Mithya Snake, Satya Rope

Ontologically speaking, there’s that which is self-existent, like a godhead, and this which depends upon something greater for its existence. In sanskrit, that is satya, and this is mithya.

In the classic advaitin examples, pots are mithya and the clay comprising each pot is satya, as gold is satya and the jewelry made from that gold is mithya. Of course these examples are not meant to be taken at face value. In the little lower layer, even gold is mithya.

For in the final analysis, the universe itself is mithya, and only parabrahman is satya. And satya is the sat in satcitananda, existence - consciousness - bliss, the real Self or atman, the real I or aham, as in atman is brahman or aham brahmasmi.

a.

Atman simply put is self-existent, self-luminous, and self-happy.

While a person of beginningless ignorance believes oneself to be mortal (this is the only mortal sin, my brothers and sisters).

And a person of beginningless ignorance believes oneself to be subordinate like an insignificant part of an infinite universe encapsulated in a life of constant sorrow.

b.

They say the tides on the Bay of Fundy are the greatest in the world. In some places the difference between high and low tides is more than forty feet. I've seen boats in harbors lie in the drying sea bottom thirty feet below the dock at low tide. No regrets coyote.

In the Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur is New Camoldi Hermitage. On the way up to its 1300 ft. altitude from Highway 1, there's a bench overlooking a scopious blue Pacific straight below. On the way down, I sat there and read the Thomas Merton I had purchased in their bookstore.

One of the canonical Three Views of Japan is the Matsushima Islands, 260 small pine islands situated in the confines of Matsushima Bay. The poet Basho visited in late spring 1689 while on a pilgrimage to sites written about by the 12th century poet Saigyo.

It's famously said Basho was so stunned by its beauty he couldn't write a single word about it in his masterpiece Oku no Hosomichi. There's another legend that says he wrote an unpublished haiku with only the words Matsushima & Ah! I visited in 2007 on a pilgrimage to Basho. Print the legend!

c.

You are not what you appear to be.

Neither material body, breath of energy, mind with memory, intellect, nor ego, you are that nondual trinity of satcitananda in which this mithya is now playing.

Things exist. Being knows. Self-awareness is ananda.