Unreal actions and actors

[Allan Curry]

Dear Illusory Anand,

>   Yes, all this typing to the Advaita-L is illusory and is done by
>   illusory agents.

I am thrilled by your response. I was really hoping that someone would have
the courage to announce themselves as being illusory. Isn't it actually
wondrous to *seem* to be a person who *seems* to choose, think, do, etc.?
Surely this little trick is every bit as wonderful as boring old Brahman
who just sits there unchangingly, saying, thinking and doing nothing
whatsoever! "Waking up" out of this dream can come if it likes, it is such
a kick being an illusion, I'm not sure I want the fun to end. I think Maha
Maya deserves a big round of applause  for bringing a nothing out of a
something and making each seem to have the characteristic of the other!
I suppose we'll all get enlightened and disappear out of this dream
eventually, so in the meantime, maybe we can enjoy the illusoriness of
this illusion while there's still a chance!  As the Yogavasishtha says,
"Enjoyment accompanied by Spiritual Knowing conduces to pure contentment.
The thief, admitted into company with knowledge of him *as thief*, becomes
more a friend than a foe."


>   So I hope the discussions here will be at least a part of the tiger
>   which will wake us up! Otherwise, we will have to look for that
>   part of the tiger somewhere else. :-)
>

hmmm... I think the waking up must be waking up *from* us and we
will be seen to have never been. If that's the kind of thing we
*really* want then we are asking for annihilation. This is something
that only a guru can give, but where can we find someone like that?
If nothing else, we can always avail ourselves of Ramana Maharshi's guru,
I suppose. As Ramana says in the Eleven Verses on Sri Arunachala: "Oh men
who, disgusted with this life of intense misery, seek a means of giving up
the body, there is on earth a rare drug which, without actually killing
him, will annihilate anyone who so much as thinks of It. Know that It is
none other than this Arunachala!" As most of us know, Arunachala is Ramana
Maharshi's guru, a hill in India, and the embodiment of Shiva. If an
enlightened being like Ramana Maharshi says it is so,then isn't it as
certain as anything can be in Advaita Vedanta? How convenient for us and
generous of Ramana to provide such a  vehicle for this time when it seems
difficult to find a *real* guru. Arunachala will probably *seem* to be
around for some good time to come and is unlikely to encourage our doubts
by having sex with female devotees or depositing millions in Swiss banks!

- Allan Curry

P.S.

Brahman (the Real) does not act, (not once, not ever) and all actions and
all actors are unreal. Is this really the position of Advaita Vedanta or
am I getting things all wrong here?