It's Maya

Having established that the absolute ground called Brahman is unborn, undying, and changeless consciousness-existence, what is one to make of this world which is all about birth, death, and change? It’s Maya.

There’s nothing else to say. In fact, there is nothing one can say. Maya is as indescribable as Brahman. As there’s no describing the Christ in anti-Christ, there’s no describing the Brahman in not-Brahman, or Maya.

Metaphors use words to describe the indescribable. In this way, metaphors aren’t words. A rope is seen as a snake. Mirages appear in the desert. And it feels real because it’s not unreal like the horns of a hare. All is Brahman.

a. Four Viewpoints of Japan

I swear I saw Mount Fuji while looking west on the train to Narita Airport but I’ll never really know.

While on northernmost Honshu IsIand, I saw Hokkaido from Oma Point but didn’t know it. Looking at the photos later, I saw its landmass filtered through the mists of Tsugaru Strait.

On the bullet train from Tokyo to Hachinohe, we tunneled underneath the Shirakawa Barrier, which Basho had to cross when entering the deep north of his Oku no Hosomichi.

During the Neputa Festival in Hirosaki, I see large illuminated fan-shaped floats depicting fantastic images of mythic warriors parade through the city accompanied by taiko drum and flute bands one after another over and over like crimson and cherry blossoms.

b. On Mayasakti

Maya does not preserve and protect; Maya veils and projects.

Maya veils the metaphorical rope with a beginningless ignorance of my true nature.

Maya projects it all, from the inner astral body to the furthest reaches of the universe.

c. Maya 321

Maya is everything. Brahman is no thing. All things are Brahman.

Maya is the universe. Avidya is hell.

Enlightenment is in Maya but not of Maya.

d. Om Maya

Strictly speaking, Aum is Maya. The silence surrounding and pervading Aum is Brahman.

Also strictly speaking, Aum is the waking and sleeping dream states, and the deep sleep dreamless state.

In Isvara's Trinity, Brahma wields Maya, Vishnu pervades Maya, and Shiva shatters Maya.

e. grateful tao

yellow forsythia

blossoms blossoming in april

right now and right here

f. seaing

reality is all there is.

samsara is neither reality nor unreality.

although a wave is not the sea,

the sea pervades the wave.