R-N001-N003

Review — Bhagavad-Gita Studies (6.1-15)

  • Topic: Review — First Three Assignments on Bhagavad-Gita
  • Date: 2024-11-05

Our assignment summary review includes:

Highlighted sections from your responses are explored below. There are 🔎 some questions for you — take a moment to ponder and drop in your answers, 💡 some insights to contemplate on — feel free to follow up on them, and 📓 a bonus quote from the material we've covered in the end — something that stood out for me in the text as worth exploring further.

ICONS — 🔎 QUESTIONS 💡 INSIGHTS 📓 SOURCE TEXT

👀 At a Glance

In these three assignments, we've covered a significant slice of foundational insight. There's more to come, but it's a very fair start. Good questions have surfaced — we'll explore them further. Good insights have been shared — thank you for putting in the time and attention. The thoroughness is appreciated, and articulating what you've read in your own words is valuable. An understanding of its importance is clear in your reflections — and it's excellent to hear that some of it has "hit home" and led you into new realizations.

📋 #N001 (BG 6.1-5)

🔎 "There is a certain discernment necessary to understand whether a certain desire or behavior is of pure self centered desire or if it can be beneficial to the whole."

This is entirely true. However, what exactly is that discernment? What does one discern, and how — as we evaluate desires or behavioral patterns? What are the factors that makes this discernment possible?

🔎 "...pursuit of self centered desires leaves veils of unfulfillment..."

It would be well enough to say "veil of unfulfillment", but you have it in plural — and that's very true. Can you name some of these veils of the self, or even illustrate "the veilings" that happen to us, with some examples?

💡 "...the self you define yourself as is just a bunch of layered deep selfish needs and desires..."

This is a very important core insight. The "self" that is built from layers of needs and desires is constantly changing. When we attach to a particular "self", and think of it as "permanently me", it inevitably results in disappointment, disillusionment, and suffering. That self will be torn apart, over and over again, by the tides of time and the impacts of the world beyond our control. When we let go of our attachment to this constructed self, fragile like a house of cards, we discover peace and a truly broad perspective of existence.

💡 "How does one attain the balance to live a joyful creative and adventurous life, embracing the human experience while also knowing the truth of the pursuit of union?"

You in fact have the seed of the answer in your note: 💡 "One mechanism, one piece of machinery...". Commments to verse 2 touch this, though it's a lot to unpack:

📓 "When fragmented desires stem from the pursuit of a natural potential and promise beneficial collective outcomes, they can be repurposed into a pure and selfless momentum, integrated into the agency of the collective sphere."

Simplified and related to your question: "joyful, creative and adventurous life" is in no way opposed to the pursuit of union — unless you make it so, by separating your life from the whole! — and in fact complements it, by revealing countless flavors and facets of the "the human experience" to you. It isn't a shift in the specifics of what you do — it's a shift in your perspective and perception. Emotion and engagement are integral parts of the whole — of the living system, the essential collective, the grand machinery of the universe.

Finally, a bonus question for you. From comments to verse 3:

📓 "This is the initial practice: Both practical works and contemplative practices, through which the senses and mind of the contemplator are captured and brought under the control of the underlying self."

Can you relate this to the practice of meditation etc. we are exploring? Reflections on "how the senses and mind ... are captured and brought under our control"?

📋 #N002 (BG 6.6-10)

The Early Feedback I sent you had quite a bit of material to it. I won't repeat it here, though you're welcome to review it again.

💡 "This would imply that the guiding self is not truly pristine or cleaned well enough to guide my mind correctly."

When the "direction of my mind is based on self centered desires", that's certainly true. In this context, I wish to highlight the importance of choice. Yes, the "higher self" is always there in the background, in whatever capacity, but its calling is loud and clear — if we choose to listen — in our moments of choice. (It won't just "slide upwards in the background".)

When the voice of conscience calls to us, the higher self drops down the bait on a clear string from up high into our conflicted waters. Do we catch the higher call, or do we choose a path we know will carve out a slice from the collective, acting against what is universally good? If we do, we take the "other bait". The spear-fisher from down below shoots us through the heart — and we fall into the prison of our precious fragments, reaping the bitter results in their time.

💡 "...can watch this life with humor and entertainment knowing that it is illusionary..."

The "plane of the witness" is the plane of the unentangled self. When we see life for the mirage that it is, we are free to enjoy the show — the "joyful, creative and adventurous life" brought up in your first assignment — without obsession and entanglement. It's a fantastic show — but if the channel changes, that's perfectly fine. Then you change along with the channel, a chameleon of consciousness, making the best of whatever the current show may be.

🔎 "This perspective extends into a humans interaction with other humans."

Can you give an example or two of human interactions to bring this observation to life? As in, how a "separte, selfish" decision, and other hand, a "connected, benevolent" decision, might look like?

💡 "Therefore it benefits us to act in a way that is beneficial to others and in service of other peoples needs as they are my own."

Exactly — and this attitude, the understanding of how our own benefit is tied to the good of the whole, is the path of action and interaction that purifies us and leads us closer to union. I've touched on that at some length in one of the early videos: The Good Life - Selfless Integration (I004). If you have spare time, it's a good revisit. (We should clean up transcripts of these videos at some point.)

Finally, a bonus quote:

📓 "Equipoised to clay, rocks, and gold." (6.8)

This is a classic phrase from the chapter. Examples of how this "neutrality" toward what people commonly see as "desirable" or "undesirable", even "disgusting", might look like in terms of the choices we make, in the habitual evaluations of what we want or won't, of our daily lives?

📋 #N003 (BG 6.11-15)

🔎 "This just being is the middle of a hyperbolic seesaw."

That's very true — there is the middle-ground between the extremes, and it's a very good place to be. Any examples of what the two poles of the seesaw might be in our lives?

💡 "Sitting in general can be uncomfortable for me..."

In time, your muscles will adjust to sitting still, and all of this will become easier. We will also look at some stretches and related techniques that will help you into greater comfort. In the meantime, feel free to use whatever padding and supports that help you. A core concern is not slumping forward. It both blocks your flow and is worse for your spine.

🔎 "These pursuits [of fragmented desire] seem to stem from a place of fear or insecurity."

Indeed they do. Can you give an example of how a pursuit might be rooted in fear or insecurity? How do these primal emotions drive our lives?

💡 "I think there is definitely a balance here that should be discussed as not everyone shall just give up there posessions and be giving monks."

Those "giving monks" are often viscerally selfish when the season of showing one's true colors arrives at the doors of their cabins. Sure there are sincere seekers there, the rare saint even, but on average it's just a particular lifestyle choice, often the easy way, and there's significant attachment to the particular context, and the precious whatever it is that their day-to-day peace of mind is attached to. It's not a matter of how many possessions you have, or how simple or complex your life is.

The balance is in how you share what you are and what you have, in a manner that is beneficial for both yourself and those around you, and how your interactions lead toward both personal fulfillment and the fulfillment of those you encounter. You find balance between your basic needs and your high aspirations; and you find balance between yourself and others. (Feel free to jot down thoughts on how these two balances — vertical and horizontal — might play out.)

💡 "My immediate and final reaction is that these last two pages directly speak to me on a deep level of where I want my path to lead. These can be a North Star for me."

That's excellent to hear. We do need those guiding stars. May it grow ever-brighter and clearer for you.

Finally, a bonus contemplation from the text, playing with the symbolism of the yogi's seat:

📓 "The fabric is the unifying softness, the blades of grass are the specifying sharpness, and the yogi is seated in purity as the deconstructor and integrator of existence."

What do you get from contemplating on the concepts of "unifying softness" and "specifying sharpness"? As attitudes or orientations of the mind in and of themselves — and in terms of striking a balance in how our awareness works?