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.

The Mystery of The Three Bodies

There are three bodies to every person: material, subtle, and causal.

The material body is the outer body completely inert and dependent on consciousness for sentience.

The subtle body is the inner inert one composed of two basic notes: energy and mind.

The mind is also binary in its essential nature and comprised of thinker and doer.

The thinker is the processor stuck between a zero and the one; the intelligence in this operation is the doer in duality.

The causal body is original ignorance and reflector of consciousness called the lover in this story.

For every lover, there’s 1, an object of desire like a missing half,

2, the procurement of this object making things whole again,

and 3. the temporary experience of this fulfillment for all worlds must end and start again.

footnotes

1. There are five sheaths to every tristate.

2. The material body is also called the gross body or annamaya, the sheath of food.

3. This energy is the vital breath, the life force, pranamaya.

4/5. Unsurprisingly, the mind is actually of two minds: manomaya is to hamlet as vijnanamaya is to the decider. Both were tragic.

6. The causal body is the locus of avidya, before karma but after maya. For anandamaya is the lover.

7. Make the object of my desire, god, truth, reality, or my beloved!

8. May my procurement of this object be the end of me in thou, tattvamasi.

a. energy plus mind equals wave-particle equals the subtle body.

b. the body is made sentient by the subtle astral body which is made sentient by the reflection of consciousness in anandamaya.

c. if i am the doer in duality, who am i?

d. if anandamaya is i am.

e. anandamaya - maya = brahman.

* 

to fish in the sea

water is the vital breath—

to human beings

the space of consciousness is

*

if this karmic subtle body equals

that astral body of energy and mind

this wave-particle body-mind equals

lucid dreaming

*

ignorance may be beginningless, birthless, and unborn,

but thank god, it's not eternal

*

as pure consciousness is i

the reflection of consciousness is i am

*

the body-mind cannot begin to sheath infinite consciousness but almost everybody thinks it does

*

Waiting for Satguru

1.

The universe controls illusion. Ignorance controls people.

Universal consciousness directs maya with the laws of nature and whatnot.

Ignorance misdirects personal consciousness until the knowledge of the satguru turns its head around.

2.

As universal consciousness (Isvara) guides Maya (creatrix of intelligence, prakriti of sattva),

Avidya (creatrix of motion and matter, prakriti of rajas and tamas) dupes 

this individual consciousness called Jiva just waiting for the Satguru.

footnotes

*

young’s myth of the self-reflexive universe fits into vidyarana’s advaitic one quite nicely

*

maya is why there will never be a unified theory of physics

you can’t unify physics without the metaphysics of illusion

the immutable nature of brahman will not let you

*

waiting for satguru is avidya’s inside joke

the one waiting for the satguru is the satguru

*

“I, Lalla, tried beyond trying in my search,

Discovering only my efforts had redoubled.

No matter what I did the door remained bolted.

By resolving only to stay there did I see

The door was my own doing.”

*

avidya dupes

Ghazal of Footnotes On the Ground Sutra

One could say the known universe is made from just five qualities:

name, form, existence, consciousness, beatitude.

Namarupa is the big bang

appearing within the silent witnessing of Satcitananda.

Sat (existence, being) is the antidote for nihilism.

Cit (consciousness, awareness) is the antidote for materialism.

Ananda (beatitude, bliss) is the antidote for big belief

be it scientific theory or religious creed.

On the Ground Sutra

Beneath the relative world of name and form is the substratum of existence, consciousness, beatitude.

Name and form create the illusion of a relative world, the snake to be deconstructed from the noumenal rope.

Still, if the superimposition isn’t there doesn’t mean the substratum isn’t. Namarupa may be the dream

but satcitananda is the bedrock—lending dimension to mountains, depth to the sea, and sentience to superimpositions.

Footnotes to This Reflection of Consciousness I Am

1.

The more evolved the subtle body, the brighter is this reflection of consciousness.

The brighter the reflection of consciousness, the more clear is the voice of the satguru.

This is a glorious opportunity. A 50,000 watt radio station from my day goes for merely 5g today.

2.

The molecular has zero degrees of freedom. In the vegetable, there is growth, organization, reproduction, flowers!

In the animal and honeybee stage of the self-reflexive manifestation, there’s mobility, action, satisfaction, and the illusion of choice.

In the jiva and ultimate stage of so-called individual consciousness, or dominion as Young calls it, there’s this flickering of self-awareness. There shall be fire!

This Reflection of Consciousness I Am

Pure consciousness is reflecting on this thin diaphanous body of the subtle buddhi.

This reflection of consciousness moves with its subtle medium identifying with a wavering mind,

which in turn, with its newborn sentience, identifies with the outer unsubtle and suffering body.

This reflection of consciousness is the original 'I am' that the satguru is always reminding the mind about—

the light moving in the water is the water but the light reflecting in the water is the absolute light.

on the drg and the drsya

The seer is the witness of the seen.

The witness is aware and the seen is unaware. 

Thus, in the absolute awareness of brahman, there is no seen. 

And in the phenomenal seen, there's maya.

notes to transcreating jiva

1.

Some divide the drg drsya viveka into two, thinking the first 31 slokas are the real deal and the last 15 a later addition. 

For example, Tejomayananda only comments on the 31. Nikhilananda notes all 46. Who knows? After all, there’s questions as to authorship. Shankara? Vidyaranya? Bharati?

There is a progression in the 31 from the seen to nirvikalpa samadhi which seems to make it a whole. Whether it’s a whole part or a whole whole shall be argued by linguists. Mystics see these things differently.

2.

Rather than beginning with the seen, the second part begins with the jiva, which considered further, is a particular version of the seen.

“Reality of jīva is to be understood in a threefold way. It means we look at the reality of jīva from three different standpoints. There is no threefold reality but there are three points of view of the same reality.” ~Dayananda

The logician in me wants to line up limitation-containment-identification, presentation-reflection-projection, and imagination-dreaming-illusion with satcitananda.

2.

Like identification is not sat, reflection is not cit, imagination is not ananda.

Identification is not sat. Limiting oneself to the body-mind is a conditional existence. Such limitation is not pure existence.

The projection of consciousness is not cit but the reflection of consciousness is. Imagination is not ananda but love is.

4.

I first learned the concept of continuous improvement in quality control. In nondoing, I see there is no continuous improvement.

There’s continuous change and adapting to it. A tour guide taught me this in Monument Valley when I asked her about the Navajo people and climate change.

The light reflecting in the water is light. The light moving in the water is water.

Transcreating Jiva: toward Nikhilananda’s Notes on Drg Drsya Viveka sloka 32

There are these three nondual myths concerning individual consciousness. Call them limitation, presentation, and imagination.

That of limitation is like infinite space being contained in a clay pot. As if subject to the upadhis of prana, atman identifies as jiva.

That of presentation is like the sun reflecting on water, like the light of consciousness reflecting in the mind, its reflection assuming the qualities of the medium.

That of imagination is like noumenal atman (due to avidya) dreaming an individual jiva. Or like absolute brahman (due to maya) dreaming this universal isvara.

footnotes

1. limitation, containment, and identification.

2. presentation, reflection, and projection.

3. imagination, dreaming, and illusion.