Switchwork and Earthmaya

(switchwork)

There are three toggles when it comes to the switchwork of our states of consciousness: body, mind, and ignorance (avidya).

First, in the state of deep sleep, the mind is turned off (body off, naturally). This is like our vegetative state.

Then there are two dream states in which the mind is turned on for both. One is called dreaming, and the other, ironically, waking—

it’s actually waking as in the body is on; in the first kind of dreaming, called dreaming, the body is off.

All three states occur with avidya turned on. There is a so-called fourth which is not a state of consciousness but pure consciousness itself, the atman. Avidya off.

With avidya off, mind may be off or on. Mind-off is nirvikalpa samadhi. Mind-on is called no-mind, in the mind but not of the mind, enlightenment.

(earthmaya)

Dreaming is magical thinking. The sun literally rises and sets like our god in heaven.

Waking is in the materialistic vein. The revolution of the earth is cause of night and day!

Awakening is like the sunlight of consciousness—of which earthmaya is made and in which it is appearing.

footnotes:

avidya on, mind off = deep sleep (vegetative)

avidya on, mind on, body off = sleeping dream (sunrise and sunset)

avidya on, mind on, body on = waking dream (earth revolving)

avidya off, mind on, body on = enlightenment (sunlight of consciousness in which earth appears)

avidya off, mind off = nirvikalpa samadhi (black hole of absolute awareness-existence)

Gaudapada's Asparsa Yoga (excerpts from K3,31-39)

Duality is never perceived when the mind ceases to act. (amani-bhava)

The mind, after realizing the knowledge that Atman alone is real, becomes free from imaginations. (atma-satya)

The immutable and birthless Brahman is the goal of knowledge. The birthless is known by the birthless. (akalpakam-ajam jnanam)

The mind which, being endowed with discrimination and free from illusions, is under control. (nigrhitasya manaso)

The controlled mind is verily the fearless Brahman. (brahma jnan-alokam)

Brahman is birthless, sleepless, dreamless, nameless, and formless. (ajam-anidram-asvapnam-anamakam-arupakam)

Atman is beyond all expression by words, and beyond all acts of the mind. (sarva)

Brahman is free from mental activity and hence from all ideas of acceptance or relinquishment. (jnanam-ajati) 

This yoga, which is not in touch with anything, is hard for yogis in general to attain. (asparsa-yogo)

~K3,31-39 (tr-Nik.)

A Commentary on 31-33

Duality is dependent on the mind. When mind is no-mind, there is no duality. Mind becomes no-mind not through yogic effort but by the knowledge of Atman being realized. This knowledge of Brahman is the goal of nonduality. And this unborn truth is only known by this unborn truth.

Nikhilanada's complete translation

31 All the multiple objects, comprising the movable and the immovable, are perceived by the mind alone. For duality is never perceived when the mind ceases to act.

32 When the mind, after realizing the knowledge that Atman alone is real, becomes free from imaginations and therefore does not cognize anything, for want of objects to be cognized, it ceases to be the mind.

33 Knowledge (Jnana), which is unborn and free from imagination, is described [by the wise] as ever inseparable from the knowable. The immutable and birthless Brahman is the goal of knowledge. The birthless is known by the birthless.

34 One should know the behaviour of the mind which, being endowed with discrimination and free from illusions, is under control. The condition of the mind in deep sleep is not like that but is of a different kind.

35 The mind is withdrawn in deep sleep, but it is not so when the mind is controlled. The controlled mind is verily the fearless Brahman, the light of whose omniscience is all-pervading.

36 Brahman is birthless, sleepless, dreamless, nameless, and formless. It is ever effulgent and omniscient. No duty, in any sense, can ever be associated with It.

37 Atman is beyond all expression by words, and beyond all acts of the mind. It is great peace, eternal effulgence, and samadhi; It is unmoving and fearless.

38 Brahman is free from mental activity and hence from all ideas of acceptance or relinquishment. When knowledge is established in Atman it attains birthlessness and sameness.

39 This yoga, which is not in touch with anything, is hard for yogis in general to attain. They are afraid of it, because they see fear in that which is really fearlessness.

On No-Mind

1.

Atman is neither ordinary nor godlike. But space, time, and all the gods are atman.

The truth is never nihilistic. The truth is that existence in which nihilism appears.

Black holes are to the substrate as groundwater is to ground, Basho.

2.

Neither wind nor flag but mind, duality is nothing but mind.

No-mind is neither deep sleep nor samadhi. The mind need not be turned off.

No-mind is like lucid dreaming—turned on and seeing through itself.

Absolutely Sweet Tattvamasi

Resolved, absolute awareness is not cognition although the ordinary person thinks it so.

This is not to say awareness is not the support of all cognition. Awareness is the substrate of all manifestation including mind.

In fact, awareness is the substrate of all three states of ordinary consciousness including that unbelievable one of deep sleep.

This supernatural awareness is beyond all forms of natural awareness. The natural is the mind. The supernatural is beyond the mind.

Astonishing but the actual awareness of both dream states (mind on, body on or off) is the same awareness of deep sleep (mind off).

Thus awareness is not what you ordinarily would think it is. For awareness is beyond the mind, supernatural so to speak.

And one is exactly that absolute awareness. Atman is neither ordinary (natural or unnatural) nor super (god or scientific theory) but tatvamasi.

Advaita Agonistes

Nirguna Brahman is basically God the Father as mainstream Trinitarian Christianity names it, except It’s absolutely beyond dualities of cause and effect.

On the other hand, God the Son is Isvara, the Wielder of Maya. And Maya is the Holy Ghost, the Superimpositionor of Snake on Rope.

Further, Paramatman is pure consciousness and the Universal Atman is reflected consciousness within and without the subtle body of Maya.

Thus non-duality is a myth wrapped within a dream. Self-awareness is the evolutionary intent of universal consciousness. And Avidya is the process.

Seeing through Avidya is one thing. Living with Maya is another. This is the way of the Jivanmukta, the so-called Bodhisattva. It’s basically in the world but not of the world.

Gaudapada Suffers No Fools

In his Karika (gloss) to the Mandukya Upanishad, Gaudapada suffers no fools when it comes to the suffering entailed by mistaking the waking dream as real. Or realizing non-duality as truth.

Take K2.4 for example: “Different objects cognised in dream are illusory because they are being perceived to exist. For the same reason the objects seen in the waking state are also to be considered as illusory. Just as in the waking state, so also in the dream, the nature of objects remains the same. The only difference is the limitation of space in the case of dream objects, they being seen in the within.” ~Gaudapada K2.4 (tr-Chinmayananda)

In other words, during a dream, space and time is a creation of the mind. Such perception is unreal of course. But perception in the waking state is no different, is it? If In a dream, seeing is not to be believed, why should seeing ever be believed? That is the question.

Then there’s this slap: “All aggregates are produced by Atman’s maya, as in a dream. No rational argument can be given to establish their reality, whether they are of equal status or whether some are superior.” ~Gaudapada K3.10 (tr-Nikhilananda)

In other words, the burden of proof is on the dreamer to prove its dream is something other than a dream. Don’t hold your breath.

Lastly for this thread, there’s K3.18: Since Non-duality is Ultimate Reality, duality is said to be Its effect. The dualist sees duality in both the Absolute and the relative. Therefore the non-dualist position does not conflict with the dualist position. (tr-Nikhilananda)

Nikhilananda comments on K3.18 thusly: “The non-dualist does not deny the fact of duality during the state of ignorance; but he denies that it is ultimately real. Consequently, from the standpoint of Reality, the non-dualist does not contradict duality, since the latter is really non-existent.”

Shankara laughs out loud: “It is like the case of a man on a spirited elephant, who knows that none can oppose him, but who yet does not drive his beast upon a lunatic who though standing on the ground, shouts at the former, ‘I am also on an elephant, drive your beast on me.’ ”

To summarize, seeing may be believing but it’s not the way of truth; in fact, the very act of perception is what reveals the waking state as dream and therefore false. Thus, it is not up to the truth-teller to disprove the waking dream, but the impossible task of the dreamer. And last, but not least, there is no need to argue with duality for duality is actually non-existent. Lord, what fools these mortals be.