Transcreating Samadhi: towards Tejomayananda's commentary on Vidyaranya's Drg Drsya Viveka sloka 22

Samadhi cannot be done by doing. Only the knowledge of nondoing does. That’s basically the understanding of jnana.

Samadhi is not about thoughts of knowing, but abiding in the consciousness illuminating the thought of knowing.

Samadhi isn't a verb but a noun. One doesn't do samadhi, but abides in samadhi. Samadhi is the alert, unwavering and balanced state of duality abiding in its nondual truth.

The practice of samadhi is within or without. That within of atman is self-inquiry, discriminating between seer and seen, in self-realization.

That without of brahman is more a metaphysical inquiry, looking beyond the superimposition to the substratum of absolute reality.

on advaita vedanta

1.

advaita vedanta is like distilled myth. but rather than starting with intoxicating stories of the mind, let's start with ten-thousand proof absolute.

begin at the beginning. what is the nature of an absolute godhead?

the nature of an absolute godhead is obviously unborn existence, immutable awareness, and wholly beloving.

2.

given that this empirical world is none of the above, how could something so unbrahman be?

and if unbrahman be, then there is no brahman.

but advaita vedanta begins with brahman! therefore unbrahman cannot be.

3.

unbrahman therefore must be an illusion, maya, dreamstate, name and form superimposed on satcitananda.

this is the genius of advaita vedanta as i see it. it doesn't start with creation. it establishes the nature of the absolute godhead, brahman, first.

rather than beginning in samsara, it establishes the primacy of nirvana. and since there is no samsara in nirvana, that's that.

On Atman and Brahman

In maya,

there's the duality of experiencer

and the world of experience.

For the mathematical purposes of nonduality, 

atman represents the experiencer,

and brahman represents the world of experience.

But beyond the universe of maya,

atman is brahman.

Meet Me In That Field

The material world consists of five qualities. Existence, awareness, and the beloved belong to brahman. Name and form belong to maya. You can call them satcitananda and namarupa.

Being, consciousness, and bliss are the characteristics of one’s real self as well. They are utterly undeniable, no matter how much one tries to deny them, and one tries miserably every day.

Satcitananda is my deepest nature. Name and form is my false impression. Meet me in the field of Kurukshetra.

ordinary nonduality

1.

nonduality is more myth than belief system, but most choose to believe it anyway.

myth is more a map than religion. most make myth their religion anyway.

maps are made to assist fellow travelers in traversing the great unknown, made by those who know the territory, and confirmed by users.

trust a map as long as your experience confirms it. never believe a map no matter how many times you've used it. things change. only you don't.

2.

reality is not ordinary. ordinary indicates sequentially arranged. reality is beyond the space of arranged and the time of sequentially.

but neither is reality extraordinary, and that's really the point here. it's just badly worded.

reality is not extraordinary; ordinary life is. ordinary life is purely conceptual; consciousness isn't.

consciousness is consciousness is consciousness. reflected consciousness is still consciousness. colored light is still light.

3.

in conclusion, nonduality is a map. consciousness isn't ordinary nor extraordinary. consciousness is all there is. 

also, language is an explosive thing, the real big bang—use it carefully, my friend.

the dreamer knows the dream but the dream doesn't know the dreamer. transmigration is a lot like this, i think.

in my experience of dreaming, dreams reincarnate several times each night.

Crossing the Nescience

Consciousness appears to be internal and the world appears to be external until you look at things with an open head.

The individual self is superimposed on an infinite self. The phenomenal world is superimposed on an absolute substratum. Remove this supermaya and atman is brahman.

Look, it takes a lot of thought to divide the indivisible. It takes no thought at all to drop maya like a stone, like a bad habit, like an unfaithful lover.

Good words and hard reason can only take you so far. Ask Zeno, my friend. It’s the plenary experience within and without that crosses the mighty paradox.

Satguru x Nisargadatta

It’s as good as any definition of ‘I am’ out there: the subtle body identifying with reflected consciousness.

The identification of the subtle body with reflected consciousness (aka I am) is primordial, before sentient thinking, and thus intuitive in any contact.

In this refraction, the subtle body becomes the mind (with its memory and processing functions). Its primordial identification with reflected consciousness (I am) becomes ego (in essence, thought). And the reflection of consciousness itself becomes intelligence.

Another name for intelligence is the satguru. Listen.

The primordial ‘I am’ is translated into thought as the complex ‘I am this’. Follow the simple thought ‘I am’ into the primordial ‘I am’, intuitively.

Wait for the fog (maya) of reflected consciousness to lift. Prajnanam Brahma! I am That.

The Birth of Individual Consciousness

1. Subtle body reflects consciousness.

The subtle body is like a pond. Only the water reflects the sunlight. The shore doesn’t.

This all takes place in maya, of course, and for this reason, it’s called reflected consciousness. Here, the watcher is not the witness.

2. Subtle body identifies with reflection of consciousness.

Who wouldn’t?

3. Reflected consciousness lends sentience to subtle body/mind.

Only consciousness is the seer and only the seer is sentient. The subtle body is the seen and thus the subtle body is insentient.

And the subtle body refracts the light, becoming mind, intellect, and ego.

4. Sentient thoughts arise.

Not only is the mind sentient, its thoughts are sentient also. The fire is spreading.

5. Exponential sentient thought identifying with materialistic body. 6. The body is enlivened.

This hot knot of egoic thought lends sentience to an outer body. Focused light. Dry wood. Fire of samsara! The jiva is born.

Brahman by Viveka

By virtue of being absolute, brahman, by all viveka, is unborn, immutable, and eternal. 

Since the empirical world is born, changes, and dies, the world obviously isn't brahman.

Further, brahman has no parts. Thus the world is neither a part nor creation of brahman.

Yet also by the virtue of being absolute, there's nothing but brahman. Enter maya.

Sat Cit Brahman

Only the existence principle exists, without which, no thought of any objective existence could exist.

Accordingly, only consciousness is, within which, objective existence appears.

Thus, brahman is the immaterial cause, maya is the inefficient cause, and mind is the instrumental cause nondoing.

footnotes

paradoxically, without the existence principle, the concept of non-existence would not exist.

existence is consciousness and consciousness is existence. existence-consciousness is the whole, which is bliss.

cause is a principle of maya only. brahman is causeless.