On Transcendental Self-awareness

Satcitananda is the principle of existence, the ground of consciousness, and the bliss of self-awareness. These are not attributes of Brahman. That satcitananda is the nondual nature of Nirguna Brahman.

In Saguna Brahman, I Am is the god of existence, I Know is the demigod of consciousness, and I Know I Am is the love song of self-awareness.

This manifestation of self-awareness may feel like samsara and look like space-time to an unwise mind but is actually the nondual nature of that transcendental light.

The Paradox of  Self-awareness

Beyond life is the principle of existence. Beneath mindfulness is the ground of consciousness. Transcending love is the bliss of self-awareness.

Scientific materialism doesn’t have the ground of consciousness to stand on. It’s like this house of cards in the middle of an old-fashioned hurricane. 

Religions give birth to billions of babies while scientific materialism throws out the baby with the bathwater. Advaita liberates that which is unborn, I'm just saying.

Call Me Moby

From existence to awareness happens in the blink of an eye.

In the name of effortless nondoing and intuitive nonknowing.

Call me Satcitananda.

Summary of Shankara's System

The fundamental principle of Shankara’s teaching is that the pure, innermost ‘Self’ is the ultimate reality. This Self (which must not be confused with the ‘ego’) is a spiritual kernel of the same kind as Brahman or Godhead, the ultimate reality.

When a man overcomes ignorance or ‘avidya’ (the word has a very wide connotation which will be explained later) and grasps intuitively that the Universe is merely an external phenomenon, and realises the identity between the Self and Brahman he becomes a ‘liberated’ soul waiting only for his final liberation from the body by death.

The Self or Brahman cannot be described because it has no ‘qualities’ in the ordinary sense though it is sometimes said to be of the nature of pure being pure consciousness and pure bliss.

The material universe of forms and things is grounded in Brahman, but its formation therefrom cannot be described or formulated.

It functions on the basis of the law of ‘karma’ that is of cause and effect; but its ultimate cause is Brahman which has created the material world and started the process of change that we see occurring in that world, all creation is, however, ‘Maya’ or the power of illusion. 

Within the realm of maya the universe exists and can be conceived as a creation of Brahman, who can also be conceived as a personal God; though from the standpoint of ultimate reality even a personal deity is a product of maya.

The causal law itself is ultimately unintelligible, because it is an illusory concept of name and form. There is no more essential difference between effect and cause than between a moulded pot and the clay from which it is made.

The world as caused by Brahman is an illusory superimposition (adhyasa) of phenomenon on the basic reality—like a rope which is mistaken for a snake or the mirage-lake seen on the desert sand.

It follows logically therefore that Shankara should urge the renunciation of transitory things and the acquisition of ‘right knowledge’ as the only means of attaining ‘liberation’.

~Y. Keshava Menon, "The Mind of Shakaracharya" 

Turn, Turn, Turntable

Awareness is pure consciousness. The mind is reflected consciousness like a red hot iron ball.

Any appearance in this lake appears to be real not because of its reflection but for the water in which it is appearing.

Lucid dreaming is like receiving. In manifesting is the giving. The mind is like a needle in a turn, turn, turntable.

Beginningless ignorance and spontaneous revelation are two sides of Maya. Self-awareness is the coin of reality.

Footnotes to a Solar Eclipse

Some say what most know as consciousness is actually reflected consciousness. Some call pure consciousness awareness. All states of consciousness are appearances in awareness. Pure consciousness is nondual.

Attention equals consciousness plus thought. Thoughts comprise the subtle substances of every name appearing in this universal magic show. Which came first: Chicken Little or the Golden Egg?

The shadow is nothing but a cloud. Avidya is like a dirty rotten snake. Accumulation is against the laws of giving and receiving. Insincerity is not impeccable. These dogs of war are in your head.

Dream sleep is mind on. Deep sleep is mind off. Mindfulness is seeing through the mind when on. Enlightenment transcends the mind, off or on.

Senses are the instruments of the mind. Dreams are like sonatas, concertos, or symphonies. Intuition is that corona of the Self.

A Solar Eclipse of Satcitananda

There are no states of consciousness. Like the Sun, awareness always shines.

The Self is self-luminous. There will be clouds.

States of consciousness are states of ignorance. Like cumulus, cirrus, and thunderheads.

The waking state is a dream state too. The mind is turned on asleep or awake. 

Perception is 99% of all illusion. The rest is aura.

Shankara on Name and Form

The explanation follows the line not of the ancient texts that proclaimed that the objects of the world came forth from the texts of the Veda, but the sceptical line of the teachings of Uddālaka. Objects are illusions, entirely dependent on their names.

They are the mere illusory appearance of a plurality of isolated units in the Absolute that results from the arbitrary activity of naming. In this sense, the object is entirely dependent for its existence on, and therefore identical with, its name.

And the name, too, is an illusion. For all modifications of sound are reducible to the one basic sound, OM. And... the syllable OM itself is ultimately reduced to the Absolute, which has no empirical features and certainly does not consist of a plurality of four component elements like the vocalized syllable OM.

So what we have here is not a theory of the creative power of sound in which words are regarded as the subtle vibrations from which gross objects come forth, but a resolute reduction of all plurality to illusion on the lines of Uddālaka.

A similar view is also found at Extract 17, where Śaṅkara reduces all words to the principle speech (Vāc), and reduces Vāc to the Absolute. In this case, what was originally a doctrine describing creation is reduced to a doctrine of illusion.

~A J Alston from 'Shankara on the Creation', p.154

Talking Satcitananda

Veni, vidi, vici. I am, I know, I know I am.

Being is the principle of existence. Awareness is the ground of consciousness.

Self-awareness is the essence of bliss.

The Revelation of Divine Imagination

Awake or asleep, the mind is always dreaming—except in deep sleep when the mind defaults. Trees sleep deep while people are dreaming.

Being, consciousness, bliss, name, and form are maximizing Maya. Satcitananda is the proverbial rope as name and form are making up the snake.

People come with gods and vice versa like a matching set. Any atheist believing in the personal subconsciously believes in some kind of god.

Liberation is a loaded word for clarity. Transmigration is universal dreaming. That is the revelation of divine imagination in this manifestation of self-awareness.

Transcendental Nonduality

The mind is like an island. Folks are always doing or not doing raves on John Donne.

The sea is like a god to us. Depths of effortless intuition fill our prayers.

The absolute being of transcendental consciousness transcends

this universe of space and time. In other words, I am That minus Maya.

Shankara on Vedic revelation

Can any means of knowledge reveal the Self, since to do so is to make the Self an object for a knowing subject. You cannot know anything as an object until you are separate from it and it is standing over against you as an object ready to be known.

Vedic revelation and critical reflection, therefore, as applied to the Self, are primarily negative in character. They do not yield determinate knowledge of the Self as if it were an object:

their function, rather, is to negate that which impedes the self-manifestation of the Self in its true form as infinite consciousness.