Wisdom of the Masters
Atmananda Krishna Menon ~ A Meditation and Teaching on Suffering ~ Advaita
18 Mar 2023
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the nature of suffering according to Sri Atmananda?
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there really isn't anything for you to do to get out of suffering. The wisdom that the suffering doesn't belong to you will itself get you out of suffering without you having to do anything. That is all If you have to do anything, if you have to remove it by effort, then the suffering will not leave you Suffering lifts in the resistance of it and the effort in sub-becoming its fuel.
No effort is needed because the wisdom But the realization shows you that you are not suffering. So you can never suffer. How can the truth, the true reality, suffer? How can the realization and the wisdom suffer? True realization doesn't come and go. And true wisdom doesn't come and go either.
Chapter 2: How can understanding suffering lead to liberation?
It's always there and it is you. That which disappears is always unreal. That which does not disappear is reality alone. The sense of I doesn't disappear. at any moment in life. Your thoughts come and go. Everything you see comes and goes. The things you do come and go as well. All of these things are limited by time
and space but the true reality is that which does not disappear and that is the sense of I The yogi would say that when the body suffers, the mind doesn't. But for someone who's interested in the true reality, they say that both the mind and body suffers. But the true reality, which is what I am, never suffers.
Chapter 3: What role does effort play in overcoming suffering?
When you're a witness, you're not witnessing, you're not doing. But if you can be a witness then you're looking at suffering with wisdom as a witness you're not a doer you are simply the background It's in this background that the doer and the doing comes and goes. So if there is a doer and doing and there was the deed All of this appears in the background and vanishes into the background.
They appear and disappear but the background always remains. That which does not disappear at any moment of life is the true reality. Anything that comes and goes is not the true reality. As a witness you cannot suffer. But when you explore your feelings, you'll see that these feelings rise in you. The you that was there before the feeling appeared. That is what you really are.
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Chapter 4: How does the realization of true self relate to suffering?
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Just before that feeling appeared, I was in my real nature, having no thoughts, no emotions, no feeling, no body, no mind and so on. Between two thoughts, I am in my real nature between two feelings I am in my real nature Between two mental activities, I am in my real nature. So everything arises in me, abides in me, and vanishes into me.
So the material with which these thoughts are created can only be myself. These feelings are created with me. So it is I that is present here as suffering. Not in suffering, but as suffering. As happiness, as pain, And if this is the case, then there is no one else to suffer it. As a witness, you see these things You do not suffer. You separate these things from you.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of being a witness to suffering?
These feelings cannot be different from you. You are the feelings themselves. The fire cannot burn the fire. So suffering cannot suffer when we go into it. The characteristics that make it suffering vanishes entirely. When you find yourself there as suffering, then where is suffering? It's only when we separate suffering from ourselves that we suffer. ...
When you are that, can there be anyone else that suffers?
. . . Thank you. Thank you.