On Drg Drsya Viveka 1: The Seer

For every scene there is identification. Identifying with the eye is the materialist i. Identifying with the eye of the mind is the conceptual i. Beyond the mind is the real I.

The material eye consummates in scientific inquiry. The conceptual eye incubates theories and conceives belief. But the real I self-destructs in self-awareness.

Alas, the Big Bang Theory has become the latest religion. Henceforward, real scientific exploration shall be called self-inquiry. Or Seer Seen Viveka.

a. pure consciousness

The purity of pure consciousness is not a moral purity but a nonconceptual one.

Another name for impure consciousness is attention. Attention is reflected consciousness. Or pure consciousness upon which egoic thought is super-imposed.

Pure consciousness is nonconceptual knowing, self-luminous seeing, and nondual intelligence.

b. to my beloved mount desert island

They say kensho happens when you aren't looking but I am. For me, the seascapes, mountainviews, and hidden ponds of Acadia National Park shine behind every turn of the trail.

Although the Acadian mountains aren't that high relatively speaking, their base begins at sea level and beyond to the Laurentian Abyss. Such is their absolute altitude.

Cadillac Mountain is the highest at 1530 ft. It's also the first place to see the winter east coast sunrise.

I hiked it once on Earth Day when no cars were allowed upon the summit road. And I hiked it one summer day on its great eastern trail and met up with a wedding party.

One of my favorite spots on the mountain is Eagle Point where Sanford Robinson Gifford sketched his Mount Desert in 1865.

It's overlooking the 1850 Otter Creek of Frederic Edwin Church. And the anonymous Gulf of Maine beyond.

c. to one seer and its two or three eyes

There appear to be three seers. But two are actually insentient without the real one.

And some say there are four seers dividing parabrahman into the saguna and nirguna witnesses.

There is one seer. All other seers may be phenomenal but they are not that I beyond I am.

d. to the penobscot

an artful inukshuk looks upon

the long rose granite slope of dawnland

and beyond is the unbelievable bay of fundy

e. the walrus says

In avidya, I appear to be two eyes.

To seek me is regressus ad infinitum.

For I am you goo goo g'joob.

x. be the sea

Never wait for the next wave

but be the sea a la Li Po—

act three, scene Basho 

Drg Drsya Viveka 1 Trans/Notes

DDV 1

Form is the seen and the eye is the seer. As that in turn is seen, the seer is the mind. And as its thoughts are seen, the Witness is the one seer, and never the seen.

~A

Rūpaṁ dṛśyaṁ locanaṁ dṛkt

addṛśyaṁ dṛktu mānasam,

dṛśyā dhīvṛttayas-sākṣī

dṛgeva na tu dṛśyate.

(1) रूपम् – form; दृश्यम् – (is) the seen; लोचनम् – the eye; दृक् – (is) the seer; तत् – that (eye); दृश्यम् – (is) seen; दृक् – the seer; तु – indeed; मानसम् – the mind; दृश्याः – (are) seen; धीवृत्तयः – the thoughts of mind; साक्षी – the witness; दृक् – (is) the Seer; एव – alone; न तु – never; दृश्यते – the seen

The eye is the seer, and form (and colour) the seen. That (eye) is the seen and the mind Is (its) seer. The witness alone is the Seer of thoughts in the mind and never the seen.

~T

रूपं form दृश्यं (is) perceived लोचनं eye दृक् (is) perceiver तु तत् that दृश्यं (is) perceived मानसं mind दृक् (is) perceiver धीवृत्तय: mind’s modifications दृश्या: (are) perceived साक्षी witness दृक् एव (is) verily the perceiver तु but न (it) is not दृश्यते perceived.

The form (1) is perceived and the eye (2) is its perceiver. (3) It (eye) is perceived and the mind (4) is its perceiver. The mind with (5) its modifications is perceived and the Witness (the Self) is verily the perceiver. (6) But It (7) (the Witness) is not perceived (by any other).

~N

Form is the seen, the eye is the seer;

that eye is the seen, and mind is its seer;

thoughts in the mind are seen by the Witness

which alone is the Seer, but can never be the seen.

~S

Notes:

In analysing the Seer-seen relationship, the following principles should be clearly understood. The Seer and the seen are different from each other. The Seer can never become the seen and the seen can never become the Seer. The Seer cannot see itself and the seen cannot see itself. One and the same thing cannot become both the Seer and the seen. The Seer is aware and the seen is inert.

~T

The Ātman or the Innermost Self is the ultimate perceiver. If a perceiver of the Ātman is sought, the inquiry will end in what is known as a regressus ad infinitium. All entities from the gross objects to the mind are products of avidyā which itself is insentient (जड). Hence they also partake of the nature of insentiency. Therefore they are objects. The subjective character of some of these is only relative. But the Self is the ultimate Seer because no other seer is known to exist. The knowing nature of the Knower is never absent.

~N

The whole teaching has been presented in the very first verse, very beautiful. The last part of the first verse says sākṣī dṛg eva na tu dṛśyate. So you are not a doormat. Nobody can make you a doormat because you are not a dṛśya. You are not an object much less you are a subject. You are the svarūpa of the subject. Sākṣī, dṛg eva, na tu dṛśyate. Nobody can objectify you. You are the sākṣī. That is the teaching.

~D

In this verse, the author has introduced three observers, three illuminators: 1. sense organs, 2. mind, 3. sākṣī. 1 and 2 are relative illuminators and 3 is the absolute illuminator. Thus the two relative dṛk and the one absolute dṛk are the components of the individual. The author feels that this requires further clarification. The following 4 verses are the author’s commentary on the first verse. Each part of the first verse will be elaborated.

~P

On Drg Drsya Viveka 1: The Seer

For every scene there is identification. Identifying with the eye is the materialist i. Identifying with the eye of the mind is the conceptual i. Beyond the mind is the real I. 

The material eye consummates in scientific inquiry. The conceptual eye incubates theories and conceives belief. But the real I self-destructs in self-awareness.

Alas, the Big Bang Theory has become the latest religion. Henceforward, real scientific exploration shall be called self-inquiry. Or Seer Seen Viveka. 

~A

Translators / Commentators Legend

A: Aumdada

D: Dayananda

N: Nikhilananda

P: Paramarthananda

S: Sandeepany

T: Tejomayananda

These Drg Drsya Viveka translators and commentators deserve commendation: 

Nikhilananda, founder of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York. Clear, concise, and kensho-inducing at times.

Tejomayananda, head of Chinmaya Mission from 1994 to 2017. Comprehensive and noteworthy.

Dayananda, given Sannyasa in 1963 by Swami Chinmayananda & named Dayananda in 1963, founder of Arsha Vidya 1986, and spiritual Guru of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sanskrit-dominant, released post-mahasamadhi without Dayananda's brilliant editing, but there's gold in them hills.

Paramarthananda, studied under Chinmayananda, took sannyasa from Dayananda, and is devoted to both sages. PDF but prescient.

Sarvapriyananda, Minister of the Vedanta Society of New York. Youtube, storyteller, helpful.

Instant Atman

Consciousness does not begin with the big bang nor blossom with the human nervous system into a fountain of awareness. Consciousness is unborn.

Reflected consciousness is born with and dies with the subtle body of the mind reflecting consciousness. But consciousness is not conceptual.

Pure consciousness is like the ocean and the waves of the mind are appearing within pure consciousness like the reflexive universe is appearing in pure consciousness.

Attention minus thought is pure awareness as the big bang minus wave-particle duality is satcitananda. Time stops when thought stops and there am I. Timelessness.

a.

Brahman is not conscious. Brahman is consciousness. Similarly, I am not conscious. The body-mind complex is conscious. I am consciousness.

The body-mind complex is conscious like a wildfire and I am fire.

Believing I am this and this is me, is like thinking that is this and this is the world. Such is the way a noumenal subject becomes lost in the phenomenal object. It's not just an imposition, it's a superimposition.

b.

From Glacier Point, Half Dome looks like a luminous hooded shaman.

Entering Yosemite Valley is like the Wizard of Oz suddenly turning technicolor.

Leaving the valley by Tioga Road is like going from the ridiculous to the sublime, the highest highway in all the High Sierras, in all of California.

c.

Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman appear in Parabrahman. Remember, nonduality is a method. It's not the truth.

Is ananda of satcitananda some unworldly bliss or is it the real happiness of ordinary happiness?

Atman is not happy. Brahman is infinite holistic happiness. Atman is Brahman.

d.

Between the satisfaction of an old desire consummated and the dissatisfaction of a new desire conceived is that gap where original happiness breaks through. That's the tantric heart.

Truth is not black and white. Here, Ansel Adams comes quite close. But colorization only improves Casablanca so much.

Ultimately people are people. And you aren't people—no matter how much you think you should try to be.

e.

The cure for ignorance is knowledge.

The cure for nihilism is self-inquiry.

The cure for samsara is ananda, satcitananda

I, Parabrahman. An Easter Egg.

Asking who is Atman is like asking who am I. The only difference in the questions is a grammatical one.

The upanishadic rishis answer both questions in their highest revelations, the mahavakyas. Atman is Brahman. I am Brahman.

And Brahman is that which is talked about in two ways. Nirguna Brahman is the unconditional godhead. Saguna Brahman is the conditional God of Maya.

And we are Brahman but due to original ignorance do not know it. Thankfully, sage revelations point the way. It’s up to us to clear away the personal clutter: what am I not?

In the analysis of seer and seen, what I’m able to know, I am not. Thus I’m not the body, breath, mind, intellect, or karma.

Neither am I the waking state of the world nor the dreaming state of the mind. Most provocative, I’m not even the absence of duality witnessed in deep sleep.

Not only am I not the known I'm not the unknown. I am the knower, the seer, pure consciousness!

Along with pure existence and holistic bliss infinity, I am satcitananda, another name for Brahman.

Have faith, for the revelation of the mahavakyas is not to be believed but confirmed. Beyond the individual is the universal. And beyond the I-am is I, Parabrahman.

a. april come she will

April is the month of reincarnation. It's not as much a cruel month as a karmic one. For in the perennial world, you reap what you sow.

April 1st is April Fool's Day. For only fools reincarnate. Nirvana is not for the foolish.

April is the month of Cynthia Forsythia wow! My pseudonym was born on April 27th and wrote about that goddess on the very next day.

b. on vidya

Original beginningless ignorance (avidya) is like original sin but without the sinner.

Beginningless ignorance begins with the big bang of wave-particle duality.

Wave-particle duality, enlightenment, and this devolutional-evolutional universe in-between are all appearing in the light of atman.

c. in the very merry month of may

One day in May I saw a dive-bombing osprey pull a striper from the middle of the river. Far across the high tide fullness of that Merrimack, an eagle saw and wanted.

Less than sixty seconds later, after a high-wire dance of conflicting desires, they collided in a winged battle less than thirty feet above from where I stood and watched in wicked awesome awe.

In the end, the hawk escaped with its treasure, the eagle returned to its pirate ship, and I continued on my merry way.

d. that sweet taste of nonduality

The moon in June doesn't just reflect the sun but smells like spirit too.

Its reflection of a midsummer light is nothing but light minus the vig.

Eye is seer. Ear is witness. Nose is the knowing. Tongue is that sweet taste of nonduality and skin is the holy ghost.

e. i am standing

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on I.

Assumptions are not to be trusted. Test each rock ten thousand times before standing on it.

I am standing on pure existence, absolute awareness (pure consciousness), and holistic bliss infinity (ananda). Anything but satcitananda is an assumption making samsara out of me and you.

Mithya Snake, Satya Rope

Ontologically speaking, there’s that which is self-existent, like a godhead, and this which depends upon something greater for its existence. In sanskrit, that is satya, and this is mithya.

In the classic advaitin examples, pots are mithya and the clay comprising each pot is satya, as gold is satya and the jewelry made from that gold is mithya. Of course these examples are not meant to be taken at face value. In the little lower layer, even gold is mithya.

For in the final analysis, the universe itself is mithya, and only parabrahman is satya. And satya is the sat in satcitananda, existence - consciousness - bliss, the real Self or atman, the real I or aham, as in atman is brahman or aham brahmasmi.

a.

Atman simply put is self-existent, self-luminous, and self-happy.

While a person of beginningless ignorance believes oneself to be mortal (this is the only mortal sin, my brothers and sisters).

And a person of beginningless ignorance believes oneself to be subordinate like an insignificant part of an infinite universe encapsulated in a life of constant sorrow.

b.

They say the tides on the Bay of Fundy are the greatest in the world. In some places the difference between high and low tides is more than forty feet. I've seen boats in harbors lie in the drying sea bottom thirty feet below the dock at low tide. No regrets coyote.

In the Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur is New Camoldi Hermitage. On the way up to its 1300 ft. altitude from Highway 1, there's a bench overlooking a scopious blue Pacific straight below. On the way down, I sat there and read the Thomas Merton I had purchased in their bookstore.

One of the canonical Three Views of Japan is the Matsushima Islands, 260 small pine islands situated in the confines of Matsushima Bay. The poet Basho visited in late spring 1689 while on a pilgrimage to sites written about by the 12th century poet Saigyo.

It's famously said Basho was so stunned by its beauty he couldn't write a single word about it in his masterpiece Oku no Hosomichi. There's another legend that says he wrote an unpublished haiku with only the words Matsushima & Ah! I visited in 2007 on a pilgrimage to Basho. Print the legend!

c.

You are not what you appear to be.

Neither material body, breath of energy, mind with memory, intellect, nor ego, you are that nondual trinity of satcitananda in which this mithya is now playing.

Things exist. Being knows. Self-awareness is ananda.

Tvam & Tat

1 tvam & tat

The one identifying with the body-mind complex is the individual consciousness. Neither is real but neither is unreal either. There’s the rub.

Beyond benightedness, yet within full light of maya, I’m not a part of universal consciousness. I am universal consciousness.

In nonduality, there’s neither separation nor division, inequality nor equality. In tattvamasi, I and That are the same.

2. who?

Not body-mind but individual consciousness. Not individual consciousness but universal consciousness. Not universal consciousness but consciousness period.

If transmigration begins in beginningless avidya but ends in maya, who is being reincarnated?

Individual consciousness is a super imposition.

3. lawrence

Where salt water of the Gulf of St Lawrence meets fresh waters of the St Lawrence River, this boy was mostly born.

But there’s that unborn spirit of ancestral fire-breathers swimming in volcanic York.

Seeing Mount St Helens from the Columbia River Valley was wicked cool though.

4. rabbit

beginningless avidya

fucks you up—

this is the verse.

nothing gold can stay—

this is the new england chapter.

what you could call my life on the way began when first i met the beatles.

5. recipe

The recipe for individual consciousness is organic chemicals, functional compounds, and the resultant amplification (reflection) of pure consciousness—

double bubble instant karma dancing with myself.

True science is deconstructing big belief. Big science isn't.

6. big

Both big religion and big science are trying to buy your big belief.

Is the new god the same as the old god?

Self-inquiry is the meaning of true love.

7. jivanmukta

all things exist.

some beings know.

one realizes.

Sunlight Earthshine

1. sunlight earthshine

In the Wonderland of Maya, the subtle body of organic chemicals and functional compounds is reflecting pure consciousness tonight like a red hot iron ball.

Consciousness is spreading to the far extremities of this body. Listen, light is light and reflected light is light, and I am that light and not the body-mind I am currently burning through and through.

It’s like the sun is original fire. And this wildfire on earth may be its reflection technically speaking, but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Even earthshine can light up the dark side of the moon.

2. maya of things

If Saguna Brahman is the reflection of Nirguna Brahman, Maya is the mirror.

Or Isvara is the great magician and Maya is its scepter of power veiling the truth and projecting the false.

And Vishnu pervades, preserves, and protects this great projection. To paraphrase Julian of Norwich, all maya of things shall be well.

3. For James Leo Leon Mellon

Fifty-one years ago tonight, a man called Leo, whom I knew as Dad, died from a massive heart attack while working the night shift at Western Electric.

A psychotherapist once famously said to me that my mother was afraid of the world and my father never introduced me.

It was the greatest karma he could give me. It made me deconstruct things on my own. Love!

4. strange lands

From the south rim of Grand Canyon, one can see 10,000 sunrises in 15 minutes.

It's enough to make you think the sun never ascends, that atman is unborn and infinitely shining, and only the mind rises in a dream and sets in deep sleep.

Grok this: that witness of deep sleep is the witness of the waking state and I am that.

5. on unconsciousness

There are states of mind but there are no states of consciousness.

Identifying with any state of mind is unconsciousness.

Unconsciousness appears in consciousness. Paradox alert.

Midnight and Maya Again

1. midnight and maya again

Midnight and the sun is like pure consciousness and the moon is like the mind lit by self-luminous awareness and reflecting that light upon the darkness of the earth.

Midnight and the sun is nowhere in the sky like pure consciousness is the unseen seer. And midnight and the moon is insentient rock brought to life by the self-shining atman.

Midnight and the mind is but reflected consciousness although some people on earth mistake it for the real thing. Yes it’s midnight and the earth is on quicksilver sentient fire.

2. electric satcitananda

The mind is both seer and the seen. The mind sees the world and the mind is seen by consciousness. It’s the function of the mind to mind the world. It's the nature of awareness to witness the mind.

The world turns and the mind as a functioning mind is a singular tool. But the mind as an ego is always changing. This changing mind is seen by an unchanging consciousness, the only constant.

Disidentifying with the world is the science of psychotherapy. Disidentifying with the mind is the art of nonduality. The nature of mind is division; the nurturing of mind is ego. 

Consciousness is neither nature nor nurture. I am not the reflection of light in this filament of a light bulb but that electricity of satcitananda.

3. from out of bondage, james bondage

It was eighteen years ago today that Canyon del Muerto taught the mind to deconstruct.

In the middle of a timeless desert canyon facing the ancient one’s Mummy Cave Ruins etched in bronzed sandstone, I sit as this adjacent babbling brook takes away my vital breath to original Arizona.

I am not some DNA. Neither am I karma. I am that in which deoxyribonucleic acid and/or instant karma is appearing. That is pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is absolute existence. Absolute existence is ananda, satcitananda.

Consciousness Is Not a State of Mind

1. superimpositions and the substrate

The same awareness witnessing deep sleep is witnessing the waking state, and this waking world is appearing in awareness but that awareness is untouched, unmoved, and immaculate.

They say consciousness is smaller than a mustard seed yet all space-time is appearing within consciousness. Such is the nature of illusion and the indescribable ineffability of pure consciousness.

Without consciousness shining on the world, there is no world. Without the world minding the world, there’s deep sleep. And without awareness, there’s no deep sleep. That's the way of superimpositions and the substrate.

2. the cosmic consciousness

The world is in the mind and of the mind. Self-awareness is in the mind but not of the mind. Absolute awareness is neither in the mind nor of the mind.

As the mind hears the revelations of nonduality, the mind is seeing through the mind, and self-awareness is being known.

Some say there's a cosmic consciousness and I say this so-called individual consciousness is the cosmic consciousness.

3. common knowledge

It's not what you know, it's what you think you know, says Steve Martin on SNL. It's distinguishing between what you think you know and what you really know, says I.

What you think you know is an assumption. What I know is I am, I know, and ananda, satcitananda.

Like Bond, James Bond; Christ, Jesus Christ; Viveka, Vivekananda.

This is Dedicated to the One

0. the one

It’s not that there’s no personal god, there’s no person. But as long as one is acting like an individual, there’s a universal god to be reckoned with.

Forgive me Isa for I have sinned and missed the mark. Although in Maya I am you the universal consciousness, I’m thinking I’m an individual consciousness instead.

Moreover due to this original ignorance, I’m alienated from holistic bliss infinity and stuck inside samsara with the dreamstate blues.

And that almighty satguru is always whispering this ignorance is only cured by knowing what I’m not while being the pure knowledge that I am.

1. oppenheimer redux

As long as one is acting like an ego there's a superego to be heard.

Newtonian physics is to the universal body-mind as quantum physics is to universal consciousness.

From the point of view of materialism, quantum physics is a paradox. From the point of view of consciousness, a paradox is an effect appearing in the cause.

2. satcitananda!

Life is but a reflection of existence. Consciousness is but a reflection of pure consciousness. And happiness is but a reflection of ananda. Let's go satcitananda!

Satcitananda is not a quality of the absolute noumenal godhead. Satcitananda is the nature of the absolute noumenal godhead. Like fire is hot, parabrahman is existence itself and consciousness itself and holistic bliss infinity itself, that power of three!  And that's not nothing.

Please do not mistake pure existence for nothing. Just because absolute existence is indescribable and therefore hasn't a name doesn't mean it's name is nothing.

3.

In this Valley of the Tao

Cynthia Forsythia shall be appearing

if the Creek don't rise