It appears consciousness is conditioned but consciousness is unconditional.
On the surface, there appears to be emotional disturbances,
but these are weather-like. You don’t need a weather person.
In the depths there appear to be ancient sea monsters. Look, they’re imaginary!
Watch it like you’d watch a midnight movie. Let’s do the time warp again.
You’re not the movie; you’re the movie watcher. Drink your bliss and eat your popcorn.
To begin at the beginning is to begin at consciousness without any preconception but I am.
From this immaculate concept is born all concepts including the concept of birth.
Thus the myth of reflexive self-awareness begins in I am and ends in I am.
In-between is that mirror called the universe. In other words, I am that I am.
This is all that being does. This is the extent of self-awareness.
Since self-awareness is the domain of absolute awareness, just wait here.
When it comes to all the great questions,
scientific materialism offers theories for others to disprove.
Even I know science doesn’t work that way.
For example, take the question of immortality.
A good materialist will say, immortality has never been proven.
But the fact is death lacks proof. Or birth, for that matter.
In other words, note to self, stop approaching inquiry from
this false perspective of religious materialism,
and see being as it is.
Don’t waste my breath on western unreality.
People don’t have consciousness. Consciousness has people.
On the other hand, the absolute has consciousness.
So as the personal usurps the absolute, it must lay claim to consciousness.
Every religion does this in its own way; scientifical materialism
theorizes consciousness is a product of its brainy material.
Although it cannot prove its theory, the faithful buy and fund it.
At best, the central nervous system of a human being
amplifies natural awareness reflecting in consciousness
to self-awareness. That’s as good a myth as any.
footnotes
thoughts appear in consciousness like dreams in deep sleep.
thought-forms appear in thought like manifestation appears within the dream-state.
self-shining consciousness is to the absolute as the deep sleep of a sun is to potentiality of its black hole.
Consciousness does not appear from anything material.
Everything material appears in consciousness.
This is the single-most important observation to recognize and deeply understand.
For one conditioned in this western world of scientific materialism,
it is the great turning.
Therefore, all further knowledge rests in consciousness
and not any scientific observation of the universe
including its brain.
This is the foundation of actual meditation
or consciousness talking to consciousness.
Memory is dead knowledge. Consciousness is the download. Instant DNA is shining on.
Key knowledge unlocks the known. On the other side of the lockless lock is the great unknown. Like the lockless monster, no picture does me justice.
Blue triangle, white rectangle, black stripe, white stripe, black stripe, white stripe, golden rhombus,
a conclave of cardinals electing an oriole, wild turkeys, red squirrels, and eastern coyotes.
Self-shining consciousness is black-wholed awareness. No form, no null set, and no idea. Like evolution, the empire is there for you.
The power of three is my triple alliance—affirmation, deconstruction, and the ground of unanimity.
Self-awareness is like the power of three turned up to the power of seven.
footnotes
untitled footnote
as soon as you're born, they feed you with resurrection.
they think they were born so they tell me i was born but who are they?
like tell me something i don't know.
math, geometry, and color is the universal language for that which can't be named.
ballad for my emily
evolution is here and now; don't buy the science—
materialism is the newest religion of a very old empire
(there always is but one invisible body—its universal name is consciousness)
and the modern sacrifice is called disease.
the new haiku
every empire has its religion.
every revolution has its new religion.
every folk religion is the truth gone underground.
May is the month of dead flowers
as well as newborn ones.
Already the forsythia has disappeared,
the cherry blossoms all is fallen,
lilacs are turning fragrantly brown,
and all the dandelion is gone to seed.
Temporary flowers cannot stay
the great transformation.
The May-November romance is
actually April-May.
Every second is a season
appearing or disappearing
in constant consciousness—
I am the dragon and not my flames.
An oriole is talking in syllabic windwood.
Motorboats are moaning on the brighter river.
We’re on the higher side of Maytime.
There’s a silver filament of consciousness
in every green or orange thing.
And every darkening form is like the ashes of its knowledge.
Like a black light rising to meet the sunlight,
this psychedelic song of self-awareness is just beginning.
Let this world of ashes fall as it may. The past will be the past.
The tree frogs are making their cameo appearance.
Our wetland light is turning the forest canopy on fire.
Ashes to ashes, I am not the ashes.
footnotes
not experiential exactly. that's just a word. more like inperiential in every way.
there's nothing ex about that.
it's what makes tuition intuition.
consciousness in, transistorizing body-mind, and self-awareness out.
ouroboric breathing.
base, collector, gateless gate.
taking my projection personally—there's a concept for you.
"In every event the entire universe is reflected. The ultimate cause is untraceable. The very idea of causation is only a way of thinking and speaking. We cannot imagine, uncaused emergence. This, however, does not prove the existence of causation."
it wasn't a show about nothing but everything is a show.
"Stiff all in the collar, fluffy in the face
Chit chat chatter tryin', stuffy in the place
Thank you for the party but I could never stay
Many things on my mind, words in the way
I want to thank you for lettin' me be myself again"
space-time appears in self-awareness. thank you, thank you very much.
"We're caught in a trap
I can't walk out
Because I love you too much, baby."
As consciousness is the ground of mind, understanding is its function.
There’s nothing a body-mind can do but understand, and a body-mind cannot understand. Only consciousness does.
Love is to the manifest as intuition is to the unmanifest. And scene.
I see the first two boats upon the famous river sandbar this afternoon. Soon there will be hundreds.
The Massachusetts jungle is in early leaf. I’ve even heard a tree frog or two.
By the time I turned thirty, I thought my transcendentalism was impractical but I could not tell my therapist exactly why.
My mother was agoraphobic so my therapist prescribes hiking in the White Mountains instead of antidepressants and that makes all the difference in the world.
The first mountain that I hike is Pemigewasset, known to the tourists as Indian Head.
There was no one on the summit but an old man smoking a cigarette and drinking a can of beer.
Peak bagging is just more city nonsense, he says. The hike is not about the summit. It’s all about the wall.
Hiking any respectable mountain is like the tantric act of Bodhidharma’s wallgazing.
By hiking through the wall, the wall is known to be one’s own creation, grasshopper.
footnotes
there is reality and surreality
there is lucid surreality and occluded surreality (cloudy, partly cloudy, or partly sunny).
if reality is absolute awareness, lucid surreality is self-awareness.
dante says the door to hellfire says abandon hope all ye who enter here.
julian of norwich says all manner of hell shall be well.
spontaneously is my only addendum
it's not that i am manifesting surreality. of course i am. it's just such manifestation can't be stored in memory. so tonight, i'm making it up as i go.
memory is a pallette and not a painting
it ain't rocket science. enlightenment is self-awareness period
the universe appears in consciousness. consciousness appears in self-awareness.
self-awareness is a feature and not an appearance.
absolute awareness is self-aware. that is all absolute awareness is.
The forty days of first midsummer begins today.
Here the lilacs are just a day or two away from full bloom.
Walking along the early river today—the docks are in but the boats are not.
It looks like a great rebirth but nothing dies in winter. It just sleeps.
What dreams do oak trees dream? My dreams are not reborn.
Something happens in the frog pond and I am.
The rest is just conditioning, epiphany, and deconstruction.
footnotes
variations in mizu no oto
"""I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was."""
"""O powerful western fallen star!
O shades of night—O moody, tearful night!
O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!
O cruel hands that hold me powerless—O helpless soul of me!
O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul."""
"""Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time"""
"""But not so with the skunk-cabbage. Its withered leaves fall and are transfixed by a rising bud. Winter and death are ignored; the circle of life is complete. Are these false prophets?"""
~shakespeare, whitman, redding, & thoreau
"""in the end, the causes for
a crow's caw are endless
—the universe is the cause and
the universe its result—
thus crow caws
the causelessness of crow"""
"""Into the ancient pond
A frog jumps
Water’s sound!"""
"""old pond
frog leaping
splash"""
"gene pool
genesis
the water of sound"
"""One could also see the virgin birth as an awakening of what has been there all along. I have made much of this point in my theory, in the idea of the arc and the turn, and have applied it to all life. For example, the seed falls to the ground..."""
~rivers, basho (tr-suzuki), basho (tr-corman), basho (tr-rivers), young
"furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto
~basho"
Truth devolves into religion. It’s part of evolutionary self-awareness. Let it be.
The universe of reflexive self-awareness must hit bottom, both physically and psychologically.
Belief is all about ends justifying means, be it either for ego or god. Every missionary serves its empire of belief.
Advaita Vedanta since Shankara has been as much a true religion as any fundamental Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Scientific you.
The world is their convenient fiction. Meta-myth is mine.
Consciousness is burning through these eyes.
I am the consciousness burning through these eyes.
My Self-awareness is the I am consciousness burning through these eyes.
Self-shining consciousness is brahman, brah.
All words are metaphors. All metaphors are pointing to
the nameless. Believing any particular metaphor to be wrong
is just as foolish as the fool and holy finger. No metaphor is right.
Consciousness is like that hot dense state in the big bang theory
but experientially it feels like deep sleep feels.
Like that purple color in-between byzantium or plum.
There is consciousness and states of unenlightened, or occluded, consciousness. There are no higher states of consciousness.
There is light and filtered light of every color under the sun. Color is never not light.
Deconstruction is like seeing through the colors. Meditation is like being light.
Thoughts are very colorful. Getting caught in a thought is the rabbit hole of belief. Baby I’m a maze!
One is never not one self. One forgets oneself remembering memory as oneself.
Of course, I’m not a memory, but who am I? If not the known, the unknown.
a sonnet of notes
six footnotes
1. space-time is the first state of unenlightened consciousness. the mandukya calls this state, deep sleep.
2. light is like love and the filter is belief. emotion is the color. rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
3. see through daytime. be the light.
4. if one attaches to a thought, the thought projects itself to no end.
5. the lower-case self is the antiself.
6. real slow. memory is another name for forgetting. forgetting memory is another name for remembering myself. spontaneous self-awareness.
eight end notes
fear is the known. the unknown is fearless.
social conditioning is a horror show.
social media is psychological warfare.
belief is the dreamstate virus.
all religions, i.e. beliefs, including scientific materialism, lead to some dead end.
consciousness is neither dead nor alive.
self-shining consciousness is natural awareness. and ananda.
return of satcitananda!
afterword
one cure for hiccups is to breathe in as deep as possible and then to release the breath as slow as possible.
part one is mind training. part two is embodiment.
spacetime is emptiness, emptiness is spacetime.
i'm the world's worst hypochondriac.
sooner or later, i know better.
sooner or later, i'll have an alibi. or some new alias.
breathe. this is the last resort. paradise!
take no sides prisoner.
projection is the natural course of events.
it's always something you ate.
people don't eat belief. people eat true believers. political science 101.
thank you aunt einah.
consciousness asleep is psychosomatic.
cause is effect, effect is cause.
cause and effect appears in that pause between breaths.
i used to be a good speller. i'm younger than that now.
Buy me a flute and a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes
Strap yourself to a tree with roots
You ain't goin' nowhere
~Bob Dylan
in the name ot unity, bodhi, and bliss.
power up! or whatever metaphor floats your boat.
i - t = i
If the world is physical and dreaming is mental, deep sleep is the immaculate conception.
The big bang happens every morning like clockwork, or groundhog day. Every man a king, every day a universe.
The immaculate conception is spacetime without thought or thought-forms. This is blowing my mind:
as thought, of course, must come before a thought-form, the dreaming state actually precedes the waking state
and not vice versa as you think. Spacetime, dreamtime, daytime–it’s the downwards vector of this reflexive universe.
In other words, dreams should foretell. They only don’t because yesterday’s universe wasn’t dropped at bedtime.
Sneak preview: lucid dreaming comes after daytime. Lucid dreaming isn't what one thinks. But that which one loves.
a process of footnotes
1. spacetime is subatomic.
2. memory is karma.
3. the unborn being born is basically the big bang.
4. the unborn being born is the definition of a dream.
5. in this way, dreamtime is obviously aboriginal.
6. lucid dreaming is seeing through memory.
lucid dreaming is to dreamtime as meditating self-shining consciousness or rigpa is to spacetime.
7.
a.
all religions mean well.
but all is well already.
beyond dreamtime is lucidtime.
beyond spacetime is meditation.
beyond awareness is self-awareness.
b.
deconstruction is the anti-form of lucid dreaming.
i love that every word is defined by more words.
spacetime. dreamtime. daytime. turiya.
spacetime. dreamtime. daytime. beyond spacetime, dreamtime, daytime. turiya.
i love my swiss knife.
awareness. spacetime. dreamtime. daytime. lucid loving deconstruction. intuition, contemplation, meditation. self-awareness.
Self-shining consciousness is natural awareness. This is the heart of electric nonduality.
Don’t let the nouns get in the way of experiential adjectives.
Pay attention to your crown chakra. That’s actually your third eye. Now downloading.
There’s nothing you can do but let it happen if you need to sing along.
Just because it’s nonconceptual doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel like something.
the four footnotes of the heart of electric nonduality
jake, it's ananda
i play in a power trio
with sat and cit
i play lead guitar
we call ourselves electric nonduality
scientific materialism is all greek and roman but no ananda
call me son ananda
ananda is not conceptual. it will blow your mind.
in the world, ananda is experienced as unconditional love
i was fortunate enough to have a daughter
third eye, first eye
atman is brahman
is disbelief
son rivers has been a son ananda production.
feeling is the new listening.
the mind uses the body to send messages to itself.
consciousness uses the mind for self-awareness.
feeling is not a sixth sense. it is the first.
losing touch with intuition is the tragedy of hamlet.
ananda, ananda, ananda.
There are non-conceptual peepers in the Massachusetts wetlands tonight.
Non-conceptual experience is needed for the mind to do its work.
This mirroring myself is taking a spacetime of sleeping, dreaming, and awakening.
Don’t throw away the baby with the bathwater.
Don’t throw away the mind with the world.
As it is above, self-awareness is below.
Quantum science and physical science are united in a universe of reflexive self-awareness.
It’s perfectly well to think all is not well.
This is where Arrested Development contradicts appearances and says that all is well.
One comes to non-conceptual self-awareness through samsara.
"In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death." ~Arthur Schopenhauer
"As we study the philosophy of the Upanishads, the impression grows on us that the attainment of this path is not exactly the simplest of tasks. Our Western superciliousness in the face of these Indian insights is a mark of our barbarian nature, which has not the remotest inkling of their extraordinary depth and astonishing psychological accuracy." ~Carl Jung
"The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishad." ~Erwin Schrödinger
I am writing this for you and me. I wish to reread the Upanishads again. The last time I did so was in 2013. In doing the research this time around on the various translations available, I thought I'd place the results here so I can remember what I discovered and so others will have a starting point for their own research. For this post, I am dividing the translations into Missionary, Poetic, and Academic.
Missionary
Here's the thing about translations of The Upanishads one has to consider when it comes to many of them: they are missionary documents. They are meant to spread the word. You shall know them by their Swami. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing, but it is a fact.
The best-sellers include Swami Prabhavanada (with Frederick Manchester). Prabhavanada was a monk of the Ramakrishna Order who founded the Vedanta Society of Southern California in 1930. The Upanishads: Breath from the Eternal includes Isha, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taiittiriya (selected), Aitreya, Chandogya (selected), Brihadaranyaka (selected), Swetasvatara, Kaivalya. Small paperback. Also available in different formats including Kindle.
There is also Swami Nikhilananda who founded the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York, a branch of Ramakrishna Mission, which comes under the umbrella of Ramakrishna Order. The Upanishads in 4 volumes. General Introduction. Introduction to each Upanishad. Notes included within text. Volume 1 includes Katha, Isa, Kena, and Mundaka. Volume 2 includes Svetasvatara, Prasna, and Mandukya. Volume 3 includes Aitareya and Brihadaranyaka. Volume 4 includes Taittiriya and Chhandogya. Hardcovers. Also an abridged one-volume, The Principal Upanishads, hardcover or paperback is available.
And there is Swami Gambhirananda who was the 11th President of the Ramakrishna Mission. Eight Upanishads, with the Commentary of Sankaracarya. In 2 volumes. Each verse has the Devanagri Sanskrit, with English translation and commentary, with further commentary by Sankaracarya. Also included is an Index to texts in Devanagri Sanskrit. Volume One covers the Isa, Kena, Katha, and Taittiriya. Volume Two covers the Aitareya, Mundaka, Mandukya, Karika. Individual volumes are available at a reasonable cost. Two volume set is also available in Kindle.
I like to consider these three translations Ramakrishna LA, New York, and India. The LA is like a story or screenplay assisted by the writer-journalist. The New York is more intellectual with footnotes. And the India includes Devangiri Sanskrit and commentary by their saint Shankara.
On a different path, there is Swami Chinmayananda who helped found Chinmaya Mission. He is noted for his spiritual commentaries. Because of this, his translations have been published as individual volumes. They include: Mandukya Upanisad with Gaudapada's Karikaka (the Kārikā is a concise explanation, in verse form of the doctrines in Mandukya Upanishad, the earliest extant systematic treatise on Advaita Vedānta); Aitareya Upanishad; Taittiriya Upanisad; Isavasya Upanisad as well as others. Includes Sanskrit, Devanagari, and word-for word translation on some, if not all. Some, if not all, are available on Kindle for lesser price.
Another holy man is Sri Aurobindo who helped found Aurobindo Ashram whose mission involved the Life Divine application of Integral Yoga. Aurobindo's The Upanishads is a collection of Sri Aurobindo's final translations of and commentaries on every Upanishad or other Vedantic text he worked on. There is also a small voulume on the Isha Upanishad with translation, commentary and original text. Furthermore, there is a very inexpensive Kindle edition of his final translations of and commentaries on the Isha and Kena, his final translations of the Mundaka and Katha Upanishads, and a commentary on part of the Taittiriya Upanishad.
Even the recent more academic translation by Vernon Katz (doctorate from Oxford University) and Thomas Egenes (doctorate from the University of Virginia) is inspired by their work with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation. It may be unfair classifying them here but I do not see this as academic.
Sivananda Saraswati was the founder of the Divine Life Society. The ten upanishads covered in this book are Yogasara, Vedantasara, Siva-jnanamitra, Advaitamrita, Svarupabodha, Brahmarahasya, Brahmanubhava, Vicharabindu, Jyotirbindu and Anadabindu. Also commentary.
Finally in this grouping, there is Radhakrishnan, not a spiritual leader per se, but a strong defender of Hinduism and the second President of India. The book includes Sanskrit originals, verse by verse commentaries and English translations of some of the main Upanisads. The book has 2 Appendices, which give the perspectives of Edmond Holmes and Rabindranath Tagore on the Upanisads.
All of these translations have their excellent qualities but their biases as well. I have not read all of them and do not know Sanskrit so judging them is impossible in the end. I have sampled many of them though, especially when attempting my own transcreation of the Kena. I found many to be subservient to Shankara's interpretation, who was THE holy man of Advaita Vedanta in the 8th century. But I walked away feeling Aurobindo's may be the most honest attempt at a independent translation.
Still there's something for everyone here. Prabhavanada has the unencumbered stories. Nikhilananda has the notes. Gambhirananda has Shankara's commentaries. Chinmayananda offers the Mandukya Upanisad with Gaudapada's Karikaka. Aurobindo has a more independent and intellectual approach. Katz and Egenses have a the transcendental meditator's point of view with contemporary language. Sivananda offers some unusual translations. Radhakrishnan has a public figure's viewpoint.
Poetic
I did not include Eknath Easwaran in the previous category but maybe should have since he founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation and Nilgiri Press, based in northern California But his translation feels to be more a poetic attempt though. And he deals with abridgment.
Then there's W.B. Yeats' poetic prose rendition. Yet even that was translated with Shri Purohit Swami, disciple of Bhagwan Shri Hamsa. Yeats knew of the Upanishads from his long-time theosphist friend, George William Russell and wished to understand them better. Upon meeting Shri Purohit Swami he proposed that the two of them of them translate the ancient text as though the original was written in common English.
Another poetic version is by Alan Jacobs, the poet not the critic, and chairman of the Ramona Maharshi Foundation in the UK. This was the first copy I read. With joy. It's a free verse transcreation/translation abridgment with commentary.
Academic
Max Muller’s 1879/1884 versions, volume 1 & 15 of the Sacred Books of The East, were the first full English translations of the main Upanishads. 19th century scholar. Maybe a bit Victorian in its language.
Robert Ernest Hume published his Thirteen Principal Upanishads in 1921. He too was a missionary, but a Christian one. Yale PhD.
Two 21st century translations include Patrick Olivelle (pub. Oxford, actually 1996 but close enough). Olivelle was the Chair, Department of Asian Studies, and Director, Center for Asian Studies, at the University of Texas at Austin, and Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religion. His translation includes an extensive bibliography and end notes.
And the other is by Valerie Roebuck (pub Penguin). Also introduction and end notes. Valerie Roebuck is a Buddhist, practicing and teaching meditation in the Samatha tradition. She is an honorary research fellow of the University of Manchester.
Conclusion
I have this theory on translations. It's based on triangulation. or trilateration. It's not as scientific, but it involves reading and comparing 3 respected translations, if available, and understanding the actual gist is somewhere in the middle.
So in this respect, I want to look at 1 missionary, 1 poetic, and 1 academic. Olivelle will be my academic. Yeats will be my poetic. I have the Prabhavananda and Gambhirananda (as well as the Jacobs) from my last excursion to this territory in 2013, but I'm thinking the Nikhilananda may be the one now.
Appendix 1. The Mandukya Upanishad.
As previously mentioned, the Mandukya Upanishad is considered the earliest extant systematic treatise on Advaita Vedanta, and Gaudapada's Karikaka a concise explanation of the Madukya in verse form. Besides Chinmayananda's translation, Mandukya Upanisad with Gaudapada's Karikaka, mentioned above there are three other stand-alone versions worth mentioning here. There's Gambhirananda's Mandukya Upanisad With the Commentary of Sankaracarya, which is included in the 2nd volume of his Eight Upanishads, There is a combination of these two by Nikhilananda: Mandukya Upanishad With Gaudapada's Karika and Shankara's Commentary. And there is the Mandukya Upanishad and Gaudapada's Karika by James Swartz, an American disciple of Chinmayananda.
Appendix 2. The Bargain Basement.
These are some worldly bargains considering infinity. Some of these may be available someplace else at similarly low prices. I will try to keep this current.
The Ten Principal Upanishads by Yeats is $2.00 on Kindle.
Aurobindo's final translations of and commentaries on the Isha and Kena, his final translations of the Mundaka and Katha Upanishads, and a commentary on part of the Taittiriya Upanishad. This is $2.99 on Kindle.
As for paperbacks, the Prabhavanada is $6.95 for mass maket pb.
And Olivelle's Oxford 512 page state-of-academic-study paperback is $8.97.
Considering the foundational importance of the literature, the variety of the types of translation available, the combination of media, and the quality of the work involved, that's not a bad collection for under $21.
