Jnana Maya Yoga

1.

That chair is maya. That table is maya. A physicist will tell you they’re 99% pure space. In other words, they’re 1% form and 99% name. Maya makes you pound the table and feel it also. For the body-mind is 99% name as well.

The antahkarana (the inner instrument) is comprised of buddhi, manas, and ahankara (intellect, mind, ego). The ego and the mind have this symbiotic relationship born out of ignorance (avidya). Neither listens to the intellect, that reflection of pure intelligence (cit).

In jnana maya yoga, self-realization begins with intelligent self-inquiry. Self-inquiry begins with the satguru finally getting through, by means of instinct, intuition, or revelation. All are tattvamasi. Only the decibels differ.

2.

In maya, there’s three bodies (causal, subtle, gross) and five sheaths. Of the five, the subtle body consists of vijnanamaya (intelligence), manomaya (mind), and pranamaya (life force).

On the other hand, the inner instument consists of intellect, mind, and ego. It appears ego is the mind usurping the life force.

In a functional subtle body, the mind provides the data, and the intellect makes the decision. And the life force moves the body in perfect nondoing. 

Let Buddhi Be Satguru

Another name for intelligence, as in the cit (consciousness, awareness, intelligence) of satcitananda, is the satguru.

And yet another name for intelligence is pure intellect, which ostensibly is the reflection of intelligence upon the subtle body of maya.

And in neti neti, it’s that same intellect which deconstructs the edifice built by a sad, scared, lost mind so desperate for truth.

And after the edifice is deconstructed, it’s again that intellect which recognizes and identifies with that which is beyond (yet pervading) the conceptual edifice:

being-existence-presence, consciousness-awareness-intelligence, holistic infinite bliss.

Buddhi Yoga

2.48. Perform action O Dhananjaya, abandoning attachment, being steadfast in YOGA, and balanced in success and failure. Evenness of mind is called YOGA.

2.49. Far lower than the YOGA-of-wisdom is action, O Dhananjaya. Seek thou refuge in wisdom; wretched are they whose motive is the ‘fruit’.

Work done with a mind undisturbed by anxieties for the results is indeed superior to the work done by a dissipated mind, ever worrying over the results. Here the term, ‘Buddhi Yoga’ has tickled some commentators to discover in it a special Yoga as advised by the Geeta. I personally think that it is too much of a laboured theory. Buddhi – as defined in the Upanishads – is the determining factor in the ‘innerequipment ’; Nishchyatmika is ‘intellect’; Samshayatmika is ‘mind’. Thus when the thought flow is in a state of flux and agitated, it is called the ‘mind’. When it is single-pointed, calm, and serene in its own determination, it is called the ‘intellect’. Thus Buddhi Yoga means ’to be established in devotion to the intellect’. Being steady in your conviction, with your mind perfectly under the control of your discriminative intellect, to live thus as a master of your inner and outer world is called Buddhi Yoga. In Buddhi Yoga we pursue our duties without ever losing sight of our ultimate Goal in Life.

Bhagavad Gita (Holy Geeta) translation and commentary by Chinmayananda

footnotes to the penultimate note

1.

Intellect is reflection of light & intelligence is light. Pure intellect is intelligence.

Can’t clean the mirror—it's spotless. Clouds of thought aren’t on the mirror.

Light reflecting off the mirror is light. The sun reflecting in the mirror is not. It’s a cloud of thoughts.

2.

Don’t throw away the baby of the intellect with the bathwater of the mind.

On the way, you can kill the buddha but not the buddhi.

3.

A tree falls.

Earth is the sound.

The universe collapses.

The self abides.

4.

Dreams are all about self-inquiry. The science of psychology has that much right.

In eka jiva vada, don’t you know that I’m loving you.

5.

The world is a dream state. The dream state is essentially self-inquiry.

Self-inquiry is the stuff of maya. Self-awareness takes a universe.

Awareness is naturally self-aware.

6.

Self-awareness is the manifestation of awareness.

The dream state is the manifestation of self-awareness.

Self-inquiry is the manifestation of the dream state.

Eka jiva vada is the manifestation of self-inquiry.

The Penultimate Note to Self

Individual consciousness is divided consciousness. Divided consciousness is samsaric consciousness. Samsaric consciousness is hell on earth.

Here hell is like the conceptual superimposition, and earth is like the substrate of absolute consciousness.

Without thinking about it, the clear mind of intellect automatically identifies with existence, awareness, infinity.

For the clear mind is exactly that. This reflection of light is nothing but light. I am that satcitananda.

Selections from The Bhagavad Gita ch-2

The unreal never is. The Real never ceases to be. The conclusion about these two is truly perceived by the seers of Truth.

BG 2.16

That by which all this is pervaded know to be imperishable. None can cause the destruction of that which is immutable.

BG 2.17

It is never born, nor does It ever die, nor, having once been, does It again cease to be. Unborn, eternal, permanent, and primeval, It is not slain when the body is slain.

BG 2.20

Weapons cut It not; fire burns It not; water wets It not; the wind does not wither It.

BG 2.23

This Self is said to be unmanifest, incomprehensible, and unchangeable. Therefore, knowing It to be so, you should not grieve.

BG 2.25

Some look on the Self as a wonder; some speak of It as a wonder; some hear of It as a wonder; still others, though hearing, do not understand It at all.

BG 2.29

~selections from The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Swami Nikhilananda

The Silent Self

1.

There is no individual consciousness. Individual consciousness is just universal consciousness divided into name and form by the genius of maya.

And universal consciousness is the authentic expression of absolute consciousness in the language of maya.

It’s the silence behind maya that is brahman. And this silence is inside the outer self. And this silence is atman, the real self. And that atman is brahman.

2.

Inner being is universal consciousness is blissful infinity is real silence.

Real silence is silent like ultraviolet and infrared light is to human sight.

Real silence may not be loud but it’s still deep.

3.

Revelations are silent like lightning is silent.

Thunder isn't the sound of the lightning.

Thunder is the sound of a disturbed atmosphere.

4.

Shankara: to embodied self, there's 3 states of the body—youth, middle-age, & old. As the 1st state is destroyed, the self isn't destroyed; as the 2nd state appears, the self isn't born. The self remains unchanged through all 3 states. Similarly, the self posseses the next body.

Metaphysical Contact

Metaphysical Contact

Reality can’t be intellectually described. Reality is not physical. Reality is metaphysical.

Reality is intelligent and self-revealing. Thus the intellect does not need to contact reality. Reality contacts the intellect.

The intellect cannot begin to describe this intuitive contact, but only identify with that reality. Prajnanam brahman.

One not only recognizes that awareness through the clouds, that being behind the body, that infinity beyond the mind, but suddenly sees — I am That.

Envisioning As It Is

1.

Metaphysical contact isn’t alien contact. It’s self contact.

Kind revelations prepare thyself for something sudden.

2.

Try not to fixate on any aspect. There’s plenty of space for awareness, existence, and holistic infinity bliss.

Not that there’s anything wrong with fixation. But it helps to call it what it is. Name your god.

3.

Awareness isn’t some stale and sterile witnessing. That witness is pure existence as well as holistic infinity bliss.

And maya isn’t just illusion. Maya is intelligent illusion.

4.

Maya is beginningless but not endless.

Thus sravana (listen), manana (reflect and confirm), nididhyasana (envision as it is).

Isvara the Metaparadigm

1.

Consider universal consciousness is to isvara as the universe is to the universe. Also saguna brahman is nirguna brahman is an unspoken mahavakya.

The universe is a world of materialists, monotheists, and spiritualists. A monotheist thinks the universe is created by a god. A spiritualist thinks the universe is the god. A materialist thinks the universe is all there is.

But a certain kind of nondualist, knowing consciousness doesn’t appear in the universe but the universe is appearing in consciousness, adopts the metaparadigm of universal consciousness as its myth, names it isvara, gives it the power of maya, respects their potency, and dreams of samadhi.

2.

Individual consciousness appears in universal consciousness—without this provisional understanding in your bones, there is no proper neti neti.

It's not just 'not individual consciousness', but it’s 'not individual consciousness, not universal consciousness'. That’s proper neti neti.

Individual consciousness does not appear in the universe. Individual consciousness appears in universal consciousness. There’s a chain of command with Isvara at the top.

Absolute consciousness does not absolve individual consciousness. Absolute consciousness absolves universal consciousness.

Practical Satcitananda

1.

In speaking intuitively of absolute nondual brahman, some emphasize that essence of awareness, and some emphasize that essence of existence.

Awareness (cit) is the witness. Existence (sat) is the I am. Even bliss (ananda) is spoken for. Thus is the practical aspect of satcitananda.

2.

A person is nothing but name and form which is nothing but insentience, acquiring its sentience from the substrate of brahman.

For beneath the conceptual superimposition is the witnessing awareness and the I am of existence. And ananda.