(As always I’ll clean up my typos later, it’s too fresh off the finger tips for me to notice half of them now)

Struck by a few things:

1) As always, I really love how in-depth Acaryaji goes with his lectures. I know there was a point while we were all watching I saw people in the chat saying they weren’t understanding a thing…

And to be perfectly fair if you looked at me after he got finished and said “summarize”. I’ve got nothing. I’m not at that level of knowing with this material where I trust myself enough to even begin to attempt that. But even if I was, I’d be hesitant given the amount of information covered… It reminds me of that game they used to make everyone play in school. Where the teacher tells someone a sentence on one side of the room and has everyone whisper it into each others each. Until it makes it all the way to the other end, and then we compare what we think was said versus how it started.

I guess I mention that example to say, sometimes what we think was said isn’t always what was actually said. And I suppose there in lies in importance of going back to the text. So we don’t drift too far off course.

1a) To piggyback off the last section, I really enjoy how in-depth these lectures are. It’s really unsatisfying at this point in my life to listen to people speak in very vague terms about… Life, reality, whatever. Like I was listening to a lecture by a Sufi yesterday, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. That used to run a Sufi center is Northern California. It was interesting. I have no doubt that he has come into contact with some form of Divine Essence on his path. However he chooses his frame it… But as much as I could sympathize with where he was coming from. I think he only quoted the Quran, twice maybe. And that was honestly the most interesting bit! Because it was some statement about Moses saying he was going to the place where the two seas meet and the dead fish becomes alive. And then he proceeded to elaborate on how this was a reflection of how our knowledge sort of exists in two forms. As it exists in books like an awareness of the fact it’s a thing; versus it being a lived reality to you.

And that statement made me reflect on how appreciative I am for having Acaryaji here to expound on all these texts. In a way that wouldn’t have been approachable otherwise. And that’s not to say that I get it all on the first pass, but it’s wonderful that there is so much to be had. That it’s going to require many many passes.

2) In the vein of 1a, there was a question in the Q&A from a gentleman. That said something to the effect of… He’s learned from the Ramakrishna mission, he comes from a Brahmin family, now he’s studying with Vimarsha. So on… And essentially how to juggle all these systems. Acaryaji made an interesting point about you being able to have multiple parallel systems at once. But the more interesting point to me was when he was elaborating on Patanjali and how he was in conversation with all these different people. Buddhists, whomever. So maybe we borrow some terminology, some metaphors. We play work some ideas other people have… But we ultimately take it back and compare it within our own system. We’re not trying to homogenize them entirely.

And I’ve noticed, granted my initial influences with Sanatana Dharma was via the Ramakrishna Mission. But it’s not like was extraordinarily well versed in anything anyhow, even now. But I’ve been in this mode of thinking about reality for maybe 7 or 8 years now. And I’ve read and listened very wildly since, but Hindu thought has massively dyed my understanding of the world over this period of time. To the point where I can listen and appreciate the insights the different paths offer… But agree to disagree on finer details. And not feel compelled to reconcile the unreconcilable.

And as I study the content being offered here more. The less and less interested I am, in things at a very superficial level. And the more I want to focus on this. Like I’ve got a few books that I just shelved for the time being… Because I don’t want it competing for my time. When I know this is what I really want. I can go read those later, once I have this as a basis to compare it to.

2a) To jump off the statement about paths. I watched Bhagavad Gita Discourse 3 yesterday as well as that 2 hour long lecture on YouTube that proceeded this Yogasutra course… And there was a similar line of thought in the Q&A. Talking about all these paths being like mountains to climb, and while nobody can really say to what height different ones can take you to. Because we can’t meaningfully climb them all, at least in terms of spiritual paths. He made an interesting point of it being like looking across the valley and seeing your friend on top of another mountain. So like work that Sufi master I mention, or whomever else. You can tell that someone has achieved something or not on their path.

And it makes me think of my time living in the Seattle area, for a brief bit when I first moved up there I was working in the Puyallup Valley. So we are in the shadow of Mt Rainer; and part of the training for that job was an evacuation procedure… If the volcano went off, it was going to be about 15 minutes to get to higher ground before the mudslide(Lahar) wiped out the facility. So there was a map of all these hills around we were supposed to run toward and climb if the sirens began to go off.

I mention that evacuation to say, I suppose if the valley floor is all the suffering and selfinflicted nonsense we can get ourselves into. Any path is worth climbing if you don’t have a path, and I can’t begrudge anyone for the ones that choose. Even if I don’t agree with all the details of it.

But I’m glad I’ve decided to climb this mountain with all of you. Because as someone pointed out in the Zoom chat. There’s always a mango metaphor somewhere in these lectures.

And what sort of crazy person doesn’t like mangos? 🥭

It terms of the substance of the lecture itself, I don’t have much to add at this point. I’m still internalizing that as best I can. I’m only talking about this other because it’s the only thing I feel I can say with any meaningful degree of input on my part.

But maybe one day. I’m still working on reviving that afformentioned “dead fish”.