FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Please see yesterday’s post for the e-mail which is being responded to today]
F.: Today, Vignesh, responses will continue to various portions of your e-mail:
V.: My concept of Brahman(God) has so far been like, It is the Ultimate spaceless-timeless Void which has Consciousness.
F.: Of course a concept of Brahman (God) is just an idea. All concepts are tools that can be employed along the "journey," but when Realization happens, no concepts exist. Thorns are used to remove thorns (concepts) and then tossed.
However, a caution is offered: recall from yesterday the direction offered by Maharaj. In order to complete the “journey” and thereby understand all which happened prior to consciousness, you must “follow the same path by which you came” (except in reverse order, of course).
The erroneous conclusions drawn around “Brahman (God)” and around the “spaceless-timeless Void” result from your effort to address an understanding which can only arrive at the "end" of the “journey” and never at the "beginning."
The “journey” requires that you start by focusing on the body-mind-personality construct with which you continue to identify, as revealed via your use of the words “my concept.” By the end of the “journey,” it can be understood that concepts are illusory and that no “my” (or “me”) exists.
In fact, none of the Teachings can be understood from the perspective of a body or a "mind." Before pursuing an understanding of timelessness and Brahman and the Void, you must answer the most basic questions: “Where were you in the days prior to conception?” and “If you were to lose both arms, both legs, and then undergo an organ transplant, would You not still be You? If so, then who is that You answering the question?”
Furthermore, a body-mind identification might claim that it “has” something, but there is no person (persona) that can “have” anything, including consciousness. The consciousness can seem to assume varied “forms” as it manifests via certain spaces, but nothing “has” consciousness. Similarly, a Void cannot “have” anything, even consciousness.
V.: The Void itself being aware nothing exists.
F.: A void cannot be aware of anything. It is void. However, this talk of the Void should cease for the present. Only the advanced seeker can understand that behind the consciousness is awareness and that beyond the awareness is that Void. For you to grasp now is this: Advaita teaches that beyond the manifestation, there is nothing that is aware of anything. There is no "Self" that knows itSelf. The Void preceded awareness but is not aware. Awareness is not even aware of awareness. Only when manifested can the consciousness be aware that it is.
V.: Now, Consciousness is what provides for the experience. Not the experience itself.
F.: Ultimately, there is no experiencer so there is no experience.
V.: SO Consciousness should make you aware that you exist. Same goes for Brhaman. COnsciousness makes It aware it exists.
F.: Again, your statement reveals that you are fixated in body-mind-personality identification, revealing your belief in subject-object duality. Advaita is about “not two,” about the unicity. The subject “Consciousness” does not make the object “you” aware of anything. There is no “you” to be aware. There is the consciousness, period, and—if re-purified—that consciousness will not make "you" aware that "you" exist but will make clear instead that "you" do not exist.
[Note: Regarding "no you": The use of the "I Am" mantra is a tool for those starting the "journey," an invitation to end the habit of following I am with any words, including "I am a man/woman," "I am spiritual," "I am a husband/wife," etc. Eventually, even the use of that tool will cease.]
Too, for the consciousness (subject) to be aware that Brahman (object) exists would also be duality. Is it not of interest—not to mention of seemingly limitless confusion—that Sankaracharya would speak of three characteristics of the Absolute and of five different phases of Brahman when the fact is that the Absolute is about Oneness, beyond both beingness and non-beingness?
[Is that too radical a consideration? The Teachings should simplify all, not complicate all. The Original Understanding was understood in the absence of holy men and holy books and discussions of multiplicities, especially when it is the unity beyond the seeming multiplicities that is to be realized.
Use this pointer from Maharaj to gain clarity around your spiritual beliefs: "Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud." If your spiritual beliefs remain, then your "journey" along the seven-step "path" will never even reach the fourth level.]
For now, focus only on this: You are neither the body nor the “mind.” That “You” which exists and that can be aware of existence is not “made aware of via consciousness” but is the Consciousness itself. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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