Nagarjuna – To convey through concepts what lies beyond concepts and conventional entities is the skillfulness of the wise
Zen proverb – There is nothing more that can be said for enlightenment than what a finger pointing at the moon can do for seeing the moon.
A renunciation is the first order. This one does not claim wisdom nor seek salutation. Wisdom arises of its own accord along with Truth, Beauty, Love. Salutation is a special case of vacuity.
Its almost as if the world system, the Sun and Planets, hurtling through space come upon a giant Star and are captured thereby. We enter upon a new orbit and begin learning to cope. Everything has changed. The old paradigm immediately set aside. Everything is new under this new Sun. And, this new Sun is the Mandukya Upanishad.
An initial conundrum to be dealt with is transcendence versus immanence. Transcendent. Distinguished from immanent. Extra cosmic creator, God or not.
How is a creator who withdraws to make room that the created sentient life forms can be co-creator not extra cosmic, transcendent? Illusion is surely involved here and is to be somehow addressed.
The Mandukya Upanishad (MU) stresses foremost that all is one, that the manifold is an illusion like the imagination of a rope appearing as a snake. Only the rope is real and the illusion of the snake while depending on the rope is illusionary, requiring ideation. Non duality is the True nature of the Ultimate Reality whom the MU names Brahman. So, all is Brahman who is like the rope in the example. Simple enough. A child could understand.
So, it follows that the transcendent is the immanent because of non-duality; the implied duality is an illusion. If this is understood as an idea, concept, that too would be an illusion. Further follows that one should simply set aside all such ideation. But we are curious, and to some, such considerations lead to the sublime. A quote from MU III-18 helps in this regard. “As non-duality is the ultimate Reality, therefore duality is said to be its effect.” In other words duality might be said to serve the purpose of non-duality. I equivocate because, strictly, it might also be said there is no purpose; purpose being a product of our insistent anthropomorphism. That is, we insist man be the measure of all things. If it is then it is in relation to homo sapiens.
God doesn’t withdraw, as such, only appears to, or is only thought to by some. How can there be withdrawal if all is one? If there is any withdrawal it is into his creation. He appears to assume a separate identity, like the rope becoming a snake. If or when the created realizes his true nature can status as co-creator emerge. So, the transcendent reaches an understanding of its true nature as immanence. Illusion drops away along with duality and only the Ultimate Reality remains. Note, however, the MU says there is no creation and by the same, I guess, no creator. It just is. and I am that or, that am I! While the Christian God says “I am that I am.” The Truth is somewhere close. That statement is surely intended to convey the sense that language has limits, that concepts are useless when trying to explain the sublime.
I’m attempting to resolve seeming conflict of Rabbinical philosophy with that of the MU. The idea of man as co-creator is, of course, Rabbinical.
A quibble on knowing. MU III-33: “Knowledge is essence of thought.” So when mind disappears on realization of Ultimate Realtiy, i.e., Brahman, thought does likewise disappear? And the object of knowledge falls away, too, as the known, the knowing, the knower “become one and the same.” My scheme is somewhat different. The MU conflates understanding and knowledge. I think knowledge leads to understanding and when understanding does arise therein is the known, knowing, knower merged, and duality falls away. “Brahman which is of the nature of one homogeneous mass of eternal consciousness, does not depend upon another instrument of knowledge (for its illumination).” Further, this one might know, or think so, but when understanding arises this one is no longer there. Illumination only occurs in non-duality, knowing in duality; Knower needs an object (to know). It also requires action. When known, knowing, and knower merge then understanding arises. That’s my note on epistemology.
Authors, commentators of MU are fond of quoting the Bhagavad Gita (BG) and the BG posits a deity devotion to whom is held in the highest regard. Krsna tells Arjuna that those following the path of devotion to the Lord (Krsna) are dearer to him than any others, those that, for instance, follow the path of knowledge, renunciation, ritual, and so forth. Yet the authors (commentators) of the MU decry such as mere ideation, as failure, because duality inheres in such beliefs. The MU clearly states there is no extra-cosmic God. True. All is one, or, as the Upanishad puts it, all is Brahman. However, to construe that as positing an extra-cosmic God is perhaps not a fatal mistake. There are great mysteries to be confronted and the greatest might be that there is an extra cosmic God which transcendent is all the same immanent. Jesus, recall, is said to be the “Word” made flesh. So, across the world the reality is put forth that God, the “Word”, manifests as man, as a created being. You know, we make the God we want out of our intention, thoughts, worship. So how could one not hold that God is infinitely malleable? And, we are so welcome by the One that however we approach matters not. What matters is the approach, the worship. Alone.
Being in the world requires skill, crafts. Development of these is an endless discovery. None are cast in concrete. Every person is unique. All these meditative crafts are aids to stopping sensory input. Stopping sensory input the mind, that which continuously processes the input, ceases. What’s left? Consciousness? Being itself? In deep sleep something similar happens. Note that on quiescence of the mind only the seeds of deeds remain. We know this because they reassert themselves on reengagement of the mind with the instruments of sensory input.
Yes, only the One, Brahman, is truly real; but creatures need a personal touch, thus Krsna, the Great Lord of the BG, and Jesus, “God”, for the Christians, and so forth. The MU calls devotional people simple minded. (But, according to MU III-17, “Advaita alone harmonizes all other doctrines and theories.”) – Advaita is non-duality. I am with those called simple minded, believing in devotion to the Lord, surrender to God. If deluded in that perhaps I do not fully realize that all it is is Brahman’s self seeking, self love, self realizing. I am Brahman. An ideation, the snake, so to speak, declaring it is the rope, a device by which, if you will, the divine creative spirit has self experience. I was taught this. But. Love of the Lord could be construed to mean Brahman loves Brahman. More ideation. I know. Some will look on this as nonsensical but there’s not much to be done about it but follow one’s own true nature. One with the Universal Truth I must go where it leads. I’m taught the best way to do that is simply to yield.
I said this was a rumination.
Surrender to God IS The Ultimate Reality. Who surrenders? To whom? Circular? Yes!!!
Always keep in mind Irwin Lieb’s teaching that there is only one individual and that is the entire cosmos. So consider that with the formula that on this life’s journey we are bound to arrive where we began and know the place for the first time. (Lieb was a teacher of mine and the sentiment about the journey is from T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding.)
Pristine Bliss therein abides for the taking!!
No! Brahman does not love Brahman. That implies duality. There is no loving, really, there is no Brahman. Its an imagination, ideation, a construct based on duality. If only Brahman is, then enough said. All else is futile and designed to feed the ego, the false sense of self.
Brahman goes Poof! As all illusions must; for, when attachment arises wisdom is shut out. It’s said, in that regard, that one must kill the Buddha to know the Buddha. (Desani taught this.) To kill the Buddha means to drop the attachment, the duality. One can never concede only the rope has any claim on existence, and that ephemeral at best. One might consider that to claim existence at all requires duality. Who says what exists? One might also claim that the very use of language, symbols, is to assume duality. So, the snake in the rope is the first illusion that points to a more fundamental illusion, the rope itself. As co-creators we are in the business of supplying rope.
I don’t know, understand, but how concluding the Ultimate Reality itself is an illusion. You know, part of this “tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Words fail this test, biggly.
Think about Zen and Archery. “It” shoots. The teacher declares on success of the student. The student at that moment no longer exists, as such. The shot falls like a leaf giving way to an accumulation of snow.
There is here a great truth but it is not amenable to discursive thinking.
Aum!
I should have just done the laundry as drink tea from this empty cup.
Explain that last line. A Chinese master was asked by what was likely an impertinent student once what to do after enlightenment. Appropriately, the teacher replied, “do the laundry”. That is, carry on as before. Nothing has really changed….except inwardly. Tea from an empty cup is a Zen Koan. Another would be “the sound of one hand clapping.” Koans are intended to help break beyond concepts, that is, as precusor to realization of the non-dual Ultimate Reality, to still the mind. When mind is stilled it falls away. Deep sleep is a precursor. When mind is stilled only illuminating consciousness remains. This is the aim of spiritual or meditative practices.
I’ll revisit this later. But here is a caveat. There’s no end of material easily had on the subject of the MU, and the Vedas, and the philosophical discussion proceeds ad infinitum. So? Well, give my words whatever gravity you will. It matters little. At least I’m not trying to sell. I’m not buying, either. Those that Sankara disparaged one should consider were contending for the attention, indeed, material support of those who dispensed favors to such people in those days. Nothing has changed in this regard. Egos were involved, too. People always want to sway others to their side; people want, seek, validation. Even the enlightened. Those most likely to have actualized their complete realization will probably be the most difficult to find, identify, however. This one, of course, has a reason to go this way which will remain hidden. I don’t do this for myself. Today I came here to revert this post to draft but changed my mind. For the time being. I’ve updated this so many times I’ve lost count. And will likely continue. I’ve added a follow up post and would add that all my work here is more or less on the same theme, some old, some new, all mixed up in one potpourri.