REFLECTIONS on ADVAITA: PART 5– GUEST WRITER: LOUISE STERLING

The Emptiness of the Red Geranium

Here – sitting outside with the laptop – there is the view of a natural wilderness – the huge oak tree, fields of nasturtium leaves, geraniums with deep pink flowers, a white butterfly, the smell of jasmine on the creeper nearby, two white arum lilies, overhead the blue sky and drifting white clouds, the sounds of unseen birds, wasps building nests in the eaves, a dog soaking up the sun, the call of the Egyptian geese. How is it possible to describe the inexplicable emptiness of this amazing array? Everything is simply this unfathomable emptiness – ONE – but expressed with this veneer of solidity that appears different – the red geranium, the brown dog. Ha! The gaze can look for hours on this scene marveling at this dance of nothing showing itself in a thousand different ways. What Am I? The question is answered in everything – the NOTHING or the emptiness that is recognized points directly to this unfathomable mystery. I am THAT; I AM.

Everything happens naturally here. The roots of the oak tree soak up water and nutrients, which flows through the xylem and phloem to nourish leaves, and twigs and branches. The butterfly – once a caterpillar – emerged from a cocoon. The dog breathes, absorbing the oxygen naturally and effortlessly. Everything happens by itself. There is no creator micromanaging this scene – with Gant Charts scheduling the minute movements of nature. Here on the couch is this human body. Blood is pumped by the heart and circulates through the veins and the arteries, oxygen is breathed, digestion occurs, the bladder and colon fill and are emptied – such complex life processes. Yet – here too, everything happens by itself. There is no conscious effort. Everything is just as it is.

There is silence and stillness naturally present. Within this silence, birds occasionally chirp, a dog yelps, then again silence. Sound in silence. Leaves move imperceptibly in the breeze, an ant crawls up the wall – movement in stillness. … Emptiness in form … Being and non-being. What is this LOVE song that plays? Consciousness always in motion – always arising out of this Formless Unknowing. How to grasp what is Ungraspable in words? An orange butterfly lands on the dartboard. How extraordinary.

Perhaps you have heard the Advaitan teaching metaphor of building sandcastles in the sand? All around You see these amazing, complex structures – the elaborate sand castles all different. Then, in an instant, the sandcastles can be trampled underfoot, leaving only the most basic building ingredient – the sand. Nothing has been removed; nothing has been taken away. Sand is turned into intricate sculptures with form for a time, and then again returned to sand. There is no permanence in the structures themselves; the form is temporary, unstable. The sand however, always is.

If we take this teaching metaphor into the natural scene described above, the intricate forms of brown dog, white arum lilly, and orange butterfly are “sand sculptures”; natural elements combined in particular combinations to give rise to form for a while. Later, these natural elements will uncombine, the forms will disappear and the elements will return to the pool of energy to be recycled again … as stars or dust or dartboards or NOTHING. So simple. So natural.

The Advaitan understanding points to what is simple and natural. Identified with the elements and the energy, there is no need to find stability in form. What is this human form with consciousness? As extraordinary and insignificant as a nasturtium leaf, a white butterfly, a red geranium? So – the infinite variety can be enjoyed while it is understood that it is impermanent and shifting. The knowledge that everything manifest is THAT brings the relief of clear understanding. The view shifts from the puny and personal to the vast and eternal.
Eventually, even identification with the elements and the energy drops away. Everything arises from this Unknowable Emptiness – a magical fireworks display that briefly, temporarily illuminates the dark, silent night sky. Or, as Maharaj says:

“That in which consciousness happens, the universal consciousness or mind, we call the ether of consciousness. All the objects of consciousness form the universe. What is beyond both, supporting both, is the supreme state, a state of utter stillness and silence. Whoever goes there, disappears. It is unreachable by words, or mind. It is the nameless, contentless, effortless and spontaneous state, beyond being and non-being.” --Nisargadatta Maharaj

(For extended teaching on the cycling of energy, see: From the I to the Absolute.
For extended teaching on the nothingness, see: From the Absolute to the Nothingness.)

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Comments / clarifications may be sent to louise.advaita@gmail.com – a temporary email address available for the duration of these guest postings.