Comans on Shankara on Gaudapada on Samadhi

"There is also the problem that the word samadhi has been reified to the extent that it embodies a “mystical” state of consciousness which is seen to be the goal of all spiritual practice, as it forms the necessary condition for the realisation of Brahman. In the literature extolling the importance samadhi the word is frequently translated as “super consciousness”, a meaning that has nothing to do with the etymology of the word samadhi. Such translations succeed only in further conditioning the seeker by fostering an imagination as to what Self-knowledge is like, and what is its precondition. The problem with this whole enterprise is that the seeker then assiduously tries to cultivate a particular type of experience, the nature of which is in the imagination, and this is done at the cost of neglecting the Self that, according to the Advaita of Sankara, is simply Awareness itself. In short, the whole search for a “mystical” samadhi experience can be a mistaken adventure, in that it can amount to an ignorant denial of the Self, for in searching for an experience of the Self the searcher overlooks the fact – and the teaching of this fact is made explicit in such Upanişads as Brhadaranyaka and Kena- that Brahman, the ultimate subject, pure Awareness, cannot be experienced objectively like a sense object, because it is Experience itself.

According to the second explanation in the commentary, i.c.. “samadhi is that in which one is resolved”, Gauḍapada is using the word samadhi as a description of the nature of Brahman, rather than the idea that Brahman is to be gained through a samadhi experience. In this interpretation, which seems to be the one the commentator prefers judging from his introduction to the following verse (“Since it was said that Brahman itself is samadhi, motionless, without fear…”), Brahman is said to be samadhi itself, just as the turiya -Self was described earlier as “free from all division” (nirvikalpa) (2.35). According to this understanding, the turiya -Self is inherently nirvikalpa and as such it is “samadhi” by nature. What this means is that the turiya -Self, as pure Awareness, is Experience per se (anubhūtisvarüpa), or in the words of the Brhadaraṇyaka Upanişad: “This Self, the experiencer of everything (sarvänubhūh), is Brahman” (2.5.19). In this statement of the Upanisad the Self is presented as Experience itself. Thus there are two views in Advaita, and at a certain level they are quite divergent: the first, more “yogic” view, advocates realisation through the cultivation of a samadhi experience: the second takes its stand on the Self as self-revealing Awareness, as Experience per se, and while it does not deny the value of meditation it looks somewhat critically upon the samadhi-oriented search for a special experience of the Self. I believe that the latter view accords more closely with the teachings of Sankara and his disciples."

from The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta: A Study of Gaudapada, Sankara, Suresvara and Padmapada by Michael Comans

Being Nonduality

Materialism is a great disease. Truly changing one’s metaparadigm from materialism to nondualism takes a whole lot of medicine.

Turning from the belief that consciousness rises from the material to the experiential fact that consciousness is foundational doesn’t ordinarily happen overnight.

Many people fall into the trap of just believing consciousness is foundational. Nonduality is not belief, but being only.

But believing in nonduality is not a bad thing. It’s just still a thing. It may even be a good thing, if you believe there’s still further to go.

footnotes

the language of duality is right and left, up and down, past and present, this and that. the language of nonduality is right and left, up and down, past and present, this and that. when you see nonduality on the road, drop it, kill it. throw away both thorns.

belief is like the water we swim in. the first stroke in unbelieving is understanding what belief is, and that it isn't.

in america, the trap of believing in nonduality is often accompanied by the trappings of some foreign culture where nonduality is not a foreign concept, like it is in most america.

concurrently while reading foreign works of nonduality, it helps to keep in mind that its intended audience was swimming in the sea of a certain belief system of its own. exhibit a: the great hymns of shankara.

one knows the water one swims in by attending to what one is figuratively breathing. another name for lucid dreaming is lucid believing.

the tool of nonduality is used to deconstruct duality and indicate reality, and not to idolize in any way. thus i am writing to my intended audience, myself.

god and ego are our co-dependent idols, my fellow sentient being.

1. nonduality is not big science.

2. little science is earnestly experimental.

3. inquisitive science is faithfully theoretical.

4. approving theory without inquiry is the definition of belief.

5. religion is big belief.

6. big belief is the latest synthesis of the most popular conspiracy theories.

7. meet the new empire.

Devotion to Reality

i.

Thoughts may deconstruct the unreal or point to the real, but thought is not itself real.

In the world, only love comes close to the real. In reality, only this self-shining consciousness is real.

At best, science deconstructs and myth indicates, but only one’s attention minus thought is real.

ii.

Some people find themselves, thru the evolution of life, at a place in which devotion to a single teacher is essential.

There’s the inner teacher and the outer teacher, of which there’s an embodied teacher and a teacher’s written revelations.

Choose one and give that your devotion.

footnotes

thought is the stuff of dreams but reality is not a dream, neither the dream called dream nor the dream called reality.

romantic love is affection for a thought-form. unconditional love is affection for a being. reality is being.

western science was at its best deconstructing the roman christian empire, but at its worst theorizing its own materialistic one.

on the other hand, myth is at its best pointing to the unbelievable truth, but at its worst becoming religious belief.

cause and effect, god, reality, revelation, renunciation, resting, self-awareness.

Cyphering Self Hyphen Awareness

Absolute awareness is self-shining consciousness. The mind is what registers this truth.

Call this self-evident truth self-awareness. The mind is the hyphen in self-awareness. And it’s cypher.

The absolute by the power of its paradox is witnessing itself. This is how the mind sees self-awareness. It’s everywhere!

footnotes

the mind is a mirror. let me count the way.

my granddaughter turned five last month. she's beginning to talk about herself in the third person. i love how true duality begins.

another name for witnessing is self-awareness (being self-aware). another name for paradox is maya (illusion, delusion, occlusion). another name for everywhere is (god, universe, the void).

you don't choose the way. the way chooses to lose you.

before self-awareness is self-consciousness. it peaks in adolescence. sometimes it ends in self-inquiry. sometimes it needs another dreamtime.

this afternoon was ice-out on the river. to be honest, i'm not certain there was ever an ice-in.

there's a lot of esoteric terminology for the common passages in life. do not get lost in this terminology.

by the time you're reading this, you've already been there, but haven't done the math.

do yourself a favor and know your myth.

after revelations come the footnotes. if it's good enough for the blue cliff record, it's good enough for me.

creation without paradox is like mental masturbation. it sure feels good but honestly i need the eggs.

the mind is your tool. identifying with the mind makes you its.

these are the gitas for 2022.

the full-tilt shankara bhasyas are the gambhirananda and the warrier.

an abridged shankara is the nikhilananda. the deep translation is the sargent. a modern advaita vedanta commentary is the chinmayananda. and it appears the sargent is there for any further language-specific questions.

Mathcitananda

Desire minus thought equals love. Love without a name is called ananda.

The mundane minus thought equals being. Another name for being is consciousness. Self-shining consciousness is that. There is no name for that.

Book knowledge minus thought equals experiential knowledge. In other words, the manifested material universe minus all conceptual names and forms equals the unmanifested that, i.

footnotes

if om is omniscient,

call me aumanandada:

if A = a - t then A + t = a ,

but if t = a - A , and A = ∞ , then t = ( i² = −1 )

and ( i² = −1 ) = m(a)yA;

thus if k - t = K,

and aum - k = I,

then I = aumanandada.

endnotes

in advaita vedanta, the upanishads are that which is heard—revelation. the bhagavad gita is that which is remembered—myth. and the brahma sutra is that which has been codified—law. revelation always comes before myth, and myth always comes before the law.

The Heartwood of Nonduality

i.

There’s only awareness and self-awareness.

Self-awareness is the natural expression of awareness.

ii.

If self-awareness were a tree, being would be its heartwood.

And if being were the heartwood, mind would be the bell

iii.

of that experiential self-awareness

and memory, the rings within the tree itself.

iv.

Attention, do not mistake the rings of memory for the heartwood of being.

Further, don’t mistake the heartwood of self-shining consciousness for something other.

v.

Consciousness is awareness.

Nonduality is nonduality is nondual.

footnotes

divine imagination is ringing who am i? who am i? who am i?

materialism is not as much a theory as it is a postulate.

thought is the stuff of now. memory is the stuff of thought. ego is the stuff of memory. nirvana is the stuff of samsara.

there's no logic to life. there's only the story of its happening.

that the absolute equals attention minus cognition is the real mass-energy equivalence.

Math from Aum to Mu

i.

Consciousness is beyond all logic, science, and philosophy.

All of these are but appearances in consciousness, are they not?

Although some like thinking otherwise.

ii.

Between awareness and all thought there stands a gateless gate.

Call it maya, paradox, koan, or imaginary number.

Whatever, it doesn’t have a name.

iii.

An ego isn’t bad. It’s just the strongest thought known.

And thought isn’t bad as well.

It’s just this thing which gets in the way.

iv.

Ordinary attention minus conditioned conceptualization equals

absolute awareness.

Just do the imaginary math.

Attention Crows

After your new metaphysics deconstructs your old physics, throw them both away.

It doesn’t matter how many angels can dance on the head of a lingam. That consciousness is the absolute is all you need to know on earth.

Morality assumes the personal doer but anyone with half-a-mind understands the universal is the only doer.

Crow caws again, the universe is the cause, and the universe its result. Thus crow caws the causelessness of crow.

Religions love their cells like people love association. There’s just one self. No one else can join you there.

Pay attention, children. Unadulterated consciousness is absolute awareness and attention minus mind is that awareness.

On Dream

The mind dreams before it sleeps.

Consciousness dreams before it wakes.

Because consciousness is sleeping, the mind is dreaming.

Because consciousness is waking, the dreaming mind is dreaming it’s awake.

The sleeping dream is free to change directions like a summer breeze.

The waking dream is set in stone.

Because consciousness is waking, the waking dream is dreaming with that power.

Concepts begin to feel so real!

Paradoxically, when consciousness wakes, the waking dream is seen to be unreal.

That’s maya for ya.

footnotes

"dream until the dream come true"

neither the mind nor the consciousness is dreaming. it is maya that dreams.

when consciousness is away, the mind will play.

dreaming is a spectrum from unawareness to self-awareness.

it appears awareness goes through all samsara to get to self-awareness.

you say paradox, i say maya. let's call the whole thing the one.

Attention Meditation

Self-shining consciousness is not a passive process in an ordinary person but one intertwined with mind moving outward. Thus, awareness and cognition equals attention.

This is meditation at its best. With attention moving outward like a light, don’t think about it. Attention minus cognition equals awareness.

And any thoughts that may appear, don’t think about them either. Simply let them disappear within the clarity of bright awareness.

This meditation is not a passive one of contemplation nor just sitting, but an active one beginning with attention moving outward as if the shimmering world out there is your ongoing creation.

Visualize the ahamkara of mind intertwined with nondual nuclear awareness. By removing thinking from the weaving, awareness shall untie the knot. There I am like a fountain of satcitananda.

footnotes

consciousness plus deconstruction equals medicine.

attention plus the negative capability of myth equals self-awareness.

the ahamkara of consciousness and mind is not exactly bondage but certainly a gripping embrace.