Asram Vidya Order Raphael - Pathway of Non-Duality

Aurea Vidy Collection*

For a complete List of Titles, see page 131

This book was originally published in Italian as Il Sentiero della Non-dualit (Advaitavda) by Associazione Ecoculturale Parmenides (formerly Edizioni ram Vidy), Rome, Italy

First Published in English in 2016 by

Aurea Vidy

39 West 88th Street

New York, NY 10024

All Rights ram Vidy

Via Azone 20 00165 Rome, Italy

The proceeds from this book to which there are no Author's rights will be used for reprints. The contents of this book may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism, by citing the source

ISBN 978-1-931406-21-5

Library of Congress Control Number 2016906618

On the cover, Gate of the Odeon in the ancient city of Ephesos

RAPHAEL

(ram Vidy Order)

(ADVAITAVDA)

AUREA VIDY

The unreal cannot have the unreal as its cause, nor can the real have the real as its cause, nor can the real have the unreal as its cause, nor, [finally], can the unreal have the real as its cause.

Gauapda

Foreword

Non-dualism, dualism, and monism

Real and unreal

Ajtivda and Asparavda

Parmenides and his vision

Advaita Vednta

Metaphysical realization

The three states of Being

My

Experiencer and experienced

The fall of the Soul

What it is that transmigrates

Analogy and identity, symbol and thing symbolized

Karma or the law of cause and effect

The siddhis

This work, which we are offering in particular to the attention of those who are Lovers of Wisdom (Philosophers), comprises a series of dialogues with Raphael concerning some essential aspects of Non-duality.

Raphael is a seeker, a philosopher who has realized Asparavda, the path without support or relationship, keeping alive that Advaita tradition whose most representative restorers, from the two perspectives of realization and teaching, were Gauapda and akarcrya. In their written work, these two codified the fundamental principles of Asparavda (Ajtivda) and of Advaita Vednta.

Gauapda's Ajti (non-generation) and akarcrya's Advaita (non-duality) were the high points for Raphael, because in Advaita Vednta., and subsequently in Orphism, Platonism, Neoplatonism, the Cabala, and Hermeticism, he rediscovered the metaphysical conclusions which he had already reached.

Even as a child, Raphael felt a yearning to embrace Being. So he undertook an unvarying regimen which slowly brought him within the reach of a spiritual influence. Step by step, and with the removal of obstacles, his consciousness revealed itself as pure essence, devoid of superimpositions.

According to Raphael, Philosophy means complete knowledge and realization, where knowing, the known and the knower perfectly coincide. The true philospher, the lover of wisdom, is the one who realizes the harmony of thought and being which manifests in a particular lifestyle, so that the one who understands, knows how to be master not only of thought but also of life. He reflects the concept of the Greek and Eastern philosopher whose philosophy consisted primarily of self-revelation, an unveiling of the knowledge that has been pursued.

Meeting the Absolute, the Whole (as Plato says), Being rather than becoming, involves a definite subsequent change in all one's normal points of view, in the very meaning of life, and provides a new scale of values. The knowledge of the Whole brings with it a release from chains, an ascent and a conversion of the whole person, a change of life, or, as Raphael often says, a transformation of consciousness.

In conclusion, we would like to point out that in these dialogues there is a consideration, a resolution of a topic which transcends geographical and ideological boundaries in such a way as to be of interest to the whole of humanity. The replies are given by Raphael in the light of the knowledge of Advaita, but with a conceptual terminology that is in harmony with the Western mind and its particular approach to philosophy.

Aurea Vidy

Q. What is the meaning of the following terms that are often used by Vednta: dualism, monism, monotheism, and non-dualism?

A. Every philosophical or cosmological vision which affirms two opposing and mutually irreducible principles to explain the Real is a dualistic vision.

Philosophical dualism is an answer to the problem of Being, which is considered twofold, being made of matter and spirit, of ego and non-ego, eternally in opposition and independent of one another.

Religious dualism, on the other hand, posits two principles in eternal contraposition and antinomy. It explains the presence of evil in the world and the very existence of the world as the outcome of the constant struggle between two eternal principles, the one called Good, the other Evil. These two opposing principles are often personified as God and Satan: the former the expression of Good, the latter of Evil.

Every dualistic concept whether philosophical or religious recognizes, in other words, two distinct causes, or two independent substances, to use the words of Aristotle, which due to their very nature can never meet, never relate or resolve themselves. This implies that at the manifest level all contradictions, all antinomies, which arise and exist, can never be resolved. Two parallel lines, however much they be drawn out to infinity, can never meet.

Evil, considered as an absolute Reality, just like Good, can never be overcome by Good, and vice versa.

Dualism presents from the outset contradictions that cannot be solved or supported.

Philosophical, religious or cosmological monism conceives the multiplicity of manifestations as the effect of a single substance. It is obviously opposed to both dualism and pluralism. According to pluralism, Reality is made not of two but of several substances.

Monism can be compared to the mathematical one from which all numbers derive. The multiplicity of numbers is simply the multiplication of the one.

There is the materialistic monism according to which only one substance exists; matter, and all other categories, including spirit and even consciousness, are the epiphenomena of the one material substance. And there is in total opposition to the former theory spiritualistic monism, for which all can be traced back to a single substance, which is the Spirit.

For monism every existing element of any type and at any level whatsoever is real, because it represents the emanation or multiplication of the sole Reality. From this standpoint we might say that monism is pantheistic. Thus, within the field of monism we have to include Spinoza's pantheism, which declares the oneness of substance and the identity of God and nature.

In realistic pantheism, although all antinomies, such as good and evil for example, go back to the original unity, they must be considered real and therefore they cannot on the plane of manifestation be resolved or transcended. Evil, ignorance, unhappiness, limit, etc., are universal realities about which nothing can be done by man, because they are consubstantial with the One. We can say that the One contains within Itself the dialectics of opposites. All manifested effects, polar or dual as they may be, are contained in the First Cause. This means, naturally, attributing good and evil themselves to the One Principle.