bhagavad gita english advaita wise

what should a poor arjuna do? so many english gitas!

first, if we're talking the gita with shankara's commentary (bhasya), there's really only two. gambhirananda or warrier.

second, if we're talking modern advaita vedanta commentary, we're basically talking chinmayananda or dayananda.

last, for sanskrit translation in particular, there's the sargent. and for an advaitin transcreation, there's the jacobs. other than that, there's like ten thousand others.

lastly, there's the nikhilananda, which may be all of the above.

to clarify, as for english gitas, advaita-wise more or less, there's seven: gambhirananda, warrier, chinmayananda, dayananda, nikhilananda, jacobs, and sargent.

Ode to Awareness

Supreme attention is attention without thought. Attention without thought is unadulterated awareness.

Awareness is like the sea if the sea is the heart. And awareness is like the sky if awareness is the eye.

Awareness is the rope, the double-helix of nonduality. And thought is the snake, the superimposition.

Awareness is the godhead and awareness is the soul. Awareness is brahman and atman is awareness.

Awareness is consciousness without a doubt. But we already know that, don't we, awareness?

footnotes

ATTENTION is about as experiential as one can get. and attention without thought is about as equally non-experiential. beginning at the beginning to end in the timeless is the real art of maya.

all metaphors come in twos, vehicle and tenor. the vehicle is like the finger and the tenor is the moon. the third part of a metaphor is always paradox. it's the unsung which the tenor sings.

some talk about the rope and some don't. ain't no thang.

awareness is the ground, the movie screen, the open field in which the child, space-time, is now appearing.

the last math, the final point. if attention minus thought equals the absolute godhead of brahman awareness, then attention plus deconstruction equals that as well. but who am i to say?

dedicated to ulladu narpadu

Deluxe Imagination

i.

From out of the deep

Arises the dream,

From out of the dream

Arises the scream

From dream time

Waking in space.

ii.

There’s no real borderline

Between the dreamtime in sleep

And the dreamtime in space–

All dreamtime is

Gradual enlightenment.

iii.

The noumenal

Reality

Of absolute

Awareness is

Spontaneously

Self-aware

And the essence

Of self-awareness

Smells like dreamtime

iv.

From out of material ignorance comes the green scream of aha!

—it’s just a dream my maya dreamed one afternoon.

footnotes

between  dream  time  and  space  

is the scream of a newborn baby

like paradox is the stuff of myth 

and myth is the stuff of maya

NIRVANA SMELLS LIKE SAMSARA

haiku to duality and beyond!

deconstruction

indication

koan

dedicated to olson, earl of gloucester and lux, the revelator

Ode to Twosday

i.

After the rock of deep sleep and the ripe vegetation of the sleeping dream, the dreamlike awareness of the dream awaking is like a great hallucination to universal consciousness.

In such living color, consciousness, of course, identifies with the amazing body-mind. Wouldn’t you? Now, it is seeing through its error of its being it, just because it hurts.

Not to mention, in America, there’s still a thing called public education, with its disciplines of reading, writing, history, geography, and rhythm & blues.

ii.

After modern education is postmodern deconstruction. In India, they call this learning neti neti. It’s one of the two designed usages for the tool of mind.

The second honest usage of the mind is called indication, or pointing. It’s basically consciousness talking to consciousness in simple metaphor, or maybe charades!

The third and double-secret usage of the mind is called paradox, koan, maya. You read it here first. That the permanent appears to be impermanent is one trick pony.

footnotes

lately it's like if advaita vedanta is the sea in which the ten-thousand foot wave of nisargadatta maharaj appears, then sign me up.

the genius of gaudapada is in seeing that the waking dream is just another state of consciousness, as is deep sleep and the sleeping dream, and not consciousness, the fourth, the force, only.

before self-awareness is self-consciousness. before self-consciousness is the inorganic molecular rock of ignorance and it's evolving organization.

all poetry is just three chords and the truth. all truth is deconstruction and its revelation.

that deconstruction is one of the two legitimate uses of the mind indicates a certain kind of clairvoyance, or what arthur m. bell calls "the dependence of seventh substages on the next highest stage." paradox, koan, and maya, oh my!

it is said when consciousness points at consciousness, the fool looks at consciousness. who says that?

Jnana's Inferno

Just as there’s never not that

absolute awareness,

there’s never not this

self-awareness.

Like sparks of a silent inferno,

this forms, evolves, and realizes,

in countless iterations of that.

An American Mahavakya

Before one knows I am That (or consciousness is the absolute, atman is brahman, tat asi tvam), one must first know one is consciousness.

In America, where materialism rules like the new boss, it’s believed the brain produces consciousness, like money produces happiness, lol. Else sing about Jesus and drink wine all day.

Meanwhile, all across the land, the consciousness prophets are selling their product as best as they can. For when in Rome, one either does what the Romans do, or go ignored (or worse co-opted) into that good green night.

This turning, this new metaparadigm, this abandoning of one’s conditioning to identify as mind or body or body-mind, requires this kind of elementary education. Mama, don’t let the doctors of divinity teach your children.

Everything appears in consciousness. Think about it. If everything appears in consciousness, and I am witnessing everything, then I am consciousness. This is an American Mahavakya.

Good Words

A good word is an axe

tearing down my houses of belief.

A good word is an arrow

shooting straight through the mist

finding the heart of my beloved.

And like all good words

they’re left behind

on an abandoned field

in empty space

and unadulterated timelessness.

.

Comans on Shankara on Gaudapada on Samadhi

"There is also the problem that the word samadhi has been reified to the extent that it embodies a “mystical” state of consciousness which is seen to be the goal of all spiritual practice, as it forms the necessary condition for the realisation of Brahman. In the literature extolling the importance samadhi the word is frequently translated as “super consciousness”, a meaning that has nothing to do with the etymology of the word samadhi. Such translations succeed only in further conditioning the seeker by fostering an imagination as to what Self-knowledge is like, and what is its precondition. The problem with this whole enterprise is that the seeker then assiduously tries to cultivate a particular type of experience, the nature of which is in the imagination, and this is done at the cost of neglecting the Self that, according to the Advaita of Sankara, is simply Awareness itself. In short, the whole search for a “mystical” samadhi experience can be a mistaken adventure, in that it can amount to an ignorant denial of the Self, for in searching for an experience of the Self the searcher overlooks the fact – and the teaching of this fact is made explicit in such Upanişads as Brhadaranyaka and Kena- that Brahman, the ultimate subject, pure Awareness, cannot be experienced objectively like a sense object, because it is Experience itself.

According to the second explanation in the commentary, i.c.. “samadhi is that in which one is resolved”, Gauḍapada is using the word samadhi as a description of the nature of Brahman, rather than the idea that Brahman is to be gained through a samadhi experience. In this interpretation, which seems to be the one the commentator prefers judging from his introduction to the following verse (“Since it was said that Brahman itself is samadhi, motionless, without fear…”), Brahman is said to be samadhi itself, just as the turiya -Self was described earlier as “free from all division” (nirvikalpa) (2.35). According to this understanding, the turiya -Self is inherently nirvikalpa and as such it is “samadhi” by nature. What this means is that the turiya -Self, as pure Awareness, is Experience per se (anubhūtisvarüpa), or in the words of the Brhadaraṇyaka Upanişad: “This Self, the experiencer of everything (sarvänubhūh), is Brahman” (2.5.19). In this statement of the Upanisad the Self is presented as Experience itself. Thus there are two views in Advaita, and at a certain level they are quite divergent: the first, more “yogic” view, advocates realisation through the cultivation of a samadhi experience: the second takes its stand on the Self as self-revealing Awareness, as Experience per se, and while it does not deny the value of meditation it looks somewhat critically upon the samadhi-oriented search for a special experience of the Self. I believe that the latter view accords more closely with the teachings of Sankara and his disciples."

from The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta: A Study of Gaudapada, Sankara, Suresvara and Padmapada by Michael Comans

Being Nonduality

Materialism is a great disease. Truly changing one’s metaparadigm from materialism to nondualism takes a whole lot of medicine.

Turning from the belief that consciousness rises from the material to the experiential fact that consciousness is foundational doesn’t ordinarily happen overnight.

Many people fall into the trap of just believing consciousness is foundational. Nonduality is not belief, but being only.

But believing in nonduality is not a bad thing. It’s just still a thing. It may even be a good thing, if you believe there’s still further to go.

footnotes

the language of duality is right and left, up and down, past and present, this and that. the language of nonduality is right and left, up and down, past and present, this and that. when you see nonduality on the road, drop it, kill it. throw away both thorns.

belief is like the water we swim in. the first stroke in unbelieving is understanding what belief is, and that it isn't.

in america, the trap of believing in nonduality is often accompanied by the trappings of some foreign culture where nonduality is not a foreign concept, like it is in most america.

concurrently while reading foreign works of nonduality, it helps to keep in mind that its intended audience was swimming in the sea of a certain belief system of its own. exhibit a: the great hymns of shankara.

one knows the water one swims in by attending to what one is figuratively breathing. another name for lucid dreaming is lucid believing.

the tool of nonduality is used to deconstruct duality and indicate reality, and not to idolize in any way. thus i am writing to my intended audience, myself.

god and ego are our co-dependent idols, my fellow sentient being.

1. nonduality is not big science.

2. little science is earnestly experimental.

3. inquisitive science is faithfully theoretical.

4. approving theory without inquiry is the definition of belief.

5. religion is big belief.

6. big belief is the latest synthesis of the most popular conspiracy theories.

7. meet the new empire.

Devotion to Reality

i.

Thoughts may deconstruct the unreal or point to the real, but thought is not itself real.

In the world, only love comes close to the real. In reality, only this self-shining consciousness is real.

At best, science deconstructs and myth indicates, but only one’s attention minus thought is real.

ii.

Some people find themselves, thru the evolution of life, at a place in which devotion to a single teacher is essential.

There’s the inner teacher and the outer teacher, of which there’s an embodied teacher and a teacher’s written revelations.

Choose one and give that your devotion.

footnotes

thought is the stuff of dreams but reality is not a dream, neither the dream called dream nor the dream called reality.

romantic love is affection for a thought-form. unconditional love is affection for a being. reality is being.

western science was at its best deconstructing the roman christian empire, but at its worst theorizing its own materialistic one.

on the other hand, myth is at its best pointing to the unbelievable truth, but at its worst becoming religious belief.

cause and effect, god, reality, revelation, renunciation, resting, self-awareness.

Cyphering Self Hyphen Awareness

Absolute awareness is self-shining consciousness. The mind is what registers this truth.

Call this self-evident truth self-awareness. The mind is the hyphen in self-awareness. And it’s cypher.

The absolute by the power of its paradox is witnessing itself. This is how the mind sees self-awareness. It’s everywhere!

footnotes

the mind is a mirror. let me count the way.

my granddaughter turned five last month. she's beginning to talk about herself in the third person. i love how true duality begins.

another name for witnessing is self-awareness (being self-aware). another name for paradox is maya (illusion, delusion, occlusion). another name for everywhere is (god, universe, the void).

you don't choose the way. the way chooses to lose you.

before self-awareness is self-consciousness. it peaks in adolescence. sometimes it ends in self-inquiry. sometimes it needs another dreamtime.

this afternoon was ice-out on the river. to be honest, i'm not certain there was ever an ice-in.

there's a lot of esoteric terminology for the common passages in life. do not get lost in this terminology.

by the time you're reading this, you've already been there, but haven't done the math.

do yourself a favor and know your myth.

after revelations come the footnotes. if it's good enough for the blue cliff record, it's good enough for me.

creation without paradox is like mental masturbation. it sure feels good but honestly i need the eggs.

the mind is your tool. identifying with the mind makes you its.

these are the gitas for 2022.

the full-tilt shankara bhasyas are the gambhirananda and the warrier.

an abridged shankara is the nikhilananda. the deep translation is the sargent. a modern advaita vedanta commentary is the chinmayananda. and it appears the sargent is there for any further language-specific questions.

Mathcitananda

Desire minus thought equals love. Love without a name is called ananda.

The mundane minus thought equals being. Another name for being is consciousness. Self-shining consciousness is that. There is no name for that.

Book knowledge minus thought equals experiential knowledge. In other words, the manifested material universe minus all conceptual names and forms equals the unmanifested that, i.

footnotes

if om is omniscient,

call me aumanandada:

if A = a - t then A + t = a ,

but if t = a - A , and A = ∞ , then t = ( i² = −1 )

and ( i² = −1 ) = m(a)yA;

thus if k - t = K,

and aum - k = I,

then I = aumanandada.

endnotes

in advaita vedanta, the upanishads are that which is heard—revelation. the bhagavad gita is that which is remembered—myth. and the brahma sutra is that which has been codified—law. revelation always comes before myth, and myth always comes before the law.

The Heartwood of Nonduality

i.

There’s only awareness and self-awareness.

Self-awareness is the natural expression of awareness.

ii.

If self-awareness were a tree, being would be its heartwood.

And if being were the heartwood, mind would be the bell

iii.

of that experiential self-awareness

and memory, the rings within the tree itself.

iv.

Attention, do not mistake the rings of memory for the heartwood of being.

Further, don’t mistake the heartwood of self-shining consciousness for something other.

v.

Consciousness is awareness.

Nonduality is nonduality is nondual.

footnotes

divine imagination is ringing who am i? who am i? who am i?

materialism is not as much a theory as it is a postulate.

thought is the stuff of now. memory is the stuff of thought. ego is the stuff of memory. nirvana is the stuff of samsara.

there's no logic to life. there's only the story of its happening.

that the absolute equals attention minus cognition is the real mass-energy equivalence.

Math from Aum to Mu

i.

Consciousness is beyond all logic, science, and philosophy.

All of these are but appearances in consciousness, are they not?

Although some like thinking otherwise.

ii.

Between awareness and all thought there stands a gateless gate.

Call it maya, paradox, koan, or imaginary number.

Whatever, it doesn’t have a name.

iii.

An ego isn’t bad. It’s just the strongest thought known.

And thought isn’t bad as well.

It’s just this thing which gets in the way.

iv.

Ordinary attention minus conditioned conceptualization equals

absolute awareness.

Just do the imaginary math.