The Grasshopper Epistles

1. triangulating consciousness

Either the world makes consciousness; 

consciousness creates the world; 

or consciousness is neither cause nor effect.

2. the consciousness trinity

The first ilk is called materialist—scientific, atheistic, postmodern. 

The second is called spiritualist—orthodox, modern, new age. 

And the third is nameless—changeless, birthless, nondual.

3. ode to maya

Although the world isn’t real, it’s not unreal either. 

This illusion (snake-rope, mirage-desert) is the essence of Maya. 

As Brahman is the name for the nameless, Maya is the name for all the names appearing in the nameless.

4. to nonduality and beyond

Yes, pure consciousness (aka awareness) is nameless and nondual

but the absolute is beyond nonduality as well. 

After the first thorn has been removed by the second thorn, both roses are thrown away, grasshopper.

Abhinavesa and Beyond

Karma is not the truth. Karma is an appearance in the truth. Karma appears to be the truth because people believe in because. This belief is one of the primal beliefs of avidya. Gaudapada uses the sanskrit word, abhinavesa, to describe it.

“Abhiniveśa is not merely a persistent belief, but an intense mental preoccupation with an ardent faith in a false knowledge sustained and nurtured by a totally laughable ignorance.” ~Chinmayananda

Causality is the fool of ten thousand koans and the liar behind every paradox. The universe is the cause and the universe is its result, crow caws the causelessness of crow. Not only is the absolute beyond causality, it's beyond beyond.

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Between deep sleep and samadhi, the mind is walking.

Both dream states are like sleepwalking. True awakening is more like lucid dreaming.

As the mind is a perpetual motion machine, sleepwalking is more like sleep running, and lucid dreaming is just dreaming in slow motion.

Misunderstood Vibrations

It’s not true that one consciousness is vibrating into this duality of mind.

It just appears to be true; Maya’s middle name happens to be causality.

But in pure consciousness there is no cause and effect.

This is not to say such absolute knowledge precludes living in the material world.

Even Einstein ate his dinner at a table he knew to be 99% space.

Jivanmuktis exist beyond causality—in karma but not of karma.

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1. Of Dragons, Rishis, and Al Green.

The year of the dragon—north of the river of love and south of the mountains of wisdom.

The rishis say that the nature of the absolute truth is pure existence, awareness, and ananda. There's no arguing with satcitananda.

The reflection of sat is 'I am', of cit is meditation, and of ananda is love and happiness. It makes you wanna dance and sing.

2. Ignorant Issues.

You can’t get there from here because you’re already here.

The mind dreams whether the body is turned on or off.

Ignorance of what I am is the issue—unborn and immortal, unknown and all-knowing, beyond all happiness and love, tattvamasi.

Disturbing Advaita

Maya sees with the eyes of ten thousand beings. Human beings are only one point of view.

In a sleeping dream, the one mind becomes subject and ten thousand objects. Why would the waking dream be any different, Thomas?

Isn't it astounding that the witness of both dream dualities is that which is witnessing the absence of duality in deep sleep?

First There Is No First

First there is a mountain, then there’s neti neti, then there’s brahman.

First there is the waking state, then the dreamstate, then there’s atman.

First the material universe produces consciousness

or the spirit of consciousness generates creation

but consciousness is beyond all cause and effect as atman is brahman.

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01.

Causality is the nature of maya.

Not only is atman immortal, I am unborn.

Because cause and effect is the nature of duality, and no one can kill the snake appearing in a rope because illusion, it’s not why, why, why. It just isn’t.

02.

Dreaming is the infinite regress of mind.

As a dream cannot know its dreamer and the dreamer cannot know the dream of a dreamer in its dream…

sudden enlightenment.

03.

Unborn, nondual, and effortless, I, atman, am brahman, that,

as in never temporary, not two, and causeless:

remarkably

the same pure consciousness

witnessing the dream states

is witnessing

the deep sleep dreamless state

tattvamasi

04.

welcome to the year

of the dragon south of hill

and north of river

my happy valley

is in this pleasant valley

but of the river

less than ten miles as

the crow flies is the great big

sea—that atlantic

05.

the sea is to space

as the sun is to the black

whole jack kerouac

jack is down river

from ed mcmahon upriver

from leo bernstein

beyond all howling

turning off the mind relax

float downstream like tao

06.

two red winged blackbirds arrive in the picture window thursday february eighth—earliest return appearance in my thirty years living in this valley.

all things change.

objects appear in the subject. the subject does not appear in the objective universe.

My Mandukya Math

1.

The nature of nirguna brahman is sat (being, existence, presence), cit (consciousness, awareness, intelligence), and ananda (holistic, infinite, bliss). These are not qualities. Such is the province of saguna brahman. It's more like wetness is the nature of pure water.

Satcitananda is reflecting on the subtle body of the so-called individual: the reflection of sat is the ‘I am’; the reflection of cit is the complex of mind, attention, and intelligence; and the reflection of ananda is simply love and happiness.

2. 

There are five basic states of the body-mind: deep sleep, dreaming, waking, enlightenment, and nirvikalpa samadhi. Both body and mind may be switched on or off. Avidya operates similarly.

For the table of these states below, note that the number zero indicates off and 1 indicates on. Also, m equals mind, b equals body, and a equals avidya:

Deep sleep: a1 m0 b0;

Dreaming: a1 m1 b0;

Waking: a1 m1 b1;

Enlightenment: a0 m1 b1;

Nirvikalpa: a0 m0 b0.

3.

Table note 1: the difference between deep sleep and nirvikalpa samadhi is: in deep sleep, avidya is latently on. In other words, deep sleep is the absence of duality, and nirvikalpa is the presence of nonduality.

Table note 2: both the dreaming and waking states are states of dreaming. A better terminology could be sleeping-dreaming and waking-dreaming. Of course the common element in both states of dreaming is mind turned on (avidya on).

Table note 3: this Enlightened One is called the Jivanmukti in Advaita Vedanta. Like Jesus being in the world but not of the world, that’s in the mind but not of the mind, in Maya but not of Maya.

4.

PS: sat is to insentience, as cit is to sentience, as ananda is to enlightenment.

In the name of Nirguna Brahman, Isvara, and the Holy Ghost of Maya, Aum

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)