Unsent Letter #12: Knowledge, Being, and Understanding

December, 2006

Dear Friend

In my opinion, the most common mistake that aspirants make when they study non-dual teachings is that they conclude that they cannot make any efforts because they cannot "do" anything. As a consequence, they stop trying and start to drift without a definite aim in view. I think this happens because non-duality is often assumed to be only a system of knowledge. Then when a person hears ideas such as " I am He," "there is nothing to be achieved," "life is a dream," and so on, the ego identifies with that knowledge. One then becomes a person who knows the truth but cannot do anything about it. One thinks "I know I don't exist," when actually one does exist, or one thinks "I know there is nothing to accomplish," when in fact there is very much to accomplish. This creates an inner conflict. One has the recipe but one is not baking anything, so one remains hungry.

Knowledge alone does not get you anywhere. This teaching is about understanding, and understanding is different from knowledge. Understanding depends not only on knowledge, but on level of being as well. Level of being depends on where you are situated in the subtle world, the mental world. It refers to the development of conscience. You can only change your level of being by trying to do something: meditation, worship, working against negativity, and, especially, remembering the ever-present Self. Through effort, one gains experience and one moves forward. In the gross and subtle worlds, there are laws that determine that everything has to be paid for, and that everything that is gained is gained through self-effort. As long as you are an aspirant, you cannot evade these laws. However, this delusion happens to an aspirant who comes to believe that knowledge is enough.

Self-realization is simply another change in understanding. Maharaj always refered to it as the "final understanding," because it puts an end to illusion, doubt, and fear. However, it is essentially just one more internal transformation of the same nature as any other understanding that comes to us during the course of our spiritual practice. Certainly, it is different, because once it is there, it does not change. That understanding is always available.

The mind will always think in terms of "experience." Therefore, it imagines that the realized person is experiencing something different from everybody else. But this is incorrect. Only understanding is different. Is understanding an experience? I don't mean the moment when you understand something for the first time, but your current level of understanding. It is just not something that you experience. However, it is still there.

In the same way the mind is mistaken in thinking that the realized person lives in some unusual state that is different from everybody else's state. There is no special state. There is only clarity of understanding.

I hope this makes sense to you,

A.