Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Fumbling through the Vedanta

India is known for its spirituality, so naturally I hoped some of the age-old wisdom would rub off on me. I like to think of myself as a spiritually advanced person. While I am not religious and do not particularly appreciate the label "God" I instead attribute that infinite, omni-everything to the term "Universe." It has many names; Brahman, Atman, Consciousness, so call it what you will.

In search for It, I picked up a few good books; Autobiography of a Yogi and The Eternities: Vedanta Treatise. Humans are comprised of body, mind (emotions) and intellect. I respond best to intellectual spiritualism, ie reading. These books reinforced ideas that I was already familiar with; God is within each of us, we are all one and we must give up our worldly desires to transcend to eternal bliss. Intellectually, I get all that. But putting it into practice is easier said than done. Desires flood my mind every second of everyday. Currently, I am craving California sushi. Mmmmmm sushi...

Okay, fine, I can drop my cravings for sushi. And Starbucks. And good Mexican food. And vegan pizza. In time, hopefully I can drop all my worldly desires of material wealth, name and fame. For the last few years, I've been trying to practice the art of meditation, when apparently I never prepared my mind for it in the first place by releasing my desires. Shit, I'm much less spiritually advanced than I thought. And apparently really hungry...

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