Curtains Crystal Clear

These are my words to you as I close in on Parabrahman Nirguna. Listen closely and investigate. One of the Buddhist sects describes the Absolute as the "Clear Light," a very apt phrase for expressing the inexpressible. Take it further. Follow the clear light through a prism and marvel at the colors emergent. The body-mind through which you decode my words is this prism. All of the cosmos and everything known, including this body-mind-prism, are the colors. This is the first major shift in orientation that needs to happen before you open to Realization. You are not the physical senses and the intellect with which you identify. These are just functions of the prism, and the prism simply transmutes the clear light into colors, our world, our self-identified selves. This world is quite an entertainment with its ecstasies and miseries, a roller-coaster for most of us, and we are totally caught up in it. But despite the tumult of three score and ten, when you remove that prism, wha...

 A bit more about this "new sense" reference and how it's not new, but simply overlooked so subtly is it incorporated into our orientation. "I am" or the sense of being is and has always been incessant but under our radar, so to speak. Just as the "seeing" sense merges into what is seen, all of our senses merge invisibly into what is sensed. The sense of "being" is no different. Being has a "taste" every bit as distinct as salt or sugar, but it has no objective source like something salty or sweet. Being might be considered the first or primary sense before all others. For us, being is the first ripple emerging from the unmanifest, pure consciousness. It is "felt" as a singular clarity, omnipresent and all-pervading, peaceful, undisturbed. It is prior to the mental and bodily distortions of our normal mode of experience--and I am telling you it is beautiful and the journey of a lifetime to access and establish oneself in t...

 The dark depths of the ocean consist of the same clear water running through our fingers at its surface. It is one. The relationship is analogous to the Absolute or Unmanifest pervaded by consciousness. Forms "appear" and "disappear," bubbling up from the still, deep darkness then bursting at the surface. They were simply empty forms, the shape of water, all along. So, too, are we. This might sound cold, but that damn water is downright frigid.

"It [the Self] is immortal, unknowable, not inert. Without recourse to thought, understand and remain."--N.M. For those who confuse realization with some sort of zombie apocalypse state of mind, it is "not inert." In fact, pure consciousness is the most subtly plastic and lively principle the body-mind can experience on the way to unknowable immortality. How about "dynamic void," "inchoate openness," whatever; all attempts to verbalize are throwing illusory spaghetti at imaginary walls. For our sake the sages keep trying, though, bless their mythical hearts.

 Never forget, memory is transient and nothing's for certain, that's for sure--Macbeth Provided humanity survives to see and be this, the day will come when we look back at the age of the body-mind just as today we look back at the flat earth of antiquity. More than a few explorers have gone over the edge and returned to tell us of unimaginable worlds beyond our ken, but most folks nowadays attach to that good old better-safe-than-sorry-for-better-or-for-worse body-mind into which we are indoctrinated. It's a crying shame. 

 Pop culture "Advaita" such as "The Power of Now" is great as far as it goes. Be here, now, not lost in some past or future angst.  Great advice. A jnani would still consider this mental gymnastics though. The "place" in which a jnani abides precedes any taint of mental or sensory activity. He or she abides in the clear light, no-mind, pure consciousness, however you term it. Why, though? Why when this seems to go against the grain of the world and all we have been taught and experience? Well, if you love the hurly-burly roller-coaster we call life, and more importantly, if this life fulfills you and hopefully fosters peace and contentment and settles all questions--then God bless you, go forth and multiply, etc. But even with all these blessings, if something still seems missing, something nagging back there in a mist of restlessness and discontent--the old mote in the eye of fulfillment--then chances are you are subconsciously hearing the call of the inn...

 So what is the answer when Nisargadatta asks "Where were you 100 years ago?" "Don't know" is one true answer. But what is it that doesn't know? Another answer is provided in more depth by Vasistha: "Even as ocean exists in the past,  present and future as ocean and the same water temporarily assumes the form of a wave, all this is forever the cosmic being at all times."

 What happens when "I" die? The body-mind returns to the stew of elements and conditions from which it emerged. "I" abide ever and always, essence unchanged.  "Whatever changes is not your Self; this body is continuously changing.  It was not there, it appeared and it will disappear.  It is not you. Find out what you are." - N.M. This statement is not meant to be cryptic or opaque, but to be confirmed through direct experience of pure consciousness,  the "I am" prior to all concepts. Even the great, all-encompassing peace and clarity of this direct experience is merely a reflection through the body-mind of reality. That which we truly are is beyond "I am." It is eternal, infinite, singular and absolute, and words like these are merely pointers towards what is ultimately unqualified.  Ah, but the direct experience...not to be missed!

 How? What method or means of meditation opens me to this experience?  Vasistha answers: "His inner vision was directed neither inward or outward, neither above nor below, neither in substantially nor void. He was established in pure consciousness within himself. The unconditional mind is firm, and that in itself is meditation, freedom and peace eternal.  He experienced pure bliss within himself. " And that's the ticket! Meditation today is usually taught as sustained focus upon something physical or mental. Advaitan meditation focuses on the place prior to cognition, on "I am" alone. Once the fuse is lit the rest just happens automatically like ripening fruit or budding flowers. There is no "attainment" in this. It is simply opening up to what is there all along: the Self, pure and untainted freedom, bliss and peace eternal.  Now will someone please assassinate Trump and Putin so I can establish there? Whoops. It ain't easy. 

 Why? To what end do I spend my time in contemplation and meditation? "If you abide in your Self [pure consciousness] you are like space and there is no duality left. You are expansive and as subtle as the space, and that is liberation. You are not conditioned by any name or form." -- Vasistha Straight No Chaser  "That is known as the state of samadhi in which there is eternal satisfaction, clear perception of what is, egolessness, not being subject to the pairs or opposites, freedom from anxiety and from the wish to acquire and reject....Even if you engage yourself in the activities relating to your daily life and even if likes and dislikes arise in you, your inner being will never be impure, ...even as the eyes of a fish are not affected by seawater. " That's why, says Vasistha, and oh how I deeply relish Advaitan metaphors! Here's another: "If one's feet are covered with leather shoes, the entire world is covered with leather!" -- Vasistha S...

 Well, seein' as how I'm getting scheduled to have my tongue sliced and diced end of the month, again, this little Advaitan diary may end before long.  Therefore, dear reader, I want to leave a succinct bibliography should you decide to become a seeker: "I Am That" by Nisargadatta Maharaj  "Prior to Consciousness " by N.M. edited by Jean Dunn  "Seeds of Consciousness " by N.M. ed. J.D. "Consciousness and the Absolute " NM, JD "Crest Jewel of Discrimination " by Shankara  "Vasistha's Yoga" or an alternative to reading the tome, my carefully culled selections: "Vasistha Straight No Chaser" online  anything by Ramana Maharshi if you can deal with more old school language Godspeed!

 Why can't I describe this liberation or enlightenment experience more clearly? "Just as the sweetness of sugar is known only by direct experience, the nature of enlightenment is known only by direct experience....It is comparable in some respects to deep sleep: but it is truly incomparable, indescribable. " --                   Vasistha Straight No Chaser

 We are  in Virgin Gorda for two weeks and life is good.  Snorkeling in a fishbowl, gorging on lobster, living large.  This island is rife with giant boulders spat out  by Mother Nature from a volcano long ago.  Supreme beauty born of ultimate violence, the world of opposites in action.  Here it is again: I  begin each morning,  as I have for years, with a  selection from Vasistha's Yoga on the daily blog. Deep peace ensues.  Then I blow it all away by turning on the smartphone.  Lately I'm caught up in the holocaust visited upon Ukraine by the Russian Orcs. From here at a distance it is  David vs Goliath, with the slingshot lately hurling USA-labeled 177mm howitzer shells at those bastards. My heart is with them. So while Sue and I revel in paradise, the world continues its worldly activities pinballing between the poles of good and evil.  Nisargadatta calls it "the functioning." This goes on spontaneously without ef...

 Physics, mathematics, philosophy, the sciences, all consider themselves as cutting edge answers to the deepest questions--the how, what and why of everything. So it was when the earth was flat and the sun revolved around it.  Stars were peepholes leaking celestial light and plagues the wrath of God. It is just exactly so now. Our time is a flat earth modernity soon to succumb to unimaginable global realities. Ultimately salvation will not come from the mind of mankind, but from exploration of consciousness prior to mind. I only hope mankind survives long enough to realize this. Not looking too good these days.  Nevertheless, I can still remember my father stepping off a windowless part of our basement to be reshaped into a bomb shelter not long after the "Cuban missile crisis. " "Here's where we store the canned goods. Here's where you and your sisters sleep. What do you think, sport?" Ah, sweet memories of growing up. On the brighter side, I'm still he...

Well that lobster the other night was OK, aside from Sue vomiting it before we even  left  the  place, but today I had the one we traveled all this way for for lunch in Oil Nut Bay. OMG. Char-broiled, huge. OMG. The butter. OMG. On the boat that took us to the restaurant I had a revelation watching the churning, expanding wake behind us. I never could wrap my head around Finnegan's Wake in college, but I do remember that Joyce, as always, was using every aspect and derivative of every word he wrote.  Thus, "wake," both that of a boat and that of a funeral. That which is a furious churning of the sea, or perhaps an active tumultuous life such as my own, and the expanding, receding wave--the life form--dissolving back into that from which it came. This is the true meaning behind our ritual funeral wake. Truly there should be no mourning my own or any other's wake.  Death is still another aspect of the word, because to die is to shed the temporal form and to finall...

 I am the eternal Self that is omnipresent and subtle.  I have reached the state of reality which is unreflected in anything, which is beginningless and endless and which is utterly pure.  Whatever is and whatever is not, the mind and the inner reality are all the one infinite consciousness,  which is supreme peace beyond comprehension and by which all this is pervaded. --                             Vasistha Straight No Chaser 

I drive a car.  I sit in it, start the ignition, grab the wheel, put it in gear, press the accelerator or brake as needed, travel in it, turn right, turn left, feed it fuel when the tank is low, fix it when it breaks, maintain it preemptively, navigate a labyrinth of highways and byways, spend time and effort in using all of its inherent capabilities to attain a given destination--am I this car?  To say that I am is akin to identifying myself as my body, which, like my car, is simply an object.  However ingeniously they are conceptualized and assembled, both my car and my body are simply products born of and fueled by the elements. Yet we completely identify as our bodies and throughout our lives suffer the ramifications of this ignorance. Even those born into so-called handsome, healthy and strong bodies inevitably disintegrate into dust.  As the mechanic says in the movie Bonnie and Clyde, "there's dirt in the fuel line."  No escape.  Now think of the min...