By Victor M Fontane
Based on the concept of super imposition and de-super imposition.
The methodology of Advaita Vedanta. In Advaita Vedanta the journey is from ignorance to knowledge, from not knowing to knowledge and to realizing.
Parable of the Donkey.
In an old village in India, the washerman (he works as a dirty clothes collector in the village and goes to the river to wash, dry and fold and bring it back for a living) one day forgot the rope he uses to tie the donkey that he uses to transport all his clothes to the river and already in the river he began to complain about how to tie the animal so that it does not escape. In great trouble and almost crying, a wise man passed by who asked him what the problem was and he explained. The wise man told him: "That's no problem, do as if you tied the donkey with an imaginary rope but let the donkey see you and problem solved". He did what the wise man told him and of course when the donkey felt he was tied, everything went well. When he finished, he loaded the donkey with the clean clothes and asked him to walk back to the village, but the donkey did not move. This is called “superimposition”. So he went to see the sage who lived nearby and explained his new problem, the donkey was not moving and the sage told him "that's easy, again pretend you are untying the donkey and it will move". . Then the washerman went back to the donkey and did what he was told, pretending to untie it, solved the situation for him. This is called
de-superimposition. This is how the human beings behaves, believing in conditions that do not exist, in religions, politics, etc. as they have been superimposed throughout history. Making the decision to stop through the knowledge and analysis of these non-existent conditions and de-hypnotize to show that we are not bound and capable of freeing oneself, it is called de-superimposition.
Parable of the Emperor Yanaka ( is this true or is that true?).
One evening the mighty Emperor Yanaka went to sleep in his palace and at midnight he was suddenly awakened by one of his guards shouting: “your highness wake up, the enemy has attacked, the enemy is upon us, there’s an invasion, we must go and defend”. He jumped out of bed and say: “call out the generals, give me my armor, my bow, arrows, sword and shield” and went out to fight a terrible battle. Unfortunately is defeated and captured. The invader king said to Janaka: “you’re of royal blood so I won’t kill you but you’re banned from your kingdom, your empire is now mine so you have to leave. He walks and beg for food but nobody help him out of fear. He walked days and days to the border and got as a beggar to the next kingdom where they were giving food to poor people like soup kitchen, and he got in the line but when he got to the server, the soup was gone and he beg for what was left in the pot so they serve a little in the bowl but he was so weak that he spilled the food on the ground and being so desperate he collapses weeping and started liking the dust but suddenly awake and sits up in his bed his heart pounding and all sweaty and looks around in the dark royal bed chamber. It was a nightmare but he is a philosopher and started questioning: “it this true or is that true?”, all the time falling sick. Then the sage Ashtravakra is visiting the palace and talked to him and asked him: so, emperor how are you today and Janaka just asked, “is this true or is that true?” And Ashtravakra all that happened to you there is here now? Janaka answered, no. Ashtravakra asked again: was all of this there when you were miserable? and Janaka answered, no. So, neither this is true nor that is true but you’re the truth. Everything is an appearance, is nothing true, just a construct of our mind. Establishing that his situation when he was miserable is real and also when he was back on his palace are superimpositions. Understanding that none of them were real but he himself is the reality is the
de-superimposition. And that’s the core of Vedanta teachings, we are Brahman. Life is like a dream, comes and go but the dreamer is eternal is you.
This is why humans can’t evolve to get enlightenment or achieve his highest potential because are attached to the physical realm, as Jesus nailed in the cross of materialism. Which is the real teaching in the death and resurrection of the Christ, freeing himself from that cross.
Parable of the Princess Kashi.
In an ancient Indian kingdom a theatrical performance was staged in the king’s court and one of the characters was supposed to be the Princess Kashi (Benares ancient spiritual city). So, the Queen asked: “Who is going to play the little girl?” and said, “well the prince, her son, was five years old at that time and we can dress him up as a girl. He looks cute and will be the princess of Kashi on the play”. The prince looked so cute in the princess’s dress that the queen asked the artist of the court to paint a photograph so he posed for the painting. The play went very nice and they stored the painting in the castle attic.
Fifteen years passed, the prince forgot all about the play and grew up and was doing all kind of things, riding and shooting arrows and learning his princely affairs. One day exploring on the castle went to the attic and found between lots of junk the painting of princess Kashi with the date, 15 years ago. He thought, she is about my age and fell in love with her. Then decided, “I marry her and she will be may queen”. But he is too shy to tell his mother or anybody else about it and got sad not knowing where to find princess Kashi or maybe she was already married.
Then looking so sad one day one old wise minister took him aside and asked him “what’s going on?, you can trust and tell me”. The prince told him he found the portrait of a girl on the attic and fell in love but don’t know where to find her. They went to the attic and when the minister saw the picture told him: “you have to sit down” and explained him all about the theatrical performance and that the princess of Kashi on the painting is him.
“That thou art”, you are, that he said.
This world is our princess of Kashi. Swami Vivekananda says: “things are dead in themselves, we breathe life into them, the we run after them or run away from them, not just attraction, also repulsion. Physical realm is just a manifestation of the awareness, dressed in different ways reason why is impermanent and always changing. We, the awareness consciousness are eternal and not changing.
Parable of the tenth man.
Friends were on a journey and they crossed a river and after having crossed the river they thought: “did we all cross safely or anybody drown, let’s count”. One of them counted: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine. “Oh my God one of us just drowned, our poor friend is dead. They started crying and a wise person ask them why were they crying. They asked him to count again and he told them, the person counting is not counting himself, the tenth person was always there.
So, God is always there, Atman is always there but humans don’t see him because we are born with natural ignorance about our own nature. All the problems of the body are in the body, all the problems of the mind are in the mind, all ignorance and confusion are in the intellect and our pure consciousness is the witness of all that. First, the crucial teaching about how to know ourselves as the witness consciousness of our own creation: our mind, our body and our physical experiences and life.
Fulfillment or realization cannot be affected by anything in the world. Not ignorance then error and then sorrow, samsara, then the indirect teaching, the knowledge you get from teachers and books and then the direct realization when sorrow is removed.
Not counting the one that counts and feeling that one is missing is superimposition and also counting the one that counts, the tenth, is de-superimposition.
Parable of the lion cub. (Told by Swami Vivekananda)
This pregnant lioness was hunting a flock of sheep and jumped on a sheep but was heavy and died giving birth to the lion cub. Surrounded by sheep, they took care of him and slowly grew up thinking he was also a sheep. Over time he he bellowed like a sheep, ate grass make friends with other sheep and walked around in the herd of sheep.
So, one day this big old lion was hunting saw a flock of sheep and when he was going to attack and eat them he saw on the middle of the sheep this huge but magnificent young lion bellowing like a sheep and eating grass and got very puzzled. Carefully stalked the flock and isolated the young lion and asked him: “why are you behaving like this, you’re a lion as much as I am”. The young lion responded: “oh sir, please, let me go, you’re scaring me”, but you’re a lion the he said I’m not a lion, I’m a sheep. The old lion took him to a pond of water and told him: “you looks exactly like me, roar like me” and the young lion also roared and realized his identity as a lion.
The sheep really represents the material universe, the five elements, subject to all kind of situation that create suffering. But, the teachings in Vedanta tells you: You are the lion of Vedanta, the real you, the Self not a material creature but your true nature. Believing the young lion that he was a sheep because grew among them and learned from them is the superimposition but finding his true nature, the real self is the de-superimposition.
Human beliefs are mostly based on the experiences of others or taught by others without seeking the essence of their true self.
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