7.
|
Some of the statements in the book are likely to be contentious
and may upset some readers. Accordingly, this section should
be read carefully (at least once!) so that the intentions
behind the book are clearly understood. |
8.
|
The purpose is specifically to address the concerns
of seekers who are dissatisfied with the satsang or neo-advaitin
approaches to the teaching of advaita and to answer related
questions. |
9.
|
It attempts clearly to define the principal terms
which are used when discussing these matters, especially
such words as ‘enlightenment’, ‘person’,
teacher’ etc. |
10.
|
It is not primarily a book about non-duality but
about the teaching of non-duality. It discusses
the guru and the seeker and the ways in which the former
relate to the latter's attempts to become enlightened. |
11.
|
In particular, it compares and contrasts the traditional
methods, passed down from teacher to student for over
a thousand years with the far less formal methods adopted
by modern satsang and neo-advaitin teachers. |
12.
|
The book makes no specific claims about relative ‘success
rates’ of the different approaches. There are no
statistics available upon which any such claims might
be made and views might well differ even upon whether
a given teacher is ‘enlightened’ or not.
What it will do is to present, analyze and criticize
the various issues and endeavor to persuade the reader
that anything other than the traditional approach is
unlikely to succeed. |
|
I anticipate that the majority of readers of the book
will be students of Western satsang-style teaching, possibly
with an emphasis on neo-advaita. I aim to explain to
these readers why they might be feeling dissatisfied
with the teaching to which they are currently exposed
and to suggest why traditional methods might prove more
fruitful. My own position is that satsang on its own
is deficient in many respects, while neo-advaita is most
unlikely to be helpful to the majority of seekers. |
15.
|
I decided to write this book in note form. Initially,
this was done from a practical point of view, the better
to organize my thoughts and avoid repetition. It is also,
of course, the ‘sutra’ form of traditional
scriptures and their commentaries. I may also have been
influenced by Wittgenstein's style of presentation, though
make no claims for an equivalent level of intellectual
rigor! Additionally, however, I realized that many readers,
especially those committed to satsangs (and in particular
the teachers themselves) are going to want to take issue
with some of the statements. I thought it would make
this easier if I numbered each of the key points. |
16.
|
I would like to emphasize that this book is not criticizing
specific teachers nor suggesting that anyone is inept
or unenlightened. I am criticizing satsang as a teaching
method, when used on its own and attended only infrequently,
as is typical in the West. Specific teachers are not
usually quoted, since I did not want to imply that anyone
was being singled out for disapprobation. Instead, I
have endeavored to paraphrase actual quotations to make
the points in a more general way. Those quotations which
are present are included because they are particularly
helpful and relevant to the point being made. |