Chapter Two - Is Awareness The Absolute Reality?
Addresses the question of whether Awareness is the Absolute Reality and, regardless of the answer, whether there is anything that can be ‘known’ beyond this.
This is a question that is often considered and about which there are different views, but which is ultimately unanswerable. Anybody who claims to ‘know’ of a deeper level of the Absolute than Awareness is either following a belief or relying on an experience that underpins this ‘knowing’. As these merely consist of thoughts, mental images, or sensations (ephemeral objects) which appear in (are ‘seen by’) Awareness, the constant conscious subjective presence, then they cannot be beyond Awareness. For if they could be then, by definition, we could not ‘be aware’ of them. Just as we cannot see anything that is beyond our field of vision, in the same way we cannot be aware of anything that is beyond (the field of) Awareness.
These beliefs and experiences puts this kind of ‘knowing’ into the same category as that of Hare-Krishna devotees who claim that Krishna is beyond Brahman (Pure Awareness). Once again any kind of vision or experience of Krishna appears in Awareness itself, or they could not be aware of it! Thus neither Krishna nor That, which some purport to be beyond Awareness, are actually proved to be so, for all of the evidence that their devotees can muster is just a collection of ephemeral objects appearing in Awareness itself … and thus obviously not beyond it.
That is not to say that either of these beliefs is necessarily incorrect, but we can have no way of knowing, as we would have to be aware of any ‘way of knowing’ (to say that it is correct) thus this (way of knowing) would appear in Awareness and thus, once again, not be beyond it …
It is fairly obvious that if there was a deeper level of the Absolute than Awareness we would, and could only, be unaware of it. There are some who say that Nirvikalpa Samadhi is totally beyond and in this state one is conscious of nothing, but this is actually “sthitha samadhi when the aspirant totally loses outer consciousness: he remains in this state for a long time, it may be many days” which is actually no different from being unconscious (‘not aware of, and responding to, one’s environment’ OED) and thus of no great value. It may result in a feeling of great peace when one comes out of it, but so does deep sleep until the mind grabs on to ‘the story of me’ as soon as it reactivates. In fact Ramakrishna, the great Indian Saint of the late nineteenth century, found that state so unsatisfying that he would sometimes bang himself on the top of the head when he would feel it coming on! About this he said: ‘In [sthitha] samadhi one forgets the world. When the mind comes down a little I say to the Divine Mother “Mother please cure me of this”’
Actually Nirvikalpa Samadhi is defined in Ramakrishna-Vedanta Wordbook as:
'The supreme transcendental state of consciousness in which the spiritual aspirant becomes completely absorbed in Brahman so all sense of duality is obliterated '(p.52)
And further Brahman is defined in the Upanishads as:
the agent by which the mind thinks, eye sees, tongue speaks, ear hears and body breathes (Kena I v.5-9). He is also described as the ‘ear of the ear, eye of the eye, mind of the mind, word of the words and life of the life’ (Kena I v.2). Thus He is the ‘pure Awareness’ (Brihadaranyaka 4 v.7) in which all thought, life and sensation appears; and He is the ‘seer’ (Isha v.8) and ‘all knowing’ (Katha 2 v.18). He is also described as ‘one’ (Isha v.4), ‘radiant, everywhere, transcendent, indivisible, pure’ (v.8). As the cause, existence and dissolution of everything that exists, He is ‘immortal, eternal, immutable’ (Katha 2 v.18), ‘without beginning or end, beyond time and space’ (3 v.15), ‘infinite, imperishable and unborn’ (Mundaka II 1.1 & 1.2). Although He is ‘within all’ (Isha v.5) and ‘the light of man’ (Brihadaranyaka IV v.6) He is also ‘unseeable, ineffable and unknowable’ (Kena v.3). This is because He is ‘pure consciousness’ (Aitareya ch.3 v.1) and the ‘attributeless reality’ (Svetasvetara ch. 3 v.1). Thus all attributes appear in, exist in and disappear back into Brahman, but having no attributes He is unperceivable by the mind and the senses. Thus this ‘pure Awareness’, Brahman, is the substratum and essence of all of existence.
Therefore, according to the Upanishads, Brahman (The Absolute) is not beyond Awareness but is actually That. When one is totally identified with, and as, This then all sense of duality ceases and complete absorption in This is Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Beyond this state is what Sri Ramana Maharshi calls Sahaj Samadhi in which one is totally identified with (as) Awareness whilst living and operating in the manifest world.
To posit that there is a deeper level than This is to argue for an improvable premise as we have seen. Even to say ‘I intuit it’ falls foul of the fact that we have to be aware of this to say it, and thus it is not beyond Awareness. So any discussion of, or belief in, this level deeper than Awareness is useless, and if followed is only itself an activity in Awareness. Moreover, it tends to make the ‘believer’ arrogant in the belief that he/she is in a very ‘select group’. I recently had one of these tell me that I was only ‘scratching at the surface’ and that deeper ‘knowing’ was beyond me! If by this he means my mind is unable to ‘know’ anything beyond Awareness he’s absolutely correct, what he fails to take into account is that the same applies to his mind!
Whereas, to discover Awareness of Awareness, and more than that the fact that at the deeper level we are this Awareness is child’s play. When Awareness is investigated, honored, and identified with, this leads to peace, freedom, moksha, nirvana, call it what you will, which renders the search for any deeper level obsolete; especially as this is either unfounded or based on a belief, or experience, both of which are objects appearing in, and seen by Awareness itself.
The obvious fact is that we would and could, by definition, be unaware of any level deeper than Awareness itself, so any discussion about this is fruitless, and any conclusion about this is unknowable.
________________
Is Awareness the Absolute Reality?
Is Awareness the Absolute Reality?
Or is there something beyond This?
Is This the Ultimate Totality?
Possibly a level deeper there is
This question has long been pondered,
By mystics and philosophers contemplated,
Many have considered and wondered,
But no cogent position has been stated.
In fact no answer can be found,
For any that has been proposed,
By awareness it must be bound,
For only in that can it be showed.
Just as we cannot possibly see,
That which beyond our field of vision is,
So for awareness of anything to be,
The field (of awareness) it must not miss.
Consider a Krishna devotee,
Who says that He is the Absolute,
In awareness His vision he must see,
Only in that can he hear His flute.
Or as a worshipper of Christ ought,
Maintain that the Trinity is the Godhead,
In awareness experiences and this thought,
Must appear for this to be believed and said.
So nothing beyond Awareness can be known,
For all proposed must be found in This,
Beyond This nothing can be seen or shown,
Therefore, the question unanswerable is
COLIND DRAKE
CHAPTER TWO -- IS AWARENESS THE ABSOLUTE REALITY?
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CHAPTER TWO -- IS AWARENESS THE ABSOLUTE REALITY?
Post by Pravin Kumar » Sun Apr 08, 2018 10:24 am
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