After taking this Vedanta class with Tadatmananda I have decided that the primary focus of the lineage I will be focusing on will be Dayananda as it seems the one closest to the Shankara lineage with Ramakrishna and Vivekananda to complete it thus simplifying my reading quite a bit.

Instead of going broadly I am focus my energies on a few teachers. The nice thing about this is that these teachers are well covered in their teachings and we can read what they wrote over and over.

• Swami Dayanananda Saraswati. Pramana based teaching. His teachings will be the core Jnana texts.
• Swami Vivekananda. Vast covering all the Yogas. But his complete volumes are a lifetime of study.
• Sri Ramakrishna. Gospels of Sri Ramakrishna cover everything in one spot.

Anyways, this vastly reduces my teachings and teachers I use and what my core study will entail. This also means that certain teachers I have will be moved to a secondary scope.

• Sivananda. While the teacher of all the teachers I follow. He has been superceded.
• Chinamayananda. His teachings are still useful even if they are not completely correct as they inspire the Hindu in me.
• Satyadananda. He will be used primarily for Hatha Yoga and asanas.
• Aurobindo. Not in this life.

All this means that my study simplifies a lot. And the teachers that are left exist for me to experience.

You have weak agency. So any small amount of alcohol is going to pull you in. You are not strong enough to have a small amount and then stop. You will end up having more and more and it will pull you down. (Hmm AI wrote the previous.)

So I need to avoid it completely. So I will no longer

I am changing the method again. The Yoga Sutras and multiple translation has been working but the same has not been the case with Bhagavad Gita. I am going to change the method to reading the Gita from Chinamayananda's commentaries since his teachings are shorter and then ending with Dayananda at the end of the evening.

I will read th Bhagavad Gita as is a chapter at a time during the evening. So an update.

• Hanuman Chalisa in the morning and continuing with the memorizing.
• Yoga Sutras analyzing the multiple texts and doing analysis.
• Bhagavad Gita read the Chinamaya translation and append with Daryananada in the evening. This may run into the first part of the Outer time but it is okay. The evening is largely devoted to study anyways.
• Read a chapter of the Gita in full and study and contemplate a singular verse of the Narada Bhakti Sutras or Bhaja Govindam in the evening.

With the Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita I realize that I need to read the commentaries. Without the commentaries I am not getting the clear sense of the message. But I also don’t want to just read what the commentaries wrote. I want to read these with my own understanding.

Essentially with the Yoga Sutras I am reading with Hariharananda, Satyananda and Edwin Bryant as the basis. Hariharananda has the closest to pure Vyasa commentary while the other two are simplified commentaries. In a way the other two have a bias even if they are exhorting the primary text. But they do provide a valuable commentary nonetheless the less.

The Bhagavad Gita I am reading is in the original form but I also want to read with Dayananada and Chinamayananda commentary. Again I want to read and understand at the high level to think through the verses before reading the commentaries.

So my basis will be going like this:

1. Spend one or two days on the same verses.
2. Read the original without commentary and contemplate.
3. Sit with it and write your own notes.
4. Read the commentaries. Plug the holes in your knowledge gaps.

With the Yoga Sutras I will be going 1-2 verses a day. With the Bhagavad Gita I will go about 3-4 verses a day. This translates to about the same time period for both texts.

Write these in the Kindle so I am able to track the thoughts.

My mistake with my process is that I am trying to get to new projects all the time. That is actually not the goal. The goal is to get through the routine as fast as possible. So the process shouldn't be to start new projects. The projects exist for the sake of fulfilling the routine. The routine is what matters the most.

So everyday the focus is to get through the routines as fast as possible. As part of the routine. This means a bit more simplicity in that since we are continuously optimizing each part of the routine. The goal is to make the checklists for the daily to be extremely strong.

What is currently transpiring is that I have three sets of trackers Github, Notes, and Google Docs. I keep looking at the Google Docs even though the place I need to keep track which is automated is Github. So I need to get back to Github as the primary source.

This means I will need to migrate to Github completely and off Google Docs. I know I just moved to it. But it is actually easier to manage the improvements as I go through the tasks rapidly in Github.

Another aspect is to go through the routine list before ever reading.

My goal with my spiritual practice is moksha. It is not self-help, it is not to feel better, it is moksha! It may take me many many lifetimes but meditation and study and everything else is based on the notion of me working towards moksha.

So this is a reminder for myself. I am not pursuing a goal of studying these things for the sake of studying these things. I am doing these things because I want to achieve moksha.

This is why the Inner and Outer practice is important. The Inner path is focused completely on experiential and the Outer is focused on getting the appropriate information. The outer is a pramana for the inner world.

This also means that the Inner period is worked on as a mediation in of itself. Focused on training the mind continuously. Focus on the mantra as a part of this and any thoughts not it as a thought or write it down for later and return to the task. We are not looking for improvement during this period. We are strictly looking for observation.

During the Inner time I can read scriptural texts but need to do so slowly and with a focus on internalizing.

1053 verses so about three years to get through at a steady pace. My goal is to focus on reading these and their commentaries. Each text has an idea of when to be read.

The body is unclean and temporary. Alcohol seems to take me into the body where I feel its pull and weight. It takes me away from the eternal. Alcohol pulls me down. What does it even give me?

I am on day two of a hangover and I feel awful. The progress I made last two weeks has stalled as my body feels gross and unclean. It is trying to push out the poison that I put into it.

So I am going to avoid it:

• It destroys my mind and focus on the eternal. It takes my focus away.
• It makes me feel gross and unclean.
• It gives me body problems and sets my body off balance.

I have dabbled in a bunch of different sastras and read a bunch of different texts but I haven’t gotten into any depth. Further, my Inner period is scattered as I feel like I should be reading during this period but then get scattered. This is not working out. I am still on screens and it isn’t actually making me better. I want less screen time during my Inner time. Screens are the definition of Outer focus. Further, my reading has not been to internalize. So I am changing my routine to only focus on a few areas of focus.

The Limb texts should be completely read only during the Outer period. The Inner period is spent in the mind, not in the world. So no podcasts, no external distractions, what happens in the world is not important during this period.

For each of these texts:

1. Memorize. Internalize by making them a part of you.
2. Reflect First on the Verse. Then read the commentary.
3. Contemplate on them when doing your routine

Another year another tax day. I realize that tax day may come once a year, but the stress is year round. The problem I face with taxes is that I consider it as something in the past or something to do in the future. The stress is there year round. This causes all sorts of problems as I never give the taxes their due until the last minute and well I don’t end up doing a good job and likely lose quite a bit in over or under payment. This is a bit annoying to deal with.

So I am forcing taxes to be in the present. They are a daily occurrence and will be handled as part of my daily routine. Like other things that I need to plan for in the future. I don’t do well with calendars, I don’t do well with them. If I bring it to the present and am always dealing with it, it leaves my mind.

Another aspect that I am going to be doing is just paying the estimates that are on the voucher instead of trying to calculate what I owe. This will simplify my taxes as I can just pay what I owe the following April. I was attempting to get an exact calculation trying to play the estimate game, but this is getting confusing.

To be frank the way the IRS does it is actually good because it means you can just focus on growth and not about what taxes you owe. If you just pay the last year’s and you make less you get a refund, if you do better than last year then you get an interest free loan until you have to pay taxes. This is actually a great incentive structure.