Hajime Nakamura on Mandukya Karikas

But since there presently exists no independent work earlier than these Kärikäs, the work is the most important source for clarifying the thought of the early Advaita school. In particular, we must carefully note how it at times presents an extremely systematic and organized exposition, and also on occasion is highly polemical. While absorbing the ideas and being influenced by the thoughts of various schools, it also sharply criticizes and attacks other philosophical standpoints. It profoundly influenced later Indian thought, and in subsequent periods was considered to be itself a sruti, thus having an authority equal to that of the Upanisads. It is not only an extremely important work in the history of the development of Indian thought, but apart from that, the work itself has the sparkle of genius. Very directly and loftily it proclaims with bold assurance that it is the Truth. Certainly it is one of the brilliant lights in the history of human philosophical thought.

~Hajime Nakamura (A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy, Part Two)

towards brahmavidya (nonduality comics 240206)

01. inventing satcitananda.

Nihilism is not a new belief. Neti neti crashes too. This is why satcitananda was invented.

Beyond the body is pure existence, beyond the mind is pure consciousness, and beyond enlightenment is ananda, satcitananda.

Materialism says that something comes from nothing. If that’s not magical thinking, then what is?

02. say ah.

In the sea of maya floats a world of the mind and in this world there lives avidya.

In avidya they call their second state of dreaming being awake. Ha!

Aha! Both enlightenment and dreaming use the mind but dreaming is of the mind too.

03. on being brahman.

Real knowing is not at the level of mind, thought. Real knowing is at the level of consciousness, being.

Real knowing is not at the level of mind, belief. Real knowing is at the level of consciousness, being.

Although it's true one can't conceive of brahman, one may be that brahman. This is called brahmavidya.

04. the declaration of moksha.

With mind on, there's either dreaming-dreaming, waking-dreaming, or enlightenment.

The only difference between deep sleep and nirvikalpa samadhi is avidya being on or off.

To turn off avidya, the mind must deconstruct the mind.

Before deconstructing the mind, one needs faith in pure existence.

All the material empires prefer you not.

There are three unalienable rights: sat, cit, and ananda.

Nobody can take them away from the self but yourself.

Belief is the expression of ignorance

If there’s nothing to do, there’s nothing to say. So why are they saying there’s nothing to do?

Although no rituals are required, there’s still knowledge needed—to rid avidya and know there’s nothing to do.

Ignorance is the root of all samsara. So believing there’s nothing to do is easy like samsara. Knowing there’s nothing to do is not.

The Advaita Five (ndc 240203)

01. (that witness of deep sleep)

Attention isn't pure awareness—

attention is mind reflecting awareness.

This is ordinary awareness in avidya

but pure awareness is that witness of deep sleep as well as dreaming.

02 (believe it or not)

It takes some high kind of thought to deny existence—

in amanibhava, there is nothing but existence.

It takes the intelligence of maya to make a universe—

it takes avidya to believe it or not.

03 (not samsara)

Ananda is not to be defined as bliss

but as the locus in which bliss is.

Brahman is that locus.

Ananda is not samsara.

04. (dreaming)

The mind is turned off in both nirvikalpa samadhi and deep sleep—

samadhi has nothing to do with avidya.

From the default state of deep sleep— 

as the mind turns on, it’s called dreaming, and as the body turns on, dreaming is called waking.

05. (there's atman)

All duality is false but every trinity points to truth—this is called the power of three. Two trinities is called the power of seven, and so on.

In Advaita Vedanta, that Christian god-the-father is existence-awareness, asexual and nondual.

God the son is this self-luminous sun of that absolute awareness unknown by the mind and so called black hole. Maya is obviously the holy ghost.

God the ground is nirguna brahman. Universal consciousness is saguna brahman, aka Isvara.

Maya is the manifestation of absolute intelligence as te is to tao.

The big bang of yin and yang equals avidya.

First there is avidya, then there is no mountain, then there’s atman.

Absolutely Satcitananda

Absolute existence is the ground of the universe. The universe itself is nothing but name and form.

Because of the functional compounds and organic chemicals present in the great turning of this reflexive universe,

absolute consciousness, as well as that absolute existence, is the ground of the subtle body present in all sentient beings.

As absolute existence is the ground of material insentience and absolute consciousness is the ground of sentience, absolute ananda is the ground of ineffable enlightenment.

Switchwork and Earthmaya

(switchwork)

There are three toggles when it comes to the switchwork of our states of consciousness: body, mind, and ignorance (avidya).

First, in the state of deep sleep, the mind is turned off (body off, naturally). This is like our vegetative state.

Then there are two dream states in which the mind is turned on for both. One is called dreaming, and the other, ironically, waking—

it’s actually waking as in the body is on; in the first kind of dreaming, called dreaming, the body is off.

All three states occur with avidya turned on. There is a so-called fourth which is not a state of consciousness but pure consciousness itself, the atman. Avidya off.

With avidya off, mind may be off or on. Mind-off is nirvikalpa samadhi. Mind-on is called no-mind, in the mind but not of the mind, enlightenment.

(earthmaya)

Dreaming is magical thinking. The sun literally rises and sets like our god in heaven.

Waking is in the materialistic vein. The revolution of the earth is cause of night and day!

Awakening is like the sunlight of consciousness—of which earthmaya is made and in which it is appearing.

footnotes:

avidya on, mind off = deep sleep (vegetative)

avidya on, mind on, body off = sleeping dream (sunrise and sunset)

avidya on, mind on, body on = waking dream (earth revolving)

avidya off, mind on, body on = enlightenment (sunlight of consciousness in which earth appears)

avidya off, mind off = nirvikalpa samadhi (black hole of absolute awareness-existence)

Gaudapada's Asparsa Yoga (excerpts from K3,31-39)

Duality is never perceived when the mind ceases to act. (amani-bhava)

The mind, after realizing the knowledge that Atman alone is real, becomes free from imaginations. (atma-satya)

The immutable and birthless Brahman is the goal of knowledge. The birthless is known by the birthless. (akalpakam-ajam jnanam)

The mind which, being endowed with discrimination and free from illusions, is under control. (nigrhitasya manaso)

The controlled mind is verily the fearless Brahman. (brahma jnan-alokam)

Brahman is birthless, sleepless, dreamless, nameless, and formless. (ajam-anidram-asvapnam-anamakam-arupakam)

Atman is beyond all expression by words, and beyond all acts of the mind. (sarva)

Brahman is free from mental activity and hence from all ideas of acceptance or relinquishment. (jnanam-ajati) 

This yoga, which is not in touch with anything, is hard for yogis in general to attain. (asparsa-yogo)

~K3,31-39 (tr-Nik.)

A Commentary on 31-33

Duality is dependent on the mind. When mind is no-mind, there is no duality. Mind becomes no-mind not through yogic effort but by the knowledge of Atman being realized. This knowledge of Brahman is the goal of nonduality. And this unborn truth is only known by this unborn truth.

Nikhilanada's complete translation

31 All the multiple objects, comprising the movable and the immovable, are perceived by the mind alone. For duality is never perceived when the mind ceases to act.

32 When the mind, after realizing the knowledge that Atman alone is real, becomes free from imaginations and therefore does not cognize anything, for want of objects to be cognized, it ceases to be the mind.

33 Knowledge (Jnana), which is unborn and free from imagination, is described [by the wise] as ever inseparable from the knowable. The immutable and birthless Brahman is the goal of knowledge. The birthless is known by the birthless.

34 One should know the behaviour of the mind which, being endowed with discrimination and free from illusions, is under control. The condition of the mind in deep sleep is not like that but is of a different kind.

35 The mind is withdrawn in deep sleep, but it is not so when the mind is controlled. The controlled mind is verily the fearless Brahman, the light of whose omniscience is all-pervading.

36 Brahman is birthless, sleepless, dreamless, nameless, and formless. It is ever effulgent and omniscient. No duty, in any sense, can ever be associated with It.

37 Atman is beyond all expression by words, and beyond all acts of the mind. It is great peace, eternal effulgence, and samadhi; It is unmoving and fearless.

38 Brahman is free from mental activity and hence from all ideas of acceptance or relinquishment. When knowledge is established in Atman it attains birthlessness and sameness.

39 This yoga, which is not in touch with anything, is hard for yogis in general to attain. They are afraid of it, because they see fear in that which is really fearlessness.

On No-Mind

1.

Atman is neither ordinary nor godlike. But space, time, and all the gods are atman.

The truth is never nihilistic. The truth is that existence in which nihilism appears.

Black holes are to the substrate as groundwater is to ground, Basho.

2.

Neither wind nor flag but mind, duality is nothing but mind.

No-mind is neither deep sleep nor samadhi. The mind need not be turned off.

No-mind is like lucid dreaming—turned on and seeing through itself.

Absolutely Sweet Tattvamasi

Resolved, absolute awareness is not cognition although the ordinary person thinks it so.

This is not to say awareness is not the support of all cognition. Awareness is the substrate of all manifestation including mind.

In fact, awareness is the substrate of all three states of ordinary consciousness including that unbelievable one of deep sleep.

This supernatural awareness is beyond all forms of natural awareness. The natural is the mind. The supernatural is beyond the mind.

Astonishing but the actual awareness of both dream states (mind on, body on or off) is the same awareness of deep sleep (mind off).

Thus awareness is not what you ordinarily would think it is. For awareness is beyond the mind, supernatural so to speak.

And one is exactly that absolute awareness. Atman is neither ordinary (natural or unnatural) nor super (god or scientific theory) but tatvamasi.

Advaita Agonistes

Nirguna Brahman is basically God the Father as mainstream Trinitarian Christianity names it, except It’s absolutely beyond dualities of cause and effect.

On the other hand, God the Son is Isvara, the Wielder of Maya. And Maya is the Holy Ghost, the Superimpositionor of Snake on Rope.

Further, Paramatman is pure consciousness and the Universal Atman is reflected consciousness within and without the subtle body of Maya.

Thus non-duality is a myth wrapped within a dream. Self-awareness is the evolutionary intent of universal consciousness. And Avidya is the process.

Seeing through Avidya is one thing. Living with Maya is another. This is the way of the Jivanmukta, the so-called Bodhisattva. It’s basically in the world but not of the world.

Gaudapada Suffers No Fools

In his Karika (gloss) to the Mandukya Upanishad, Gaudapada suffers no fools when it comes to the suffering entailed by mistaking the waking dream as real. Or realizing non-duality as truth.

Take K2.4 for example: “Different objects cognised in dream are illusory because they are being perceived to exist. For the same reason the objects seen in the waking state are also to be considered as illusory. Just as in the waking state, so also in the dream, the nature of objects remains the same. The only difference is the limitation of space in the case of dream objects, they being seen in the within.” ~Gaudapada K2.4 (tr-Chinmayananda)

In other words, during a dream, space and time is a creation of the mind. Such perception is unreal of course. But perception in the waking state is no different, is it? If In a dream, seeing is not to be believed, why should seeing ever be believed? That is the question.

Then there’s this slap: “All aggregates are produced by Atman’s maya, as in a dream. No rational argument can be given to establish their reality, whether they are of equal status or whether some are superior.” ~Gaudapada K3.10 (tr-Nikhilananda)

In other words, the burden of proof is on the dreamer to prove its dream is something other than a dream. Don’t hold your breath.

Lastly for this thread, there’s K3.18: Since Non-duality is Ultimate Reality, duality is said to be Its effect. The dualist sees duality in both the Absolute and the relative. Therefore the non-dualist position does not conflict with the dualist position. (tr-Nikhilananda)

Nikhilananda comments on K3.18 thusly: “The non-dualist does not deny the fact of duality during the state of ignorance; but he denies that it is ultimately real. Consequently, from the standpoint of Reality, the non-dualist does not contradict duality, since the latter is really non-existent.”

Shankara laughs out loud: “It is like the case of a man on a spirited elephant, who knows that none can oppose him, but who yet does not drive his beast upon a lunatic who though standing on the ground, shouts at the former, ‘I am also on an elephant, drive your beast on me.’ ”

To summarize, seeing may be believing but it’s not the way of truth; in fact, the very act of perception is what reveals the waking state as dream and therefore false. Thus, it is not up to the truth-teller to disprove the waking dream, but the impossible task of the dreamer. And last, but not least, there is no need to argue with duality for duality is actually non-existent. Lord, what fools these mortals be.

On Mandukya 5-6: This [prajna, undiferentiated consciousness of deep sleep] is the Lord of all [Sarvesvara, Isvara, Saguna Brahman].

He who has got this state of deep sleep as his sphere is su,cupta- sthanah. He is said to be ekibhutah, undifferentiated, since the whole host of duality, that are diversified as the two states (of waking and dream) and are but modifications of the mind, become non-discernible (in that state) without losing their aforesaid characteristics, teristics, just as the day together with the phenomenal world becomes non-discernible under the cover of nocturnal darkness. As such, conscious experiences, that are but vibrations of the mind in the waking and dream states, become solidified, as it were. This state is called prajnanaghanah, a mass of consciousness, since it is characterized by the absence of discrimination. It is a mass of mere consciousness like everything appearing pearing as a mass by becoming indistinguishable under nocturnal darkness. From the use of the word eva, merely, it follows that there is nothing of a separate ate class other than consciousness. And he is dnanda- mayah, full of joy, his abundance of joy being caused by the absence of the misery involved in the effort of the mind vibrating as the objects and their experiencer; encer; but he is not Bliss itself, since the joy is not absolute. Just as in common parlance, one remaining free from effort is said to be happy or dnandabhuk, an experiencer of joy, so this one, too, is called dnanda- bhuk, for by him is enjoyed this state that consists in extreme freedom from effort, in accordance with the Vedic text, `this is its supreme bliss' (Br. IV. iii. 32). He is cetomukhah, since he is the doorway to the consciousness sciousness of the experiences in the dream and waking states. Or he is called cetomukhah, because consciousness, ness, appearing as empirical experience, is his doorway or entrance leading to the states of dream and waking. He is called prdjnah, Prajna, conscious par excellence, since in him alone is there the knowledge of the past and the future and of all things. Even though lying in deep sleep he is called Prajiia (conscious) because of his having been so earlier (in the two former states of dream and waking) ; or he is called conscious, since he alone is possessed of the peculiar characteristics of mere (undiversified) consciousness, whereas the other two have diversified knowledge as well. This Prajiia, as described, is the third quarter.

~Shankara on Mandukya 5 [on deep sleep] (tr-Gambhirananda)

****

All three states have a common feature, namely, the absence of the Knowledge of Reality. But deep sleep differs from waking and dreaming in that it is associated neither with gross objects nor with subtle impressions, which are the characteristics of the other two.

Deep sleep is a state of ease and repose. The friction caused by the subject-object relationship is absent. Hence a person in deep sleep experiences bliss, in the sense that one who is free from effort is said to be happy. This bliss is quite different from that of Brahman.

The unified consciousness of deep sleep, wherein all diversities disappear, is the antecedent of the waking and dream experiences. Hence it is regarded as the cause of, or the door to, the other two states.

~Nikhilananda on Mandukya 5

****

This [prajna, undiferentiated consciousness of deep sleep] is the Lord of all [Sarvesvara, Isvara, Saguna Brahman], this is the knower of all [jnana], this is the inner controller [of Maya], this is the source of all [manifestation]. And this is that from which all things originate and in which they finally dissolve themselves. [Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva]

~Mandukya 6 (tr-Chinmayananda) [notes in brackets are mine]

nonduality comics 231216

The person is not the doer. Universal consciousness is the doer. And love is what one does.

From the absolute point of view, nothing is done, but we’re not in that absolute point of view at this moment in time, are we?

And thinking you are is real sad, love.

The Consciousness Mountains

Thoughts appear in consciousness like fish in a river and you’re the river.

The river isn’t just a reflection of its mountain source. The river is no different than the source and thinking it is, is just delusional.

It's the same old song. The river is the source but the source isn’t the river. The waves are the sea but the sea isn’t the waves.

Stop overthinking things. Consciousness is brahman. That’s all you need to know.

nonduality comics 231215: buddhi knows best

a.

Forget it jake it’s namarupa

OG shapeshifter

Snake upon the rope

b.

On some reptilian level there is identification with the body.

It’s written in your dna.

Don’t fret the small stuff but don’t go playing in traffic either.

c.

Do it for the reptiles and birds, oh my.

Buddhi knows best.

No dinosaur, no buddhi, no self-awareness.

d.

The power of seven is the power of three cubed.

Nonduality equals universal consciousness divided by three or any primordial odd number.

You cannot deconstruct satcitananda. Satcitananda is the ground of all superimposition and resultant deconstruction. Stop digging when you hit water, grasshopper.

e.

Existence is the ground (even emptiness appears in existence).

Awareness is the godhead—universal consciousness is an appearance in that deep blue godhead as self-awareness is its fractal maya.

And bliss is the word ananda is the groove of holistic infinity, satcitananda.

Ayamatmabrahma 451

The world is completely conceptual. A bird is a bird because I call it a bird. But a bird is not a bird. A bird is absolute consciousness upon which namarupa has been superimposed.

The bird doesn’t know this fact but universal consciousness knows because I do. And this knowing is for the birds and all being. Om shanti.

Beneath the tri-state area is the substrate of pure ground. An inert outer body burns because of this satcitananda. Alas I’m not the wood I chop but the unmanifested fire within.

Nonduality Comics 231213

Neti neti is a practice and not a destination, and that’s the rub. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by postmodern deconstruction.

First, deconstruct yourself as if dissolving the personal into the universal which is the real manifested you, my love.

“There is nothing to seek and find, for there is nothing lost. Relax and watch the ‘I am’. Reality is just behind it. Keep quiet, keep silent; it will emerge, or, rather, it will take you in.” ~@Nisargadatta_M

Go Fourth and Moksa

1.

There are three states of reflected consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. These are the equivalent of nuclear, atomic, and molecular in the reflexive universe of things.

Coming after the big bang of maya, these states of consciousness are just parts of a wave superimposed on pure consciousness: full, half, and new. Like a snake appearing in the mind, self-awareness appears in awareness.

The vedanta says I’m not the wave but the sea. The mandukya calls that the fourth. Find your inner self, your true self, the highest atman, that fourth; and know your real self as the godhead, ground, nondual, nirguna brahman. As the mandukya says, ayam atma brahma.

2.

The waking state is dreaming in colorful reflections of pure consciousness and that’s the love.

The dreaming state is dreaming in those binary black and white divisive shadows of the mind.

And deep sleep dreams in the place where the wild things go.

Where the wild things go: prajnanam brahma, tattvamasi, ayam atma brahma, aham brahma asmi.

The World's a Stage but All is Brahman

1.

Maya is like a prism through which the light of Brahman is passing through. Or Maya is like a laser superimposing holographic waves on the silent sea of Brahman. Or Maya is the sword of power that Isvara is using to cleave the undivided, unlimited, and untroubled into samsara.

Whereas the mind dreams in thought, Brahman dreams in consciousness. Thus the universe is neither wave nor particle but pure consciousness in which the yin of waves and yang of particles appear.

To an individual of avidya, the Universe appears to be real; to a scientist of Maya, the universe appears to be a paradox; but to that insightful one, nothing is not Brahman.

2.

To get from the absolute immutable to the relatively transformative, Maya is assumed to be the unknown X in all such equations.

Thus Maya is not as much a theory of relativity as it is a law of the absolute.

With Maya firmly established in the mathematical mind, the Mahavakyas may be entertained, contemplated, and realized. Yes, Virginia, Aham Brahma Asmi.

The Satcitananda Review

Satcitananda, to review, is being-existence-presence, consciousness-awareness-intelligence, holistic infinity bliss.

Satcitananda is not an attribute of Brahman but its essential nature. Each word may substitute as the name of Brahman, but there is no name for Brahman, that big beyond the bang.

Brahman is not non-existent, not unaware, and undivided, unlimited, and untroubled. In other words, Brahman is Satcitananda.