Sun One is here again, and with it the beginning of Gurudeva’s annual Maha Samadhi observances.

Many devotees have arrived.

Bodhinatha spoke this morning on achieving the overview through meditation, learning how to step back from the reasoning mind. By this process, one starts to see the forest and not the trees, and insight comes.

Emotions take us out of this overview, because we think we are the emotion.

He explained how we could understand these concepts through the four perspectives of the Shum language which are carved on Iraivan temple’s pillars.

The first is Shumif, the perspective of meditation, that awareness travels through the mind. This is the view of pure advaita.

The second is Simnif, the perspective of science derived from observation, the view that you are stationary and the world moves.

The third is Mooif, the perspective of the intellect, of scholars, based on explanations of knowledge, but not direct experience.

And the third is Difee, the perspective of space, of communication with the inner and outer worlds and even with other planets. This is the perspective of theism.

He gave the example of treating depression according to each of these perspectives. From Simnif, the science perspective, one would take a pill to lift one chemically out of the depression. From the moolif perspective, one would be talked out of it by a psychologist. From the difee perspective, one would go to the temple and place the problem at the feet of the Deity. And from Shumif perspective, depression is an area of the mind that always exists, and “solving” depression is a matter of moving awareness into another area of the mind.

We have posted today Bodhinatha’s talk on the subsuperconsciousness and the fourth and fifth dimensions of the mind.

He reads from Gurudeva’s writings and then gives a marvelous bhashya, bringing these high concepts down to real life contexts.

Don’t miss it!

And the talk he gave this morning on the Four Perspectives in Shum will be coming in a few days.