Some say shiva is absolute awareness and shakti is self-awareness and the two are just aspects of one.
Some say nirguna brahman awareness is saguna brahman self-awareness by the power of maya.
Some say the intellect deconstructs the fog of mind and in the clarity called self-awareness recognizes and identifies with atman.
This deconstruction takes a lifetime but the recognition and identification is sudden, spontaneous, timeless, infinite.
Where does fire go after burning out?
For stars are but reflections of the great black whole.
The mirror only reflects the truth.
Any misconception lies within the eyes of the beholder.
The reflection of consciousness is pure consciousness.
It’s the appearance in the mirror which is conditioned consciousness.
This appearance is called ahamkara
or the I in action, ego, aren’t I something?
Ahambhava is the I at rest,
this manifest state of being, this sense I am.
And aham is the principle of I,
the sat of satcitananda, pure being.
A reflexive universe of self-awareness is my movie, maya, celluloid dream.
This cineramic silver screen is atman.
Every concept is brahman but brahman is not a concept. This is called the Golden Concept.
Even the thought of brahman may be brahman but brahman is not a thought. Brahman is beyond belief.
The Kena says, not thinking one fully knows nor not knows is the knowing of brahman.
That brahman is not conceptual is the ground of all personal deconstruction, neti neti, and other negative capabilities.
For after the satguru turns the intellect around, the intellect removes the fog of mind in which it has survived.
And I am That as the intellect recognizes its reflection of brahman is brahman. For brahman is the sacrifice and brahman is the fire.
Atman lends sentience to the subtle and outer bodies of reflexive consciousness
like fire lends fire to a forest.
The mind is like a data collector and the intellect is the analyst.
But when the mind attempts to analyze its own data, the pursuant feedback results in garbage out.
There is no ego. Deep down the ego knows this.
It’s called ego’s paradox.
Nonduality appears to be a temporary faith based in logic destined for contemplative confirmation,
unless one chooses to believe it. Then it appears to be a permanent error.
Universal consciousness is isvara. Isvara is a place name for your particular god of universal consciousness to love.
All systems are go, gone, gone beyond. All philosophy is maya.
Believing itself to be an object, the mind desires other objects to possess. It’s a kind of mental love. Further, like atoms, most minds are programmed to be molecular, combining with another object to grow bigger.
To the materialist mind, you can never be too big. And the bigger you are, it takes that much more to make you bigger. Wild affluence is a vicious exponential vector of a river.
And romantic love is a type of mental love as well in which the object is another person. But real love is one in which universal consciousness recognizes and identifies with universal consciousness, seeing through the superimposition of individuality.
From the point of view of individual consciousness (egoic mind), real love appears to be unconditional. But from the point of view of universal consciousness, all conditions are maya.
from cicadas of yamadera
to matsushima's matsushima—
ah one basho
Returning, I spread out a simple mat and eat
while chewing on some purple immortals.
I rinse my bowl in a clear pool.
I boil what’s remaining into a soup.
Sitting in sunshine, wrapped in a cloak,
I scan unhurriedly poems of the ancients.
~Cold Mountain (tx-SR)
The guru speaks of one direction:
Outer expression, inner entrance.
That became Lalla’s sacred word and practice.
Thus began my natural naked song and dance.
~Lal Ded (tx-SR)
How long shall you speak in riddles? Paradox bewilders the mind. Now speak clearly so the heart may hear.
The venerable Shams is both my Lord and Master. By his grace, the land of Tabriz is perfume and ambergris.
~Rumi (tx-SR)
The state in which both this and that are no longer known as opposites is called the Heart of the Way. And from the stillness of such a pivot point, all movement and opposition is seen in their immeasurable transformations.
~Zhuangzi (tx-SR)
Ask and you are given.
Seek and one is finding.
Knock and be opened.
For every asking is receiving
and the seeking is the finding
and the knocking is being opened as oneself.
~Jesus from Matthew 7 (tx-SR)
Tao alone is truth.
Formless—it holds an image.
Indistinct—it shelters fact.
Hidden—it embraces essence.
How do I know? It tells me.
~Lao Tzu (tx-SR)
The Secret Knowledge welcomes by speaking accordingly; uttered to you is The Secret Knowledge of the Absolute; just You, The Secret Knowledge, is speaking therefore.
~from Kena Upanishad (tx-SR)
Isvara and maya go together in this world.
For every subtle body, there’s a light reflecting in it.
The sleep dream is purely a mind dream, thought built upon thought.
But the waking dream is a superimposition of thought built upon the substrate of satcitananda.
But deep sleep is not nirvikalpa samadhi.
Nirvikalpa samadhi requires an awakened intellect to recognize and identify with intelligent awareness.
To deconstruct the superimposition and identify with the substrate.
The mind provides the data. The intellect analyzes and decides. The life force moves the body. That’s spontaneous nondoing in a nutshell.
Maybe in deep sleep the memories of the day gets downloaded to the dna of universal consciousness. So both body and mind get refreshed every night during a deep sleep.
If seeing through maya is seeing isvara, it’s helps to know what’s exactly being seen through.
Deep sleep is the absence of duality.
And deep sleep is a mass of universal consciousness.
And deep sleep is the abode of saguna brahman, isvara, name your god.
And deep sleep is the causal body called anandamaya.
And in the causal body is the dna of maya.
And isvara is reflecting in the intellect as intelligent awareness.
1.
when in maya, do as the sattva do.
the veiling power of tamas; the projecting power of rajas; the revealing power of sattva.
tamas: you fail to see the rope rightly.
rajas: you see the rope as something else.
sattva: you still saw the rope in the first place, but only have mistaken it for a snake.
rajas is yang, tamas is yin. sattva is viveka.
2.
advaita vedanta coopted samkhya by turning prakriti into maya. a genius move.
like nonduality accepts the terms of duality as long as this duality is seen as maya.
if it changes, it can’t be the substratum.
the shimmering prakriti must be maya.
that changeless parusha is brahman.
3.
did you ever notice that the outer changes and the inner remains the same?
the nonconceptual inner is the big before the bang.
brahman is another name for the big.
atman is brahman is a paramahavakya.
In functional maya, the mind supplies the data, the intellect decides an action, and the life force moves the body.
The intellect is the reflection of absolute intelligence. Without thinking about it, the intellect is absolute intelligence, or intelligent awareness.
In a materialistic metaparadigm, the intellect works for the mind. In the metaparadigm of universal consciousness, the mind works for the intellect.
The subtle body of maya is transparently organic but insentient.
Pure consciousness reflecting in the subtle body gives it sentience.
The power of three creates the intellect, mind, and life force.
The mind usurps the life force creating the ego.
Outnumbered, the intellect surrenders to the ego and its world-building ways.
Until the satguru gets through by inspiration, intuition, or revelation.
Turning the intellect around to deconstruct the superimposition.
And recognize and identify with the uncovered substrate.
Relatively speaking, maya is neither existent nor non-existent. From the absolute point of view, there is no maya. That’s why it’s said that maya is unborn but not eternal.
There’s not much of a difference between believing in santa claus, god, or the theory of everything. It’s not about the subjects of belief but belief itself. Go ask maya.
If the brain appears in consciousness, it can never figure out the holistic bliss infinity of pure consciousness. Thus it has to believe consciousness appears in the brain. There’s too much money at risk.
Is materialist nonduality a thing? Is that what a zen slap is? Knocking the materialism out of the disciple? First things first. My zen slap was my mirror image. Tomorrow is its anniversary.
The mind is an island in the sea of consciousness. Consciousness is a reflection in the subtle body of the buddhi. The buddhi is organic and transparent maya. The source of the reflection is intelligent awareness. Tattvamasi.
Maya is much like a shadow. It’s not real but it’s certainly not nothing. And in the full light of atman it’s just not there.
Illusions aren’t nothing; they’re illusions. Dreams aren’t nothing; they’re dreams. Similarly maya isn’t nothing. It’s maya.
So seeing through maya isn’t seeing through nothing. It might not be rocket science but it’s not child’s play either.
First there’s the modern metaparadigm of scientific materialism to turn turn turn around.
As long as the material mind is one’s foundational point of view, all the tea in China doesn’t make a visionary.
The mind cannot see through maya. The mind is maya. Only intelligent awareness sees through maya.
Maya makes the impossible possible. Like darkness, maya isn’t something but neither is it nothing. And in the light, maya is gone.
Mutual superimposition, oh my. So first, the conceptual subtle body (this is like the organic molecular structure in Young’s reflexive universe) is superimposed on parabrahman.
The ‘transparency’ of the subtle body reflects the parabrahman. This reflection combined with prana sakti becomes the so-called jiva.
But from the jiva’s point of view, parabrahman (as the reflection of parabrahman on the subtle body) is a superimposition (on parabrahman), and the reflection of parabrahman is thought to be parabrahman.
In other words, buddhi is not only superimposed on brahman, but brahman is superimposed on buddhi, as the reflection of brahman. This mutual superimposition (anyonyadhyasa) results in the mistaken identity of I-am.
Thank god people aren’t completely maya. First, the existential fact of being isn’t an illusion. Presence is another name for parabrahman.
And although the principle of self named atman isn’t that sense of self called aham-bhava, there is no “I am” without that absolute I.
And furthermore, the subtle body of the buddhi is reflecting intelligent awareness at all times. It’s just ordinary attention minus thought.
For the occlusion that undoubtedly makes a person a person isn’t its qualities of being, self, intelligence, and awareness (or the sat and cit of satcitananda)
but conceptually limiting infinite bliss into the space-time of samsara and individualizing the absolute whole into a mortal ego (or the anti-ananda).
There is a disconnect in communication between the metaparadigms of scientific materialism (consciousness appears in the material universe) and intelligent awareness (the material universe appears in consciousness).
Intelligent Awareness is pure consciousness. Also the reflection of pure consciousness on a subtle body, as silent discriminating attention, is pure consciousness too.
A keen intellect and attentive mind is a silent intellect and a silent mind. An unclouded intellect and an unclouded mind is intelligent awareness.
The reflection of satcitananda is satcitananda unless you think about it. Neti neti is nothing but intelligent awareness. The intellect identifying with intelligence is all there is to jnana yoga really.
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.
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.
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
