The mind dreams at night. And consciousness, as the reflection of awareness benighted by conceptual avidya, is dreaming during the day.
But the dreams of consciousness feel real because of the real substrate (satcitananda) upon which they are projected.
Maya feels real and always will feel real. Seeing through avidya is another thing. It’s like waking after a bad dream. You’re still in a dream but no longer of a dream.
Vivarta is apparent change, illusory change. Vivarta-vada is the theory of apparent change. See snake and rope. See desert mirage. See maya. See avidya. See seer. See seen. See Vidyaranya.
There are two orders of creation (srsti): parinama and vivarta. Parinama is modification, becoming. In vivarta, there is no becoming. Brahman is immutable, changeless. There may be a golden namarupa, but the gold remains gold.
Satyam is real. Mithya is neither real nor unreal, square circles being unreal. Mithya is satyam but satyam is not mithya. Wave is water but water is not wave. The causal power is maya. Its effect is srsti. Isvara is creator. All of this is mithya.
I is another name for pure existence (sat). Revelation is another name for pure awareness (cit). Beyond is another name for holistic bliss infinity (ananda). Satcitananda is another name for brahman which is another name for the big beyond the bang.
Life is the manifestation of being. Evolution is the manifestation of intelligence. Self-awareness is the manifestation of holistic bliss infinity. With being and existence, presence is sat. With awareness and intelligence, consciousness is cit. With holistic bliss, infinity is ananda.
Satcitananda is brahman, nirguna brahman, the absolute. The manifestation of satcitananda is isvara, saguna brahman, universal consciousness. Isvara minus maya is brahman. Ego minus avidya is atman. Atman is brahman, the end.
The reflection of awareness in the subtle body spontaneously activates the intellect, ego, mind, and vital breath. This is called the immaculate conception.
In the beginning, the mind receives and organizes incoming data, the intellect reviews it and makes a decision, the inner-breath / outer-body executes.
But the more Aham identifies with the body-mind the less Aham identifies with consciousness. As body-mind usurps intelligent awareness absolutely—
Aham's body-mind becomes the absolute reality. Believing the true you will die has got to be a real bummer.
1. attention minus thought equals awareness.
2. awareness plus thought equals consciousness.
3. nirguna brahman plus maya equals saguna brahman.
4. the witness equals you, minus avidya.
The reflection of awareness is consciousness. This consciousness lights your fire, I know!
But the reflection of light in a clear mirror remains light. There are not two lights. Consciousness is awareness.
It's like that formula: attention minus thought equals awareness. Or said another way, awareness plus thought equals consciousness.
They say nirguna brahman plus maya equals saguna brahman. Thus ask not who is the witness. The witness is you, minus avidya.
Ego (ahamkara) makes three identifications (tadatmyam): with the reflection of consciousness (cicchaya), with the body (deha), and with the witness (saksi). The first is natural, the second is karmic, and the third one is made out of ignorance.
1. Sahajam tadatmyam: the ciccaya (reflection of consciousness) in the suksma sarira (subtle body) gives rise to the ahamkara. It’s only natural this ego identifies with that consciousness and that consciousness identifies with ego. The resultant experience is “I know.”
2. Karmajam tadatmyam: identification with the body-mind is karmic. For countless reasons, there’s a reflection of consciousness in the subtle body contained within this body-mind. These first two identifications are the work of maya and maya is above our pay grade. In maya but not of maya.
3. Bhranti-janyam tadatmyam: ego is finite but the witness is infinite. The mutual superimposition of ego and witness is one of ignorance and the root of all samsaric suffering. The resultant experience of this misidentification is “I am.” Although avidya is beginningless, it’s not endless. That’s what viveka and nisarga yoga are for.
First there is a mountain, then I am the mountain, then the mountain is appearing in That I Am. Life is just an illusive interruption from awareness for the purposes of self-awareness.
It’s not that existence is nothing, my nihilistic friend, but that existence as a dream state is nothing when compared to the sat (being, existence, presence) of satcitananda, aka parabrahman.
So in the mountainous world of doing, ego decides, the intellect rationalizes this decision, and the mind veils the inconvenient facts while projecting all the others.
In the valley of nondoing, the mind supplies objective information clearly, the intellect intuitively decides the necessary action intelligently, and ego carries out the operation intently without an eye for its end.
The subtle body (suksma sarira) is that strange mixture of functional compounds and organic chemicals
resulting in our central nervous system—this ethereal and astral embodiment in which consciousness is now reflecting.
After this kiss of consciousness, the subtle body subdivides into ego, intellect, mind, memory, and vital breath.
Intellect reflects intelligence, mind reflects awareness, and ego is Isvara embodied in avidya generating a world-class inferiority complex.
Killing ego is like killing Isvara. Or stalling maya. Don't hold your vital breath. Intelligent awareness is enough.
According to the Mandukya Upanishad, and I have confirmed its findings, there are three states of consciousness.
This doesn’t take lysergic acid diethylamide to see. The three states of consciousness are waking, dreaming, and deep sleeping.
As the power of three is infinitely divisible by the power of three, one could say the waking dream has three states too.
There is the original inheritance of avidya, its slow deconstruction by the satguru, and sudden jivanmukta.
