Adi Shankara and his disciples: the Holy Tradition
Any vision or state that comes and goes, however exalted, is not the Self.
What becomes lost in taste, smell, sight, hearing, or touch, is not the Self.
Anything "more" beautiful, anything "most" beautiful, is not the Self. For whatever may be compared is not the Self.
What is known as an object of experience is not the Self. What is grasped as a concept, belief, or image in memory, is not the Self. What is imagined is not the Self. What is felt as emotion, mood, or even ecstasy, is not the Self.
What goes to sleep when the body sleeps, what dreams when the mind dreams, is not the Self. What says, "I slept, but now I am awake," is not the Self. For the Self never sleeps.
The sign of the Self is boundless Radiance, shining from inside out. It outshines every perception of the external world. Its splendor remains when the body sleeps. It watches dreams unfold, yet is not part of the dream. Self-effulgent awareness, even in the dark oblivion of dreamless slumber, it witnesses sleep.
The Self is formless. Because it is formless, it is unlimited. Because it is unlimited, it is ever-expanding. Because it is ever-expanding, it is bliss. Painful to call the Self "it," but how can the Self be called "he" or "she"? The Self is beyond gender.
We do not meditate to attain a vision, we meditate to transcend vision. Meditation is not about the seen, but the Seer.
I may have visions of the highest
lokas, the heaven worlds. I may sip
ayahuasca, seeing into the subtle properties of herbs and healing plants. Yet if my own awareness lacks Self-luminosity, these visions are just fantasy, hallucination, with no foundation, for their Seer is lost in the seen.
If, on the other hand, awareness is grounded in the unshakable yoga of
samadhi, unwavering pure consciousness, I could gaze at a potato, growing in the ruins of an urban lot, and there see infinite beauty, gain deepest wisdom, and behold the glorious architecture of the cosmic design.
Therefor we meditate not to see, but to establish the ground of the Seer. And when the Seer is seen, there is no object, no content, no vision. There is no "I," but only the blue sky of "Am," unlimited by the slightest boundary of thought. There is not even
ahamkara, the "I"-thought.
Through meditation, we realized the Seer, and through right action we establish the Seer permanently in the midst of sensory experience. We meditate
beyond the world, then act
in the world. This dynamic cycle of opposites, meditation and action, meditation and action, day after day, continues until the two are blended as one. Then we see action in silence, silence in action, and the Self irradiating the entire world with bliss.
In the Upanishads, the experience of the Seer-Self is called
turiya, the fourth state of consciousness, because it is distinct from waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. The waking world, the dream world, and the blackness of sleep arise and disappear, arise and disappear, super-imposed on the mirror of the Self, just as scenes in a movie are projected on a white screen, or as clouds move across an empty sky.
At first, our own Self-Radiance is unknown to us, buried beneath the experience of the senses and the dreams of the mind. Consciousness seems abstract, because it is not perceived by itself. The Upanishads define this condition as ignorance, when we identify not with awareness, but with the objects of awareness. Our sense of satisfaction and worthiness rises and falls with the changing perceptions of the world around us: the sky mistakes itself for a cloud.
But through the deepening practice of meditation, awareness
solidifies. Awareness itself becomes concrete as diamond, compared to which the external world is passing mist, a mirage that dances in still air.
The spiritual path has nothing to do with seeking higher worlds, planes or states of mystical rapture. The Self is not a plane or a state. Higher consciousness has no more solidity or permanence than the hallucination of a madman, or the drug trip from which a tripper must always come down.
Any consciousness that is "higher" or "lower" is not the Self.
Realize the Seer, and you will gracefully quit clinging to the seen, whether the seen is the material world or a vision of God. This is why, after the resurrection, Jesus told Mary Magdalene, "Do not cling to me."
When the Seer realizes the purity and solidity and eternity of her own Self, then "soul" and "god" are not different. How could there be two infinities?
Then there is nothing that need be seen, and nothing more to seek.
Liberated from the world, the Seer quite naturally begins to perceive the environment as her very own Self. This is real "environmentalism." The irony is, that to see the world as oneself, one first needs to realize one's Self as distinct from the world. Then, even the non-self begins dissolving into pure consciousness.
To see the environment as one's Self is not vanity, but intimacy. The bliss of the Self pervades the world, composes the world, vibrates as the world, yet there is nothing but the Self, just as the ocean's waves are nothing but the ocean.
To see the other as one's Self is love, the very fulfillment of all scripture (Mat. 22:39).
When this process of liberation has completely unfolded, and the Seer not only realizes the Self, but perceives all that is seen as the Self, then she understands that there was never actually anything from which to be liberated.
It was all theater, play,
lila-shakti: the power of consciousness delighting in consciousness. This entire fantastic universe is simply God, experiencing liberation of Self, again and again, through soul after soul, in perpetual celebration of the One who is awakening.
Nothing could be more real, as direct experience. Yet nothing could be more delusional than adopting this teaching as mere philosophy. All that is described here is founded on the direct experience of the transcendental deep meditation. To make a mere philosophy or belief of "non-dualism," without the direct experience, results in mere mood and mere words that disappear with sleep at night. The Radiance of the Self is either real or it isn't. You will know it is real when the Self is experienced, without any need to think about it, not only in waking but in the midst of dreams and deep sleep.
All glory to Guru Dev, whose grace bestows upon us the simple and graceful practice of meditation!
