Meditation Three

Belief is all about thought. Myth is more about experience.

Myth looks at the moon while religion looks at the myth.

But religion is to myth as myth is to paradox; all roads lead to Nome.

Belief is to symptoms as the myth of nonduality is to the disease.

Like e=mc², maya equals three states of consciousness 

by five superimpositions by seven stages of self-awareness.

Please note three states, five superimpositions, and seven stages equal 

the waking dream, dreaming sleep, deep sleep; outer, inner, thinker, doer, lover;

potential, substance, form, combination, organization, mobility, dominion.

Meditating Two

While zen has countless koans,

advaita has this one of Maya.

Because the unmanifest absolute is

by definition unchanging,

Maya is the main myth used

to illustrate a paradoxical

universe of phenomenal change.

Mahavakyas 4: Aham Brahmāsmi

Aham Brahmāsmi (अहम् ब्रह्मास्मि) – “I am Brahman” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda):

brahma vā idamagra āsīt, tadātmānamevāvet, aham brahmāsmīti | tasmāttatsarvamabhavat; tadyo yo devānām pratyabubhyata sa eva tadabhavat, tathārṣīṇām, tathā manuṣyāṇām; taddhaitatpaśyannṛṣirvāmadevaḥ pratipede, aham manurabhavaṃ sūryaśceti | tadidamapyetarhi ya evaṃ veda, aham brahmāsmīti, sa idaṃ sarvam bhavati, tasya ha na devāścanābhūtyā īśate, ātmā hyeṣāṃ sa bhavati; atha yo'nyāṃ devatāmupāste, anyo'sāvanyo'hamasmīti, na sa veda, yathā paśurevam sa devānām | yathā ha vai bahavaḥ paśavo manuṣyam bhuñjyuḥ, evamekaikaḥ puruṣo devān bhunakti; ekasminneva paśāvādīyamāne'priyam bhavati, kiṃu bahuṣu? tasmādeṣām tanna priyam yadetanmanuṣyāvidyuḥ || 10 ||

This [self] was indeed Brahman in the beginning. It knew itself only as “I am Brahman.” Therefore it became all. And whoever among the gods had this enlightenment, also became That [Brahman]. It is the same with the seers (rishis), the same with men. The seer Vamadeva, having realized this [self] as That, came to know: "I was Manu and the sun." And to this day, whoever in a like manner knows the self as "I am Brahman," becomes all this [universe]. Even the gods cannot prevent his becoming this, for he has become their Self.

(tr-Nikhilananda)

Meditation Number One

If awareness equals consciousness minus Maya,

then the original sin is the concept of consciousness itself, I am;

meditate on a concept long enough and suddenly it disappears

into the pure potentiality that is consciousness, n'est-ce pas?

Fountains of Consciousness

 *

In the land of seven billion fountains,

there’s only water.

This fountain apparatus is here for just one purpose—

*

turning the life force of consciousness

into a shimmering sky of self-awareness:

clay/pot, rope/snake, silver/mother of pearl!

*

Fountain/water is just more metaphor

in the name of self-awareness.

You’re welcome.

Love, Nonduality 13

*

The world is made of definitions—

invoking one reality, indivisible, with nondualty for all.

*

Neither the outer, inner, thinker, doer,

nor even lover, be.

*

But love is the empress of duality.

Love is the one in the land of two.

*

Love doesn’t own its own doing.

Love doesn’t think before love does.

*

There is no 'in love' and there is no 'out of love'.

There’s only whole love.

*

Yes, there is no love in nonduality,

but there’s nonduality in love.

*

footnotes

*

shankara called this world of definitions, namarupa, name-forms;

between namarupa and brahman is maya.

*

some call maya 'unevolved namarupa'; 

that's fine by maya.

*

advaita talks about the five sheaths 'covering' atman;

i shall be calling them the five great superimpositions.

*

they say the inner, the outer, and the thinker dies, while the doer transmigrates.

but the lover neither dies nor transmigrates.

*

LOVE IS REAL MAYA

yes, between nonduality and duality is maya.

*

from pov duality, maya is the goddess of paradox;

but from pov nonduality, maya is love.

*

Tattva Ah-ha!

1.

The absolute reflecting in the dream is like a sky of awareness.

The absolute permeating the dream is like an ocean of consciousness.

The absolute deconstructing the dream is like a mountain of mind.

2.

Awareness witnesses self-awareness. Self-awareness is a reflexive universe, unmanifest to manifest to realization.

Consciousness is conditioned by the three states, the five superimpositions, the seven stages, the nine natural numbers, and eleven.

The mind thinks reality is nothing because the mind thinks the mind is everything. Oh, mind, you don’t know nothing.

3.

Darkness for the sake of darkness is unconscious materialism.

If awareness is unconditioned consciousness, conditioned consciousness is the ten thousand points of view.

After the molecular stage of total material subjugation, conditioned consciousness begins to wiggle its organic light fantastic.

4.

I-am is this conditioned consciousness escaping the hyphen in self-awareness.

Relax, I am, and float upstream. I-am is like the light of awareness burning through the rock of space-time. 

Call this latency, this organic actuality, this growing is-ness, this vehicle of self-awareness, this outbreak, onset, uprising, energy, je suis, jesus, animation, anime, anima, animus, aham, ah-ha!

footnotes

That’s the nondual absolute. The absolute reflecting in the dream is this one godhead, three gods, seven powers, and ten thousand points of view. In order to neti neti, one must first this this.

Unevolved name and form is the unmanifest. Evolutionary name and form is the manifest. The nondual absolute is beyond the manifest and unmanifest.

I think I am, I think I am, I think I am. I know I am, whatever. Aham yoga is like advaita tantra for the masses. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I’m not

Iambic

For no principle

Cherry blossom time

In Northeast Massachusetts

April Twenty-three

Awareness reflects,

Permeates, and deconstructs

Each maya blossom

Four Views of Ouroboros (A18)

1.

My space of awareness is the same space of awareness as absolute awareness.

As the I of me is the same I as that, there is no me for I am that.

2.

As duality is a case of mistaken identity, nonduality is the highest quality of all dualities.

Nonduality is the penultimate view of the ultimate view of no views.

3.

Similarly a true materialist knows there can be no division in a universe.

Neither is there some prime particle that’s not a wave of consciousness.

4.

It’s not that doing happens but that the doer happens is the secret of duality.

And samsara sure loves company.

footnotes to four views

a.

There is one awareness in which this world is appearing at a theater near you.

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love. ~Meister Eckhart

b.

If duality is the disease, nonduality isn't the medicine. Nonduality is the ease.

Nonduality is not a practice. Duality is a practice that got out of hand.

c.

I contain paradoxes.

As in a dream, the material world is the light of consciousness filtered through the great prism of seven thoughts.

d.

One knocks three times.

Like the silver screen, there is one awareness. Like a movie, there's our world. In the audience, there's a gasp of revelation.

Vivekaka (A17)

Without shit and stuff, self-awareness isn’t. Look, it’s not shit’s fault I've been identifying with it. 

And who am I to be holier than shit? It’s all Isvara.

Awareness is self-aware. Self-awareness appears to be a self-reflexive universe. Why?

Maya isn’t saying. But there’s a koan for that. Cue laughtrack.

Enlightenment is happening every nanosecond like brain cells bursting in an open head of space. 

There's nothing I can do about it but understand I’m undergoing it and stop my fighting it.

I’ve been identifying with this mind ever since I turned organic to escape the rock molecular dreamstate I found myself within. Now it’s time to finally disidentify.

This may take a kalpa or two.

There's a fine fine line between belief and faith. Leave it to religions to always cross it.

Real inquiry isn't blind, my secret friend. Tattvamasi.

Sonnet Ghazal Anandamaya (A16)

NAME WHAT YOU KNOW BUT ONLY FOLLOW THE UNKNOWN

X = maya. Solve for why.

If mind dreaming is the stuff of Freud and Jung, consciousness dreaming is the stuff of Einstein and Shankara.

I was raised Roman Catholic so let me tell you how liberating it is to slowly wake up from a guilty dream and suddenly realize you’re not it’s doer.

Out of the five great superimpositions, only four transmigrate. Anandamaya doesn’t, lover.

Absolute awareness is self-aware of course. And the paradox of such dissemblance appears to be a universe, but is nothing but the self-shining consciousness that absolute awareness is. Now that’s self-awareness.

There are three states of consciousness, five great superimpositions, and seven evolutionary stages of self-awareness. It’s eleven o’clock. Do you know where you are in this matrix right now?

Suddenly in the dominion of anandamaya, the monkey mind awakens.

It's not as much living in the present as not living in the past or future.

Since anandamaya is fully manifest in deep sleep, one doesn't really fall asleep as much as filler up on bliss.

Number nine ad infinitum follows the seventh substage of the seventh stage as the mind of eight has verily been blown sideways.

There's a binary system behind all appearances consisting of some kind of yin and yang. There's a valley spirit behind all such duality. Call it paradox, koan, or maya.

Isvara is just a vedantic name for what the new age calls the universe.

For in the metaparadigm of consciousness first, the universe of materialism is known as universal consciousness.

As individual consciousness has a name, universal consciousness has a name. As universal consciousness has a name, there is no name for the absolute, noumenal, godhead, tao, brahman.

Wander Way (A15)

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. ~Lal Ded

Truth isn’t intellectual nor intuitive but being only. There’s no doing truth. Understanding is the waiting. Doing is the door. Being is the way.

The practice of attention-minus-thought is not a practice, but my default. Reminding myself of this is the practice.

By the way, there’s nothing wrong with attention including thought, when aware thought is just a tool and not some identity which eclipses the waking day.

It’s also good to remember the lover does the doer. Anandamaya is the link between the so-called individual and universal consciousness.

When dreaming, the mind is like a perpetual motion machine. The secret is to let it spin when not in use, without being hypnotized by its random thoughts.

Deconstruction is the loving doing. Understanding tattvamasi is the waiting. Being is the way. Zhuangzi calls this way wandering at ease.

Consciousness Sonnet A14

Street legal for the first time in two years

and every one of my years is worth five

of yours or vice versa, how does that exactly go?

The great blue heron will be seventeen!

And it’s been fifty years since my last confession.

How long since Sergeant Pepper taught iambic?

My mother at age ninety-three agrees

consciousness is the youth of ten thousand summers.

Yes, it's another paraverse on consciousness—

I fell into the looking glass 09;

there’s nothing else for me to write about now.

This so-called individual consciousness is

the same absolute self-shining consciousness as

that universal consciousness, prior the maya.

Song for Miles

Whether you think consciousness is a material product or not, just rest there. Consciousness knows.

If everything appears in consciousness and nothing appears in deep sleep, how does something appear from out of nothing?

Consciousness is the ground of the universe. Even the mere thought of consciousness is enough to blow your mind.

3/5 of a mile in ten seconds may be 216 mph but it's all about the song in which the mathematics is appearing.

Some Nondual Maps (A13)

Some call individual consciousness, jiva. Some call universal consciousness, isvara. Some call self-shining consciousness, awareness, brahman, parabrahman, brahman nirguna, the absolute, the noumenal, not maya but not nothing, that pure land beyond all names, i.

Some say there are five primary sheaths conditioning universal consciousness. I call them the five superimpositions: outer, inner, thinker, doer, and lover. Some call them, annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnamaya, anandamaya. Universal consciousness is only conditioned by maya.

In this self-reflexiveness myth, self-shining consciousness descends to material unawareness and back in seven stages. Young calls them, potential, substance, form, combination, organization, mobility, dominion. The turning in the middle of the fourth state is the first step of self-awareness.

Some say there are three states of personal consciousness. The waking state is consciousness dreaming. The dream state is the mind dreaming. Deep sleep is no dreaming or the absence of duality. True awakening, on the other hand, is the presence of nonduality.

Circling back to the five superimpositions, the lover is like a no-man's land, first superimposition. Anandamaya precedes the jiva! Love is the real in the world of the unreal. Anandamaya does not transmigrate! It's the border station for isvara and the jiva. Some call this bhakti.

Koan Number Nine (A12)

That you’ve heard of enlightenment is worth one point. That you believed the concept of enlightenment is worth two points. That you understand the paradox of enlightenment is worth ten thousand points.

No points wins the game.

Enlightenment is self-awareness. Self-awareness is unborn.

Absolute awareness is obviously self-aware.

Another name for unawareness is maya.

Maya is my unborn conditioning.

BEFORE ENLIGHTENMENT IS MAYA AND AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT IS MAYA. MAYA HAS BEEN BURNED INTO MY SCREEN.

Therefore seeing through maya is enlightenment enough.

What is seeing through a koan?

Only that is seeing through a koan.

Following Consciousness (A11)

In reality, don’t follow the money. Follow the consciousness. 

Consciousness isn’t nothing. Consciousness is all there is.

Consciousness is the tvam in tat tvam asi. Consciousness is that, 

that being the gender-neutral vedic name for the absolute godhead.

Although personal consciousness is a concept, 

the substratum of the concept is consciousness.

This consciousness is the same as the self-shining consciousness of that. 

This fact is the essence of nonduality.

One only has to honestly think I am before consciousness takes over.

Even fundamental materialists can use this method 

although in doing so they should expect to be astounded.

Like meditation or any other function of the mind, 

I am is just a method to be used, and not an idol end to fetishize.

Self-shining consciousness and pure awareness are not two.

The Myths of Maya (A10)

Personal consciousness is like the space within an open casket identifying with said casket.

Self-reflexive consciousness is like the absolute reflecting in, pervading throughout, and completely deconstructing maya in the name of self-awareness.

Not body-mind, not jiva (personal consciousness), not isvara (universal consciousness) even, but brahman (self-shining consciousness, pure awareness).

The jiva is universal consciousness reflected in the body-mind. Isvara is self-shining consciousness reflected in maya. Brahman is pure awareness.

There are three states, five superimpositions, and seven stages in self-reflexive consciousness: waking dream, dreaming sleep, deep sleep; outer, inner, thinker, doer, lover; potential, substance, form, combination, organization, mobility, dominion.

The Deconstruction Blues (A9)

First, deconstruct nothing. The concept of nothing is the world’s greatest concept.

From out of the absolute whole is born this hole of nothing.

People so hate the something they think they are,

they’d rather think they’re nothing instead.

So before attempting self-inquiry, this nothing must be deconstructed.

Otherwise, what exactly is there for inquiry?

This is why you need to pay your dues

before singing the deconstruction blues.

This is why you’re sent to do the guru’s kitchen work.

This is why compassion is the requirement in an elementary education.

And between you and me, it’s apparent this is why I am a parent.

God knows what too sweet little nothings

I’d be whispering in your ears if not.

Instead, I’m neither outer, inner, thinker, doer, nor enjoyer.

footnotes

if ego is nothing, and you're not the ego, then you're not nothing, no?

the something you think you are is nothing. the whole you know you are is everything.

and deconstructing nothing saves a lot of spiritual time. if you can't, then game over. next?

in the land of the trickster, knowing one is free is better than thinking one is free, but thinking one is free of the trickster is better than believing one isn't free.

in samsara, everyone is doing time.

in the land of the stupid, stupid is not a glitch. it's a feature, says marjorie.

the waking state is a dream state. dream states are my sleep state. sleep is the dash in self-awareness.

your fear of success is not a fear. it's an affirmation of reality.

because there is a world, everyone lives in ten thousand worlds.

you're either acting in someone else's story or directing yours.

my story is self-awareness. who are you?

a friendly reminder: attention minus cognition equals atman equals brahman.

actually, it's attention minus cognition minus intuition minus affection. new math isn't easy, sister.

i am self-aware, i am self-aware, i am self-aware.

Just Consciousness Talking (A8)

The absolute reflected in illusion is universal consciousness.

Universal consciousness reflected in the body-mind is

personal consciousness, or intelligence.

Intelligence untouched by the mind is intuition.

Intelligence filtered by the mind is belief.

Personal consciousness identifies with the body-mind and voila—

the world of belief, samsara of materialism.

So universal consciousness in the form of realized intelligence is

talking to the so-called personal consciousness of unrealized intelligence

but it’s just consciousness talking to consciousness.

Universal consciousness is always talking to personal consciousness,

but personal consciousness, lost in the mad loud world,

is hard of hearing intuition. Thus, realization depends

upon the silent grace of the real. In the material world,

such grace may look like a nervous breakdown, but it is what it is.

footnotes

myth is the only real rebellion in maya's empire.

the self is self-aware. that self-awareness is universal consciousness. this universal consciousness is the self-reflexive universe. the self-reflexive universe is a myth leading back to the self.

to think i am is to know i am and to know i am is the self-awareness of the self.

intuition and belief are the poles of the mind.

in the realm of self-awareness, it's the job of so-called personal consciousness or nodal consciousness to use the tool of mind. in the art of consciousness and the mind, it becomes one with the mind. this appears to be samsara to the mind.

the mothership of consciousness is always talking to its nodal ship, knowing its the job of its node to travel to the dark side of the moon and back again. just imagine the intricacy.

in a world of constant noise, silence is wealth. similarly, since giving is receiving, pass it on.

Realization Works (A7)

Almost no one thinks they’re doing something bad. See, it’s not the doing that’s the problem but the thinking.

If good works prepare the ground for realization, and only realization knows what good work is, that’s Catch-22 laughs Maya.

Then some are saying unconditional love is the only doer of creative action but that’s easier said than done. But by all means, love.

Even shifting ones identity to a god and surrendering to that god’s intent depends upon a person’s concept of a god. And this is why religious wars.

In the absolute end, realization depends upon the grace of the real. Don’t worry, you know it when you are it.

footnotes

there's nothing wrong with division. 

it's taking a side which causes all the problems.

likewise, there's nothing wrong with the mind.

it's the right place for realization.

in duality, only truth appears to be a paradox.

love is not a thought. love can't be someone's plan, philosophy, or spiritual practice. there are absolutely no objectives when it comes to love. love loves, period.

tonight's ouroboric trinity is vishnu's existential tail, isvara's universal skin of consciousness, and shiva's evolutionary mouth of self-awareness. let us pray.

just because realization is sudden doesn't mean it's not happening now. it really is and you know it.

A RIVER OF REALIZATION RUNS THROUGH SPACETIME

to be real, a river of space-time runs through realization.

although you're always on the river, it's the falling in the river you remember.

in my lifetime, only when i'm in the river do i know i am the river.