[Continued from yesterday]
R.: If it [Atman] does not unite with Brahman then there's a contradiction of Infinite. Coz there will be two entities then.
F.: Would not the premise of that concept of “something uniting with Brahman” require separate, dual entities if “a” were to unite with “b”? If that which is called “floyd” leaves the living room and enters a bedroom to prepare to sleep, is “floyd” uniting with the bedroom, or is there simply a movement from the “living space” to the “sleep space”?
What happens in that example with the movement of a body parallels what happens with the movement of energy. Is the field of energy one field? Yes. Does the unmanifested energy merge into that field? Yes.
Can a parallel be drawn with ocean water rising, appearing to take the form of clouds, and then dropping rain back into that ocean? Yes. But does the unmanifested energy merge with an individualized, divine entity with attributes (your words having indicated that you take Brahman to be some personal “who” with an identifiable form)? No.
Furthermore, none of your beliefs regarding this subject have anything to do with what is “infinite,” much less with Truth. THAT Which Is and Shall Be is what it is, and its continuation is not dependent upon any "uniting" process. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so uniting or not uniting has no bearing at all on its continuation. Understand that all talk of Atman uniting with Brahman is what my teacher called "kindergarten level spirituality."
A child might say at the kindergarten level, “Look, the boiling water is turning into steam.”
Only the child with a limited understanding of the science behind what is being discussed would believe that (a) water is “created by some entity and is then sent by that entity from the sky” or that (b) the water that had been in the pan over the fire was “destroyed as a result of excessive boiling” or that (c) the water, however, "can be 'saved' by that which created it in the first place."
At the middle school level, the child might understand that what is happening is that, during the boiling process, “water molecules are gaining energy rapidly and the most energetic molecules are transitioning the liquid phase and entering into the gas phase.”
But at the senior level, that child should finally understand that H2O is H2O, that any supposed “difference” in “water” and “steam” is in appearance only, and that to consider “water” and “steam” as “two” (rather than as “not two”) is a misconception.
Furthermore, it is only those children programmed with religious or spiritual beliefs who could believe a story claiming that water has a soul and that the water will someday come to an end but that its soul will rise upward and re-gain its form and will be united (or re-united) with “The Great Water-Maker in the Sky,” will become the Water-Maker, and will exist for eternity in harmonious unity with all of the other quantities of water that it was with when manifested on earth.
Advaita provides a vehicle that can (1) move you beyond the lower and middle levels of discussions and misunderstanding and that can (2) lead to an understanding of what is really happening in this universe, of what is definitely not happening in this universe, and of how the totality functions overall.
R.: Suppose a child of age less than a year dies(body+mind), then will the child attain realization?
F.: The child will attain nothing, and the question shows how attached you are to body identification. There is no such thing as body-mind-personality continuity, Raja. If a child “dies,” as you say, that child no longer Is. There will be no continuation of that child in any way, shape, or form. (The ego hates to hear that pointer because the ego fears the reality behind that pointer.)
Therefore, once again, the relevant pointers are offered: post-manifestation there is no one that can know anything and pre-manifestation, there was no one who knew anything. Further, there was no one waiting to manifest in order to know something or learn something or realize something or fulfill something or give meaning to something or to achieve something that was a pre-ordained purpose. Finally, there is no “one” now. There is either a speck of pure consciousness that is witnessing accurately or there is a speck of warped or blocked consciousness that is being fooled, that is believing lies, and that is not perceiving accurately.
Elements and air and energy can “come together” as a temporary space, but all that “comes together” in the relative existence will eventually “come apart,” so no child or adult will retain its body and “mind” and personality forever.
The child in your scenario is a space or form of elements-cum-consciousness. How could dust that is molded into the shape of a pot “attain” anything once the pot is smashed, once the dust-as-pot no longer has any form, and once the dust is again in a dust phase instead of in a pot phase? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
For more information on books that address all of the seven levels of the “journey” offered via the Advaita Teachings or that discuss in detail each of the seven steps, visit:
http://floydhenderson.com/nothingness.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/consiousnessawareness.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/iamabsolute.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/whenidie.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/liberation.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/peaceofmind.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/spiritualsobriety.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/bullshit.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen1.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen2.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/spiritjourney.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/twelvestep.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/castinglight.htm
http://floydhenderson.com/boardofdirectors.htm
