Vedanta and The Meaning of Experience
Vedanta and The Meaning of Experience
Dear Keith,
Below Ive tried to answer your question.
Keith: Would you be willing to answer that earlier question
perhaps under the umbrella "The simple act of lifting (a
heavy object) according to Vedanta?"
Ram: Vedanta is a means of Self knowledge. It is not a
philosophy or a school of spiritual thought. So Vedanta
deals with meaning, specifically, the one to whom
experience occurs and the one who interprets experience.
Vedanta says that any experience has no meaning without
inquiring into who is having the experience. In the statement
above three factors are stated or implied. The stated factors
are a heavy object and the act of lifting. The implied factor is
the lifter. We will assume that the lifter is the human body,
powered by the mind. But it might just as well be a freight
elevator.
The act of lifting has no meaning to the heavy object, unless
that heavy object is a conscious being, like a fat person or
and elephant. If the heavy object is a conscious being then
we would have to inquire into how the object saw the act of
being lifted. Assuming that the heavy object is insentient we
cannot make any statement about the act of lifting from its
point of view.
Nor can we make any statement about the act of lifting itself
because lifting is simply an impersonal karmic process
devoid of consciousness. But, assuming we are not talking
about an elevator, the act of lifting can have meaning to a
conscious being. We can eliminate animals, elephants for