Post by: Jed McKenna on August 20, 2017, 08:42:43 am
A Nav student prompted a reply about Maya. Here is a little on the subject. I call it ''she'' out of convenience and convention, obviously there is no gender to Maya. So, what is she about. She is spoken and written about much but remains rather hazy.
Here is one Net definition: Maya, ( Sanskrit: “magic” or “illusion”) a fundamental concept in Hindu philosophy, notably in the Advaita (Nondualist) school of Vedanta. Maya originally denoted the magic power with which a god can make human beings believe in what turns out to be an illusion.
That goes only so far, so I would like to share my experiences and observations regarding her... and yes, I hold her in high regard, pretty much because she has a task and does it remarkably well. I have even said I love her, which I do in a sense.
The human ego has a tendency to think it's all there is and pretty much everything experienced is through ego's lens (I, me, my, mine). When Maya makes herself evident humans think it's their Maya, a personal version of her, specific to that apparent person. That, in my experience, is a miss-understanding and plays right into her hands.
There is only one Maya and she pervades all of this human dream. She arises (rather obviously and frequently) in students who are seeking to realize T/R. She can cause intense fatigue as one gets closer to seeing through her game. Sometimes she creates bodily pain which can rival a nasty flue complete with sore muscles and nausea. Other times just a headache like coffee withdrawal and a doubt that one should pursue the subject of T/R. Any distraction will do, but some are more subtle than others.
Probably you have experienced a little Mayanic kick-back, but the point that needs hammering home is that she is in everyone and everything in this dream and that has to be as it is to keep the dream together and sticky via her use of importances.
Here is an example which frequently arises. One half of a couple decides it's time to investigate the enlightenment thingy. Maya, sniffing her looming threat, will manifest in the other party. The search starts out slowly, but eventually our imaginary seeker really gets into it, devotes much time to it, buys all the books, beads and bangles whilst the other party pulls back. It's not really he/she who is pulling back, it's Maya trying to put on the brakes. I would guess you can understand that, but it goes much deeper.
Relatives and friends come together with a chorus of ''Don't go there'' or ''You are joining a cult'' or ''You are going to go nuts'' or ''All your relationships will fall apart''. You can make up almost any form of kick-back and it can be found, and.... it's all Maya. Perhaps an intervention is called for by well meaning but delusional others.
Now for the part that you might think a little strange (if you don't think this is strange enough already). She works through inanimate objects as well. A student is making some serious headway and is releasing importance quickly and easily. He merrily jaunts off to work and steps on a nail (Maya put it there). He manages to maintain a little equanimity and continues off to work. After all, it was closer to carpet tack than a three in spike.
Later that week he gets quite ill from his infected foot and takes a few weeks off work. Upon returning he finds he has been replaced by the latest computerized robot (he is in car manufacturing). Coming home, he explains it to his wife (hey gals, don't ask why it turned out this particular way, blame my hands for writing it). Being the intelligent and practical minded person (all sub-agents of Maya) she is not pleased and says he has to get rid of his beads, bangle, bells, whistle and the dolphin swimming fund.
One can look at these stories (and I have seen, experience and heard considerably weirder ones) and say they are just chance, or perhaps the result of an over active imagination, however, time and time over, I have observed Maya's marvelous work. Slippery, cunning and fully occupied in the maintenance of this/her illusion. Her tricks pervade the human experience and if it was not for her, all the dream characters occupying this human dream would promptly leave it.
No Maya, no dream... and no need to stick around. You have to admire a mechanism possessing that kind of skill and cunning. I suggest you love her as best you can. Resistance only provides fuel for her game, and she definitely doesn't need any more fuel.
Enjoy, and comment as you wish...
Love ya, Jed
Post by: alig on August 20, 2017, 09:29:54 am
Post by: Jed McKenna on August 20, 2017, 10:26:44 am
Love ya, Jed.
Post by: Masahiro13 on August 21, 2017, 12:25:52 am
After exploring all the options I could see for myself in said situation, I came to the conclusion that I had no choice really, but to accept that he is as he is.
I said to myself a few times aloud "this. I choose this. I choose what is."
just then a nice little lefthander came right to me. I took off, got a couple of turns in then flicked off the end section, only to have my board turn in the air, recoil off the legrope and the nose speared me right by the knee cap. OOOOOWWWWW!!
Really? I said to my current experience. Are you gonna test me sooo quickly.
Damn. Oh well, I choose a sore knee too, cos that's what I've got.
Then I kept an eye out for a shark....
Post by: Sandraanne on August 21, 2017, 01:30:09 am
Post by: Jed McKenna on August 21, 2017, 10:38:32 am
Love ya, Jed.
P.S. Masa... any blood?
Post by: stamate on August 21, 2017, 03:36:08 pm
Post by: Jed McKenna on August 21, 2017, 07:26:13 pm
Love ya, Jed.
Post by: Dobby on August 22, 2017, 05:09:35 am
In my experience, Maya was week. In the past 3 years, she only scored self-goals by giving me a hard time. Whenever she gave me a hard time, I would go further.
So she gave me good times, times in which I got all the love and attention that I wanted. But the little bastard kept asking how lasting the happiness and satisfaction would be, so it didn't douse me off completely, and didn't keep me sleepy for long.
I certainly don't know where I am, but Maya, she's not as smart as you make her to be.
Thanks,
Dobby.
Post by: Jed McKenna on August 22, 2017, 08:13:20 am
Yes, in a way she is very dumb because she operates in a mechanical fashion, not thinking, just doing. She does and goes on and on like that energizer bunny. Glad she hasn't given you too much grief.
Love ya, Jed.
Post by: Kati on August 22, 2017, 10:44:59 am
Maya can be a distraction, but also a teacher. It depends a lot how you look at it, and the tools that are used. Universe aka Maya seems to teach reversally. Especially what comes to control. Trying to control usually leads to situation where the reality seems to be further from what was supposed to be. When you try more, it gets further and you need to try even more. So the basic should-stuff. Most people seem to be totally blind on this and can't break the loop of hitting their heads on the wall and they get trapped by their mind. What Maya is really teaching is that you can't control anything, I think it's pretty obvious (though even I don't get it). So, it's hidden there, but people see just the opposite, because their mind is set to "read" Maya like that. So I agree about the automation, things can look pretty different, when the transmitter is turned on different Hz.
One other example. A lot of people suffer of not being enough, they feel worthless etc. Maya arranges situations that feed those ideas. What happens is that most people fight against it, but they just keep absorbing behaviour that just strengthens those ideas. Well, I think Maya tells pretty straightly how it is. How could something that isn't, be anything?
Without Maya's hidden hints no one could find their way out of the labyrinth, though without Maya I don't know would that be necessary ;D
Maya can make our illusory lives like hell, but it's also the one that leaves us hints to get out of there, we just need to tune ourselves to see them.
Love,
Kati
Post by: EternalDawning on August 22, 2017, 11:02:21 am
Post by: alyosha on August 24, 2017, 11:04:24 am
There are those who worship Her: http://www.crystalwind.ca/mystical-magical/pantheons-and-myths/hindu/maya-illusion
Philosophically speaking, maya was necessary (as a concept) to reconcile the singular reality of Brahman (eternal & infinte) with the duality of the world (ephemeral & finite) in the non-dual philosophy of Advaita.
"To logic maya is a puzzle. Wonder is its
garment; inscrutable is its nature" - Mahadevan
And at the risk of being didactic (but since you brought up Advaita):
From the above link:
"Maya is a power or potency of Brahman, coeval with Brahman, completely dependent
on and inseparable from Brahman, neither independent nor real in itself. It is not different
from Brahman on pain of contradicting Scriptural declarations of non-difference, but it is
also not non-different from Brahman as there cannot be identity between the Real and the
unreal. Nor can maya be both different and non-different as such contradictors cannot
reside in one and the same thing. The relationship between maya and Brahman is thus
tadatmya, neither identity nor difference nor both. A similar dialectic exposes maya's
status considered in terms of the Real. Maya is not real because it has no existence apart
from Brahman, because it disappears at the dawn of knowledge, because it does not
constitute a limit on Brahman. However, it is not altogether unreal because it does project
the world of appearances. It is not both real and unreal because of contradiction.
Maya is not possessed of parts. If it were partite it would have a beginning and
consequently the Lord and the jivas which are reflections thereof would have a beginning.
Furthermore, maya with a beginning would necessitate another maya as its cause and there
would thus be a contingence of infinite regress. However, maya cannot be partless because
of the contingency of its not being the primal cause. It is the cause only of partite
phenomena, and cannot be both partite and impartite because of contradiction.
Maya, has a phenomenal and relative character and is an appearance only (vivarta). It
is of the nature of superimposition (adhyasa) and is removable by right knowledge. Its
locus is Brahman but Brahman is in no way affected by maya. Maya is beginningless
(anadi), for time arises only within it; it is unthinkable (acintya), for all thought is subject
to it; it is indescribable (anirvacaniya), for all language results from it. Because its
nature is outside the determination of normal human categories it is indeterminable
(anirvaniya) and indefinable. Maya, indeed, is most strange!"
Post by: Stormborn on August 24, 2017, 06:11:09 pm
2. If Maya is everywhere and everything then essentially not only is Maya resistance but there is also no escape from her game, right?
3. If I've understood this correctly then, I'm a character in a game but there is no game or character and I'm trying to wake up to this. If I were to ask the question "how do I get out of this?" then I'm obviously still in the game and don't understand it? This feels really circular.
4. By resistance do you mean anything that gets in the way of us doing SA (in the game)?
5. What are Maya's 'importances' please?
Post by: EternalDawning on August 26, 2017, 12:27:03 pm
Godspeed.
Post by: Mr. Nobody on September 04, 2017, 03:04:00 am
Post by: Jed McKenna on September 04, 2017, 03:41:41 am
Love ya, Jed.
Post by: guest1310 on November 21, 2017, 07:41:25 pm
Thoughts in the middle of the nights: I'm worthless, I'm in serious trouble now, the only solution is a suicide.
In a way she is right. "I" is worthless. Killing "I" is the only solution.
Just staying there, looking right into the pain and right into this thoughts, and it all melted away.
Killer pain seems to be her gift: it makes it very easy to see what has to be melted.
Post by: Jed McKenna on November 22, 2017, 08:08:46 am
Love ya, Jed.
Post by: Neverx2x2 on June 24, 2018, 10:18:40 am
It sometimes seems that maybe I programmed it, to keep a me-awareness out of, or separate from, an absolute ground state.
In effect, one might call this dream a Houdini act. Escape artists build their own traps to escape from... to express freedom.
There is the primary key (or system of tasks), which would render the escape more convincing or intelligent. And then, there is the secondary key, the default physical death, if all else fails.
The thing about security software is that it links up with the software (the me) that attempts to circumvent the security system. One might say that Maya identifies linguistic (or perceptual) boundary conditions in 'me' and exploits them (activates them), so as to turn the 'me' away.
A cool hacker tactic for dealing with this is to take false sprints at the ground state, to get Maya to show its hand. Then one can just shift the exposed boundary condition in (or remove it from) the 'me' software - rendering the condition no longer exploitable. One can clear away layers of security, with just a little bit of work.
Post by: Jed McKenna on June 24, 2018, 02:37:14 pm
But, I do appreciate you intellect and contribution.
Love ya, Jed
Post by: Jesse on June 26, 2018, 03:51:11 am
Thanks in advance.
Love ya, Jed.
Post by: Neverx2x2 on June 26, 2018, 11:59:08 am
I experienced a damn good laugh with that one... the rhetorical words that eventually came to mind were, "Help! I'm trapped in an out of body experience!"
I once scrutinized the subject of 'third person' when overhearing a conversation at work. It went something like, "I did blah blah blah blah... what was I thinking?" And somebody else says, "What were you thinking?" (with a somewhat scornful tone).
Aside from the evidence pointing at use of past-person to acquire reference to separation, the "What were you thinking." seemed to take on another meaning.... as in, "Get back in your body. That's 'you' that you're talking about."
I've often contemplated speaking of myself in the third person (an audience, a 'me', and a speaker narrating about the 'me'). I adopted the use of the word 'one'.
I have tried speaking of myself as a name. It seems to make others around me uncomfortable (including the 'me' that is getting talked about). It does seem to elicit that 'Get-back-in-your-body' response - or even a language saying, "Don't use me that way."
I've considered 'we'... but that's a little too obvious, and resembles a Gollum/Smeagol configuration - it confuses the identity of the speaker. The audience gets disturbed pretty quick.
So I returned to just using 'one' (accepting the risk of identifying with over-reaching authority). It just seems to go right under the radar, possibly because 'administrator' seems to be the normalized identity that all are taught to seek.
You caught it though :)
Post by: Jed McKenna on June 27, 2018, 01:53:17 am
Love ya, one-and-all,
Jed.
Post by: abrakamowse on June 29, 2018, 06:28:15 pm
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Post by: Jed McKenna on June 30, 2018, 05:25:36 am
Love ya, Jed.
Ohhh...aren't you being a little harsh Jed. ::) ::) ::) :P :P :P ;D
Post by: abrakamowse on June 30, 2018, 08:00:05 am
Ohhh...aren't you being a little harsh Jed. ::) ::) ::)
Lol... Hahaha maybe I AM
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Post by: guest1170 on January 01, 2019, 10:46:21 pm
Now its a bit lonely... Its just me and Jed... Everyone else is just throwing memes and conditioning at you... All I can do is throw memes back at them... A bit boring
Post by: Jed McKenna on January 01, 2019, 11:34:40 pm
Love and best wishes for the New Year to all.
Jed
Post by: guest1170 on January 02, 2019, 04:46:53 pm
Post by: breakup on January 03, 2019, 04:38:26 am
I saw this thread, had a giggle.
Today my check engine light came on, I just smiled.
At work I dropped a device and broke it. Showed my boss "I broke this," smiled.
Then I dropped another device, ut broke. I thought fine I'll just keep breaking these things... device started working again.
Post by: Jed McKenna on January 03, 2019, 05:51:58 am