A Perfect World

Jack: Dear James Swartz,

I've been going through videos of your talks for awhile now. Thank you for it all.
I'm curious about a few things though. You mentioned something about a past life and
seemed quite sure when you mentioned it. How were you so sure that you had that
past life? Is it helpful to know about a past life? I know that through DNA I am
somewhat of an incarnation of my grandfather, and my life has a lot of strong parallels
with his too even though he died before me and I never got to meet him. Sometimes I
think I may something more than just DNA/vasanas passing through the generations.
Isaiah: Hi Jack! No, it is not pertinent to self inquiry to know about past lives. The best
way to view the reincarnation/rebirth thing is as the continual identification of yourself,
the subject (awareness), with the objects that appear in you i.e. thoughts, feelings,
memories, dreams, a body.
What is said to be reborn is the body and the mind. But are these you? The body and
the mind are known to you, awareness, so they cannot be you. They are unconscious
and you are conscious, so they cannot be you. They are also impermanent and unreal
(meaning changing), and you are what is real and unchanging so they cannot be you.
You, awareness, were never born and therefore cannot be reborn.
Jack: When you talk about people complaining about the world, I think about all of the
people around me who are like that. When you talk about people in Portland, Oregon
just sitting around in the coffee shops complaining about life and not enquiring, I see
that around me where I currently am, in Vancouver. I think there is a very similar
culture here. I want them all to shut up. They're complaining about the world, so I
complain about the world because it contains them. Why do I complain about
complainers?
Isaiah: Reality is non-dual, so if there are "others" then they would have to be you.
This is a great opportunity to see others as the self and to practice karma yoga i.e.
trying to perform appropriate actions for what you want, offering your actions to the
self and accepting whatever results come as a gift. Because what you want is a pure
mind for inquiry. Wanting the world to be different than it is causes agitation in the
mind and hinders inquiry.

Jack: Also, what about all this other behavior that people display that's not dharmic? It
seems that every time I hear you say something about some sort of ignorant behavior, I
see it plainly with family and friends. How can the world be perfect if these people
behave this way?
Isaiah: A perfect world means a perfectly ordered world. Everything in maya works
according to set rules and laws. Action is done and results are given. Due to ignorance,
people do perform adharmic actions, which could be viewed as imperfection. But even
the imperfection is perfect. Suffering, as you know, is one of the greatest teachers and
the most potent motivator for seeking freedom. Happy people do not seek freedom.
Jack: Speaking of complainers and adharmic (?) behavior. You mention certain types of
people that it's better not to hang around. My mom comes to mind, as does my sister.
What happens when these people are your family? I can barely stand to be in my
mom's presence sometimes. It's not nice to say, but she's very vulgar, she has a
complete victim complex, she can be racist, she blatantly accuses people of doing the
things that she does herself, she has addictions, she blatantly ignores her doctor's
advice, etc.
Isaiah: See the answer above about karma yoga. Using that, it does not matter what
results you get from your mother, good or bad, because you are going for a pure mind.
Jack: I'm going to be moving to a different country, and I've lived away from her a lot.
Part of me just wants to completely forget her, but part of me feels there are
obligations as her son to see her often and listen to her, despite hating what comes out
of her mouth, feeling like I'm being complacent by listening to it.
Isaiah: The apparent person can't run away from their stuff. It must be faced and dealt
with appropriately. If it is not, it will just come up in a different form at another time
and place. This is not because the apparent person is bad or needs improvement,
Vedanta says you are fine as you are. It is just that once again, you need a mature, pure
mind for inquiry.
Jack: Regarding ancestor worship, lately I've given a hard look at my family tree, doing
some research, finding graves, thinking about these people and their lives. On the one
hand it seems respectful, but on the other it seems to tie me to an identity in maya.
Isaiah: Ancestor worship is just to heal any emotional problems the apparent you has

with it's family. Emotional hangups hinder inquiry. An attitude of thankfulness for your
ancestors making everything possible for you to be here helps to remove those
hangups. If you think it ties you to your identity in maya, ask yourself how you know
that. If it is known to you that you are identified with an apparent identity, are you? If
it is an object known to you, how can it be you?
Jack: Sometimes I also don't get the basic idea that happiness is my true nature. I
don't understand why happiness gets to stay with awareness, yet other things are just
maya. Why isn't happiness just part of maya too? If happiness was my true nature,
then wouldn't I always be happy because I'm always awareness? My experience seems
to show otherwise. I'm not always happy or content.
Isaiah: The happiness Vedanta speaks of is not a feeling. Awareness is described as
ananda, which is referred to as bliss, sometimes giving rise to the notion that is is
experiential. But the more appropriate word is ananta, meaning having no end, no
limits. Another word used is purnah, fullness. As awareness you are not limited by the
maya appearing in you and you are whole and complete.
Maya is a duality, therefore there will be pleasure/pain, happiness/sorrow etc. Jack is a
part of that so he will be subject to those constant changes. When you say you are not
happy or content, you are referring to the object, Jack, that is known to you, limitless
awareness. You are always free of Jack.
Jack: Regarding the body being an object, why can I feel my body, but can't feel what
it's like to have someone else's body? If my body is just like anyone else's body, an
object in maya, what is this special connection to this one specific body about? I sit
here and feel my body, yet watch other bodies pass by. I don't feel those bodies, except
maybe sometimes when I feel empathy.
Isaiah: Awareness appears to be something depending on the upadhi it is viewed
through. An upadhi is a limiting adjunct and a classic example is this: If we have a
clear crystal, and we hold a red rose behind it, it appears to be red. But it is actually
clear. In the same way, formless awareness, you, appear to have form when you see
yourself through through Jack's mind. The conditioning is inherent to each individual
upadhi, so you only see Jack's thoughts and feelings and I only see Isaiah's.
There is no special connection to you and the body. How connected can you be to the
body when it disappears every time you close your eyes, think about something else,
dream, or go into deep sleep. It comes and goes and changes. You are always present

and unchanging.
Jack: Regarding the Intellect and the Mind, I don't quite get the difference.
Isaiah: The mind is the emotional center or heart. This is where the feelings appear.
It is also the doubting function. The mind also combines all of the five sense
perceptions into one unified experience. It them passes the information on to the
intellect so it can be analyzed and a determination as to what needs to be done can be
made. It then passes this determination back to the mind which prompts the organs of
action to act.
Jack: I was also wondering about living a dharmic life as a gay. I'm not gay, but I have
gay friends and it seems that gay marriage is becoming an issue in North America lately.
You mentioned that there is a basic model for straight people to follow, but what about
gays?
Isaiah: OPINION ALERT: It seems like North America's fascination with being gay and
gay marriage is merely one of religious and moral hangups, not one of dharma.
That being said, dharma is simply meeting the situations that life presents as
appropriately as possible. How to do this is often just common sense, kind of like the
golden rule. It is built in. The rules of dharma are not absolute however. For instance,
non-injury is a dharmic value because hurting others is hurting yourself. But if someone
comes and attacks you, hurting them in self defense would then be dharmic, meaning
the appropriate response. Or another example is honesty, another dharmic value. But
just being honest and saying what ever you are thinking whenever you want can
cause injury, and therefore in that case, compassion would trump honesty and you
would zip your lip.
Finally, in regards to homosexuality, it can be an issue of svadharma, or the personal
dharma, meaning nature, of an individual. If someone is trying to be something they
are not, they are not working out their stuff and this will not help inquiry. If someone is
straight and merely acting gay out of curiosity, for shock value, or because they had a
bad encounter with the opposite sex, then that would be going against their nature and
therefore a violation of svadharma. But if someone is actually gay, then they should be
gay, accept it wholeheartedly and go with it. Trying to be something they are not, and
pretending to be straight would be a violation of svadharma.
Jack: Thank you for your help.

Isaiah: You are welcome.