Join Rory Mackay @ShiningWorld Advaita Vedanta

Sunday 18th June, 7 pm Madrid CET via ZOOM

Excerpts from his upcoming book, “There Shines A Light” by Rory Mackay.

Savour each day 

Speaking personally, the difficulties and limitations I’ve faced along my life’s path have served to strengthen me and fire my resolve to break through the binding chains of samsara. I was told three years ago that my body was ridiculously ill and the prognosis was dire. I took this an opportunity to test and strengthen my Self-Knowledge and to smooth out some of the rougher edges of my personality and any lingering shadows of past trauma. As a result, I can now say, with complete honesty, that I’ve never been happier and more at peace in myself. The key to getting through life is to turn the challenges into victories by turning within and purifying the mind and heart, and nothing purifies like the alchemy of Self-Knowledge.

Only a clear mind can adequately reflect the resplendent light of our own Self. Such a mind, which can be cultivated through a commitment to dharma, the practice of karma yoga, devotion, meditation, and the deep contemplation of Self-Knowledge, is a mind freed from excessive want and selfish desire. Life is no longer about getting what we want. It’s about finding the deeper part of us that’s forever free from want—the part that simply shines in radiant, changeless splendor. This light is the only remedy to the veiling cloud of ignorance that keeps us desperately bound to worldly objects, forms, and attachments while completely oblivious to the fact that we are in actuality, in our heart of hearts, already free.

As a jiva, I now appreciate life in a way that I never did before. Every day, every moment is a blessing and gift. Whereas, in my younger years, I saw life as a burden and something to escape from, I am now joyfully aware of the preciousness of simply being. Take nothing for granted! It is all a glorious blessing.

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Nididhyasana

The steady contemplation of our nature as Awareness is called nididhyasana in Vedantic terminology. It’s been suggested that for every hour we spend in the first stage of Vedanta, listening to the teaching, we should then spend a hundred hours going over the reasoning in our head and a thousand hours meditating upon it deeply and with great focus and clarity.

So, for all there’s nothing we can do to become the Self—because we’re already the Self and cannot be anything else—it does take considerable effort to reorient and retrain the mind. As I learned the hard way, the mind can be our greatest friend or our most implacable and merciless foe. You alone decide which. An untamed mind is the root of enormous suffering and chaos. On the other hand, a cultivated and refined mind is an instrument for liberation. A sufficiently purified mind allows our true light to radiate from us and to bless all whom we meet. What a gift not just to the world but to ourselves. But, once again, it takes time, perseverance, and grit. As the saying goes, everything is difficult before it gets easy.

I made a number of missteps as I practiced nididhyasana over the next few years. I got suckered by my psychological blind spots and ended up down one or two avenues that weren’t in line with who I was and who I was meant to be. I assumed that I was “finished” before I truly was and relaxed my efforts, only to be in for a fright when samsara tried to get its hooks in me. Life likes to test us. The moment you think, “That’s it, I’ve done it,” you can pretty much bet that Ishvara is thinking, “Oh, really, have you now…?” 

There was no lasting damage in my case, but I learned the supreme importance of vigilance and humility. In time to come, my body and mind would be put through the fire big style. That, as it happens, would actually be immensely purifying, allowing my Self-Knowledge to cement in leaps and bounds. The true alchemy of living involves accepting and embracing all of life’s challenges and adversities and using them as grist for the mill of self-inquiry.

Here’s a helpful thought which I very much believe to be true. All of life is secretly conspiring to awaken us from the dream of separation into the full realization of the divine unity of all things. In spite of how it might often seem, this is not a cruel reality. It’s a cosmic game of hide and seek and the hurt and pain are not there to torment you. It’s there to jolt you awake; compelling you to remember the vastness of who and what you truly are, emboldening you to claim your divine birthright.

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The Most Important Thing I Ever Learned

The light of Consciousness forever shines, regardless of whatever is going on at the level of Maya. That’s why, at heart, we are always free. Nothing can ever touch the light that we truly are; not any experience, any fear, pain, hurt, or even the crippling burden of a distorted egoic self-concept. Like the sun always shining above the clouds, Consciousness is forever free, always available, and without limit or boundary.

Very few have the ability to fully grasp this, even among spiritual seekers. Only sincere and committed spiritual enquirers have any way of processing this understanding. To the average person, it will seem nonsensical and irrelevant. This Knowledge, however, is the key to alchemizing life and turning the lead of worldly sorrow and limitation into the gold of perfect Divinity.

I don’t feel I have achieved a whole lot materially in this lifetime. That really isn’t why I am here, however. My life path has been an opportunity to use limitation and adversity to turn within and realize the Light within myself and within all beings. That’s the key to this game of life. Integrating this Knowledge into the core of my psyche was far from an overnight job and I stumbled along the way. It led, however, to a treasure beyond compare: the discovery of an unending ocean of inner peace, contentment, and joy that none of the vagaries of worldly life can rob us of. Even though the odd thought or emotion might cloud the sky temporarily, this Light can never be lost because it is the true essence of what we are: pure Consciousness wearing temporary sheaths of body and mind.

While I wasted a few too many years seeking love and validation from others, the ultimate realization was that I already have and am everything I’d ever sought.

What’s more, the person I thought I was existed as nothing but a concept in my mind; a set of conditioned thoughts, reactions, desires, and fears, capped with a name. Now, I admit it’s a mighty strange way to end an autobiography, but, in the ultimate analysis, there’s no such person. It’s all just a story. I don’t see myself as a person now; my centre of identification is just Awareness shining upon a body and mind. Even when you find yourself having to take action, pick up your bow and arrow and take to the battlefield like Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, life flows quite by itself if you let it. All that gets done, all the words spoken, actions taken and thoughts thunk, happen automatically by virtue of Consciousness enlivening a body and mind. What a wondrous thing!