Hi Sundari,
I hope I am not disturbing you. I wrote a little tidbit after a short meditation that I did. I have been contemplating the teachings of Vedanta recently, and my life has truly been blessed by self-knowledge as of late. I just wanted to see if what I wrote makes much sense, or if there might be some ignorance in my words:
“I am not the doer, nor am I the experiencer, nor am I the sense of duality or doership. I am not the sense of observation, nor am I the sense of being observed. I am pure knowledge, non-objectifiable, and timeless. I am that which is neither personal nor impersonal.
Sundari: Excellent
Mike: I only know who I am because there are things to know. Because there are things to know, I know that I am the knower. I am pure existence, one without a second. I cannot be objectified, and yet I am everything that is.
Sundari: Incorrect. Knowing is not possible without the presence of Awareness, it is the knowing principle, but the Self does not need objects to know itself. If it did, there would be no escape from duality. Both known and unknown do not apply to the Self because it is not a knower. How can it be if there is only itself? What’s to know? The jiva is not a knower either because it is not conscious; it is an inert object. Yet with the light of Consciousness shining on the mind, knowing happens. Isvara is the only knower when Maya appears.
Here is how knowing works:
1. Pure Awareness does not know anything because it does not modify to knowledge/experience, and there is nothing for it to know because there is only itself.
2. When Maya appears, prakriti, the subtlest form of matter and what the creation is created from, appears ‘simultaneously’ in Maya, before the gunas emerge. Prakriti is reflected Awareness and also does not know anything because it is not modified by the gunas.
3. When the gunas arise, Isvara, pure Awareness operating Maya in the ‘role’ of the Creator, knows the world – the reflected medium – because Isvara is conscious. With the appearance of Maya there is something to be conscious of – an apparent creation, the reflected medium.
4. The reflected medium is the Field of Existence in which the jiva perceives and experiences. The Field and the Jiva seem conscious because the light of Consciousness shines on them. We can infer that the Field is intelligent and must have an intelligent creator because we know that we are conscious, and the Field is intelligently designed. Consciousness makes everything possible, everything depends on it, but it is unaffected by everything.
Mike: I am boundless nothingness. I am Awareness. I am not an object, yet all objects are known to me. I only know myself because there are things to know.
Sundari: Incorrect. See above. The Self is not boundless nothingness because it is not the absence of anything but the fullness of everything. ‘Nothingness’ is an object known to the Self. You are missing the understanding of Maya/Isvara and Jiva.
Mike: I cannot be spoken about, nor can I even be referred to or understood.
Sundari: If this is true, how would the teachings ever work to free the mind of ignorance? Vedanta uses the implied meaning of words very carefully in the teachings, unfolded by a qualified teacher, to remove ignorance from the mind. The words Vedanta uses are not experience, but identity-based. Sanskrit evolved for this purpose because of all languages on the planet, it is the least susceptible to ambiguity. Nonetheless, Sanskrit is not a necessary precondition for moksa. James has made Vedanta so much more accessible to the West because he is a master at using the correct terminology and language for Vedanta in English. It is true that all words are limited because they are all mithya. They are the finger pointing at the moon, they are not the moon. However, we need words to teach. It would be nice if Self-knowledge could be conveyed in silence, but unfortunately, it cannot. Silence is not opposed to ignorance and will not do one thing to remove it.
Mike: Knowledge of the Self is knowledge of the void. Knowledge of the Void is just knowledge.
Sundari: Incorrect, see above. The ‘void’ is an object known to the Self.
Mike: It is not that I depend upon objects, but I know myself in reference to objects because of their appearance and because of the fact that they are perceived by me.
Sundari: Incorrect, see above. You are confusing satya with mithya, the Self with the jiva. As stated above, the Self does not ‘know itself with reference to objects’ because there are no objects for the Self. All objects are only apparently real, meaning not always present and always changing. The Self is the only constant factor, present with or without objects. If what you said here was true, the Self would not be present if there are no objects. How can that be possible?
Mike: An experience of Me is an experience known to Me. I cannot be experienced.”
Sundari: Incorrect. You experience the reflection of the Self in a purified mind. Self-knowledge reveals that you do not need any special experience to experience the Self. You are always only ever experiencing the Self because reality is nondual so that is the only option.
Mike: Again, I hope I am not disturbing you. I am just interested in what a qualified Vedanta teacher such as yourself might say about what I have written. I don’t mean to be arrogant or egotistical, as I know what I wrote potentially sounds grandiose.
Sundari: No need to apologize Mike, this is all part of learning. Self-knowledge is very subtle, and I encourage you to persevere in your understanding of the identity between Isvara 1 (Pure Awareness), Isvara 2 (Pure Awareness plus Maya) and Jagat/Jiva. Have you read Inquiry Into Existence, followed by the Mandukya Karika by James? If not, I encourage you to do so.
Love, Sundari