The Advaita Show #001 (MP3 – 11MB – 30min)
Welcome to the first episode of a show where we will ask the question – what am I?
What the hell is “advaita”?? I knew you’d ask me that. According to Wikipedia:
Advaita Vedanta is probably the best known of all Vedanta schools of Hinduism, the others being Dvaita and Vishishtadvaita. Advaita literally means “not two”, and is often called a monistic or non-dualistic system which essentially refers to the indivisibility of the Self (Atman) from the Whole (Brahman). The first person to consolidate the principles of Advaita was Adi Sankara (788-820 CE/AD).
I like to say that Advaita is to Hinduism as Zen is to Buddhism.
Sound deep? Nah. It’s the simplest thing you’ll ever do.
The Advaita Show is a thinly disguised excuse for Cameron to catch up each week with his friend and mentor “Sailor” Bob Adamson.
In the late 1970’s, Bob found himself in Mumbai, India, in the presence of the famous guru Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Nisargadatta advised him:
“Just realise you are dreaming a dream you call the world and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs to be done.”
Bob had a sudden awakening and, since then, he has been speaking to people who visit him from all over the world, advising them to seek the same realization. I first met him about 17 years ago and what he told me probably saved my life. He’s not what you might expect from a guru. He is a simple, quiet man who lives with his wife in a leafy suburb of Melbourne. He rarely travels. He has a couple of books and CDs you can find on his website.
This is a show you’ll need to listen to in a quiet place. Bob’s an old bloke and he speaks quietly (but carries a big stick). I don’t expect many of you to dig this stuff. But if you consider yourself a “seeker of the truth”, if you’re obsessed about the nature of reality, about the reality of who you are, about the nature of consciousness… then you might find what you’ve been looking for.
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14 Comments
Hello, we made partial czech translation (as far as i could understand) of your first Advaita show here – http://mozaika.bloguje.cz/185720_item.php.
Be well, good bye and hear you soon.
Hi Cameron, thanks for putting up these podcasts. I live in Sydney and visited Bob earlier this year. Great to be able to hear him.
Best regards, Harry
Hello,
I live in India ,and trying to figure out what Maharaja is trying to convey about TRUTH ,through his book,i am just downloading audiofile ,and will visit again after listening to it
Thanks
Basavaraj
Cameron, thanks so much for sharing your talks with Bob! Very useful for “nobody….”! Michiel, Amstedam
What a fantastic resource for those who benefit from the understanding as expressed by Sailor Bob. Thanks very very much! Hope Sailor Bob will continue to grace us with his talks on “The Advaita Show”.
a good thing those who are “obsessed about the nature of reality” believe they got an ultimate grip on what we call “being alive”, take it away from them, the result would be close to a buddhist void.
[email protected]
thank you cameron for drawing out words of wisdom from the sailor. there is humor and laughter in parsons, watts, liquorman and others but you have a comic quick witted talent that is needed in “the teachings” that they don’t have. (beyondananda’s not really non-duality). please keep the show going.
I don’t think
I don’t write
I’m the Laughter
that hands think
and egos write:
================
Reality is Silence
the Universe is its noise
Silence is the quantum-gap.
Noise is all around
but none can enter this Reality,
the quantum-gap, Silence.
The quantum-gap filters noise into thoughts.
The quantum-gap filters noise into thoughts
the mind has for all its
ignorance and knowledge
order and chaos.
The order is NOW
and chaos is time.
The quantum-gap filters the thoughts we call particles
into the elements the universe needs for all its
metals and non-metals
chaos and order
order and chaos.
The order is Maya, Now
the Chaos is Karma, time.
I AM SILENCE
I AM Untouchable, Complete and Content.
I need no gods
‘cause I need no servants
And if I needed servants
I would still need no gods.
I need no scriptures
‘cause I need no toilet paper
And if I did need toilet paper
I would still need no scriptures.
I AM Silence
that some call Samadhi
but the gods call nothing
even though I AM the EVERYTHING
without which there is no noise
I filter into thoughts, particles, toilet paper
and gods.
Reality is SILENCE
these words are its noise.
bob’s pointing out is clear and to the point . a real gem i thank him for his pointing out to me . marc josef in port washington
[…] I’m sorry you missed the party. We had fun. But if you’re just discovering the show, you need to start at the beginning. Here’s a link to the first episode. If you start there and work your way forwards, you’ll see the same questions and the same themes emerging over and over. So then, by the time you get to the end, you’ll understand why I’m laughing most of the time at the questions. It wasn’t because I’m insensitive (necessarily) but because the questions had been answered over and over and I thought it was extremely funny that we kept getting asked the same stuff. […]
Cameron,
Thank you very much for bringing Bob to the “airwaves”.. I have long been aware of Nisargadatta and his teaching.. I have not been able to experience being with a “realised person” and so far have not been able to be in Bob’s company, so this MP3 has been great to hear of his journey…
Were there other discussions recorded?
Cheers
Graeme
Whenever I find an obscure page on the internet and post a comment about something that happened years ago I worry that no one will read it. I’m happy that this might be the case here, literally and figuratively.
As Cameron remarked at the beginning of this podcast, Advaita seems not to excite the kind of attention that other schools or practices receive. There is good reason for this. Advaita is so uncompromising that the ego can’t find a foothold anywhere. You either make the leap or you don’t. There’s no steps or progression or even any fireworks displays. It’s like being a terrified non-swimmer and jumping into the water and finding–if you don’t thrash around in a crazed panic–that you float without any effort at all.
Hey Bert! Yeah I totally agree. Well explained.
Hi Cameron,
Love the show! Just discovered it through Google and started at show six and worked my way backwards to here.
I have been forwarding the link for show # 1 around to friends. I have to explain that the link to the “Advaita show… now in Chech” will take you to the page with the link to show # 2.
Is there a page anywhere with an index of all the shows?
All the best,
Paul