WC X BXM x INDICH BK

 

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But other psychologists, theologians and philosophers have

rejected the attempted "objectification" of consciousness,

arguing instead that consciousness can neither be reduced to

matter nor fully understood by observation alone. And many

of the thinkers !who have voiced this view in the West have

drawn both in,spiration and confirmation from various Asian

theories of c,6nsciousness.

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It would not be an exaggeration to say that

one of these visions, the Vedanta or Uttara Mimiirhsa,2 has

succeeded in capturing the Indian intellectual and religious

imagination to such an extent that this vision has played a

predominant role in Indian thought since its initial systematic

exposition along non-dualistic or Advaitic lines by Satikara

(ca. 788-820).

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Indeed, it

was precisely in their claim that transcendental, non-dual consciousness

is the essence of both the subjective and objective

elements of our experience and of ultimate reality itself that

Sa:tikara, and the Advaitins following him, succeeded in articulating

the essence of the Indian understanding of both the

meaning of human life and the nature of the universe.

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What is the Advaitic vision of reality ? The heart of Advaitic

thinking can be summarized in three concise statements : Brahman

is non-dual and unchanging reality ; the world is illusion; man's

eternal Self (Atman) is not different from reality (Brahman

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Sai:lkara states that words used to define Brahman actually

function "to differentiate Brahman from other entities that possess

opposite qualities."4 Thus, it is only in order to distinguish

Brahman from the world, and to offer a description of man's

experience of reality, that Brahman is "said to be existence,

consciousness and bliss. In Brahman's essential nature, however,

there is no split, and no distinction.

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Advaitins treat the ignorance (avidya) of the identity of Self

and Brahman as a process which functions according to a mechanism

known as superimposition (adhyasa). In its most general

application, superimposition is defined by Sailkara as "the

apparent presentation to consciousness, in the form of remembrance,

of something previously observed in some other thing."2

In this form, the notion of superimposition is used by Advaitins

to explain the notion of error or falsity. For example, a rope,

which is immediately present to consciousness, appears to be a

snake because we superimpose the characteristics of snake, which

we remember from previous perceptions, on the rope. Following

this general paradigm, the Advaitin explains the appearance of

phenomenal reality or maya in epistemological terms as the mutual

superimposition of what does not belong to the Self (finitude,

change ) on the Self, and of that which belongs to the Self on the

not-Self.3 In other words, ignorance consists in the failure to

discriminate between the phenomenal world, including the

individual self, and Brahman, the eternally real, transcendental

ground of existence.

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Thus we read in

the Upani􀇭 ads that pure consciousness cannot be "known as an

object of mediate knowledge, yet it is known as involved in every

act of knowing.

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As Sailkara says, the Self and the not-Self "are so

opposed in nature to each other like light and darkness that they

can never be identical. "3

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In fact,

all Vedantins agree that the essence of Vedic wisdom can be

summarized by four great sayings (mahiiviikya), each of which

expresses the fundamental identification (tiidiitmya) of individual

consciousness with p ure consciousness and with reality. The

four statements are : Brahman is consciousness (prajfiiinam

Brahma) ; I am Brahman (aham Brahmiismi) ; Thou Art That

(tat tvam asi) ; and this Atman is Brahman (ayam .iflma Brahma).

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Advaitins thus use the

term Atman to refer to reality or consciousness immanent inthe

world, and the term Brahman to refer to consciousness in its

purely transcendental state, which is conceived as the utter perfection

of non-duality, free from the limitations (upiidhi) of Brahman

that bring about creation and dissolve in the highest realization.

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It's all a passing show.Just watch it.~ Anagarika Munindra-Ji

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How is it that eternal, unchanging Brahman is the ground of

impermanent, phenomenal appearance? What is the relationship

between Brahman and the world ? The Advaitic response

to these questions involves us in the introduction of the concept

of maya and the distinction between levels or degrees of reality.

Maya is said to be the power by which Brahman is concealed

and by which a distortion, in the form of the apparent world,

takes place. Advaitins personify Brahman along with its creative

power, maya, as Isvara, the Lord, whose joyous, sportive and

spontaneous activity accounts for the appearance of the phenomenal

world. ISvara is the efficient and material cause of maya

which, as the concealment and distortion of Brahman, is less

real than Brahman itself. Yet the created world, with its myriad

of practical effects, cannot be said to be unreal, i.e., that which

"can never be a content of experience. "2 Indeed, ISvara's

cosmic illusion certainly seems real enough to those who are

subject to it, and rightly so according to the Advaitic perspective,

since maya defines the limits within which our phenomenal

experience is confined. In this sense, maya is indescribable with

respect to reality or unreality (sadasadanirvacaniyam).

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If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. - Nelson Mandela

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"A rose is not its thorns, a peach is not its fuzz, and a human being is not his or her crankiness."

-- Lisa Kogan

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The highest value and ultimate end of life for the Advaitin is

called liberation (mokfa) and consists in higher knowledge (para

vidyii) i.e., in the knowledge of the identity of Self with Brahman

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Perhaps the most unique feature of the Advaitic treatment of

consciousness is the radical ontological distinction posited

between absolute or pure, universal consciousness (cit, siik􀓄i

caitanya) and phenomenal or modified consciousness (citta, vrtti

caitanya). For 8ankara, consciousness is awareness, intelligence

or knowledge that can be viewed as free or bound. While consciousness

as Brahman exists eternally, is identical with reality

itself and is conceived as pure knowledge, "a solid mass of

knowledge only,"2 it also persists in all phenomenal experience

as well, where it is called an enjoyer (bhoktr).3 Thus we read in

the Upani􀇭 ads that pure consciousness cannot be "known as an

object of mediate knowledge, yet it is known as involved in every

act of knowing."4 This radical ontological discontinuity should

come as no surprise at this point, since it corresponds to the

previously mentioned Advaitic dichotomies between absolute and

phenomenal reality, higher and lower knowledge, and the ultimate

value or freedom associated with knowledge and the

bondage of action

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FULLER "In fair weather prepare for foul."

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