The spiritual organization Awakening Together interviewed Akilesh in a live satsang on November 21, 2021. Topics included surrender, self-inquiry, obstacles seekers encounter, and more.
What is the real nature of thought in nonduality? It's like the Stroop Test.
The Stroop Test in psychology is a test that shows different facets of an experience can each interfere with the processing of the other. I actually stated it slightly wrong in the video: I said that it was about reading a word like "red" when it was written in a color like blue or yellow. Actually it is about identifying the color of that word despite the fact that it reads "red." But anyhow, these are simply flip sides of a coin.
The point in either case is that the nondual view of thought is to recognize it as being like a piece of abstract art, like being color, like being like the play of light... not inherently meaningful. But the difficulty is that thought seems to REFER to things, seems to be telling a story. So the sensation quality of thought is hard to perceive, because the mind is directed to what the thought is talking about.
Surrender and inquiry are in a way about recognizing this sensation quality of thought... and that even the "referential meaning" of it -- what the thought is talking about -- is merely part of this sensation. This sensation is the expression of the Self.
Surrender as the vigilant refusal to ever un-relax
I often describe surrender as ignoring all thought except the thought of surrender, and relaxing. These two instructions really boil down to the same thing. Avoiding absorption in thought is precisely about not being pulled into reacting using what feels like your willpower.
In self-inquiry, you’re not looking for “the I” — you should be looking for yourself!
There's a tendency in inquiry to look for yourself as if you were somewhere or something else. It shows up in language like looking for "*the* I," or, worse, "the observer," "awareness, etc." Remember that you are looking for *yourself*. You are looking for you, what feels like you right now. You are trying to turn the gaze back on yourself.
Response to Rupert Spira's video "How Can Consciousness Have Multiple Experiences at Once?"
Someone asks Rupert Spira how there can be multiple experiences or points of view in what is supposedly one consciousness. This video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoT_J... .
Spira responds with a series of metaphors. In this video, I argue that these metaphors are not really very good answers to the question posed. I suggest that this kind of explanation to this sort of question misunderstands the real nature of the mind, of advaita and nonduality, and of the mystery of consciousness. If there are questions, there are no answers. If there are questions, there is a questioner. But is there a questioner?
Subtle traps for the seeker: void/blankness, quiet, bliss, sleep, and laya
The seeker who inquires or surrenders deeply may be tempted to stop at various mind states that seem like the end of the line: states ranging from the futility or impassability of the void to various kinds of bliss. It is important to recognize these states for the traps they are. When you encounter anything that is less than light, clear, freeing, effortless insight that allows for no further questions -- continue.
'If your right hands offends thee' -- the structural method for seekers dealing with desires & fears
Spiritual seekers find inevitable resistance of various kinds to their self-inquiry and surrender. These resistances are based in attachments to their personal identity and the associated desires and fears.
I'm usually not a fan of overpowering our desires and fears. Where these are strong, I find that is futile. In particular, ideas of laziness and willpower are almost entirely useless. Resistance must be engaged in dialogue, and our feelings shown into the light of awareness.
That said, the ancient method of dealing with desires and fears was structural -- eliminate the circumstances which caused them. Where the desires and fears are relatively weak compared to the strength of the spiritual desire, this can still be useful.
Interview by Gary Haskins
Gary Haskins interviewed me on nonduality, Ramana Maharshi, and the practice on his Youtube channel The Conscious Perspective.
Self-inquiry and surrender are compatible with other tasks because you are not the doer
Self-inquiry and surrender seem incompatible with other tasks -- how can you concentrate on two things at once? In fact, however, you do not even concentrate on one thing... that is all part of the egoic illusion, which believes itself to be separate and independent. Self-inquiry and surrender appear to be effortful activities, but in fact simply describe the fact of the Self in its eternal status as subject, as turning away from objects.
Clarifying self-inquiry: what does 'who am I' really mean?
The fundamental question behind nonduality and self-inquiry is "Who am I?" Many people get confused by this question, interpreting it in philosophical or psychological terms, or asking it as a kind of koan or mantra. It is not meant to be any of these. Who am I refers to a single specific activity: the activity of trying to hone in on or locate a facet of our own moment-to-moment experience, that part of it which knows "I witness this experience and am not it." As soon as we try to locate this, we find we engage in a chase, because that aspect becomes elusive. Staying on the chase is how we try to answer the question. The I we think we are, the witnessing I, turns out to be a kind of illusion, which reveals the deeper and truer I, the true Self.