Ask Salix Anything

[SalixIncendium]

How did you become an Advaitin?

While I have Advaitin as my listed religion on here, for me it is just word to identify to others what I believe. In reality, I reject labels as I find they place restrictions on my path. I have always believed as I do; that divinity, if it exists, is immanent, and I am one and the same as It. Somewhere in my research and fascination with theology, I found this word that most accurately describes my beliefs.

 

[George-ananda]

Why do these have to be mutually exclusive?

They aren't mutually exclusive. Just a shift of perspective point.

What is "real?" Or "relatively real?"

Brahman Alone is Real from the ultimate perspective. Astral bodies, souls, reincarnation are real from our everyday (relative) reality.

This may not apply to you personally, but I find many Advaita folk answer people asking questions from their everyday reality perspective and getting answers from the ultimate perspective. And it gets muddied in misunderstanding.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Salix and Advaitin sound like brand names of medicine.

What kind of medicines are they?

Anti-malapertals.

 

[PureX]

A strange thing happened to me overnight last night and I woke up a bit blue.

But anyway, in keeping with the apparent tradition of new moderator initiation, it would appear I'm to post one of these ask me anything threads.

So, let the hazing begin! What would you like to know about me?

I know absolutely nothing, at present, about you. So feel free to illuminate me in any way, about any thing.

If you we shouting in the dark, and you had to let someone know it was you who was there, but could only use three words to do it, what would those three words be?

 

[Kemosloby]

A strange thing happened to me overnight last night and I woke up a bit blue.

But anyway, in keeping with the apparent tradition of new moderator initiation, it would appear I'm to post one of these ask me anything threads.

So, let the hazing begin! What would you like to know about me?

Have you ever drank blood or eaten an animal while it was still alive?

 

[SalixIncendium]

They aren't mutually exclusive. Just a shift of perspective point.

Brahman Alone is Real from the ultimate perspective. Astral bodies, souls, reincarnation are real from our everyday (relative) reality.

I don't distinguish one from the other. There is the absolute reality (Brahman); astral bodies or souls (Atman) are merely projections of or built upon the substrate (thanks @sayak83) of this absolute.

This may not apply to you personally, but I find many Advaita folk answer people asking questions from their everyday reality perspective and getting answers from the ultimate perspective. And it gets muddied in misunderstanding.

As much as I frown upon answering questions with questions (that's now how conversation should work), it is sometimes necessary to avoid creating answers based on assumption.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I know absolutely nothing, at present, about you. So feel free to illuminate me in any way, about any thing.

If you we shouting in the dark, and you had to let someone know it was you who was there, but could only use three words to do it, what would those three words be?

bring...me...pizza

 

[SalixIncendium]

Have you ever drank blood or eaten an animal while it was still alive?

No

 

[sayak83]

While I have Advaitin as my listed religion on here, for me it is just word to identify to others what I believe. In reality, I reject labels as I find they place restrictions on my path. I have always believed as I do; that divinity, if it exists, is immanent, and I am one and the same as It. Somewhere in my research and fascination with theology, I found this word that most accurately describes my beliefs.

Name some important influences that shaped your beliefs over time.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I see your post where you say something about our lives being illusions or like illusions. Do you feel there is a purpose in life being easy for some and difficult for others? Why do our lives seem so small compared to the size of our hopes?

One more about astronomy that is a little random: If you could put a marker on the Equator of the Earth, so that it left a trace in space, a sort of squashed spiral path about the Sun which was itself some kind of spiral or arc about the galaxy, what color would you choose to mark our little dance?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Name some important influences that shaped your beliefs over time.

Oooh...good one. This is going to require some thinking and reflection...

• The nun that told me that no animals besides humans have souls
• My mother, who was concerned about me burning in hell for believing in something other than Catholicsm
• Authors/artists in no particular order
  • Aldous Huxley
  • Arthur Rimbaud
  • Friedrich Nietzche
  • Jim Morrison
  • Raymond Buckland
  • Scott Cunningham
  • Margot Adler
  • Joyce and River Higginbotham
  • Don Miguel Ruiz
  • Dan Brown
  • Others that I don't recall off the top of my head
• Carl Sagan
• Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Charles Darwin
• Socrates
• People I've associated with on religious-based message boards
• The hundreds (perhaps thousands) of pages I've read on the internet
• YouTube
• Me

I'm certain there are a great deal more that I'm forgetting at the moment. I'll add more as I think of them.

 

[Deidre]

Congrats on your mod-ship! Definitely well deserved.

Okay..a question...

what do you like to normally eat for breakfast?

 

[SalixIncendium]

I see your post where you say something about our lives being illusions or like illusions. Do you feel there is a purpose in life being easy for some and difficult for others?

Yes. As I see it, everything is governed by causality. An action one chooses to take had consequences. In this causality are a series of 'lessons' (for lack of a better term) one must experience before reaches what the Hindus and Jains call moksha.

Why do our lives seem so small compared to the size of our hopes?

I'm not sure I understand this question. Can you rephrase it?

One more about astronomy that is a little random: If you could put a marker on the Equator of the Earth, so that it left a trace in space, a sort of squashed spiral path about the Sun which was itself some kind of spiral or arc about the galaxy, what color would you choose to mark our little dance?

Orange. I don't have a reason for choosing it. It just seems the most logical choice for whatever reason. Not sure what that says about me.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I'm not sure I understand this question. Can you rephrase it?

I do not know how to rephrase it but will try. Why do we always wish for more or better or less or something other than what is?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Congrats on your mod-ship! Definitely well deserved.

Okay..a question...

what do you like to normally eat for breakfast?

Thank you, Deidre.

My most common choice for breakfast is an egg bagel with onion and chive cream cheese. But occasionally, if I'm pressed for time or just don't have the taste for a bagel, I'll stop at Taco Bell on the way to work and grab a California Crunchwrap with no bacon.

 

[sayak83]

Oooh...good one. This is going to require some thinking and reflection...

• The nun that told me that no animals besides humans have souls
• My mother, who was concerned about me burning in hell for believing in something other than Catholicsm
• Authors/artists in no particular order
  • Aldous Huxley
  • Arthur Rimbaud
  • Friedrich Nietzche
  • Jim Morrison
  • Raymond Buckland
  • Scott Cunningham
  • Margot Adler
  • Joyce and River Higginbotham
  • Don Miguel Ruiz
  • Dan Brown
  • Others that I don't recall off the top of my head
• Carl Sagan
• Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Charles Darwin
• Socrates
• People I've associated with on religious-based message boards
• The hundreds (perhaps thousands) of pages I've read on the internet
• YouTube
• Me

I'm certain there are a great deal more that I'm forgetting at the moment. I'll add more as I think of them.

Nice.
Have had any "oneness" experience? Do you do yoga/meditation or any such stuff?

 

[SalixIncendium]

I do not know how to rephrase it but will try. Why do we always wish for more or better or less or something other than what is?

I think it's the human condition to want more than what one has. It's the pursuit of happiness. One thinks s/he will be happier once s/he obtains a possession or achieves a goal. That person then realizes that once the novelty of achieving that goal or possession has worn off, that it didn't bring her/him the happiness s/he thought it did, so s/he seeks more.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Did @Sunstone offer you candy? How quickly can you run?
Welcome to the team!

Also, what is your favorite book, movie, video game (or board game, or sport for the less nerdy) and favorite food?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Nice.
Have had any "oneness" experience?

Yes. In fact I just discussed this with a member here recently. My first was when I was somewhere between 11 and 13. I used to work with my step-father who was a plastering and drywall contractor in the summer and on weekends. I was riding in his truck on the way to a jobsite on morning going down the Kennedy expressway in Chicago looking out the window at the buildings, the traffic, the El, when suddenly a feeling that to this day I cannot describe accurately came over me. It was like I was familiar and intimate with everything...the people, the buildings, the whole environment...felt like it was a part of me...like it was as familiar to me as my immediate family or my reflection in the mirror. The feeling only lasted for a few seconds, but it was definitely something I had never experienced before.

Do you do yoga/meditation or any such stuff?

I used to do yoga using DVDs as a guide, but became disheartened when I didn't see a measurable improvement in flexibility or strength in a year.

I meditate daily, often more than one session per day. I meditate anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour depending on how much time I have, and typically fall asleep to yoga nidra.

 

[sayak83]

Yes. In fact I just discussed this with a member here recently. My first was when I was somewhere between 11 and 13. I used to work with my step-father who was a plastering and drywall contractor in the summer and on weekends. I was riding in his truck on the way to a jobsite on morning going down the Kennedy expressway in Chicago looking out the window at the buildings, the traffic, the El, when suddenly a feeling that to this day I cannot describe accurately came over me. It was like I was familiar and intimate with everything...the people, the buildings, the whole environment...felt like it was a part of me...like it was as familiar to me as my immediate family or my reflection in the mirror. The feeling only lasted for a few seconds, but it was definitely something I had never experienced before.



I used to do yoga using DVDs as a guide, but became disheartened when I didn't see a measurable improvement in flexibility or strength in a year.

I meditate daily, often more than one session per day. I meditate anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour depending on how much time I have, and typically fall asleep to yoga nidra.

Sorry, in India, yoga is a type of meditation. What you call yoga in the West is actually called vyma, a set of exercise to make the body supple before starting an extended session of meditation (yoga) so that cramping etc. do not occur.