Ramana
and Nisargadatta In A Pickle
The following quotes are about Nisargadatta's inability to help his students to awakening. I'm yet to find out how many people might have awakened directly through Ramana Maharishi's instructions but apparently, they seem like a very small group of people. This text gives the idea that Nisargadatta had the same problem.
For clear and effective instructions about awakening, read and download for free: Awake! Handbook of Awakening.
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Another morning, Nisargadatta Maharaj started speaking though in a very weak voice.
"You people come here wanting something. What you want may be knowledge with a capital 'K' - the highest Truth - but nonetheless you do want something. Most of you have been coming here for quite some time. Why? If there had been apperception of what I have been saying, you should have stopped coming here long ago! But what actually has been happening is that you have been coming here day after day, identified as individual beings, male or female, with several persons and things you call 'mine'. Also, you think you have been coming here, of your own volition, to see another individual - a Guru - who, you expect, will give you 'liberation' from your 'bondage'.
Do you not see how ridiculous all this is ? Your coming here day after day only shows that you are not prepared to accept my word that there is no such thing as an 'individual'; that the 'individual' is nothing but an appearance; that an appearance cannot have any 'bondage' and, therefore, there is no question of any 'liberation' for an appearance. Do you even now realize that if the very basis of your seeking is wrong, what can you achieve? Indeed, is there anything to be achieved? By whom? By an appearance?"
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| Nisargadatta Maharaj. |
David Conway reports about Nisargadatta:
One morning Maharaj seemed to be more-than-usually frustrated about our collective inability to grasp what he was talking about.
"Why do I waste my time with you people?" he exclaimed. "Why does no one ever understand what I am saying?"
I took my chance: "In all the years that you have been teaching how many people have truly understood and experienced your teachings?"
He was quiet for a moment, and then he said, 'One. Maurice Frydman.' He didn't elaborate and I didn't follow it up.
From "Last teachings of Nisargadatta": http://sri-nisargadatta-maharaj.blogspot.pt/…/the-last-days…
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Teachers or gurus not being able to deliver their messages and life-changing experiences is a universal problem. In my analysis (see Awake! Handbook of Awakening, pg. 124) I have come up with five key factors that create an ideal situation for anyoneto wake up.
1. The teacher is awakened and knows exactly what it is and how it happens.
2. He has clarity and skills to convey it through exact verbal pointers.
3. He has particular techniques that are succinctly meant for generating awakening.
4. There is enough one-on-one exchange between the teacher and the student so that the processing can be finished quickly.
5. The student has recognised that his problems are essentially caused by self-delusion. Therefore he is motivated to go through the process.
The opposite of these five key factors are:
1. The teacher does not exactly understand what awakening is or how it happens, even if he himself is awakened.
2. He doesn't have clarity and skillfulness to convey it through exact verbal pointers.
3. He does not know distinct techniques for generating awakening. In fact his techniques might be completely irrelevant or only vaguely relevant.
4. There is not enough one-on-one exchange between the teacher and the student which is why getting to the result is needlessly delayed.
5. The student doesn't have correct motivation, no real need for awakening.
If the problem lies in the teacher and his whatever methods that do not work, and he blames the students for that, that simply is a very unfortunate state of affairs. Regardless how approved and highly regarded the tradition in question might be, this is professional incompetence, plain and simple. In all other fields of pedagogy, such teachers would be fired for the lack of professional skills.
We don't hear about the tantrums of professionally educated teachers because they have learned pedagogy and possess a solid set of teaching skills. For this reason, secular education is effective. Without the skills of the teacher it would be a very different situation. It would be considered amateuristic of the teacher to not get the young students reading or writing. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens in the spiritual scene on regular basis.
Gurus, lamas and teachers who are expected to pass on the light of knowledge (jnana, prajna), can not deliver because they lack basic understanding of pedagogics and set of techniques to aid the learning process. Even if it is the teacher's very job to get her or his students awakened, even this low standard is not met. Because the teacher doesn't understand her or his own awakening, he cannot effectively pass it on to others. This happens in all traditions. This is very unfortunate.
"Forget
'I am That*'.
I
realised so much more since then.
It's so
much deeper."
-
Nisargadatta before his death, reported by Jean Dunn
*Nisargadatta's best selling book.
It is a great pity that spiritual traditions often lack reason. When we go to school we know there is a system to follow, a syllabus, and our learning is according to that. We know what we are going to get. If the school teacher said,
"We're just going to iprovise it and teach the kids something vague with a random outcome", the parents would chase the teacher out!
In dharma we are told, "Oh yes, of course, you will get awakened and enlightened. Of course!" but we aren't explained what it means and how it happens. We might get laughed at for asking such questions. The teacher might say, "Don't be such a silly child asking such a silly question because you cannot understand awakening". The crowd, all biased to this view, might join the laughter of the teacher. This is all wrong.
It is the teacher's fault if she or he cannot explain and transmit his teaching and his realizations. All things can be verbally explained, in detail. Words, concepts and terms are not the realization itself, of course, but they are an indispensable and skillful way to convey the teaching. Verbal means are as important as non-verbal ones. This should be understood. If and as it makes perfect sense in all other fields of learning, why wouldn't it in the field of dharma?
I recommend people to be critical about a teachers who are unable to explain things clearly. Many people end up going to meetings and teachings, travelling on the other side of the world, year after year, dollar after dollar, not getting things right, just learning false concepts that they then carry around with them, still being miserable and confused about their true being. I've seen this over and over. Demand quality from your teacher as you do from the mechanic who fixes your car. You would never accept a car that was still broken after some time at the carage while still having to pay!
- Kim Katami, 1.2.2016
Helsinki, Finland.
For clear and effective instructions about awakening, read and download for free: Awake! Handbook of Awakening.
Open Heart,
www.en.openheart.fi
