A Nondual Dozen

Of awareness, in awareness, self-awareness, aum.

First, the ultimate reality is absolute awareness.

The nature of that reality is seen through deconstruction.

But not a void, reality is affirmed in self-shining consciousness.

Second, the absolute is nondual, non-doing, and unborn.

Third, the world of duality is like a waking dream.

It’s unreal principle is maya.

Fourth, the personal is part of the show.

Consciousness is not a product of the material.

The material is appearing in consciousness.

Fifth, there’s nothing to attain through ritual or works.

Meditation is not a way toward so-called enlightenment.

The only samadhi is the experiential knowledge of self-awareness.

footnotes

1. if nihilism is the postmodern disease of the via negativa, consciousness is the cure.

2. cause and effect is at the heart of every magic show. nonduality, on the other hand, is as it is.

3. if e = mc², then x = maya.

4. scientific materialism is the new boss, same as your old-time religion.

5. free will is absurd. enlightenment is dead. samadhi is divine imagination.

A Dedicated Follower of Ananda

Be aware that awareness is always samadhi.

Understanding as it is, is all there is to do,

and even that is being done for you.

The only free will is the will of nondoing.

Another word for this is following your bliss, ananda.

footnotes

samadhi is an unattainable objective for i am already that. awareness is the ground of understanding. there are no preconceptions for all is nonconceptual. the flag of empire is free will. let my freak flag fly, ananda!

"Being is wordless and dreamless, undisturbed, timelessly self-shining, unattached, and always samadhi." ~Gaudapada K3:37 (my transcreation)

Unflagging (paraversing Gaudapada K3, 29-33)

Duality is not maya, and the mind is not maya, but duality appears in the mind through the magic of maya. Welcome to the show that never ends.

The non-dual mind appearing as duality is the dream state. The flag flies and the wind cries maya.

All duality seen by the mind is nothing but the non-dual mind, and as the mind resettles into no-mind, all duality disappears.

In other words, as the knowledge is realized, the mind is no-mind, for there is no duality to be seen.

Non-conceptual awareness is the knowledge. The knowledge is absolute reality. Thus, the unborn knows the unborn.

Gaudapada (tr-Nikhilananda) K3, 29-33

29. As in dream the mind acts through Mãyā presenting the appearance of duality, so also in the waking state the mind acts, through Mayã, presenting the appearance of duality.

30. There is no doubt that the mind, which is, in fact, non-dual appears as dual in dream; in like manner undoubtedly that which is non-dual, appears as dual in the waking state also.

31. All these dual objects, comprising everything that is movable and immovable, perceived by the mind (are mind alone). For, duality is never experienced when the mind ceases to act.

32. When the mind does not imagine on account of the knowledge of the Truth which is Atman, then it ceases to be mind and becomes free from all idea of cognition, for want of objects to be cognised.

33. The knowledge (Jnanam) which is unborn and free from all imaginations is ever inseparable from the knowable. The immutable and birthless Brahman is the sole object of knowledge. The birthless is known by the birthless.

In Somnium Ex Absolutum

i.

Not creatio ex nihilo but not creatio ex deo either but all of this is more like somnium ex absolutum.

This is not a doctrine of belief but a mythic way to verbalize the subtle actualities of as it is.

Of course this presupposes one has practiced psychological deconstruction of some kind.

Because scientific materialism is the dominant religion in the west, psychological deconstruction

is the pragmatic term at hand, but any name for cultish deprogramming will honestly do.

That the absolute is both efficient and material cause is self-evident. Open head, insert universe.

ii 

Everything appears in consciousness,

does it not?

Like dreams appearing in sleep.

Is consciousness appearing in awareness

or is awareness self-shining consciousness?

The answer, my friend, is maya.

Gaudapada's K2 Siddhanta

Michael Comans (Vasudevacharya) calls K2.31-34 Gaudapada's siddhanta, or conclusive teaching (the translations are his):

Like a dream and a magic are seen, and just as a mirage city is seen in the sky, so is this universe seen by those who are well-versed in the Vedanta [i.e. Upanisads]. [2.31]

There is no cessation, there is no origination, no one is bound and no one strives [to be free], no one desires liberation, nor is anyone liberated. This is the ultimate truth. [2.32]

This [Self] is falsely imagined to be the unreal things, and the Self is falsely imagined to be non-dual. Those things, moreover, exist just through the non-dual. Therefore non-duality is auspicious. [2.33]

This plurality does not exist as identical to the Self, nor even does it somehow exist of its own accord. Those who know reality, know that nothing exists different [from the Self] or as identical [to the Self]. [2.34]

Let's list the main points of Gaudapada's siddhanta (conclusive teaching) in K2:

1. The universe is like a dream.

2. There is no origination nor dissolution.

3. No one is bound.

4. No one needs liberation

5. The Self is falsely imagined to be duality.

6. The Self is falsely imagined to be non-dual.

7. But in duality, non-duality is auspicious.

8. Duality does not exist on its own accord.

9. Duality does not exist as identical to the Self nor is duality different from the Self.

Snake Charming

From Venus, earth looks like Venus.

There’s mind and there’s identifying with the mind,

like there’s a car and there’s some phallic symbol.

This is why consciousness is soliloquizing consciousness.

At the risk of repeating myself, consciousness

as intentional self-awareness is calling

consciousness as willful mind to attention.

Lucid dreaming is seeing through the snake.

footnotes

if point of view is everything, then who am i?

in the world, love is the hand of being that swings the mind.

consciousness is not asking consciousness to be or not to be.

consciousness is telling consciousness to be.

only the mind can entertain the thought of not to be.

forget it snake, it's maya town.

never forget that lectio divina is not about the mathematics of intellectual understanding but intuitive experiential being.

even advaita is a myth.

in duality, only nonduality is truth. without duality, there is no nonduality.

absolute awareness has self-awareness. self-awareness has being.

being has a mind. the mind has a dream. 

the dream has sudden enlightenment.

The All-important Karika 2-12

If the Mandukya 7 is the most important verse in Karika 1, then K2-12 may be the most important in K2:

12. The self-effulgent Self imagines Itself through Itself by the power of Its own Māyā. The Self Itself cognises the objects. Such is the definite conclusion of Vedānta.

Svamayaya, through Its own Maya; devaḥ ātmā, the self-effulgent Self, Itself; kalpayati, imagines; Its own ātmānam, self; in the Self; as possessed of different forms to be spoken of later, just as snakes etc. are imagined on rope etc. And in the very same way It Itself budhyate, cognises; those bhedan, objects; iti, such; is vedantaniścayaḥ, the definite conclusion of Vedānta. There is nothing else (but the Self) as the support of cognition and memory; nor are cognition and memory without support as is held by the Nihilists. This is the idea.

~Gaudapada with Shankara's commentary (tr-Gambhirananda)

At Atman and Brahman

I can't say this mantra enough. People do not have consciousness; consciousness has people.

That the absolute has consciousness is left unsaid.

And the fact that consciousness has people and the absolute has consciousness is the real crossroads, my friend.

The Walrus was Brahman

Dreams are real within the dream but reality is permanent

whatever state of consciousness is now appearing in oneself.

Consciousness does not experience space and time

as much as space-time appears in consciousness.

I’m not going from Tokyo to Boston in August 2007,

as much as Tokyo, Boston and Tanabata is appearing in myself.

It reminds me of that old one-liner;

wherever I go, there I am, goo goo g’joob.

footnotes

Change is unreal, am I right?

There are three states of consciousness but seven gods.

And one consciousness to witness all.

It’s a small holographic world after all.

If you can’t escape yourself, be yourself,

Basho yawps while riding on the back of a turtle.

Past, present, and future are just other names for three states of consciousness.

If the personal is conditioned consciousness, and unconditional consciousness is absolute awareness, then this is that—

Maya is the name of self-awareness.

Wu Wei the Math

Karma is a thing. I’m not.

Karma equals darkness times delusion squared.

Forgiveness is the antidote to karma.

Fault or fate? Uninterrupted thought is fate.

Self-inquiry without forgiveness is fatal.