest is not who you are. Who you are is that Formless, Awareness, or Nirguna Brahman? That's what non-duality says, that you are only Pure Consciousness. That is it. Now, this sounds rather simple. Sounds rather easy. Sounds rather not as complex as we probably think it would be, but following this is not really the main purpose of non-duality or Advaita Vedanta. Really, it's about embodying what you are practicing or embodying what you've learnt. So when I say I am pure Consciousness or I am Brahman or Aham Brahmasmi or Tat Tvam Asi You Are That, or I am Formless Awareness. I have to really embody it. It's not simply something I follow. It's something I have to literally practice and become and enter into my being. Now, obviously there is something in between. There is something that stops us from practicing this or embodying it, and that is our name and form our body and mind. We do think that we are this body. We do think we are this mind. Every experience we have is through this apparatus of the body and mind, and that's not a bad thing. In non-duality and Advaita Vedanta . All that is said is that this body and mind is just on the transactional level. For you to function in this world, in Maya, you have to have this body and mind. You have to have this name and form. So there's no need to feel so angry about it or to deny it, or to deny its existence. That would be a fool's playground because we are not here to deny what's obviously in front of us, but at the same time, we are not to deny what we are aware of. Now the only difference between a non-dual person, a person practicing non-duality and someone who isn't practicing it is that the one practicing it will say, well, I am aware of the body and mind hence, it is not me. The person who's not practicing it will be saying. Either two things. In fact there's not even pure awareness. There's nothing to talk about because there's nothing there for me to talk about. Or the other person would be like, well, I'm only this body and mind. That's the only thing I'm aware of. Not knowing that they've literally just said that they're only aware of this body and mind. Awareness is primary, body and mind is secondary. What we can say is our permanent reality is Nirguna Brahman or Formless Awareness. Our secondary existence is this transactional reality or this transactional aspect of body and mind in Maya, in this cosmic illusion, Now, you've talked about how you've been practicing this for many years. I'm assuming you've been practicing going by the YouTube videos and, the books that you may have read is that all they say is, there's only this, simply this, or they don't allow you to use any words as an anchor. That is also ridiculous because you need words to anchor you. You need words to guide you. You need words to point you in the right direction. We're not saying to make the pointing into everything. That's not what we are saying. What we are saying is the pointers are gonna help you to get to that which you already are. Now read your books, watch YouTube videos, you obviously been watching my YouTube video, listening to my podcast for you to know that I exist. These are good things, and there are many teachers who you can learn proper non-duality from. Now, what do I mean by proper non-duality? Everything that I've just discussed is literally about the foundational aspects of non-duality. Without the foundation, you cannot understand non-duality. Now, a lot of these YouTube non-dual gurus that come up. They are one premature in what they're talking about, and two, they don't allow you to stabilize in what you are. Now with the knowledge you can stabilize, you need knowledge. Yeah, that's the whole point of Vedanta is to give you the knowledge so you can stabilize into in what you are, what's your real reality. But these non-dual teachers, like Tony Parsons, Jim Newman, and there's a few others that came up and now they, they've deleted their videos, some that I did reaction videos on. They are literally people who, like for the sake of Tony Parsons, I would say, he has had some experience. He, he studied under Osho. He definitely knows that. He knows the game. He knows the game that you play, and he knows the game with the mind and the game of thoughts, and he deals with it in that way. He's a bit kinder, more compassionate. Jim Newman, I did a reaction video over him. Just by saying 'simply this' is not enough. Or when people just talk about non-duality in this abstract way, it just does not work. And if they say to you that there is only this and you cannot get through it by teaching, you cannot get through it by going to a teacher, yet they have a YouTube channel. You cannot get it through words nor through emotion, they are missing a vital point or by experience, you know, they may deny even experience. What I would say is, once you are aware of something, that is the teaching of non-duality. Yeah. The moment you say, I'm aware non-duality has entered, and so this very subtle point is what the foundational aspects are needed. Now, my friend here, you don't feel at peace because non-duality is just simply, a a tool that you've used, but you don't know how to use it. You've been given the tool and then not had a manual or instructions. That's why many of times I've mentioned this, that it's very important that you read something like Tattvabodha and AtmaBodha, you should read the Upanishads, you should read the Bhagavad Gita. There's so much value in reading foundational texts. If, if you're not Hindu, then if you're Buddhist, you know, read the Buddhist texts on non-duality. Don't just think that you can get to it and pretend that you are now awakened and everything is done. I wish it was easy as that. I wish I could turn around to you and say yes, you know, just watch one video of those Pesudo non-dual teachers and you will be enlightened. No enlightenment, although is a direct, process. Nevertheless, it will take you time. Now, only later after you've realized or you realize that it didn't need to take that much time. It was already available to you, but you have to go through the process to understand that. The only way to get to peace is by understanding that it's okay. It's gonna take time. Something as simple as non-duality may require a real rigorous, extensive study, and it may be that you need that Gyana, you need that wisdom to help you. You need that discernment to build that discernment between the Real and the unreal. Once you can understand what this non-duality is, what this Formless Awareness is, then there is a deep resting. There is something within you that suddenly recognizes these teachings. It recognizes the value in this teaching. You're not missing anything other than the foundation. So what I would say is definitely, read Atmabodha, read Tattvabodha. You have any questions you can let me know. And most of all, just go back to Formless Awareness. Just go back to what Rupert Spira says as being aware of being aware, go back to the immediacy of This ( awareness) and rest in it as much as possible. Or you can attend the weekly meditations that I do, because in those sessions, it literally is giving you the beginning step into the expert. What we do is we use name and form to get us to formlessness towards awareness. You need to go through that process. I wish I could give you the easy way out. I wish I could just say to you that, you know, there is no teaching, there is no scripture, there is no enlightenment, there is no awareness. There is no Consciousness. I wish it was easy as that. And I could give that message, and it's not that it's far from the truth, but what I would say, it's not the Truth. Yeah, it's close but not there. I do wish you the very best in your journey, and I do wish that you get to where you need to, but if you really want to, stay in non-duality. If you really want to go further in Advaita Vedanta, you must follow the traditional way of at least looking at the text. Get a teacher, get a friend who can help you in your spirituality, and attend our meditation sessions that happen
every Saturday, at 11:
00 AM. The easiest way to contact me, you can obviously email me, but on Patreon I tend to be a lot better in giving responses do sign up to the Patreon page to support the work that we do here. But most of all, practice! That's all I can say. Go back to being aware of being aware. And let me just end with this little thing that ask yourself, am I aware of the body? Yes. Am I aware of the mind? Yes. Am I aware of the sound of my voice? Yes. Am I aware of the touch of my body? Yes. Am I aware of the hearing of my sound? Yes. So awareness is prior to any sensory information that is given. So if awareness is primary, then awareness is what I am. Now, does awareness change in any way? No. In fact, when I go to it, it's the same as it was 10 seconds ago. It was the same as it was 10 minutes ago or 10 days ago, or 10 months ago, or 10 years ago. That awareness has not changed and it will not change even in the future. It doesn't seem to belong to time. It doesn't seem to be located anywhere. I can't say it's here and not there. It's literally located everywhere. It has no form. I cannot put a form to it. I cannot put even a thought or emotion or intention onto it. I cannot shape it in any way. I can't, it doesn't seem to have a boundary. If I try to locate awareness and try to see where it starts and ends, it doesn't have a beginning or end. It doesn't seem to have a birth. It doesn't seem to belong to the body and mind, therefore, it has no birth. It seems to be prior to existence, prior to even the universe, and it seems to be that it'd be there post the universe, therefore, eternal. That is the process of discovering non-duality. Now, I've said all this, but let me tell you, it took me a long time. It took me 10 years at least, and it took the blessings of my Guru to get me there.. And that's why I think having a teacher is important. Studying the scriptures is important. Watch the videos of every non-dual teacher, but remember to discern between what is getting you there and what isn't getting you there. Don't get the dopamine hit. Remember who is aware of the dopamine hit of 'Simply This?' Just think about it. Who is aware? Even those that say it is just here, or it's just this, even them, I will say, who is aware of you even saying this? So don't miss the pointing. Embrace the pointing and just then just go to the awareness and be aware of what it is pointing to. Okay. Wonderful question. If you have any follow-up questions, do write them in the comments or do email me at beardedmysticpodcast@gmail.com Do let me know what your questions are and I hope you enjoyed this first episode of Direct and Unfiltered with the Bearded Mystic.
