Sometimes, as we practice jnana yoga, we feel that life has no meaning, no purpose. We feel that there is no reason to try, that life is empty. This is another illusion.
The illusion of purpose is to be avoided. The illuion of lack of purpose is to be avoided.
It might seem that this knowledge is cold, devoid of emotion, empty. This is another illusion.
It is neither favorable nor unfavorable, because no one is there to favor it.
Anything you can say, think, feel, trust or feel is untrue - is an illusion. The fact that there are these things is an illusion.
Illusion doesn't mean that something is not real. Illusion simply means that something is less real than something else. This life and this world certainly exist - who is to say the reality of the dream is not real?
"The dream is real but it does not last" - This is an illusion.
"Nothing is as it seems" - This is an illusion.
"There are no illusions" - This is a gross illusion.
No matter which way you turn ... there's nothing but illuison.
How do we find a way out? By realizing that there's no place to go, that there's no way out, that there's no way in. All that exists is the Self.
The Self is infinite. The Self is eternal. You are that Self. Beyond words, thoughts, ideas, forms and belief systems. There is nothing but the Self.
It is only when you have become that true Self consciously, when all these illusions have fallen away, that you will be perfectly free and perfectly happy.
If silence only conveys the Self, if all words and thoughts are illusions, why do we discuss it?
It is because people exist in varyinig degrees of the dream.
If I enter into your dream and say, "wake up!" If you awaken, then the dream will vanish. We'll be right where we always were and always will be, everywhere and nowhere - eternally perfect, infinite awareness.
Jnana yoga is a very demanding practice. It's necessary for you to become conscious of the fact that you're not human.
We have to constantly ask ourselves: "Who am I?"
We have to remind ourselves that we are not the transitory body, we are not the person who is having experiences, we are not affected by action or inaction.
A perfect life is to observe - to realize that you have no control over the events in your life, that there are no events in your life, that there is no life.
You can enjoy the beauties of this world, as long as you remember this world doesn't exist.
Discrimination, viveka, means you know the difference between the transient and the eternal. That's what discrimination means in Shankara's yoga.
We must constantly remind ourselves that we are eternity, infinite, beyond birth and death.
Birth and death are illusions, they are part of the dream.
On waking from the dream, we see that birth and death, the sense of self, other - all of these things fade away.
