Aumdadananda Number Nine

1. Advaita Is Unbelievable

Advaita is not to be believed, but realized.

It’s cosmology is not for real, but a house of cards intended for deconstruction.

2. Nondual Metaphysics

Its metaphysics is quite simple — all is Brahman

(in which this Maya is but an appearance)

and Brahman is all there is. This means you! Tattvamasi.

3. Return to I Am

The reflection of Satcitananda on God's subtle body of ignorance is the primordial duality of I Am.

From the multiplicitous world of I am me, I know a lot of things, and I love some of them, return to that First House of Duality called I Am, I Know, I Love.

Wait there silently by the door for the door is your own doing.

4. Nondoing and Doing

Nondoing is the magic of God cloaked in Maya.

5. All deliberate doing or not doing is mind stuff.

Dropping body-mind is like dropping both the waking and dreaming states and trusting in the God of Deep Sleep.

6. ExistenceConsciousnessBliss

Don't forget it. You can't. You can only see through Maya, Jake.

Brahman cloaked in myth is God. True myth is made to be punctured. Aha!

7. Monster

Being, existence, presence! Awareness, consciousness, intelligence! Holistic bliss infinity!

8. Beyond

This bliss of knowing the principle of existence is why death appears to be such a monster.

Deep down we know this primordial fact of existence is beyond any modern concept of nonexistence.

9. Sea

That I am is not a problem.

That I think I'm not is.

Wave is to sea as sea is to wave and so on.

These Dreams of God

1. God Dreams

In the waking dream, the body-mind is quite turned on.

In the sleeping dream, the body is finally turned off

and the mind can turn it to eleven dreaming its head off.

But in deep sleep, with the body-mind at last turned off,

one is actually Saguna Brahman, Isvara, God!

2. Tattvamasi 9

Deep sleep isn't where you go each night. It's where you come from every day.

In deep sleep, God is witnessing the absence of duality. In nirguna samadhi is the presence of nonduality.

Brahman cloaked in the uniform of Maya is God. Atman cloaked in the uniform of Avidya is God. Thus Atman is Brahman is Parabrahman.

3. Now Appearing

Brahman is real. God is self-realized.

People are looking for realization in all the wrong places.

Bliss never appears in any experience of a body-mind.

The body-mind is appearing in bliss.

4. Like a Fool

Existence is like the sea. Living is like a wave. I am Satcitananda. Wave on, John Donne.

Consciousness is that timeless space in which thinking is like an idiot wind, babe.

Bliss is this opposite of samsara. Ananda is nonduality. That beloved nonduality.

Brahman, Maya, and Samsara

The sun is like the silent I, the moon is like I am, and the world is like I am the world.

Ignorance (avidya) is a combination (Samsara) of doing (rajas) and not doing (tamas).

Nondoing is the wisdom (sattva) of primordial duality (Maya).

Beyond the doing of duality is nondual Satcitananda, Brahman, the silent I.

Samsara says I am me, I know some things, and I love some of them.

Primordial duality says I am, I know, I love. This is as far as any individual may go though.

Sit there silently at that door. Reality will take you in. The door is one’s own doing.

a.

Sometimes nondoing is not doing and sometimes nondoing is doing.

Nondoing is going where the heart of the nonconceptual needs to go.

Nondoing is not beyond doing. Nondoing does that which beyond doing is witnessing.

b.

You already have the four qualifications for realization.

You only think you don't. Figure it out.

Meanwhile, identify with consciousness but drive mindfully.

c.

The reflection of consciousness is the word.

Pure consciousness is wordless.

Samsara is a bloody tower of babble.

d.

What is consciousness? Consciousness is not an object.

The mind appears in consciousness like objects appear in the mind.

I am is the immaculate object.

e.

Maya is the power wielded by Isvara God, Saguna Brahman. Isvara God, Saguna Brahman is the conceptual creation of Maya.

That both statements are true forms the original paradox: Is Maya the power of God or is God the creation of Maya?

.

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On Real Faith

Inbetween blind belief and realization is contemplative faith.

Blind belief is taking someone else’s word for experiential knowledge.

Contemplative faith is contemplating someone else’s words and

proving or disproving them with one’s own experiential knowledge.

Belief is like blindly following a road map and driving into the lake of samsara.

Belief is not faith. Faith is trusting oneself. And the contemplation is knowing oneself better.

a. Fly Maya

Science says my dining room table is more than 99% space but I still put things on it.

It's not because I distrust the material sciences but I know what Maya is.

Maya gets you there despite the logic of Zeno's Paradox.

b. Meet the Existents

The necessary existent is unborn and immutable. The contingent existent is born, changes, and dies.

The necessary existent is Brahman. The contingent existent is Maya.

There is nothing but Brahman. Maya appears in Brahman like a dream appears in the mind, like a snake appears in a rope.

c. Love in Samsara

The I is silent in Parabrahman.

The I is pronounced Me in Samsara.

In Samsara, Me knows lots of things.

Me loves some of them to be existent.

Me loves some of them to be nonexistent.

d. Get Back, Jojo

In the primordial duality of Maya

before the ignorance of individual consciousness has descended to cloud the universe in the darkness of Samsara—

the I in subtle reflection says I am, I know, I love.

e. Three Real Encores

We are seeing Van Morrison singing Moondance as a full moon rises behind the band beneath this lovely Tanglewood summer night in 1972 and we kiss.

We see Van Morrison and Bob Dylan Knockin' at Heaven's Door in the old Fleet Center on a January night in Boston. Good seats, stage left. You can see through the black holes in their eyes.

We see Great Big Sea singing Great Big Sea while leaning on the stage at a city summer festival in Somerville 1999. We are my daughter and I. She really likes them. That's way cool.

f. An Overture to Contemplative Faith

Faith is trusting oneself and contemplation is knowing oneself better.

Maya gets you there despite the logic of Zeno’s Paradox.

The necessary existent is unborn and immutable; the contingent existent is born, changes, and dies.

In Samsara, Me knows lots of things. Me loves some of them to be existent, Me loves some of them to be nonexistent.

The I in subtle reflection says I am, I know, I love.

We see Great Big Sea singing Great Big Sea while leaning on the stage at a city summer festival in Somerville 1999.

g. Keeping the Fourth

You are entering that place between the three states of consciousness and the Fourth. Welcome to the twilight zone.

Between realization and belief is faith, contemplative faith. Bond, James Bond. Turiya.

Faith is to being as belief is to being the Fourth one night a year.

Nonduality is conceptual. The nondual is nonconceptual.

Nonduality is a multitude of concepts designed to help oneself realize the nondual self. As such, these concepts aren’t to be taken literally. They aren’t the truth. They are pointing to a nonconceptual truth.

To drop duality is their primary message. Drop this, drop this. Even their concepts themselves are ultimately to be dropped, or rather passed on to pay it back.

Another message of nonduality is the emphasis of the substrate beneath the superimposition of these concepts being deconstructed in the practice of not this, not this—

it's not all nothingness and nonexistence but the principle of existence itself, awareness itself, bliss itself.

Beyond duality is nondual satcitananda, the absolute subject, the silent I. On the other hand, primordial duality says I am, I know, I love. This is as far as any fictional individual may go—sit there silently at that door. Reality will take you in. The door is one's own doing.

a. Vedantic Math

I = Ayam Atma Brahma = Satcitananda.

I am, I know, I love = pure Maya.

Tantra is to I am as Jnana is to I know as Bhakta is to I love equals Maya's directions back home to I.

b. Perennial Maya

Navnath Tantra, Advaita Jnana, and Hafiz Bhakta, oh my!

I am, I know that, and I love that beloved.

c. Real Hafiz

Again the garden has got the glitter of Spring:

The nightingale hears good news, for the rose is come.

Soft wind returning to the young plants of the meadow, Greet for us the rose, the cypress and the sweet basil.

They are spread for the wedding-feast of the wine-seller's son, And I'd sweep his floor with my eyelashes to win such grace.

For that amber-scented strand you draw across a moonlight brow

Has made a shuttlecock of my heart, and set it spinning.

I can't trust those who sneer at us drinking down to the lees: That is the kind of thing which gets a bad name for religion.

~ from Hafiz VII (tr-Avery)

d. after hafiz

The red-winged blackbird arrives in late January or early February depending on my point of view that year.

The yellow roses of forsythia appear in late March or early April depending on the whims of my beloved.

By late May the lilacs which last bloomed last year have bloomed again and once again are fading.

The summer solstice is next. As long as one identifies with earth there will be birth and death. Sunrise, sunset.

e. untitled

Atman is Brahman the end.

Maya, Maya, Maya

1. Maya, Maya, Maya

Saguna Brahman is Brahman with qualities: rajas, tamas, sattva. Doing is rajas; not doing is tamas. Such is the ignorance of avidya. Nondoing is sattva. This is the intelligence of Maya.

The intelligent design of the universe is Maya. And Maya is the magician called God. And Maya is the illusion called Creation. And Maya is the revelation called Nonduality.

Everything is Maya; nothing is Maya. Maya is something else! Beyond Maya, the Advaita of Maya is pointing to two truths: Reality and Self. And the true Self is pure Reality.

2. I am, I am, I am

Maya is not a hindrance to self-realization. Maya is the field of self-realization.

Reality needs no realization. Individual consciousness as avidya does.

Maya is the subtle body and Maya is the reflection of Satcitananda in the subtle body.

The first words of Maya were 'I am'. They still are. Listen and know who really is.

3. reflecting on reflections

Maya is not belief. Avidya is belief. Maya is reflection.

Reflecting on that reflection is Maya's way of seeing through this Maya.

Satcitananda is a silent I. The reflection of Satcitananda says I am, I know, I love.

4. I

Drop ignorance.

Not this, not this.

I am not me.

I am.

I.

a. I Overture and Postmodern Sonnet

The intelligent design of the universe is Maya.

And Maya is the magician called God.

And Maya is the illusion called Creation.

And Maya is the revelation called Nonduality.

The first words of Maya were 'I am’.

They still are.

Listen and know who really is.

Satcitananda is a silent I.

The reflection of Satcitananda says I am, I know, I love.

Dropping Ignorance is the Zen of Neti Neti.

Not this, not this.

I am not me.

I am.

I.

Drg Drsya Viveka 23 Trans/Notes

DDV23

With thought and without thought: meditation is of these two kinds in the heart. With the seen and with words: meditation with thought is again of two kinds.

Savikalpo nirvikalpaḥ samādhir-dvividho hrdi,

Dṛśya-śabdānuviddhena savikalpaḥ punar- dvidhā.

Without सविकल्पः with duality; निर्विकल्पः duality; समाधिः – (the practice) of meditation; द्विविधः – is of two kinds; हृदि – within; दृश्य-शब्द- अनुविद्धेन – associated with the seen and with words; सविकल्पः – (meditation) with duality; पुनः – is again; द्विधा – of two kinds

The practice of meditation within is of two kinds: with duality and without duality. Meditation with duality is again of two kinds, that which is associated with the seen and with words.

~T

सविकल्प: in which ideas are present निविर्कल्पः in which ideas do not exist हृदि (to be practised) within the heart समाधिः concentration (इति) द्विविधः of two kinds सविकल्पः (समाधिः) concen- tration in which ideas are present दृश्यशब्दानुवेधेन according to its association with a cognizable object or with a sound (as an object) पुनः again द्विधा (are) two kinds.

Two kinds of samādhi to be practised in the heart (within one’s self) are known as savikalpa (1) and nirvikalpa. (2) Savikalpa samādhi is again divided into two classes, ac- cording to its association with a cognizable ob- ject or a sound (as an object).

~N

With duality and without duality – thus

the practice of meditation WITHIN is of two kinds.

Associated with the seen and with words – thus

The practice with duality is again of two kinds.

~S

Notes

Vikalpa here means duality that which remains with duality is savikalpa. The practice of meditation maintaining the duality of the meditator and the meditated upon is called savikalpa samādhi.

In savikalpa samādhi, the meditator is the empirical jīva the limited individual and the object of meditation is the attributeless Self. This duality of the meditator and the meditated upon exists in the practice stage. Once this duality disappears, the infinite Self alone remains. This is called nirvikalpa samādhi.

Strange is this practice! The meditator is a non-existing, superimposed entity. The object of meditation is the very ‘subject’ which illumines all objects, and the practice of meditation is a suicidal act on the part of the meditator! Would it not be strange if we were to meditate each morning ‘I am a man’ or ‘I am a woman?’ It is even more strange that I have to meditate that ‘I am the Self’, because there never was a time when I was not the infinite Self. Meditation has to be practised only because we have somehow come to believe ourselves to be contrary to what we are.

~T

[1] Savikalpa In this samādhi, the practi- tioner concentrates his mind on Brahman without completely losing such distinc- tions as the knower, knowledge, and the known. This is the initial step in the prac- tice of concentration.

[2] Nirvikalpa-In this samādhi the practi- tioner makes himself free from all thought of distinctions, as the knower, knowledge, and the known.

~N

Samādhi is divided into savikalpa and nirvikalpa. Savikalpa-samādhi itself can be divided into two, one associated with an object, and the other associated with the Vedāntic words, such as sākṣī, satyaṃ, nityam, adhiṣṭhānam, etc., which have been thoroughly studied and become personally meaningful during śravaṇaṃ and mananam.

~P

Translators / Commentators Legend

A: Aumdada

D: Dayananda

N: Nikhilananda

P: Paramarthananda

S: Sandeepany

T: Tejomayananda

From Point to Point of View

1. nonsense and nonduality

Materialism is the metaparadigm of Big Science and its true believers. Things begin with a big bang but Beyond the Big Bang is given no consideration at all.

It's practically impossible to actually know the truth while clinging to this nonsense. Nonduality in general and Advaita in particular provide a different point of view, not to be blindly believed like the Big Bang Theory, but confirmed by listening, reflecting, and envisioning.

It's like hiking into the wilderness with a map. One doesn’t literally tread upon its words and lines, but follows it carefully instead, confirming it’s accuracy with the real lay of the land from point to point of view.

2. the map

In Advaita, the Big Bang is basically Maya, although a place for a universal god of consciousness is reserved in recognition of another wrongful metaparadigm: in opposition to the religion of Big Science is the religion of Big God.

There isn't much to say about the Great Beyond except it's beginningless, changeless, and thus eternal. Anything in opposition to these facts is not real. Anything which is born, changes, and dies is but an appearance in that Beyond, that Reality, that Absolute, that Parabrahman.

In other words, there is nothing but Brahman. My true self, Atman, is Brahman, the nature of which is unadulterated existence, consciousness, and bliss, their primordial reflections being I am, I know, I love.

3. to scale or not to scale

All maps are made to a certain scale. This map is made small enough to include the beginningless and large enough to catch its reflection.

It allows for the return to our primordial reflection in some way. Resting in the I Am (The Navnath Way) is like a nondual existential halfway house.

Also resting in Maya without the ignorance of what Maya is and is not are the Way of Knowledge and the Way of Love.

Further it establishes the foundational logic of the godhead being unborn, immutable, and all there really is. And thus my real self obviously.

Ayam Atma Brahma.

a. here and now

There is no memory. All experience is happening now.

There is no other. All is happening to everyone here and now.

Memory is like digging for oil and finding fire.

Otherness is like if loving you is wrong I don't want to be right.

b. dreaming

Am I one dreaming a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming one?

The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty. There is no glass.

There's only the emptiness of thought and the all of parabrahman.

Between emptiness and holistic bliss infinity is dreaming.

c. samadhi

It's not about who's dreaming who. It's dreaming either way.

If it isn't nirvikalpa, it's savikalpa. Enjoy the samadhi either way.

On Witness Consciousness

According to Vidyaranya, there are three seers: the eyes, the mind, and witness consciousness. Science has confirmed the first two but remains ignorant about the third.

The eyes register reflections of light and a spectrum of color. The mind creates their names and forms, analyzes them, and passes judgment like the ignorant creator that it is.

Without the witness consciousness, none of this appears. It’s not the Creator though. The creation is Maya’s domain. But it's the substance from which these dreams are made.

a. silly mind

Big Science is still trying to unify quantum and newtonian physics

rather than quantum physics and nondual metaphysics. 

Silly science. The former isn't possible while the latter is what it is.

And what egoic mind calls Creator is just itself wrapped in robes.

The absolute one is beginningless.

In that unborn reality, creation is conceptual only.

b. real science

Real Science begins at wave-particle duality. That's the paradox it needs to sit with.

Upanishadic rishis sat with immutability and change thus conceiving the fabulous concept of Maya.

If it helps, the mind dreams whether the body is asleep or awake. When the mind stops dreaming, it's called deep sleep. Consciousness never stops witnessing though. Try meditating on that.

c. three good mantras

Individual consciousness (jiva) is ignorance (avidya). Universal consciousness (saguna brahman) is both god (isvara) and illusion (maya).

It's like mind (antahkarana) and ego (ahankara) appearing in the subtle body of organic chemicals and functional compounds without the ignorance of individual consciousness.

One cure for individual consciousness is resting in universal consciousness, God or Maya.

God has many names and forms for one to worship, relatively speaking. Maya says three things: I am, I know, I love. Any one from this primordial trinity makes for a good mantra.

d. reflections of satcitananda

Satcitananda is the truth. And the reflections of Satcitananda are the gods I worship in duality.

The reflection of existence is I am. The reflection of consciousness is I know. The reflection of bliss is I love.

Nisargadatta Maharaj says I am. Advaita Vedanta says I know. And Krishna says I still love Jesus.

The Reflections: I am, I know, I love.

1. The Reflections: I am, I know, I love.

The matrix of Satcitananda is not existence, consciousness, bliss as the mind defines them. Most people think the body-mind exists, is conscious, and feels bliss. Not true! The body-mind is only living on borrowed existence, consciousness, and bliss.

Real existence is the godhead. As is consciousness and bliss. And I, Satcitananda, is all there is. The mind is like a subtle body burning in the blink of that I.

In this way, Satcitananda is reflecting in the subtle body. And in its first blush, this reflection is saying, I am, I know, I love.

But as the egoic mind begins to own this reflection, objects become attached. I am me, I know lots of things, and I love some of them.

Thus Samsara appears in Satcitananda. To reverse this curse, return to that first blush: I am. That which is reflecting shall take it from there.

2. Satcitananda like the Sea

What people think of as existence is a wave. But real existence is like the sea.

People think that consciousness is a product of the mind, when the mind appears in consciousness like an island in the sea.

And people think that bliss is a culmination of the deepest pleasure. But bliss is that sea of holistic infinity and its reflection is actually unconditional love.

3. On Brahman, Maya, and Avidya

Brahman is the absolute one

like the silence of satcitananda.

Maya is primordial duality

like I am, I know, I love.

Avidya is samsaric multiplicity

like I am me, I know lots of things, and I love some of them.

a. Arizona, Japan, and Bon Secours

Existence is like that time I saw the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi to be historically incorrect) Mummy Cave Ruins across the narrow but lively springtime waters of Chinle Wash in Canyon del Muerto. It wasn't like spacetime stopped but it was never here.

Consciousness is like that time I stood on a dragon boat observing several small pine islands in Matsushima Bay (there are 260 in total) as if we were the ones being observed instead. That's why Basho remains silent about that place to this day.

My beautiful daughter had been born. The ironic pleasure of Steely Dan's Reelin' In the Years was playing on the radio as I was leaving Bon Secours. My wife had been in labor for an excruciating 24 hours. But bliss is beyond the pleasure-pain syndrome. And life isn't fair.

b. Birth and Death

Birth and death are states of existence.

Actually, birth and death are states of mind in unborn eternal existence.

You got the picture.