Randall Friend - An Introduction to Vedanta - Nonduality Self Inquiry

The Nonduality Podcast

Randall Friend speaks about Vedanta, a "nondual" tradition of self-inquiry from Hinduism.

Randall’s site is: http://avastu0.blogspot.com/

Randall describes Vedanta as: similar in many ways to other nondual traditions like Zen or Dzogchen Buddhism, Taoism, Christian Mysticism (Gnosticism) and Sufism from Islam. Advaita is a "sect" or branch of Vedanta which says that there is a singularity of reality, a "Oneness" or one essence underlying all that appears to be.

Advaita means - not-two. This is not a path, not a practice. Advaita is a direct description of reality as it is.

Vedanta means - the end of the Vedas - the end of all knowledge - unlearning - not-knowing. Through investigation into the nature of Reality, called "self-knowledge" - the seeker comes to the realization of the nondual nature of Reality.

Advaita Vedanta does not seek to impart a new set of beliefs, but to rip the rug out from under all beliefs, all assumptions, including the assumption that there is an individual entity or person who exists, who was born and will later die.

In the direct recognition of Reality as it is, the seeker falls away as the root or foundation of all false translations.

Our problem is that we feel limited, we feel isolated and small, temporary, insignificant. Therefore we seek to fill that hole with either things from a material standpoint or states from a spiritual standpoint.

Yet it is this inherent feeling of limitation from which we cannot escape. My belief about myself is that I AM limited, therefore to seek the limitless is always quite frustrating. If my belief about myself is true, if I am in fact limited, if reality is in fact made up of separate existences, then spirituality really is a fantasy. This means that bondage and suffering is the truth of existence.

Yet there is another possibility. That possibility is that I was never limited to begin with, reality was never made up of separate existences. If that is the case, then the only problem is my own ignorance of myself, ignorance of the truth of reality as whole. That ignorance can only be corrected by knowledge of myself, of reality as it truly is. Vedanta is a means of knowledge to know myself.