on brahman pond

in isvara universally reflexive maya

an evolutionary admixture of functional compounds and organic chemicals is becoming so subtle

pure consciousness is reflecting perfectly off it's early evening glassy surface

Isvara Paradoxos

If brahman is one without a second, then this must be maya.

If brahman is one without a second, then my essential self is brahman.

If brahman is not one without a second—that’s just maya talking.

Visions of Advaita

Nonduality is divine imagination—deconstruction and revelation; existence, consciousness, and bliss. One’s highest self is the absolute reality.

The world is name and form superimposed upon being-awareness-infinity. Without a doubt, nihilism is one of the greatest feats of imagination.

In advaita, self-evident existence, self-shining consciousness, and self-contained bliss is satcitananda, the nature of brahman the absolute.

Satcitananda is one brahman in three tantamount aspects, the holy trinity of nonduality. Real myth is divine imagination. The world is imagination through a glass darkly.

Mahavidya 2

The second mahavakya Vidyaranya explicates is aham brahmasmi.

Focusing on the first word of the three words—aham, or I—

what does this I represent, the physical or metaphysical? 

This is essentialy self-inquiry: the I is paramatman, the supreme unlimited self.

Mahavidya One

Pure consciousness is the witness of reflected consciousness which by the eye is not seen but by which the seeing is seen, that I of I Am, the prajnanam of jnanam.

How marvelous! The consciousness of any creature in creation is the same one consciousness of the Creator itself. 

Consciousness not only passes through the eye of a needle but encompasses the cosmos. Prajnanam brahma.

Ode to Pink Panther

Julia of Norwich wore the pink panther faithfully. There are two macrocosmic universes: general relativity and quantum mechanics. And so on. It’s not as much scriptures as revelations. It’s not as much free will as non-doing. It’s not about how it should be but as it is.

It's neither religious nor scientific nor all the sub-divisions. Being is intuitive. Separate the wheat from the chaff. The gem in their pocket is your gem. The lint in their pocket is their lint. My paraverse is busy separating my gem from their lint. Owning it intuitively is sometimes called lectio divina.

Self-realization is not a goal. It happens. It’s like this transcendental stage of evolution within the subtle body of brahman. Enlightenment is a popular name for it. One day at a time. Don’t take it personal. Do your best. As one is well aware, waking is gradually spontaneous.

Nanovidya

There are two creations, two dualities. The first is the macrocosmic universe called Isvara. The second is the microcosmic personal called Jiva.

There’s nothing wrong with the universe at all. All manner of things will be well. The personal, on the other hand, tells a different story.

The Pancadasi says there are two divisions of duality in the personal as well. First, there’s the evolutionary intent of realization manifesting

as personal deconstruction and self-inquiry. Second, there’s the desire and imagination of the personal loving the personal so much it hurts.

Mantras for Maya

Isvara wields the wand of Maya—

Atman said let there be many.

Maya says let there be individuals!

As Satcitananda wills the space

of Maya into being,

Maya fills it with Avidya

of nonexistence,

unconsciousness,

and suffering.

Om of existence.

Self-shining light of consciousness.

Bliss of infinity.

The Creation of Duality

The Svetsara says, creation is the magic of a great magician. The Aitareya says, atman said, let me be many.

The Taittiriya says, satcitananda wills space into being. The Chandogya says, earth, wind, and fire are the vast vibrations of absolute existence.

The Mundaka says, it’s all like the dazzling sparks from an awesome fire. Vidyaranya's Pancadasi says, there are two creations.

The one is brahman appearing as a manifest universe in all the various ways in which the Upanishads are telling it.

Second is that brahman, a subtle body, and the reflection of consciousness on this subtle body, creates the person, jiva, psychological duality.

Notes on Visions

Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the guru.

Self-awareness is another name for maya.

If you say you're a nihilist, you're implying you are not.

Which by the eye is not seen but by which the seeing is seen,

That alone, the Absolute, You, know, and not this which they worship. 

It's no e=mc² but attention minus thought equals brahman.

Visions of Vidyaranya

As the nature of the Self is awareness itself, it can’t be an object appearing in awareness. Thus the self is not non-existent, it’s just unknowable. Thus spake Vidyaranya.

The Self is neither known nor unknown, but knowledge itself. To say one knows an object but doesn’t know its knower isn’t paying attention. Thus that, they say, is known.

From whatever phenomenon, physical or mental, undergoing your earnest attention, tune out this object appearing in that awareness, and what awaits is Brahman. This is called Vidyaranya's Vision.

Two Notes On Vidyaranya's Allegory

Vidyaranya’s Cave is like Plato’s Cave’s cave. The five sheaths are true Advaita myth and not scientific at all. They’re for seeing through Maya, not dissecting her.

And five can do as three just as well. For mind is the tool of existence, intellect is the hand of consciousness, and happiness is the heart of bliss. In this way, they mirror satcitananda as one.

Vidyaranya's Cave

The Cave of Atman is what Vidyaranya calls that Brahman which the five sheaths of personality are covering.

The five are body, vital force, mind, intellect, and happiness. They don’t form a myth of creation as much as one of deconstruction.

Reasonable self-inquiry says I’m not the body nor it’s vital force. Neither am I the mind–intellect–happiness complex, this tri-lateral reflection of satcitananda.

direct existence pseudo hafiz

the space of space-time appears in existence.

the time of space-time appears in space.

rather than going into space,

my fellow billionaires,

try going into existence—

this is the knife edge

direct path

paying attention!

the abyss of belief lies

dangerously on both sides.

Broken Glass The Koan

How do you break the glass before using if you need what's underneath the glass to break the glass in the first place? In this way the koan exists to break through maya.

Look, consciousness doesn't appear in the brain, so neuroscience needs to research the opposite, starting with your basic nondualities.

Individual dreams are born. Universal dreams are reborn. Birth and rebirth are superimpositions on pure existence. Know that.

In the emptiness of the universe, a binary mind interprets disappearance as death and appearance as life, although all it knows from day zero is the existence principle.

For the Revelators

Paradox exists because the world doesn’t know what’s real.

Similarly, consciousness is not produced by a material universe in evolutionary time. The material universe appears in consciousness.

There’s no antidote for maya. Understand the snake is an illusion on the rope. That is all.

Only the mind could conceive non-existence. It’s absurdity itself. Thank god for the kindness of revelators.

On the Existence Principle

The space in space-time is not the ground of all existence. The existence principle in absolute brahman is, that sat of satcitananda.

But scientific materialism loves its space, believing its universal ground of existence was born of nothing 14 billion years ago.

Forgive them for we’re hypnotized by maya. The superimposition has become the substratum. The snake rules the world.

Space is the superimposition, speaks the revelation. The existence principle is reality. It’s the only logical conclusion.

*on pancadasi 2:60-77

Spacetime Dreaming

The i witnesses the reflection of the i. This reflection is called the i-am.

The i-am witnesses the reflection of the i-am. This fractal reflection is called the i-am-this. And so on.

For the dreamer knows the dream but the dream doesn’t know the dreamer. This fact is called maya.

Some call this space of dreaming, nescience. Some call this time of dreaming, reincarnation.

Space appears in maya. Mind appears in space. Time appears in mind. Dreams appear in time.

The I-Am of Avidya

1.

Technically speaking, the world doesn’t appear in the space of consciousness, but the world appears in the space of maya, and maya appears in consciousness. Similarly, the personal appears within the reflection of consciousness, and this i-am appears in consciousness.

2.

The person is to the world

As the reflection (i-am) of consciousness is to space (akasa)

As avidya is to maya

As atman is to brahman

As ayam atma brahma.

3.

And this is N’s yoga. A person resting in the reflection of consciousness is the i-am-this resting in the i-am without the conceptual this. For the i comes for the i-am. The i-am-this can never reach the i. And the mantra is the namarupa resting in the nama. Or the i-am-this resting in the i-am.

The Space of Maya

The power of maya is known only by its effect, the world. Further the power of maya is actually the power of brahman. And although maya is the power of brahman, make no mistake, maya isn't brahman.

Whereas maya is not absolute existence, neither is maya non-existent. Relatively existent, maya is as it is, undefinable and indescribable.

Before creation, there was maya, the darkness of maya covering the light of brahman. Brahman adorned in the cloak of maya is isvara, god, the saguna brahman, or the absolute with attributes.

And the first transformation of maya is space, in which the world appears, for brahman is spaceless, space being just a superimposition on the substratum of brahman.

reality sonnet

in maya,

every object has five qualities

about it—

name, form,

existence, consciousness, bliss.

namarupa is the great illusion.

satcitananda is the great one.

brahman.

listen in brahman,

there’s not only silence,

but no eyes, no tongue,

no nerves, no nose

as well as no ears

to hear.

Vidyaranya's Reality

Reality is existence. Reality is consciousness. Reality is bliss. Satcitananda is the nature of reality and not its components. Reality is the whole.

(In this way, Vidyaranya talks about the three types of differences: within a singular object, between objects of the same kind, and between objects of unlike kinds. Bheda: svagata, svajatiya, vijatiya.)

There are no parts within reality. Parts consist of name and form. Namarupa is the essence of the manifest creation. Existence is the essence of the unmanifest reality and not one of its parts.

Reality is alone. There can’t be another reality. Reality is uncontested. Existence can’t be opposed by non-existence; even emptiness exists as a superimposition upon existence. Look, it’s ekam eva advitiyam, one only without a second.

Zhuangzi's Moth: Three Footnotes on Four Stages

Without indirect knowledge, one must depend on the kindness of spontaneous combustion. It happens, I guess. I once knew a woman who won the lottery big time.

Not believing blindly, listening faithfully means accepting the guru’s transmitted knowledge as truth. Later alone one reasons it out—not to disprove the truth but to convince the mind of its logical foundation. And in turn, silence this disturbing noise of doubt. Or not.

Relatively speaking, listening and reasoning take effort. But meditation is effortless. No longer about the guru’s words, it’s now about that attractive flame of the satguru.

On the Four Stages of Knowing

In the Pancadasi, a 14th century handbook of Advaita Vedanta (or as was just auto-corrected to advice of the doctor), in the chapter entitled Tattva Viveka, the first of 15 chapters, Vidyaranya (the author, most likely) writes of the 4 stages of knowledge from indirect to direct.

The first is called the listening. The second is called the reflecting or reasoning. Sravanam is listening to the guru faithfully. Manaman is confirming this knowledge initially taken in faith with logical reasoning and careful analysis until the mind buys it and owns it. Or not.

Only when this indirect knowledge clicks does the third stage, meditation, begin. Nididhysanam is the one-pointed contemplation on the brahmakara vritti, the thought, I am Brahman—until the meditator and the meditating drop into the nirvikalpa samadhi of Parabrahman, the fourth.

Physical Mythics

First, a lawful myth must be logical. There are two metaparadigms of physics (general relativity and quantum mechanics) which will never be united, no matter how much our scientific priests pray to Some Theory of Everything for us.

Actually, general relativity and quantum mechanics are the original duality. General relativity and quantum mechanics appear in consciousness and not vice versa, period.

Further, consciousness is the everything in which the original duality of general relativity and quantum mechanics appears. And even better, consciousness is not a theory.

Footnote to Tattvamasi

Keep an open head: that out there is you in here.

If form is transformation and transformation is form,

then beneath this superimposition is the formlessness of brahman.

Religions have their gods. Science has its theories.

Avidya may be beginningless but it’s not everlasting thank god.

No guru, no method, no teacher?

No creator, no creation, no creature.

Tattvamasi Absolutely

It may not appear to be the truth but that out there is you in here.

Remove the emptiness of all phenomena from the picture—

it’s obvious the absolute is the material cause of all.

Remove all belief and theories circulating in and about creation—

it’s obvious the absolute is the efficient cause as well.

Remove all beginningless ignorance concerning one’s actual self—

it’s obvious the absolute is one’s formal cause at last.

Thus that without the twin illusion of creation and creator

is you without the nescience of thinking you’re their creature.

footnote

Keep an open head: that out there is you in here.

If form is transformation and transformation is form,

then beneath this superimposition is the formlessness of brahman.

Religions have their gods. Science has its theories.

Avidya may be beginningless but it’s not everlasting thank god.

No guru, no method, no teacher?

No creator, no creation, no creature.