Sunday Talk: Peeling the Onion of the Mind, with Br. Shankara

On Sunday morning, Jan. 9th at 11am, Br. Shankara will give a talk on Peeling the Onion of the Mind. Click here to join us via Zoom and participate in the discussion!

January is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (advaita vedanta). As a jnana yogi, you practice discrimination, reason, detachment, and satyagraha (insistence on Truth). The goal is freedom from limitation (moksha). Our teachers say that all miseries in life are caused by seeing inaccurately. An earnest and persistent jnani may break through this misapprehension (maya) and see only the Divine Presence everywhere, in everything and everyone.

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From the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna —

The Master Said:
“The jnanis, who adhere to the non-dualistic philosophy of VedAnta, say that the acts of creation, preservation and destruction, the universe itself and all its living beings, are the manifestation of Shakti, the Divine Power. If you reason it out, you will realize that all these are as illusory as a dream. Brahman alone is the Reality, and all else is unreal. Even this very Shakti is unsubstantial, like a dream.” — p.134

… “If one analyses oneself, one doesn’t find any such thing as ‘I’. Take an onion, for instance. First of all you peel off the red outer skin; then you find thick white skins. Peel these off one after the other, and you won’t find anything inside. In that state a man no longer finds the existence of his ego. And who is there left to seek it?”  — p.148

On Sunday morning we will discuss these quotes and define four layers of your mind, which you may discover and “peel away” as you practice manana and nididhyasana (contemplation, concentration and meditation).