I would like to write a chapter about this subject because most people in the West who start seeking, their first contact often is with Christianity. A search for God or searching religious experiences is usually the result. There are numerous similarities between the teachings of Advaita Vedanta and the Christian faith. These similarities, however, might be interpreted in Advaita in a different way.
A Christian is convinced of his faith in God and sees a powerful entity outside themselves. These truly experiences and faith can not and should not be denied.
In contrast, Advaita is no faith or belief; Advaita promotes researchinto faith and conviction. It is not about the content of faith, but the phenomenon of 'faith' per se. Advaita promotes awareness of your conditioned identity based on the law of cause / effect (which is also based on a belief.)
A convinced Christian is not wrong when he asserts that he believes in God as the Almighty Creator! The ultimate truth does not exclude any truth!
In the view of Advaita, there is nothing outside yourself. The world appears as an experience IN you. There is no separation between you and the world (nonduality - no duality). No separation between inner and outer. So believing in God as something outside yourself is not in conflict with anything else.
I once saw a television program that was about people who struggled with faith in God. These people were talking to Christians who still wanted to help them to find truth in the Christian faith. There was a bitter old man who in his life had many setbacks. . He had lost his wife and could not handle this loss. He blamed God for everything that had happened to him and that's why he turned away from God. He was invited to come to a monastery. A monk asked him to write his feelings and problems on a piece of paper. When he had done this, the monk asked him to hang his paper than on a special tree. This was a symbolic gift to God. Now he gave his problems to God, told the monk. But the old man shrugged his shoulders. The monk tried to make clear that his problems now were laid with God but the man still felt that his problems were his. I thought that this was because the monk offers God as a separate entity. And as long the man feels separated he will not find peace. A God who allows suffering is a God of nothing, said the bitter man.
Now I will try to explain what happens here in the vision of Advaita. The old man knows that he is suffering . He knows this because he is aware of his suffering, he is the witness of his suffering.Witnessing your suffering seems an offshoot of yourself (you look at yourself, it seems as if you distance yourself from yourself) Man has the ability to distance themselves from themselves. You can always imagine that you see yourself through the eyes of another. Well, the 'other' is indeed 'yourself', because you're the one who makes that representation. You shall review yourself from a different viewpoint. If you pay attention to this position of looking, you see that your whole personality appears in this Seeing (contemplation).
There can be made a mental separation between watching your suffering and the Watching itself. However, this last show, you will never see, because then you watch 'watching' and that watching will watch the watching and so on...so there will always be a last 'watcher'...and that is what you are. In watching watching nobody shows up who appropriates 'watching' ...and thát's what you are. You can never see The Last Watcher or Witness because that is what YOU are. You, You, with a capital letter because: there is God. God (for a while temporarily) as a mental separation. Here comes the Christian "God sees everything". God as a Watcher.
Christians see it as blasphemy when you say you are God himself. They are not wrong because you are not God, no, God is you! Here comes the Christian "God's will" . There is no free will, how can anyone go against the will of God? Whatever you think you want and choose, you will appear in God.
Christians make a mental separation from God. This is true, but also it is not. It seems as if a personality has primarily nothing to do with God, because a person leads his life and thinks he has his own free will. You have fully identified with your personality. This identification is however nothing but an addiction. Your mind imagines itself separated from God.
The personality can not see God as an eye can not see itself. (Here comes the Christian "thou shalt worship no images" .)
.A Christian believes in a mental separation, but he believes that God can be experienced. How can you experience God if you don't allow Gods work IN you? God can only be experienced as you allow him to do this, that is, in Christian terms: if your personality surrenders to God. Lay down the personality in God's hands is nothing more than Surrender to That What Is.
.Advaita says: the personality is an illusion, give up personality. In Christian terms: surrender to God.
But you can never let go a personality. How can you release yourself? Letting go your ego is nonsense. Your ego will never give up itself . And that is not necessary. You can surrender your personality by understanding that there is nobody who does something. Free will is an illusion. In Christian terms: accept God and follow His Will. In advaita terms: become aware of 'That What Sees, become aware of who or what is watching you: This is You. I Am.
What does God want according to Christianity? That you follow Him, that you surrender to Him. Let God does his work in you. This is the liberation, the Promised Paradise. Allowing God means that you experience God. . Experiencing God means letting go and release your life in God's hands.
Advaita tells you this: God basically wants or does nothing. This is because you will find him in His Creation. And that's you. You are His Creation.
In the tradition of Christianity, one goes to a church to pray or listen to the sermon of the pastor or a minister. In the tradition of Advaita Vedanta there are meetings to ask questions to a teacher. These meetings are called 'satsangs'. . Through questions and answers, knowledge is transferred.
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