Chapter 12 (The Seekers Understanding of Abiding in Awareness): Verse 3
समाध्यासादिविक्षिप्तौ व्यवहारः समाधये ।
एवं विलोक्य नियममेवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥ १२-३॥
PURPORT:
It is only because of distraction caused
by the superimposition of ideas and ideals
within our mind that one needs to
consciously expend effort towards
concentrating the mind. Seeing this
to be a general rule and limitation,
thus, truly, do I abide in still tranquility.
TRANSLITERATION:
समाध्यासादिविक्षिप्तौ व्यवहारः समाधये ।
samādhyāsādivikṣiptau vyavahāraḥ samādhaye ।
एवम् विलोक्य नियमम् एवम् एव अहम् आस्थितः ॥ १२-३॥
evam vilokya niyamam evam eva aham āsthitaḥ ॥ 12-3॥
MEANING:
samādhyāsādivikṣiptau (समाध्यासादिविक्षिप्तौ) = in distraction caused by superimpostion etc*. (compound of samādhyāsā (समाध्यास) meaning 'superimposition' and adi (आदि) meaning 'and the rest/etcetera' and vikṣiptau (विक्षिप्तौ) meaning 'in distraction/in confusion' ) *note that the word 'etcetera' here refers to that mass of ideas and ideals that variously are connected with the ego, behavior, reciprocity and such things that have been superimposed upon our minds from culture that continue to distract and confound a seeker)
vyavahāraḥ (व्यवहारः) = activity
samādhaye (समाधये) = for concentration/for immersion।
evam (एवम्) = thus
vilokya (विलोक्य) = be seen/be noticed
niyamam (नियमम्) = rule/general limitation
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = indeed
aham (अहम्) = I
āsthitaḥ (आस्थितः) = abide/exist ॥ 12-3॥
COMMENT:
This verse has a beautiful turn of phrase in samādhyāsādivikṣiptau (समाध्यासादिविक्षिप्तौ) or the mental preoccupation and perplexity caused by the superimposition of ideas like body, ego, fear of death, wrath of supernatural forces etc. upon our ability to focus. Each of these impositions form a sheath covering our innate awareness that not only clouds out clarity, but also entangles the seeker within multiple overlays of thought fluctuations.
The seed of many of these fluctuations is the non-instinctual harboring within ourselves of the fear of death of the being itself. The fear itself is a manifestation of the mental recognition of our eventual passing on from this universe. This manifestation is a dualistic discernment where life is pitted against death and the denial of the latter is how the ego asserts its primacy via continued recurrence of thoughts pertaining to sustaining the former. The fixation with life and denial of any thought or aspect of our impending demise is how the ego aggregates and establishes itself.
In contrast to the sense of the specific form of awareness of impending demise unconsciously experienced by human sentients, it is doubtful that animals have the same sense of imminent trepidation about their own eventual death - even though it is clear that they do work and act against death and pain, they do not worry about the prospect of death. It is this aspect - the 'worry about the prospect of death' that gives life, sustenance and energy to the generated ego - the intimidating horror of death is not an aspect of the ego, but, is the ego itself.
The constructed ego created and nurtured out of the superimposition of worry about the prospect of death onto the imaginary self-model results in our identification with tokens, totems, titles, symbols, appellations and the eventual translation of these identities and identifications to possessions that engender attachment and possessiveness. These are appurtenances used by the ego to ward off (for lack of a better word) the 'death-dread'. The sense of self thus is always couched within an inexplicable sense of inadequacy manifested by thought fluctuations, constant speculation of what-if scenarios, a worry about the future and yearning for what has been perceived as missing in the past - leading to a lack of presence within the current moment in time. The fear cloaked within the egoic self-model thus operates within a strict dualism of 'itself' versus the 'other' and frames all world views and experiences in the context of this dualism.
Janaka here understands that affirming and professing life also affirms and welcomes death - the same way the foil to creation is destroying, arising is to ceasing, success to failure and life to death. They are part of the single seamless unity and to discriminate one against the other and affirm one while denying the other blinds us to the fundamental interdependence between any two perceived polarities. There cannot be creation without destruction, arising without ceasing and life without death.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
AVG 12.2
Chapter 12 (The Seekers Understanding of Abiding in Awareness): Verse 2
प्रीत्यभावेन शब्दादेरदृश्यत्वेन चात्मनः ।
विक्षेपैकाग्रहृदय एवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥ १२-२॥
PURPORT:
By cultivating complete detachment
towards all perceivable sense objects
in this phenomenal world and also by
understanding that the 'self' is not seen
as a perceived entity, I have my mind
and heart free of all extraneous sensory
distractions and am hence singly focused.
Thus, truly, do I abide in still tranquility.
TRANSLITERATION:
प्रीत्यभावेन शब्दादेः अदृश्यत्वेन च आत्मनः ।
prītyabhāvena śabdādeḥ adṛśyatvena ca ātmanaḥ ।
विक्षेपैकाग्रहृदयः एवम् एव अहम् आस्थितः ॥ १२-२॥
vikṣepaikāgrahṛdayaḥ evam eva aham āsthitaḥ ॥ 12-2॥
MEANING:
prītyabhāvena (प्रीत्यभावेन) = by having no attachment/not evincing a liking to (compound of prīty (प्रीत्य्) meaning 'liking/attachment' and abhāvena (अभावेन) meaning 'by not happening')
śabdādeḥ (शब्दादेः) = of sound etcetera (the ‘etcetera’ here refers to the implicit reference to all perceivable entities within the phenomenal world that one can discern with ones sensoria)
adṛśyatvena (अदृश्यत्वेन) = by there not being an object of perception (as seen or as visible; dṛśyatva (दृश्यत्व) is to be seen or be visible and adṛśyatvena (अदृश्यत्वेन) is to be not seen as a perceived object)
ca (च) = and
ātmanaḥ (आत्मनः) = of the self ।
vikṣepaikāgrahṛdayaḥ (विक्षेपैकाग्रहृदयः) = with the heart and the mind free of distraction and acutely focused (compound of vikṣepa (विक्षेप) meaning 'distraction/confusion/perplexity' and ekāgra (एकाग्र) meaning 'fixing ones attention upon one thing/single minded concentration' and hṛdayaḥ (हृदयः) meaning 'heart')
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = indeed
aham (अहम्) = I
āsthitaḥ (आस्थितः) = abide/exist ॥ 12-2॥
COMMENT:
Perception, discrimination, differentiation and such discretized discernments are borne of the mind and are mostly manifested within a state of relativity. A state of relativity where there is dependency, interconnectedness and relationship of external sense objects to the person perceiving the same.
A state where the seeker sees, feels, hears, tastes and smells entities and perceives them so based upon prior associations and proceeds to impose upon the object/aspect that has been thus perceived using the lens of such a prior association. While donning such a lens and navigating the world using such a lens is useful from a conventional standpoint, the seeker understands that the awareness that they seek is one whose nature, characteristic and feature should neither be anticipated, enumerated nor grasped by the faculties of the senses (which always carry the imprint of past conditioning).
Hence it can be understood that such a state of awareness cannot be directed towards nor derived from objects of sensory perception in any conventional sense of the meaning of the term (one needs to go beyond the idols that we have constructed and worshipped both physically and mentally). The absence of dependency, interconnectedness and relationship to the perceiver precipitates a sense of non-attachment for the objects that the senses perceive. Given that the state of awareness that one seeks cannot be found in attachment to such sense objects, Janaka states that their mind is free of all such distractions and the feeling of equipoise within is steady.
In effect, one surmises that the seeker needs to let go of words, designations and perceptions. From this voluntary letting go of such entities, detachment from meaning and dispassionate thinking follow. From detachment of meaning and thought, the only thing that remains will be the silence and emptiness within oneself. Let go of that concept also and the very thought associated with the word 'silence' and 'emptiness' will also disappear. The seeker thus starts to find themselves within.
प्रीत्यभावेन शब्दादेरदृश्यत्वेन चात्मनः ।
विक्षेपैकाग्रहृदय एवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥ १२-२॥
PURPORT:
By cultivating complete detachment
towards all perceivable sense objects
in this phenomenal world and also by
understanding that the 'self' is not seen
as a perceived entity, I have my mind
and heart free of all extraneous sensory
distractions and am hence singly focused.
Thus, truly, do I abide in still tranquility.
TRANSLITERATION:
प्रीत्यभावेन शब्दादेः अदृश्यत्वेन च आत्मनः ।
prītyabhāvena śabdādeḥ adṛśyatvena ca ātmanaḥ ।
विक्षेपैकाग्रहृदयः एवम् एव अहम् आस्थितः ॥ १२-२॥
vikṣepaikāgrahṛdayaḥ evam eva aham āsthitaḥ ॥ 12-2॥
MEANING:
prītyabhāvena (प्रीत्यभावेन) = by having no attachment/not evincing a liking to (compound of prīty (प्रीत्य्) meaning 'liking/attachment' and abhāvena (अभावेन) meaning 'by not happening')
śabdādeḥ (शब्दादेः) = of sound etcetera (the ‘etcetera’ here refers to the implicit reference to all perceivable entities within the phenomenal world that one can discern with ones sensoria)
adṛśyatvena (अदृश्यत्वेन) = by there not being an object of perception (as seen or as visible; dṛśyatva (दृश्यत्व) is to be seen or be visible and adṛśyatvena (अदृश्यत्वेन) is to be not seen as a perceived object)
ca (च) = and
ātmanaḥ (आत्मनः) = of the self ।
vikṣepaikāgrahṛdayaḥ (विक्षेपैकाग्रहृदयः) = with the heart and the mind free of distraction and acutely focused (compound of vikṣepa (विक्षेप) meaning 'distraction/confusion/perplexity' and ekāgra (एकाग्र) meaning 'fixing ones attention upon one thing/single minded concentration' and hṛdayaḥ (हृदयः) meaning 'heart')
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = indeed
aham (अहम्) = I
āsthitaḥ (आस्थितः) = abide/exist ॥ 12-2॥
COMMENT:
Perception, discrimination, differentiation and such discretized discernments are borne of the mind and are mostly manifested within a state of relativity. A state of relativity where there is dependency, interconnectedness and relationship of external sense objects to the person perceiving the same.
A state where the seeker sees, feels, hears, tastes and smells entities and perceives them so based upon prior associations and proceeds to impose upon the object/aspect that has been thus perceived using the lens of such a prior association. While donning such a lens and navigating the world using such a lens is useful from a conventional standpoint, the seeker understands that the awareness that they seek is one whose nature, characteristic and feature should neither be anticipated, enumerated nor grasped by the faculties of the senses (which always carry the imprint of past conditioning).
Hence it can be understood that such a state of awareness cannot be directed towards nor derived from objects of sensory perception in any conventional sense of the meaning of the term (one needs to go beyond the idols that we have constructed and worshipped both physically and mentally). The absence of dependency, interconnectedness and relationship to the perceiver precipitates a sense of non-attachment for the objects that the senses perceive. Given that the state of awareness that one seeks cannot be found in attachment to such sense objects, Janaka states that their mind is free of all such distractions and the feeling of equipoise within is steady.
In effect, one surmises that the seeker needs to let go of words, designations and perceptions. From this voluntary letting go of such entities, detachment from meaning and dispassionate thinking follow. From detachment of meaning and thought, the only thing that remains will be the silence and emptiness within oneself. Let go of that concept also and the very thought associated with the word 'silence' and 'emptiness' will also disappear. The seeker thus starts to find themselves within.
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
AVG 12.1
Chapter 12 (The Seekers Understanding of Abiding in Awareness): Verse 1
जनक उवाच ॥
कायकृत्यासहः पूर्वं ततो वाग्विस्तरासहः ।
अथ चिन्तासहस्तस्मादेवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥ १२-१॥
PURPORT:
Janaka said:
First I became detached from physical
activities of the conditioned world; then
I became detached of discursive and
rambling speech; and then, I became
detached from thought fluctuations.
Thus, truly, do I abide in still tranquility.
TRANSLITERATION:
जनक उवाच ॥
janaka uvāca ॥
कायकृत्यासहः पूर्वम् ततः वाग्विस्तरासहः ।
kāyakṛtyāsahaḥ pūrvam tataḥ vāgvistarāsahaḥ ।
अथ चिन्तासहः तस्मात् एवम् एव अहम् आस्थितः ॥ १२-१॥
atha cintāsahaḥ tasmāt evam eva aham āsthitaḥ ॥ 12-1॥
MEANING:
janaka (जनक) = Janaka
uvāca (उवाच) = said ॥
kāyakṛtyāsahaḥ (कायकृत्यासहः) = detached from physical action/activities (compound of kāya (काय) meaning 'related to corporeal body' and kṛtyā (कृत्या) meaning 'action' and asahaḥ (असहः) meaning 'intolerant - but here taken to mean as detached'). Detached as in the mind having choicelessly turned away from action, activities, forms, names and other designations of the conditioned phenomenal world.
pūrvam (पूर्वम्) = at first
tataḥ (ततः) = then
vāgvistarāsahaḥ (वाग्विस्तरासहः) = detached of discursive and rambling dialogue/speech (compound of vāg (वाग्) meaning 'dialogue/speech' and vistarā (विस्तरा) meaning 'discursive and rambling' and asahaḥ (असहः) meaning 'intolerant - again taken to mean as detached')।
atha (अथ) = then
cintāsahaḥ (चिन्तासहः) = detached of thought fluctuations (compound of cintāsahaḥ (चिन्तासहः) meaning '' and (असहः) meaning 'intolerant - but, here again taken to mean as choicelessly detached')
tasmāt (तस्मात्) = from that
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = indeed
aham (अहम्) = I
āsthitaḥ (आस्थितः) = abide/exist ॥ 12-1॥
COMMENT:
This chapter is a meditation by Janaka on the process and the steps by which they slowly divest themselves of the various swaddlings that seem to envelop their minds and arrive at the sense of awareness that lies within. One understands that in the search for awareness and the tranquility offered by truth, one has to start with themselves - what they really and truly are. In this sense, the awareness that we sense that we will ultimately experience takes a form of timelessness (where the perceptual quality of time has been extinguished) and formlessness (where again, the perceptual sense of shape and form and definition disappear) combined with a state of flow that can only be described as being one with all material aspects of the universe.
Janaka talks about identifications and superpositions in this chapter; where the seeker within each one of ourselves will slowly understand that stilling the gross actions of our bodies is the first step towards the realization of this awareness. The strength that one gradually develops to not only look at those actions in a dispassionate manner, but also not to overly identify oneself with those actions and not overtly superimpose biases, fears, concepts and dogma onto our gross bodily actions is paramount.
In this sense, practicing the observance and witnessing of the functioning of one’s body and watching the beautiful flow of events that happen as we go through the process of living - the slow rise and fall of our breathing, the way the air fills up within our lungs, closing one’s eyes and sensing that deepest shade of red when sunbeams filter through the thin membranes of our eyelids, the horripilation that one senses on touching cold water, the feel of moss on the underside of one’s foot when one walks out on a cold winter morning and many many more such palpable ones are discernable physical sensations that are wonderfully direct examples of our bodies working within its homeostatic imperative. The fact that we can mindfully observe such actions and gloriously revel in the understanding and appreciation of such actions is the first step that Janaka talks about here.
Witnessing this glory and understanding that you are not the doer of the action - the actions themselves are an autonomous response to one’s environment that our bodies are a part of is a key element of such seeking.
The attempt to mindfully unite our organic selves and our environmental interactions is considered important to appreciating our life processes. Our affect - that cauldron which comprises of our feelings, motives, emotions and driving incentives that autonomously proclaims itself within our organic selves were part of our ancient gut-based enteric nervous system (in fact, marine invertebrates that include starfish, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sand dollars, and crinoids still function using their gut-based brains) that then slowly evolved to form our brains. One is here reminded of that wisdom that accurately states that our bodies came first and then out of our bodies evolved our brains (and the associated feeling, emotions, thinking and discrimination thereof). The brains and thinking did not come first - this is very true when one considers these affective factors in light of our body's homeostatic obligations - and this is the reason why Janaka starts off with the body and understanding the affective states of the body and the mindfulness that accompanies when one has clarity of the same.
जनक उवाच ॥
कायकृत्यासहः पूर्वं ततो वाग्विस्तरासहः ।
अथ चिन्तासहस्तस्मादेवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥ १२-१॥
PURPORT:
Janaka said:
First I became detached from physical
activities of the conditioned world; then
I became detached of discursive and
rambling speech; and then, I became
detached from thought fluctuations.
Thus, truly, do I abide in still tranquility.
TRANSLITERATION:
जनक उवाच ॥
janaka uvāca ॥
कायकृत्यासहः पूर्वम् ततः वाग्विस्तरासहः ।
kāyakṛtyāsahaḥ pūrvam tataḥ vāgvistarāsahaḥ ।
अथ चिन्तासहः तस्मात् एवम् एव अहम् आस्थितः ॥ १२-१॥
atha cintāsahaḥ tasmāt evam eva aham āsthitaḥ ॥ 12-1॥
MEANING:
janaka (जनक) = Janaka
uvāca (उवाच) = said ॥
kāyakṛtyāsahaḥ (कायकृत्यासहः) = detached from physical action/activities (compound of kāya (काय) meaning 'related to corporeal body' and kṛtyā (कृत्या) meaning 'action' and asahaḥ (असहः) meaning 'intolerant - but here taken to mean as detached'). Detached as in the mind having choicelessly turned away from action, activities, forms, names and other designations of the conditioned phenomenal world.
pūrvam (पूर्वम्) = at first
tataḥ (ततः) = then
vāgvistarāsahaḥ (वाग्विस्तरासहः) = detached of discursive and rambling dialogue/speech (compound of vāg (वाग्) meaning 'dialogue/speech' and vistarā (विस्तरा) meaning 'discursive and rambling' and asahaḥ (असहः) meaning 'intolerant - again taken to mean as detached')।
atha (अथ) = then
cintāsahaḥ (चिन्तासहः) = detached of thought fluctuations (compound of cintāsahaḥ (चिन्तासहः) meaning '' and (असहः) meaning 'intolerant - but, here again taken to mean as choicelessly detached')
tasmāt (तस्मात्) = from that
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = indeed
aham (अहम्) = I
āsthitaḥ (आस्थितः) = abide/exist ॥ 12-1॥
COMMENT:
This chapter is a meditation by Janaka on the process and the steps by which they slowly divest themselves of the various swaddlings that seem to envelop their minds and arrive at the sense of awareness that lies within. One understands that in the search for awareness and the tranquility offered by truth, one has to start with themselves - what they really and truly are. In this sense, the awareness that we sense that we will ultimately experience takes a form of timelessness (where the perceptual quality of time has been extinguished) and formlessness (where again, the perceptual sense of shape and form and definition disappear) combined with a state of flow that can only be described as being one with all material aspects of the universe.
Janaka talks about identifications and superpositions in this chapter; where the seeker within each one of ourselves will slowly understand that stilling the gross actions of our bodies is the first step towards the realization of this awareness. The strength that one gradually develops to not only look at those actions in a dispassionate manner, but also not to overly identify oneself with those actions and not overtly superimpose biases, fears, concepts and dogma onto our gross bodily actions is paramount.
In this sense, practicing the observance and witnessing of the functioning of one’s body and watching the beautiful flow of events that happen as we go through the process of living - the slow rise and fall of our breathing, the way the air fills up within our lungs, closing one’s eyes and sensing that deepest shade of red when sunbeams filter through the thin membranes of our eyelids, the horripilation that one senses on touching cold water, the feel of moss on the underside of one’s foot when one walks out on a cold winter morning and many many more such palpable ones are discernable physical sensations that are wonderfully direct examples of our bodies working within its homeostatic imperative. The fact that we can mindfully observe such actions and gloriously revel in the understanding and appreciation of such actions is the first step that Janaka talks about here.
Witnessing this glory and understanding that you are not the doer of the action - the actions themselves are an autonomous response to one’s environment that our bodies are a part of is a key element of such seeking.
The attempt to mindfully unite our organic selves and our environmental interactions is considered important to appreciating our life processes. Our affect - that cauldron which comprises of our feelings, motives, emotions and driving incentives that autonomously proclaims itself within our organic selves were part of our ancient gut-based enteric nervous system (in fact, marine invertebrates that include starfish, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sand dollars, and crinoids still function using their gut-based brains) that then slowly evolved to form our brains. One is here reminded of that wisdom that accurately states that our bodies came first and then out of our bodies evolved our brains (and the associated feeling, emotions, thinking and discrimination thereof). The brains and thinking did not come first - this is very true when one considers these affective factors in light of our body's homeostatic obligations - and this is the reason why Janaka starts off with the body and understanding the affective states of the body and the mindfulness that accompanies when one has clarity of the same.
AVG 11.8
Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 8
नानाश्चर्यमिदं विश्वं न किञ्चिदिति निश्चयी ।
निर्वासनः स्फूर्तिमात्रो न किञ्चिदिव शाम्यति ॥ ११-८॥
PURPORT:
One who knows for certain that this
astonishingly diversified universe is not
anything that it is perceived to be realizes
independence from aspirations, yearnings
and conditioned expectations. Thus freed,
one finds a transcendent radiance whose
very nature is empty but nevertheless tranquil.
TRANSLITERATION:
नानाश्चर्यम् इदम् विश्वम् न किञ्चित् इति निश्चयी ।
nānāścaryam idam viśvam na kiñcit iti niścayī ।
निर्वासनः स्फूर्तिमात्रः न किञ्चित् इव शाम्यति ॥ ११-८॥
nirvāsanaḥ sphūrtimātraḥ na kiñcit iva śāmyati ॥ 11-8॥
MEANING:
nānāścaryam (नानाश्चर्यम्) = wonderfully diversified (compound of nānā (नाना) meaning 'manifold/diversified/multitudinous' and aścaryam (अश्चर्यम्) meaning 'wonderful/amazing')
idam (इदम्) = this
viśvam (विश्वम्) = universe
na (न) = not
kiñcit (किञ्चित्) = anything
iti (इति) = this
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who knows for certain ।
nirvāsanaḥ (निर्वासनः) = free from predilections
sphūrtimātraḥ (स्फूर्तिमात्रः) = just transcendent radiant awareness (compound of sphūrti (स्फूर्ति) meaning 'scintillating radiant (as in a radiant awareness)' and mātraḥ (मात्रः) meaning 'just/solely')
na (न) = not
kiñcit (किञ्चित्) = anything
iva (इव) = as if/seeming
śāmyati (शाम्यति) = finds peace ॥ 11-8॥
COMMENT:
The last verse of this chapter is a beautiful meditation in capping the overall themes of this chapter. One finds additional layers of meaning within the very last line of this verse where Ashtavakra veritably asks that the seeker "find that peace as if nothing in the world exists" when he mentions "na kiñcit iva śāmyati" (न किञ्चित् इव शाम्यति). On the face of it, such an existence 'as if nothing exists' can potentially be construed as being insipid, neutral and banal - where one is not engaging in and partaking of what the world and the universe at large has to offer. Interacting with the world from a standpoint of neutrality somehow can seem to negate the happiness and the joy that one would otherwise get from the world - it almost seems as if the lines exhort the seeker to lead an insipid life - however, a closer reading points one to the exact opposite direction.
The lines point the seeker towards a space where happiness and a sense of satisfaction can be truly felt - a space where the sense that things are lacking from ones life has been extinguished, a space where absolutely nothing whatsoever is lacking from ones existence. When you start to want for nothing, the conditioned mind is thrown off-balance and the mind cannot seem to focus; the first aspect in the mind being off-balance is our constant focus on a future state where things supposedly desired - as a result of conditioning - needs to be accomplished and planned for and accumulated, and the second aspect being a focus on prior failures or past successes that entangle the mind with thoughts of regret or delight as the case might be.
When the sense that nothing is lacking within oneself comes about, the mind becomes empty and a private stillness within oneself starts to build resonance. I use the word 'private' in a deliberate manner as each one of us have our own perception of that calm stillness that can bring about a total cessation to the fluctuations and entanglements that thought engenders within ourselves. In this sense, happiness is not about harboring positive states of mind or positive thinking or positivity in general. The nostrums of positivity that is often peddled in the hopes of self-realization miss the fact that for every positive aspect of our lives there is a corresponding negative aspect - in fact, the word positive cannot be connoted or explained without somehow referencing the underlying negative connotation. Ashtavakra tells us to get out of such polarities and such dualities that not only constrain our physical and emotional framework but also entangle our thoughts insofar as it relates to biases, notions, inclinations, preferences and prejudices. The key is to get to a place where there is absence of desire for entities that are extraneous to our own selves. The absence thereof builds into a state where one is more in tune with the present nature of things without focussing on a perceived future state nor lamenting over a misplaced past state. The state where the mind is not allowed to latch, cling or attach onto any specific entity, yet, enjoy that specific moment/entity for what that juncture/entity has to offer in the present - this can be applied to work, play, sleep or any aspect of our lives that we consciously engage in - the reality of deeply engaging in 'what-is' by dissolving the reality of 'who-is'; or, put another way, not appending implicit value judgements to 'what-is' by the dissolution of designated appellations like 'who-is' - this leads of fragmentation of the ego as well as a splintering of our desires and frustrations.
The radiant existence of little children is akin to this state (a state of pure blissful flow) where expectations of how the environment needs to be refashioned to suit the child's state of existence is minimal (to none) and the child is completely present within the current moment without any thoughts of steering a course for a future where the arc of events are forcibly bent to their will nor anguish in the past with respect to paths taken thus far where the the arc of the world did not seem to bend to their whim.
The saying that one can fully transform their own way of thinking in the short sojourn given to them on this planet and be able to discover freedom, stilling of the mind and experience lasting tranquility is true and can be accomplished. Of course, one must also understand that this can never be arrived at via accumulation of hours in self-help studies nor immersion within scriptural guidance. Those who seek the path of self-help are on the path of self-help for the foreseeable future and those who choose to follow the scriptures are on the path of enlightenment for the foreseeable future. They seem to unceasingly chase, but never fully seeming to arrive at awareness of the self in either case.
नानाश्चर्यमिदं विश्वं न किञ्चिदिति निश्चयी ।
निर्वासनः स्फूर्तिमात्रो न किञ्चिदिव शाम्यति ॥ ११-८॥
PURPORT:
One who knows for certain that this
astonishingly diversified universe is not
anything that it is perceived to be realizes
independence from aspirations, yearnings
and conditioned expectations. Thus freed,
one finds a transcendent radiance whose
very nature is empty but nevertheless tranquil.
TRANSLITERATION:
नानाश्चर्यम् इदम् विश्वम् न किञ्चित् इति निश्चयी ।
nānāścaryam idam viśvam na kiñcit iti niścayī ।
निर्वासनः स्फूर्तिमात्रः न किञ्चित् इव शाम्यति ॥ ११-८॥
nirvāsanaḥ sphūrtimātraḥ na kiñcit iva śāmyati ॥ 11-8॥
MEANING:
nānāścaryam (नानाश्चर्यम्) = wonderfully diversified (compound of nānā (नाना) meaning 'manifold/diversified/multitudinous' and aścaryam (अश्चर्यम्) meaning 'wonderful/amazing')
idam (इदम्) = this
viśvam (विश्वम्) = universe
na (न) = not
kiñcit (किञ्चित्) = anything
iti (इति) = this
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who knows for certain ।
nirvāsanaḥ (निर्वासनः) = free from predilections
sphūrtimātraḥ (स्फूर्तिमात्रः) = just transcendent radiant awareness (compound of sphūrti (स्फूर्ति) meaning 'scintillating radiant (as in a radiant awareness)' and mātraḥ (मात्रः) meaning 'just/solely')
na (न) = not
kiñcit (किञ्चित्) = anything
iva (इव) = as if/seeming
śāmyati (शाम्यति) = finds peace ॥ 11-8॥
COMMENT:
The last verse of this chapter is a beautiful meditation in capping the overall themes of this chapter. One finds additional layers of meaning within the very last line of this verse where Ashtavakra veritably asks that the seeker "find that peace as if nothing in the world exists" when he mentions "na kiñcit iva śāmyati" (न किञ्चित् इव शाम्यति). On the face of it, such an existence 'as if nothing exists' can potentially be construed as being insipid, neutral and banal - where one is not engaging in and partaking of what the world and the universe at large has to offer. Interacting with the world from a standpoint of neutrality somehow can seem to negate the happiness and the joy that one would otherwise get from the world - it almost seems as if the lines exhort the seeker to lead an insipid life - however, a closer reading points one to the exact opposite direction.
The lines point the seeker towards a space where happiness and a sense of satisfaction can be truly felt - a space where the sense that things are lacking from ones life has been extinguished, a space where absolutely nothing whatsoever is lacking from ones existence. When you start to want for nothing, the conditioned mind is thrown off-balance and the mind cannot seem to focus; the first aspect in the mind being off-balance is our constant focus on a future state where things supposedly desired - as a result of conditioning - needs to be accomplished and planned for and accumulated, and the second aspect being a focus on prior failures or past successes that entangle the mind with thoughts of regret or delight as the case might be.
When the sense that nothing is lacking within oneself comes about, the mind becomes empty and a private stillness within oneself starts to build resonance. I use the word 'private' in a deliberate manner as each one of us have our own perception of that calm stillness that can bring about a total cessation to the fluctuations and entanglements that thought engenders within ourselves. In this sense, happiness is not about harboring positive states of mind or positive thinking or positivity in general. The nostrums of positivity that is often peddled in the hopes of self-realization miss the fact that for every positive aspect of our lives there is a corresponding negative aspect - in fact, the word positive cannot be connoted or explained without somehow referencing the underlying negative connotation. Ashtavakra tells us to get out of such polarities and such dualities that not only constrain our physical and emotional framework but also entangle our thoughts insofar as it relates to biases, notions, inclinations, preferences and prejudices. The key is to get to a place where there is absence of desire for entities that are extraneous to our own selves. The absence thereof builds into a state where one is more in tune with the present nature of things without focussing on a perceived future state nor lamenting over a misplaced past state. The state where the mind is not allowed to latch, cling or attach onto any specific entity, yet, enjoy that specific moment/entity for what that juncture/entity has to offer in the present - this can be applied to work, play, sleep or any aspect of our lives that we consciously engage in - the reality of deeply engaging in 'what-is' by dissolving the reality of 'who-is'; or, put another way, not appending implicit value judgements to 'what-is' by the dissolution of designated appellations like 'who-is' - this leads of fragmentation of the ego as well as a splintering of our desires and frustrations.
The radiant existence of little children is akin to this state (a state of pure blissful flow) where expectations of how the environment needs to be refashioned to suit the child's state of existence is minimal (to none) and the child is completely present within the current moment without any thoughts of steering a course for a future where the arc of events are forcibly bent to their will nor anguish in the past with respect to paths taken thus far where the the arc of the world did not seem to bend to their whim.
The saying that one can fully transform their own way of thinking in the short sojourn given to them on this planet and be able to discover freedom, stilling of the mind and experience lasting tranquility is true and can be accomplished. Of course, one must also understand that this can never be arrived at via accumulation of hours in self-help studies nor immersion within scriptural guidance. Those who seek the path of self-help are on the path of self-help for the foreseeable future and those who choose to follow the scriptures are on the path of enlightenment for the foreseeable future. They seem to unceasingly chase, but never fully seeming to arrive at awareness of the self in either case.
AVG 11.7
Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 7
आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तमहमेवेति निश्चयी ।
निर्विकल्पः शुचिः शान्तः प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः ॥ ११-७॥
PURPORT:
It is my perception alone creates everything
from manifest reality down to the tiniest
tuft of grass - one who knows this for
certain is released of all the ponderous
conflicts of conditioned thought and is
lucid and tranquil; they thus turn away
from what is attained and not attained.
TRANSLITERATION:
आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तम् अहम् एव इति निश्चयी ।
ābrahmastambaparyantam aham eva iti niścayī ।
निर्विकल्पः शुचिः शान्तः प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः ॥ ११-७॥
nirvikalpaḥ śuciḥ śāntaḥ prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ ॥ 11-7॥
MEANING:
ābrahmastambaparyantam (आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तम्) = from manifest reality down to a tiny tuft of grass (see verse 2.11 and 1.20 for relevant brief commentary on the designation brahma - here taken to mean as 'manifest reality')
aham (अहम्) = I
eva (एव) = truly
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who knows for certain ।
nirvikalpaḥ (निर्विकल्पः) = free from ponderous conflicts and thoughts
śuciḥ (शुचिः) = pure, lucid
śāntaḥ (शान्तः) = peaceful/tranquil
prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ (प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः) = turned away from what is accomplished and what is unaccomplished (compound of prāpta (प्राप्त) meaning 'accomplished/attained' and aprāpta (अप्राप्त) meaning 'unaccomplished/unattained' and vinirvṛtaḥ (विनिर्वृतः) meaning 'turns away from') ॥ 11-7॥
COMMENT:
The sentiment that bubbles to the surface in this verse is inherent within the phrase used by Ashtavakra in the last line - prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ (प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः) - or to free oneself of all ideas of attainment and non-attainment. Most seekers live their lives in a state of expectation - an expectation that happiness and satisfaction will come as soon as they attain whatever it is the next thing that they have mentally prepared themselves for 'attainment'. Most seekers seem to live within this state of expectation and attempt to manage and partition their activities and life in general in various way in order that they may attain this vaunted state of satisfaction and happiness. Some try to superimpose an imagined state of happiness upon whatever turmoil they imagine within their minds, others turn to extraneous contrivances and accessories in the hopes that an expedient arrangement of such adornments will give them a measure of peace (little realizing that all such superimpositions and makeshift stratagems are akin to short-lived discrete binary fluctuations whose value rises to a higher level for short intervals only to fall back to the default mode once the interval passes). Seekers try and extend either the interval or the height of attainment not understanding that the nature of attainment and the resultant measure of happiness gained itself is ephemeral.
The provenance of such searching is the assumption that the seekers internal state of happiness or satisfaction is impelled and motivated by the circumstances that the seeker is subject to as a result of external forces. The implicit acceptance of such an assumption becomes a self-fulfilling mindset whose effect is to propel the seeker in the prevailing direction of the external force which by nature is random and whimsical. Owing to the random nature of the forces, there are instances where the seekers desires alongside the chanciness of the world blithely meets and happiness results - albeit fleetingly - and there are other times where the seekers motivations are at odds with the world and suffering results. In many cases, the seekers tries to control the outcomes of the latter and tries to prolong the results of the former - in all cases ultimately unsuccessfully; as the nature of both are fleeting and impermanent.
Clarity results only when one starts to become emotionally impervious to the fluctuations that happen around them - an internal acclimatization where the equanimity flows when one has understood that their prior beliefs and conditioning no longer drive their outlook, mindset and emotional states. This only happens as a result of a meticulous examination of our internal states that begin with our thoughts and end with our thoughts. Examining each thought, its origins, its motivations, its velocity of propagation and its direction allows for one to understand the root conditioning that must have given rise to the particular point of view implicit within the thought. Reorienting and overriding our natural defaults that ride implicit within our thoughts (that have been nurtured through years of conditioning) can take various forms, but fundamental to such reorienting is the understanding that entities and things by their very natures are impermanent and will change, the outlook and the mindset that we bring to bear upon a situation is in reality our own perspective colored and channeled by our past inculcation of culture and lastly the understanding that nothing whatsoever displays a foundational footing that implicates an undying, eternal essence. It can thus be inferred that the only thing that prevents a seeker from seeing that innate sense of awareness is the attachment towards and a hankering for an 'enlightened self' rather than 'selfless enlightenment'.
आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तमहमेवेति निश्चयी ।
निर्विकल्पः शुचिः शान्तः प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः ॥ ११-७॥
PURPORT:
It is my perception alone creates everything
from manifest reality down to the tiniest
tuft of grass - one who knows this for
certain is released of all the ponderous
conflicts of conditioned thought and is
lucid and tranquil; they thus turn away
from what is attained and not attained.
TRANSLITERATION:
आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तम् अहम् एव इति निश्चयी ।
ābrahmastambaparyantam aham eva iti niścayī ।
निर्विकल्पः शुचिः शान्तः प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः ॥ ११-७॥
nirvikalpaḥ śuciḥ śāntaḥ prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ ॥ 11-7॥
MEANING:
ābrahmastambaparyantam (आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तम्) = from manifest reality down to a tiny tuft of grass (see verse 2.11 and 1.20 for relevant brief commentary on the designation brahma - here taken to mean as 'manifest reality')
aham (अहम्) = I
eva (एव) = truly
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who knows for certain ।
nirvikalpaḥ (निर्विकल्पः) = free from ponderous conflicts and thoughts
śuciḥ (शुचिः) = pure, lucid
śāntaḥ (शान्तः) = peaceful/tranquil
prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ (प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः) = turned away from what is accomplished and what is unaccomplished (compound of prāpta (प्राप्त) meaning 'accomplished/attained' and aprāpta (अप्राप्त) meaning 'unaccomplished/unattained' and vinirvṛtaḥ (विनिर्वृतः) meaning 'turns away from') ॥ 11-7॥
COMMENT:
The sentiment that bubbles to the surface in this verse is inherent within the phrase used by Ashtavakra in the last line - prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ (प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः) - or to free oneself of all ideas of attainment and non-attainment. Most seekers live their lives in a state of expectation - an expectation that happiness and satisfaction will come as soon as they attain whatever it is the next thing that they have mentally prepared themselves for 'attainment'. Most seekers seem to live within this state of expectation and attempt to manage and partition their activities and life in general in various way in order that they may attain this vaunted state of satisfaction and happiness. Some try to superimpose an imagined state of happiness upon whatever turmoil they imagine within their minds, others turn to extraneous contrivances and accessories in the hopes that an expedient arrangement of such adornments will give them a measure of peace (little realizing that all such superimpositions and makeshift stratagems are akin to short-lived discrete binary fluctuations whose value rises to a higher level for short intervals only to fall back to the default mode once the interval passes). Seekers try and extend either the interval or the height of attainment not understanding that the nature of attainment and the resultant measure of happiness gained itself is ephemeral.
The provenance of such searching is the assumption that the seekers internal state of happiness or satisfaction is impelled and motivated by the circumstances that the seeker is subject to as a result of external forces. The implicit acceptance of such an assumption becomes a self-fulfilling mindset whose effect is to propel the seeker in the prevailing direction of the external force which by nature is random and whimsical. Owing to the random nature of the forces, there are instances where the seekers desires alongside the chanciness of the world blithely meets and happiness results - albeit fleetingly - and there are other times where the seekers motivations are at odds with the world and suffering results. In many cases, the seekers tries to control the outcomes of the latter and tries to prolong the results of the former - in all cases ultimately unsuccessfully; as the nature of both are fleeting and impermanent.
Clarity results only when one starts to become emotionally impervious to the fluctuations that happen around them - an internal acclimatization where the equanimity flows when one has understood that their prior beliefs and conditioning no longer drive their outlook, mindset and emotional states. This only happens as a result of a meticulous examination of our internal states that begin with our thoughts and end with our thoughts. Examining each thought, its origins, its motivations, its velocity of propagation and its direction allows for one to understand the root conditioning that must have given rise to the particular point of view implicit within the thought. Reorienting and overriding our natural defaults that ride implicit within our thoughts (that have been nurtured through years of conditioning) can take various forms, but fundamental to such reorienting is the understanding that entities and things by their very natures are impermanent and will change, the outlook and the mindset that we bring to bear upon a situation is in reality our own perspective colored and channeled by our past inculcation of culture and lastly the understanding that nothing whatsoever displays a foundational footing that implicates an undying, eternal essence. It can thus be inferred that the only thing that prevents a seeker from seeing that innate sense of awareness is the attachment towards and a hankering for an 'enlightened self' rather than 'selfless enlightenment'.
AVG 11.6
Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 6
नाहं देहो न मे देहो बोधोऽहमिति निश्चयी ।
कैवल्यं इव सम्प्राप्तो न स्मरत्यकृतं कृतम् ॥ ११-६॥
PURPORT:
I am not this body nor is this body of me.
I am pure awareness. One who is
established in this unperturbed state
does not rely on nor remember what has
been done nor brood over what has
been left undone. Predicated beyond such
action and inertia lies that state of beatitude.
TRANSLITERATION:
न अहम् देहः न मे देहः बोधः अहम् इति निश्चयी ।
na aham dehaḥ na me dehaḥ bodhaḥ aham iti niścayī ।
कैवल्यम् इव सम्प्राप्तः न स्मरति अकृतम् कृतम् ॥ ११-६॥
kaivalyam iva samprāptaḥ na smarati akṛtam kṛtam ॥ 11-6॥
MEANING:
na (न) = not
aham (अहम्) = I
dehaḥ (देहः) = body
na (न) = not
me (मे) = of me
dehaḥ (देहः) = body
bodhaḥ (बोधः) = awareness
aham (अहम्) = I
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
kaivalyam (कैवल्यम्) = beatitude/detachment from all worldly connected/state of pure awareness
iva (इव) = as if/like
samprāptaḥ (सम्प्राप्तः) = attained
na (न) = not
smarati (स्मरति) = remembers/recalls
akṛtam (अकृतम्) = what is not done
kṛtam (कृतम्) = what is done ॥ 11-6॥
COMMENT:
This verse rich with meaning and interpretation boils down to our sense of entangled identification with material entities that surround us - these entities can take the form of possessions that one has obsessively garnered or take the form of our own ideas of a concrete self that seems to abide and dictate our outlook. Ashtavakra mentions that those who have transcended this entanglement find a sense of repose within the awareness that rises innately.
Even in this seeking, it is understood that one need not hurry the course of getting there. As one gets there, one does not need to have a sense of apprehension about what comes ahead. Self awareness comes from introspection and all the quietude and sense of progress gained by constantly measuring progress is no progress at all. Things will come to be as the awareness slowly rises above the constant flurry of muddled thoughts that entangle the seekers mind. Being constantly aware of oneself and the moment within is all that is necessary for moving forward.
In the process of moving forward, one will encounter various waypoints along the journey. Some of these waypoints serve to remind while others serve to reverberate ancient truths that have stood the test of time. One of the waypoints that both reverberate as well as remind is the concept of forgiveness. You see, if one needs to get rid of the associations that bind, perceiving the sanity behind someone who is designated as 'separate or unlike or dissimilar' and an unconditional acceptance of the other is the only way to understand someone and the associations thereof. The designations and judgments we assign and label are ultimately self judgments because the true nature of our awareness as well as our minds is non-dual. True awareness tends to see anything and everything as an extension of itself - awareness. Therefore it is understood that the aspect of partial judgment or biased outlook that seekers tend to apply towards another sentient being is a biased and a partial judgment against oneself. Thus, in judging oneself, it is understood that one is indulging in an act that profoundly destroys any sense of thought-stillness cultivated hitherto, and (extending this line of thinking), our actions in judging and pigeon-holing others is also, likewise, an act that rebounds towards ourselves with equal momentum and profoundly destroys any our own sense of equanimity.
In that sense, perceiving someone as what they are not and perceiving their faults as real only destroys one's own sense of identity and equanimity. Bestowing onto oneself the liberty to see the universe around them as guiltless and to walk within that sense of equanimity that follows will allow for the realization to dawn on the seeker that biased judgments and conditioned choices performed consciously or unconsciously is an exercise in futility as one only manages to judge oneself in the exact same manner; on the flip side, with the awareness that comes with not judging anyone as mistaken or guilty or wayward, it becomes impossible to judge oneself.
In that sense, the model that we follow insofar as it comes to forgiveness not only works for the other, but also allows for your own stilling and freedom from the worrying illusion that you have been harmed. All of the worrying illusions (like the one mentioned above where one seems to think that they have been wronged and hence cannot seem to forgive) and other like “things" only exists within our minds. Concepts and designations and suppositions of this nature does not and cannot exist outside of the mind. This will beg the question that follows - whether there is an 'outside' of the mind. And my humble understanding would be that maybe there is something ‘outside’, but, one would first need to require for something ‘within the mind’ - a place where thoughts are unnecessarily generated for us to understand that there is an ‘out there’ - in other words, we create the realities for ourselves out there based upon what we perceive to be the reality.
नाहं देहो न मे देहो बोधोऽहमिति निश्चयी ।
कैवल्यं इव सम्प्राप्तो न स्मरत्यकृतं कृतम् ॥ ११-६॥
PURPORT:
I am not this body nor is this body of me.
I am pure awareness. One who is
established in this unperturbed state
does not rely on nor remember what has
been done nor brood over what has
been left undone. Predicated beyond such
action and inertia lies that state of beatitude.
TRANSLITERATION:
न अहम् देहः न मे देहः बोधः अहम् इति निश्चयी ।
na aham dehaḥ na me dehaḥ bodhaḥ aham iti niścayī ।
कैवल्यम् इव सम्प्राप्तः न स्मरति अकृतम् कृतम् ॥ ११-६॥
kaivalyam iva samprāptaḥ na smarati akṛtam kṛtam ॥ 11-6॥
MEANING:
na (न) = not
aham (अहम्) = I
dehaḥ (देहः) = body
na (न) = not
me (मे) = of me
dehaḥ (देहः) = body
bodhaḥ (बोधः) = awareness
aham (अहम्) = I
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
kaivalyam (कैवल्यम्) = beatitude/detachment from all worldly connected/state of pure awareness
iva (इव) = as if/like
samprāptaḥ (सम्प्राप्तः) = attained
na (न) = not
smarati (स्मरति) = remembers/recalls
akṛtam (अकृतम्) = what is not done
kṛtam (कृतम्) = what is done ॥ 11-6॥
COMMENT:
This verse rich with meaning and interpretation boils down to our sense of entangled identification with material entities that surround us - these entities can take the form of possessions that one has obsessively garnered or take the form of our own ideas of a concrete self that seems to abide and dictate our outlook. Ashtavakra mentions that those who have transcended this entanglement find a sense of repose within the awareness that rises innately.
Even in this seeking, it is understood that one need not hurry the course of getting there. As one gets there, one does not need to have a sense of apprehension about what comes ahead. Self awareness comes from introspection and all the quietude and sense of progress gained by constantly measuring progress is no progress at all. Things will come to be as the awareness slowly rises above the constant flurry of muddled thoughts that entangle the seekers mind. Being constantly aware of oneself and the moment within is all that is necessary for moving forward.
In the process of moving forward, one will encounter various waypoints along the journey. Some of these waypoints serve to remind while others serve to reverberate ancient truths that have stood the test of time. One of the waypoints that both reverberate as well as remind is the concept of forgiveness. You see, if one needs to get rid of the associations that bind, perceiving the sanity behind someone who is designated as 'separate or unlike or dissimilar' and an unconditional acceptance of the other is the only way to understand someone and the associations thereof. The designations and judgments we assign and label are ultimately self judgments because the true nature of our awareness as well as our minds is non-dual. True awareness tends to see anything and everything as an extension of itself - awareness. Therefore it is understood that the aspect of partial judgment or biased outlook that seekers tend to apply towards another sentient being is a biased and a partial judgment against oneself. Thus, in judging oneself, it is understood that one is indulging in an act that profoundly destroys any sense of thought-stillness cultivated hitherto, and (extending this line of thinking), our actions in judging and pigeon-holing others is also, likewise, an act that rebounds towards ourselves with equal momentum and profoundly destroys any our own sense of equanimity.
In that sense, perceiving someone as what they are not and perceiving their faults as real only destroys one's own sense of identity and equanimity. Bestowing onto oneself the liberty to see the universe around them as guiltless and to walk within that sense of equanimity that follows will allow for the realization to dawn on the seeker that biased judgments and conditioned choices performed consciously or unconsciously is an exercise in futility as one only manages to judge oneself in the exact same manner; on the flip side, with the awareness that comes with not judging anyone as mistaken or guilty or wayward, it becomes impossible to judge oneself.
In that sense, the model that we follow insofar as it comes to forgiveness not only works for the other, but also allows for your own stilling and freedom from the worrying illusion that you have been harmed. All of the worrying illusions (like the one mentioned above where one seems to think that they have been wronged and hence cannot seem to forgive) and other like “things" only exists within our minds. Concepts and designations and suppositions of this nature does not and cannot exist outside of the mind. This will beg the question that follows - whether there is an 'outside' of the mind. And my humble understanding would be that maybe there is something ‘outside’, but, one would first need to require for something ‘within the mind’ - a place where thoughts are unnecessarily generated for us to understand that there is an ‘out there’ - in other words, we create the realities for ourselves out there based upon what we perceive to be the reality.
AVG 11.5
Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 5
चिन्तया जायते दुःखं नान्यथेहेति निश्चयी ।
तया हीनः सुखी शान्तः सर्वत्र गलितस्पृहः ॥ ११-५॥
PURPORT:
The one who has realized that by thoughts
and worries alone is suffering and misery
perceived and manifested thus becomes free
from the same and attains a tranquil state
devoid of thoughts and worries; their minds
are extinguished of clinging and longing
and they are happy wherever they go.
TRANSLITERATION:
चिन्तया जायते दुःखम् न अन्यथा इह इति निश्चयी ।
cintayā jāyate duḥkham na anyathā iha iti niścayī ।
तया हीनः सुखी शान्तः सर्वत्र गलितस्पृहः ॥ ११-५॥
tayā hīnaḥ sukhī śāntaḥ sarvatra galitaspṛhaḥ ॥ 11-5॥
MEANING:
cintayā (चिन्तया) = by thoughts and by worried apprehension
jāyate (जायते) = is produced/is manifested
duḥkham (दुःखम्) = suffering
na (न) = not
anyathā (अन्यथा) = otherwise (other than by thoughts and worry, by nothing else is suffering produced)
iha (इह) = here
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
tayā (तया) = from that ('that' as in thoughts and worries)
hīnaḥ (हीनः) = vacant of/devoid (vacant of thoughts and worries)
sukhī (सुखी) = placid/happy
śāntaḥ (शान्तः) = tranquil
sarvatra (सर्वत्र) = everywhere
galitaspṛhaḥ (गलितस्पृहः) = rid of clinging and longing (compound of galita (गलित) meaning 'desires/longing/covetousness' and spṛhaḥ (स्पृहः) meaning 'waning/decayed/perished/rid of') ॥ 11-5॥
COMMENT:
In this verse, Ashtavakra points to the fact that the sense of elation and sorrow that cycle through our being, the alternating rhythms of arising and cessation that we witness around us are ultimately given solid footing within the thought fluctuations of the mind. In the context of this verse, the underlying message seems to be that the seeker strives to find ways to gradually tamp down the fluctuations within themselves at will. The erstwhile term for this from Zen practice is the 'monkey mind' - thoughts within us supposedly dancing and prancing and moving and stopping without apparent volition nor plan.
As children, we are born with a field of conscious bearing that is impressionably blank - a field of childish being that lives within the fullness offered by that very moment and participating and reaching to the environment in a manner that comes naturally from within the instinctual core. The process of growing up impinges upon the young-being all of the desires, likes, dislikes, concepts and other forms of choices that society consciously or unconsciously imparts upon the young. This impingement results in the non-volitional invoking of evolutionary processes within our brains that aid planning for the future based upon the past and current impressions on the child. The onset of planning for the future produces within the child a sense of identity and that identity 'wants' and 'identifies' with some of the choices presented and decision-making is initiated based upon past conditioning. In parallel, the identity is constantly soliciting acceptance and/or rejection of norms, values, ethics, practices and mores from the immediate environment to strengthen the ego and build the sense of I am 'this/that/or_other' and starts the dualistic process of separation where the 'I am this/I am that/I am some other' is apart from the 'this/that/the_other'.
The sense of otherness and planning and fostering of this aspect of separation results in the creation of various scenarios within their minds that plays out elaborate what/if options that lead the now mature seeker down multiple rabbit holes of fancy and fear. The seeker seems to constantly end up with an inner dialogue that starts with mild chatter, then morphs to form a conversation and, in some cases, becomes a cacophony of multiple points of view within their heads.
Ashtavakra cautions us of the depth of this particular rabbit hole and implies that the first step is in the seekers' understanding of this process of discursive thought that goes on within their minds and start to see the thoughts for what they are - random biologically generated fluctuations that are generated autonomously and mediated by conditioned feedback on a continual basis - and then begin the process of stilling them.
The natural flow of thoughts unimpeded has an evolutionary purpose insofar as it relates to long term planning, but understand that we are not performing planning for the long term every waking moment. Managing and actually starting to see and witness the flow of thoughts allows for the seeker to slowly understand that there is a space of stillness between two autonomous thoughts - what might seem like a continuous flow of thoughts starts to look like a discrete process of arising, enduring and cessation - thoughts also seem to follow the same patterns of rising and ceasing that all other natural phenomena within our natural worlds follow - we are no different. Looking for that discrete space of stillness between the ceasing of one and the arising of the next and building upon the space is what many seekers look to experience - this space of stillness or a state of flow where time comes to a standstill and 'you just are' can be characterized by many names - meditation, orgasm, peak states of physical activity - ultimately, all these states realize a condition where the sense of self and the sense of ego is diminished and muted - a space where there is peace within the present moment - just like the child that you began.
In retrospect, the objective of poems like Ashtavakra and the words herein (or spiritual traditions for that matter) are not to teach concepts nor designations nor doctrinal injunctions - the objective is for the seeking reader to reach a space where there is peace within. The use of elaborate classifications, designations, exalted rituals, elaborate liturgies and hierarchies ultimately are creations that culture devised whose aims must have been well meant at the time of their creation - aims whose explicit goals were for the seeker to reach that inner stillness and cultivate that sense of tranquility - of course, like all of our well meant creations, the spiritual traditions managed to adapt and envelop these to the very structure that they were trying to extinguish - the ego and the power structures and the patriarchs who guarded the same - Ashtavakra in this verse only asks us to remember these fundamental understandings that allow the seekers to get back to their basic roots.
चिन्तया जायते दुःखं नान्यथेहेति निश्चयी ।
तया हीनः सुखी शान्तः सर्वत्र गलितस्पृहः ॥ ११-५॥
PURPORT:
The one who has realized that by thoughts
and worries alone is suffering and misery
perceived and manifested thus becomes free
from the same and attains a tranquil state
devoid of thoughts and worries; their minds
are extinguished of clinging and longing
and they are happy wherever they go.
TRANSLITERATION:
चिन्तया जायते दुःखम् न अन्यथा इह इति निश्चयी ।
cintayā jāyate duḥkham na anyathā iha iti niścayī ।
तया हीनः सुखी शान्तः सर्वत्र गलितस्पृहः ॥ ११-५॥
tayā hīnaḥ sukhī śāntaḥ sarvatra galitaspṛhaḥ ॥ 11-5॥
MEANING:
cintayā (चिन्तया) = by thoughts and by worried apprehension
jāyate (जायते) = is produced/is manifested
duḥkham (दुःखम्) = suffering
na (न) = not
anyathā (अन्यथा) = otherwise (other than by thoughts and worry, by nothing else is suffering produced)
iha (इह) = here
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
tayā (तया) = from that ('that' as in thoughts and worries)
hīnaḥ (हीनः) = vacant of/devoid (vacant of thoughts and worries)
sukhī (सुखी) = placid/happy
śāntaḥ (शान्तः) = tranquil
sarvatra (सर्वत्र) = everywhere
galitaspṛhaḥ (गलितस्पृहः) = rid of clinging and longing (compound of galita (गलित) meaning 'desires/longing/covetousness' and spṛhaḥ (स्पृहः) meaning 'waning/decayed/perished/rid of') ॥ 11-5॥
COMMENT:
In this verse, Ashtavakra points to the fact that the sense of elation and sorrow that cycle through our being, the alternating rhythms of arising and cessation that we witness around us are ultimately given solid footing within the thought fluctuations of the mind. In the context of this verse, the underlying message seems to be that the seeker strives to find ways to gradually tamp down the fluctuations within themselves at will. The erstwhile term for this from Zen practice is the 'monkey mind' - thoughts within us supposedly dancing and prancing and moving and stopping without apparent volition nor plan.
As children, we are born with a field of conscious bearing that is impressionably blank - a field of childish being that lives within the fullness offered by that very moment and participating and reaching to the environment in a manner that comes naturally from within the instinctual core. The process of growing up impinges upon the young-being all of the desires, likes, dislikes, concepts and other forms of choices that society consciously or unconsciously imparts upon the young. This impingement results in the non-volitional invoking of evolutionary processes within our brains that aid planning for the future based upon the past and current impressions on the child. The onset of planning for the future produces within the child a sense of identity and that identity 'wants' and 'identifies' with some of the choices presented and decision-making is initiated based upon past conditioning. In parallel, the identity is constantly soliciting acceptance and/or rejection of norms, values, ethics, practices and mores from the immediate environment to strengthen the ego and build the sense of I am 'this/that/or_other' and starts the dualistic process of separation where the 'I am this/I am that/I am some other' is apart from the 'this/that/the_other'.
The sense of otherness and planning and fostering of this aspect of separation results in the creation of various scenarios within their minds that plays out elaborate what/if options that lead the now mature seeker down multiple rabbit holes of fancy and fear. The seeker seems to constantly end up with an inner dialogue that starts with mild chatter, then morphs to form a conversation and, in some cases, becomes a cacophony of multiple points of view within their heads.
Ashtavakra cautions us of the depth of this particular rabbit hole and implies that the first step is in the seekers' understanding of this process of discursive thought that goes on within their minds and start to see the thoughts for what they are - random biologically generated fluctuations that are generated autonomously and mediated by conditioned feedback on a continual basis - and then begin the process of stilling them.
The natural flow of thoughts unimpeded has an evolutionary purpose insofar as it relates to long term planning, but understand that we are not performing planning for the long term every waking moment. Managing and actually starting to see and witness the flow of thoughts allows for the seeker to slowly understand that there is a space of stillness between two autonomous thoughts - what might seem like a continuous flow of thoughts starts to look like a discrete process of arising, enduring and cessation - thoughts also seem to follow the same patterns of rising and ceasing that all other natural phenomena within our natural worlds follow - we are no different. Looking for that discrete space of stillness between the ceasing of one and the arising of the next and building upon the space is what many seekers look to experience - this space of stillness or a state of flow where time comes to a standstill and 'you just are' can be characterized by many names - meditation, orgasm, peak states of physical activity - ultimately, all these states realize a condition where the sense of self and the sense of ego is diminished and muted - a space where there is peace within the present moment - just like the child that you began.
In retrospect, the objective of poems like Ashtavakra and the words herein (or spiritual traditions for that matter) are not to teach concepts nor designations nor doctrinal injunctions - the objective is for the seeking reader to reach a space where there is peace within. The use of elaborate classifications, designations, exalted rituals, elaborate liturgies and hierarchies ultimately are creations that culture devised whose aims must have been well meant at the time of their creation - aims whose explicit goals were for the seeker to reach that inner stillness and cultivate that sense of tranquility - of course, like all of our well meant creations, the spiritual traditions managed to adapt and envelop these to the very structure that they were trying to extinguish - the ego and the power structures and the patriarchs who guarded the same - Ashtavakra in this verse only asks us to remember these fundamental understandings that allow the seekers to get back to their basic roots.
AVG 11.4
Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 4
सुखदुःखे जन्ममृत्यू दैवादेवेति निश्चयी ।
साध्यादर्शी निरायासः कुर्वन्नपि न लिप्यते ॥ ११-४॥
PURPORT:
Knowing with certainty that exhilaration
and despair, arising and cessation, all spring
from probabilistic scenarios, one comes to
the realization that it is not always possible
to achieve desired ends and outcomes; thus,
one becomes tranquil internally and is not
attached to ones actions even as
one performs them mindfully.
TRANSLITERATION:
सुखदुःखे जन्ममृत्यू दैवात् एव इति निश्चयी ।
sukhaduḥkhe janmamṛtyū daivāt eva iti niścayī ।
साध्यादर्शी निरायासः कुर्वन् अपि न लिप्यते ॥ ११-४॥
sādhyādarśī nirāyāsaḥ kurvan api na lipyate ॥ 11-4॥
MEANING:
sukhaduḥkhe (सुखदुःखे) = joyousness and heartache/happiness and misery
janmamṛtyū (जन्ममृत्यू) = birth and death
daivāt (दैवात्) = from circumstance/outcomes from probabilistic scenarios
eva (एव) = indeed
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
sādhyādarśī (साध्यादर्शी) = seeing that it is not possible to accomplish (compound of sādhya (साध्य) meaning 'achieve/accomplish/take care of' and adarśī (अदर्शी) meaning 'not seeing/not finding')
nirāyāsaḥ (निरायासः) = not liable to cause trouble or fatigue (to be tranquil intrinsically - in this case taken to mean that the one who understands that it is not possible to accomplish the desired plans becomes tranquil internally)
kurvan (कुर्वन्) = doing
api (अपि) = even
na (न) = not
lipyate (लिप्यते) = attached ॥ 11-4॥
COMMENT:
The message in this verse is similar to the overall message conveyed as part of the previous verse - in that, the preceptor utilizes different tools to ensure that the seeker starts to see the self-awareness inherent within the seeker. In order to convey to the seeker the ultimate untenability of all phenomenal experience that is dualistic in nature, teachers may use rhetorical devices like explaining that only innate awareness is the pure nature of non-duality while all of the phenomenal world experienced is hallucinatory - in that sense, nothing ever really comes into existence because other than self-awareness, nothing really exists.
On the other hand, other preceptors may grant that phenomenal experience that the seeker undergoes is a form of provisionally expedient reality that is conventionally real (because of the fact that such reality seems to be cognized by the seeker’s sensoria and thus mentally experienced). This conventionally experienced reality is the way that the seeker navigates the world until such time they see aspects of the non-dual self-awareness within themselves - after which they understand that what they have been experiencing as conventional reality does not have any inherent essence or foundational basis to the same and hence is empty of any enduring characterization.
In this sense, while one set of preceptors teach that the world is hallucinatory and hence illusory and self-awareness will clear the path forward, other preceptors lead us down the path of mentoring implying that self-awareness will show us the way forward accepting that the world is conventionally real but ultimately empty.
Whether one (like teachings of the former) emphasizes that the phenomenal experience is hallucinatory or one (teachings of the latter) emphasizes that only self-awareness is real, both sets of preceptors arrive at the same foundational conclusion - exposing the ultimate untenability of the phenomenally experienced viewpoint that we ordinarily interact with and thus gradually moving the seeker towards understanding and living within self-awareness and self-realization.
The crutches that the seeker relies on in the attainment of this path may involve adornments created from the familiar world of name-and-form that include conceptual designations like Brahman, atman, all-knowing-god, supreme-energy, divine-soul etcetera; it is understood that one may use these stepping stones as footholds as one makes the journey, but once the idea of self-realization has shown itself to the seeker (by the seekers own rigorous enquiry), these crutches and conceptual designations may not be needed (I say 'may not' as this is a choice left to the individual seeker and their own path to stillness).
Put another way, while personal predilections on the approach to realization may differ and the approach one takes may vary based upon each of our great spiritual traditions, the endpoint remains the same - living an examined life that is fundamentally choiceless as it pertains to the individuals outlook, being empathetic and understanding towards other sentient beings, staying compassionate towards nature that sustains the seeker and peaceful within the inherently tranquil self - a middle path of moderation that does not hew or lurch towards any extreme of temperament, behavior, outlook, doctrine or practice.
सुखदुःखे जन्ममृत्यू दैवादेवेति निश्चयी ।
साध्यादर्शी निरायासः कुर्वन्नपि न लिप्यते ॥ ११-४॥
PURPORT:
Knowing with certainty that exhilaration
and despair, arising and cessation, all spring
from probabilistic scenarios, one comes to
the realization that it is not always possible
to achieve desired ends and outcomes; thus,
one becomes tranquil internally and is not
attached to ones actions even as
one performs them mindfully.
TRANSLITERATION:
सुखदुःखे जन्ममृत्यू दैवात् एव इति निश्चयी ।
sukhaduḥkhe janmamṛtyū daivāt eva iti niścayī ।
साध्यादर्शी निरायासः कुर्वन् अपि न लिप्यते ॥ ११-४॥
sādhyādarśī nirāyāsaḥ kurvan api na lipyate ॥ 11-4॥
MEANING:
sukhaduḥkhe (सुखदुःखे) = joyousness and heartache/happiness and misery
janmamṛtyū (जन्ममृत्यू) = birth and death
daivāt (दैवात्) = from circumstance/outcomes from probabilistic scenarios
eva (एव) = indeed
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
sādhyādarśī (साध्यादर्शी) = seeing that it is not possible to accomplish (compound of sādhya (साध्य) meaning 'achieve/accomplish/take care of' and adarśī (अदर्शी) meaning 'not seeing/not finding')
nirāyāsaḥ (निरायासः) = not liable to cause trouble or fatigue (to be tranquil intrinsically - in this case taken to mean that the one who understands that it is not possible to accomplish the desired plans becomes tranquil internally)
kurvan (कुर्वन्) = doing
api (अपि) = even
na (न) = not
lipyate (लिप्यते) = attached ॥ 11-4॥
COMMENT:
The message in this verse is similar to the overall message conveyed as part of the previous verse - in that, the preceptor utilizes different tools to ensure that the seeker starts to see the self-awareness inherent within the seeker. In order to convey to the seeker the ultimate untenability of all phenomenal experience that is dualistic in nature, teachers may use rhetorical devices like explaining that only innate awareness is the pure nature of non-duality while all of the phenomenal world experienced is hallucinatory - in that sense, nothing ever really comes into existence because other than self-awareness, nothing really exists.
On the other hand, other preceptors may grant that phenomenal experience that the seeker undergoes is a form of provisionally expedient reality that is conventionally real (because of the fact that such reality seems to be cognized by the seeker’s sensoria and thus mentally experienced). This conventionally experienced reality is the way that the seeker navigates the world until such time they see aspects of the non-dual self-awareness within themselves - after which they understand that what they have been experiencing as conventional reality does not have any inherent essence or foundational basis to the same and hence is empty of any enduring characterization.
In this sense, while one set of preceptors teach that the world is hallucinatory and hence illusory and self-awareness will clear the path forward, other preceptors lead us down the path of mentoring implying that self-awareness will show us the way forward accepting that the world is conventionally real but ultimately empty.
Whether one (like teachings of the former) emphasizes that the phenomenal experience is hallucinatory or one (teachings of the latter) emphasizes that only self-awareness is real, both sets of preceptors arrive at the same foundational conclusion - exposing the ultimate untenability of the phenomenally experienced viewpoint that we ordinarily interact with and thus gradually moving the seeker towards understanding and living within self-awareness and self-realization.
The crutches that the seeker relies on in the attainment of this path may involve adornments created from the familiar world of name-and-form that include conceptual designations like Brahman, atman, all-knowing-god, supreme-energy, divine-soul etcetera; it is understood that one may use these stepping stones as footholds as one makes the journey, but once the idea of self-realization has shown itself to the seeker (by the seekers own rigorous enquiry), these crutches and conceptual designations may not be needed (I say 'may not' as this is a choice left to the individual seeker and their own path to stillness).
Put another way, while personal predilections on the approach to realization may differ and the approach one takes may vary based upon each of our great spiritual traditions, the endpoint remains the same - living an examined life that is fundamentally choiceless as it pertains to the individuals outlook, being empathetic and understanding towards other sentient beings, staying compassionate towards nature that sustains the seeker and peaceful within the inherently tranquil self - a middle path of moderation that does not hew or lurch towards any extreme of temperament, behavior, outlook, doctrine or practice.
AVG 11.3
Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 3
आपदः सम्पदः काले दैवादेवेति निश्चयी ।
तृप्तः स्वस्थेन्द्रियो नित्यं न वाञ्छति न शोचति ॥ ११-३॥
PURPORT:
Insightful in the understanding that opulence
and misfortune stem from one's perception of
the world as well as from random circumstance,
one remains content with their self-abiding
senses peaceful and does not experience
regret nor covet things unnecessarily.
TRANSLITERATION:
आपदः सम्पदः काले दैवात् एव इति निश्चयी ।
āpadaḥ sampadaḥ kāle daivāt eva iti niścayī ।
तृप्तः स्वस्थेन्द्रियः नित्यम् न वाञ्छति न शोचति ॥ ११-३॥
tṛptaḥ svasthendriyaḥ nityam na vāñchati na śocati ॥ 11-3॥
MEANING:
āpadaḥ (आपदः) = calamity/misfortune/adversity
sampadaḥ (सम्पदः) = abundance/opulence/prosperity
kāle (काले) = in time
daivāt (दैवात्) = from destiny/from circumstance
eva (एव) = indeed/certainly
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = on who has known for certain ।
tṛptaḥ (तृप्तः) = contented/gratified/satisfied
svasthendriyaḥ (स्वस्थेन्द्रियः) = with all self-abiding senses controlled (compound of svasthendriyaḥ (स्वस्थ) meaning 'composed/peaceful/controlled' and indriyaḥ (इन्द्रियः) meaning 'senses')
nityam (नित्यम्) = forever
na (न) = not
vāñchati (वाञ्छति) = desires/greed/motive
na (न) = not
śocati (शोचति) = bemoan/regret/grieve ॥ 11-3॥
COMMENTS:
The accomplishments and the inadequacies, the feats and defeats, the triumphs and the disasters; all of these are illumined or extinguished by the discerning senses of the individual - they are creations of, by and within the individual - the fluctuations, permutations and vicissitudes of the world constantly varies bringing with it attendant circumstances that may be unwelcome, unpleasant or achingly beautiful and calming.
Established within this understanding the seeker moves, always content and working choicelessly with the whole presentation of the present moment without excessive dwelling on the past nor exaggerated apprehension for the impending.
Awareness in the present moment allows for the body (that is presented with the sensations) and the mind (that integrates the same) to be a unified locus inseparably linked in insight and experience where the senses and the sensations do not overwhelm and preoccupy the seeker.
Awareness in this sense is not only a path to edifying clarity of the unified mind-body accompaniment, but a complete transformation of the moods, feelings and attitudes that one presents - both intrinsically and extrinsically - the sense of calm will prevail in the face of any fluctuation presented without the impingement of prior conditioning. This practice of dispassionate detachment broadens and coherently enunciates itself across the entire gamut of ones thoughts and actions thus allowing for the cultivation of a mindset of emptiness - where the underlying lack of essence within all experience becomes the nonpartisan correlate of the sense of spontaneity experienced by the seeker who has let go of all attachments.
A brief journey through the various states of awareness prompted by the imagery within this verse and the various mental renderings that this verse impelled me to consider can be summarized as follows: Separation of oneself from desires and negative states of mind can be considered the first step in the seekers journey towards finding oneself and the awareness thereof. Such separateness involves a conscious concentrated action on the part of an individual and is accompanied by continued thought fluctuations. Subduing sustained thought and its fluctuations by starting to look specifically to the point where one thought ends and the juncture where the next thought begins and working to extend this interval where thought, forms, shapes, names or other constructions not enter that empty mental space of no-concentration can be considered to be the next step in the journey. Transcending concepts of form, of name, of fluctuations caused by the senses and leaving behind the ideas of disparate discreteness, one attains an awareness of wide open realms of space marked by equanimity, compassion and peace. From the wide open realms of space, one lets the same awareness permeate and saturate the space that one has just experienced to see a sense of fullness that such awareness brings upon oneself. From the realm of wide open awareness that permeates the space, one understands that there is nothing in the sense of the meaning of the word 'wide open spaces' nor in the meaning of the word 'awareness' and one enters a domain of emptiness. In the domain of emptiness, one can sense neither perception nor not-perception, neither conceptual-notion nor not-conceptual-notion. In this state, one remains without experience, thoughts or knowledge for as long as one can.
In closing, on more general terms, the inquiry for knowledge, the quest to designate, the impetus to classify and like accumulations of cultural scree only succeeds in adding more and more conceptual thoughts and ideas to one’s mental framework – which is already fairly cluttered by the time one has attained their formative years; at the end of the day, all of what one has accomplished can be described variously as under terms such as 'addition', 'inclusion', 'annexation' and 'augmentation'. What one seeks is 'subtraction' - a slow removal of concepts, a gradual attrition of designations, a removal of our inherent biases and a complete evisceration of all of the learnt information that only serves to resonate and amplify the fluctuations within our minds. It is within a frame of mind that is empty of concepts and designations that one can find a measure of stillness.
आपदः सम्पदः काले दैवादेवेति निश्चयी ।
तृप्तः स्वस्थेन्द्रियो नित्यं न वाञ्छति न शोचति ॥ ११-३॥
PURPORT:
Insightful in the understanding that opulence
and misfortune stem from one's perception of
the world as well as from random circumstance,
one remains content with their self-abiding
senses peaceful and does not experience
regret nor covet things unnecessarily.
TRANSLITERATION:
आपदः सम्पदः काले दैवात् एव इति निश्चयी ।
āpadaḥ sampadaḥ kāle daivāt eva iti niścayī ।
तृप्तः स्वस्थेन्द्रियः नित्यम् न वाञ्छति न शोचति ॥ ११-३॥
tṛptaḥ svasthendriyaḥ nityam na vāñchati na śocati ॥ 11-3॥
MEANING:
āpadaḥ (आपदः) = calamity/misfortune/adversity
sampadaḥ (सम्पदः) = abundance/opulence/prosperity
kāle (काले) = in time
daivāt (दैवात्) = from destiny/from circumstance
eva (एव) = indeed/certainly
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = on who has known for certain ।
tṛptaḥ (तृप्तः) = contented/gratified/satisfied
svasthendriyaḥ (स्वस्थेन्द्रियः) = with all self-abiding senses controlled (compound of svasthendriyaḥ (स्वस्थ) meaning 'composed/peaceful/controlled' and indriyaḥ (इन्द्रियः) meaning 'senses')
nityam (नित्यम्) = forever
na (न) = not
vāñchati (वाञ्छति) = desires/greed/motive
na (न) = not
śocati (शोचति) = bemoan/regret/grieve ॥ 11-3॥
COMMENTS:
The accomplishments and the inadequacies, the feats and defeats, the triumphs and the disasters; all of these are illumined or extinguished by the discerning senses of the individual - they are creations of, by and within the individual - the fluctuations, permutations and vicissitudes of the world constantly varies bringing with it attendant circumstances that may be unwelcome, unpleasant or achingly beautiful and calming.
Established within this understanding the seeker moves, always content and working choicelessly with the whole presentation of the present moment without excessive dwelling on the past nor exaggerated apprehension for the impending.
Awareness in the present moment allows for the body (that is presented with the sensations) and the mind (that integrates the same) to be a unified locus inseparably linked in insight and experience where the senses and the sensations do not overwhelm and preoccupy the seeker.
Awareness in this sense is not only a path to edifying clarity of the unified mind-body accompaniment, but a complete transformation of the moods, feelings and attitudes that one presents - both intrinsically and extrinsically - the sense of calm will prevail in the face of any fluctuation presented without the impingement of prior conditioning. This practice of dispassionate detachment broadens and coherently enunciates itself across the entire gamut of ones thoughts and actions thus allowing for the cultivation of a mindset of emptiness - where the underlying lack of essence within all experience becomes the nonpartisan correlate of the sense of spontaneity experienced by the seeker who has let go of all attachments.
A brief journey through the various states of awareness prompted by the imagery within this verse and the various mental renderings that this verse impelled me to consider can be summarized as follows: Separation of oneself from desires and negative states of mind can be considered the first step in the seekers journey towards finding oneself and the awareness thereof. Such separateness involves a conscious concentrated action on the part of an individual and is accompanied by continued thought fluctuations. Subduing sustained thought and its fluctuations by starting to look specifically to the point where one thought ends and the juncture where the next thought begins and working to extend this interval where thought, forms, shapes, names or other constructions not enter that empty mental space of no-concentration can be considered to be the next step in the journey. Transcending concepts of form, of name, of fluctuations caused by the senses and leaving behind the ideas of disparate discreteness, one attains an awareness of wide open realms of space marked by equanimity, compassion and peace. From the wide open realms of space, one lets the same awareness permeate and saturate the space that one has just experienced to see a sense of fullness that such awareness brings upon oneself. From the realm of wide open awareness that permeates the space, one understands that there is nothing in the sense of the meaning of the word 'wide open spaces' nor in the meaning of the word 'awareness' and one enters a domain of emptiness. In the domain of emptiness, one can sense neither perception nor not-perception, neither conceptual-notion nor not-conceptual-notion. In this state, one remains without experience, thoughts or knowledge for as long as one can.
In closing, on more general terms, the inquiry for knowledge, the quest to designate, the impetus to classify and like accumulations of cultural scree only succeeds in adding more and more conceptual thoughts and ideas to one’s mental framework – which is already fairly cluttered by the time one has attained their formative years; at the end of the day, all of what one has accomplished can be described variously as under terms such as 'addition', 'inclusion', 'annexation' and 'augmentation'. What one seeks is 'subtraction' - a slow removal of concepts, a gradual attrition of designations, a removal of our inherent biases and a complete evisceration of all of the learnt information that only serves to resonate and amplify the fluctuations within our minds. It is within a frame of mind that is empty of concepts and designations that one can find a measure of stillness.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
AVG 11.2
Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 2
ईश्वरः सर्वनिर्माता नेहान्य इति निश्चयी ।
अन्तर्गलितसर्वाशः शान्तः क्वापि न सज्जते ॥११-२॥
PURPORT:
Knowing for certain that the creator of
all is intrinsic to ones perception and reliant on
one’s spiritual inspiration while knowing there is
none else responsible, one becomes tranquil with
all their expectations set to rest within and
is not attached to anything whatsoever.
TRANSLITERATION:
ईश्वरः सर्वनिर्माता न इह अन्यःइति निश्चयी ।
īśvaraḥ sarvanirmātā na iha anyaḥ iti niścayī ।
अन्तर्गलित सर्वाशः शान्तः क्व अपि नसज्जते ॥ ११-२॥
antargalita sarvāśaḥ śāntaḥ kva api na sajjate ॥11-2॥
MEANING:
īśvaraḥ (ईश्वरः)* = spiritual inspiration*
sarvanirmātā (सर्वनिर्माता)= producer of all (compound of sarva (सर्व) meaning 'all' and nirmātā (निर्माता) meaning 'producer/creator')
na (न) = not
iha (इह) = here
anyaḥ (अन्यः) = other
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
antargalita sarvāśaḥ (अन्तर्गलितसर्वाशः) = with all expectations and desires extinguished from within (compound of antar (अन्तर् ) meaning 'within/inside/intrinsic' and galita (गलित) meaning 'waned/decayed/extinguished' and sarvāśaḥ (सर्वाशः) meaning all expectation and hope)
śāntaḥ (शान्तः) = calm/peace
kva (क्व) = to what (see note below for context)
api (अपि) = at all; note: क्व अपि (kva api) is read together and it means 'in anything whatsoever'
na (न) = not
sajjate (सज्जते) = is attached ॥ 11-2॥
COMMENT:
This beautiful verse talks about creation and clarifies that the maker, the perceiver, the one who discerns, recognizes and realizes the world, the universe and the cosmos at large is nothing more than our perceptual selves. We make the universe in our own image just as the ant, the bat, the horse, the cuttlefish, the amoeba and other like sentients make their own worlds in ways appropriate to their own environments; where an organism is the sum of its parts operating in ever expanding functional circles outwards towards the limits of its own world, universe, cosmos; and, for that organism to survive, procreate and to have homeostatic imperative, all of the constituent functional circles for that organism must work cooperatively. This is the universe - a perceptual creation specific to the organism as a result of the organism sensing and reacting to their own environmental stimuli.
In this sense, even creation is a concept - a designation that is a tricky endeavor when deliberated deeply. Let us consider some alternatives insofar as its creation - the universe has to be made either "by itself" or "by another" or "by both itself and another" or "by no cause".
Taking the first alternative, if the universe were to be made or produced by someone or something, we can infer that it cannot be made by itself, for that would imply that the universe makes its own substance. This means that the first alternative only becomes a self-reflexive statement (a statement without basis which avers that a thing uses itself to make itself - the universe would then be both the subject and object at once which does not make sense as subject and object are different).
The universe cannot be caused by another or 'some other thing' because the 'other thing' that created the universe would be the causal condition for the universe and now the 'other thing' ought to be considered as the originating substance and hence would be the same as the universe itself (and not the 'other thing') and thus not tenable.
The third alternative, that is, of both creation by itself and by the other (working in tandem) is not tenable as we have already established that an entity created by itself is not possible.
The fourth alternative that the universe was created neither by itself nor by another can mean one of two things - on the one hand, it can mean that the causeless substratum that we refer to as 'the universe' was always there since eternity; or, on the other hand, it can mean that the universe did not have a substratum since eternity, but was suddenly willed into existence out of nothing - again, an untenable concept as we either have to look to the existence of supreme beings that willed the system into existence or an as-yet undiscovered explanation that comports with our reason-based observations that allows for the manifest universe to be created out of nothing. In short, the universe cannot be made by no cause, because then we are in the trap of externalizing the process and invoking magical creation.
Creation is a difficult concept to grapple with, and the only plausible way to explain the beginnings will be go to back to the potential explanation offered by way of the dependent origination** of entities with the idea that a set of specific physical conditions working together in a co-dependent manner led to the creation and the expansion of the universe. I remain exceedingly ignorant to even speculate on what might be those set of dependent conditions that seemed to act and interlink together to produce the universe as we know it, but, a useful thought experiment in this regard might be in looking at the set of fundamental physical constants that seemed to be exquisitely tuned for the development of organic life and matter within our earth and (potentially) the universe at large - leading one to the notion that there must have been many possible sets of conditions that must have given rise to many possible potential universes with different possible physical constants (the majority of which may have been untenable insofar as viability), but we seemed to be alive and well within the one where conditions aligned to produce the right set of physical constants tuned for the production of matter and viable for organic life.
*The sense of spiritual inspiration that one finds within oneself can be the closest manifestation of the word used by Ashtavakra in the lines here - Ishwara (as a concept from ancient Hinduism, the word is traditionally taken to mean a supreme being that rules over the cosmos and the individuated beings).
**The term dependent origination or dependent arising as it relates to this discussion is a reminder for the seeker to avoid the extreme sides of any viewpoint - enumerated in the following manner - of things never ever ceasing (and thus production going on for the foreseeable eternity) or things never ever arising (and extinction being the only truth till the end of time) or things always being annihilated till the end of time (and nothing ever produced or created) or a belief in the eternity of the phenomenal world/universe or the fact that all of manifest reality being explained as one single truth that subsumes all else or all of manifest reality explained as infinite truths (the opposite of the single truth approach just mentioned) or things coming into being of its own nature (without any underlying conditions) or things being extinguished from existence of its own volition (without any underlying conditions) - all of these extreme views must be avoided as each one of these is a one-sided view that hews to one extreme position. The seeker chooses a path of moderation understanding that all things are dependent upon something else and nothing whatsoever arises independently. Given that everything is mutually dependent, everything is devoid of its own-essence and hence empty of a inherent foundational stratum that endures for all eternity. In addition, understanding that to take emptiness of things as another extreme view that solves and explains everything (as a form of absolutism) is to (again) fall into the same set of issues outlined above (any absolutism being just another form of choosing an extreme position); emptiness is not a view; but, rather a provisional concept to help the seeker out of any inherent attachment to any views.
ईश्वरः सर्वनिर्माता नेहान्य इति निश्चयी ।
अन्तर्गलितसर्वाशः शान्तः क्वापि न सज्जते ॥११-२॥
PURPORT:
Knowing for certain that the creator of
all is intrinsic to ones perception and reliant on
one’s spiritual inspiration while knowing there is
none else responsible, one becomes tranquil with
all their expectations set to rest within and
is not attached to anything whatsoever.
TRANSLITERATION:
ईश्वरः सर्वनिर्माता न इह अन्यःइति निश्चयी ।
īśvaraḥ sarvanirmātā na iha anyaḥ iti niścayī ।
अन्तर्गलित सर्वाशः शान्तः क्व अपि नसज्जते ॥ ११-२॥
antargalita sarvāśaḥ śāntaḥ kva api na sajjate ॥11-2॥
MEANING:
īśvaraḥ (ईश्वरः)* = spiritual inspiration*
sarvanirmātā (सर्वनिर्माता)= producer of all (compound of sarva (सर्व) meaning 'all' and nirmātā (निर्माता) meaning 'producer/creator')
na (न) = not
iha (इह) = here
anyaḥ (अन्यः) = other
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
antargalita sarvāśaḥ (अन्तर्गलितसर्वाशः) = with all expectations and desires extinguished from within (compound of antar (अन्तर् ) meaning 'within/inside/intrinsic' and galita (गलित) meaning 'waned/decayed/extinguished' and sarvāśaḥ (सर्वाशः) meaning all expectation and hope)
śāntaḥ (शान्तः) = calm/peace
kva (क्व) = to what (see note below for context)
api (अपि) = at all; note: क्व अपि (kva api) is read together and it means 'in anything whatsoever'
na (न) = not
sajjate (सज्जते) = is attached ॥ 11-2॥
COMMENT:
This beautiful verse talks about creation and clarifies that the maker, the perceiver, the one who discerns, recognizes and realizes the world, the universe and the cosmos at large is nothing more than our perceptual selves. We make the universe in our own image just as the ant, the bat, the horse, the cuttlefish, the amoeba and other like sentients make their own worlds in ways appropriate to their own environments; where an organism is the sum of its parts operating in ever expanding functional circles outwards towards the limits of its own world, universe, cosmos; and, for that organism to survive, procreate and to have homeostatic imperative, all of the constituent functional circles for that organism must work cooperatively. This is the universe - a perceptual creation specific to the organism as a result of the organism sensing and reacting to their own environmental stimuli.
In this sense, even creation is a concept - a designation that is a tricky endeavor when deliberated deeply. Let us consider some alternatives insofar as its creation - the universe has to be made either "by itself" or "by another" or "by both itself and another" or "by no cause".
Taking the first alternative, if the universe were to be made or produced by someone or something, we can infer that it cannot be made by itself, for that would imply that the universe makes its own substance. This means that the first alternative only becomes a self-reflexive statement (a statement without basis which avers that a thing uses itself to make itself - the universe would then be both the subject and object at once which does not make sense as subject and object are different).
The universe cannot be caused by another or 'some other thing' because the 'other thing' that created the universe would be the causal condition for the universe and now the 'other thing' ought to be considered as the originating substance and hence would be the same as the universe itself (and not the 'other thing') and thus not tenable.
The third alternative, that is, of both creation by itself and by the other (working in tandem) is not tenable as we have already established that an entity created by itself is not possible.
The fourth alternative that the universe was created neither by itself nor by another can mean one of two things - on the one hand, it can mean that the causeless substratum that we refer to as 'the universe' was always there since eternity; or, on the other hand, it can mean that the universe did not have a substratum since eternity, but was suddenly willed into existence out of nothing - again, an untenable concept as we either have to look to the existence of supreme beings that willed the system into existence or an as-yet undiscovered explanation that comports with our reason-based observations that allows for the manifest universe to be created out of nothing. In short, the universe cannot be made by no cause, because then we are in the trap of externalizing the process and invoking magical creation.
Creation is a difficult concept to grapple with, and the only plausible way to explain the beginnings will be go to back to the potential explanation offered by way of the dependent origination** of entities with the idea that a set of specific physical conditions working together in a co-dependent manner led to the creation and the expansion of the universe. I remain exceedingly ignorant to even speculate on what might be those set of dependent conditions that seemed to act and interlink together to produce the universe as we know it, but, a useful thought experiment in this regard might be in looking at the set of fundamental physical constants that seemed to be exquisitely tuned for the development of organic life and matter within our earth and (potentially) the universe at large - leading one to the notion that there must have been many possible sets of conditions that must have given rise to many possible potential universes with different possible physical constants (the majority of which may have been untenable insofar as viability), but we seemed to be alive and well within the one where conditions aligned to produce the right set of physical constants tuned for the production of matter and viable for organic life.
*The sense of spiritual inspiration that one finds within oneself can be the closest manifestation of the word used by Ashtavakra in the lines here - Ishwara (as a concept from ancient Hinduism, the word is traditionally taken to mean a supreme being that rules over the cosmos and the individuated beings).
**The term dependent origination or dependent arising as it relates to this discussion is a reminder for the seeker to avoid the extreme sides of any viewpoint - enumerated in the following manner - of things never ever ceasing (and thus production going on for the foreseeable eternity) or things never ever arising (and extinction being the only truth till the end of time) or things always being annihilated till the end of time (and nothing ever produced or created) or a belief in the eternity of the phenomenal world/universe or the fact that all of manifest reality being explained as one single truth that subsumes all else or all of manifest reality explained as infinite truths (the opposite of the single truth approach just mentioned) or things coming into being of its own nature (without any underlying conditions) or things being extinguished from existence of its own volition (without any underlying conditions) - all of these extreme views must be avoided as each one of these is a one-sided view that hews to one extreme position. The seeker chooses a path of moderation understanding that all things are dependent upon something else and nothing whatsoever arises independently. Given that everything is mutually dependent, everything is devoid of its own-essence and hence empty of a inherent foundational stratum that endures for all eternity. In addition, understanding that to take emptiness of things as another extreme view that solves and explains everything (as a form of absolutism) is to (again) fall into the same set of issues outlined above (any absolutism being just another form of choosing an extreme position); emptiness is not a view; but, rather a provisional concept to help the seeker out of any inherent attachment to any views.
Monday, February 10, 2020
AVG 11.1
Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 1
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
भावाभावविकारश्च स्वभावादिति निश्चयी ।
निर्विकारो गतक्लेशः सुखेनैवोपशाम्यति ॥ ११-१॥
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
भावाभावविकारश्च स्वभावादिति निश्चयी ।
निर्विकारो गतक्लेशः सुखेनैवोपशाम्यति ॥ ११-१॥
PURPORT:
One who has realized that the continuance
of things, the hindrance of other things and
the perturbations thereof are part of the
natural order of presence and are perceived
so by one's own nature, comfortably finds repose;
being unagitated and removed of all sorrows.
One who has realized that the continuance
of things, the hindrance of other things and
the perturbations thereof are part of the
natural order of presence and are perceived
so by one's own nature, comfortably finds repose;
being unagitated and removed of all sorrows.
TRANSLITERATION:
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
aṣṭāvakra uvāca ॥
भावाभावविकारः च स्वभावात् इति निश्चयी ।
bhāvābhāvavikāraḥ ca svabhāvāt iti niścayī ।
निर्विकारः गतक्लेशः सुखेन एव उपशाम्यति ॥ ११-१॥
nirvikāraḥ gatakleśaḥ sukhena eva upaśāmyati ॥ 11-1॥
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
aṣṭāvakra uvāca ॥
भावाभावविकारः च स्वभावात् इति निश्चयी ।
bhāvābhāvavikāraḥ ca svabhāvāt iti niścayī ।
निर्विकारः गतक्लेशः सुखेन एव उपशाम्यति ॥ ११-१॥
nirvikāraḥ gatakleśaḥ sukhena eva upaśāmyati ॥ 11-1॥
MEANING:
aṣṭāvakra (अष्टावक्र) = Aṣṭāvakra
uvāca (उवाच) = said ॥
bhāvābhāvavikāraḥ (भावाभावविकारः) = continuance, hinderance and alteration (compound of bhāva (भाव) meaning 'existence/continuance of happening' and abhāva (अभाव) meaning 'not becoming/elimination/hinderance' and vikāraḥ (विकारः) meaning 'transformation/change/perturbation')
ca (च) = and
svabhāvāt (स्वभावात्) = from nature (as in part of the natural order of things)
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain/one who is sure of themselves/one who has realized for sure ।
nirvikāraḥ (निर्विकारः) = composed/unperturbed/one in repose/unagitated
gatakleśaḥ (गतक्लेशः) = free from affliction/removed of sorrows (compound of gata (गत) meaning 'gone from' and kleśaḥ (क्लेशः) meaning 'pain/affliction')
sukhena (सुखेन) = comfortably/conveniently
eva (एव) = indeed
upaśāmyati (उपशाम्यति) = comes to stillness/finds quietude॥ 11-1॥
aṣṭāvakra (अष्टावक्र) = Aṣṭāvakra
uvāca (उवाच) = said ॥
bhāvābhāvavikāraḥ (भावाभावविकारः) = continuance, hinderance and alteration (compound of bhāva (भाव) meaning 'existence/continuance of happening' and abhāva (अभाव) meaning 'not becoming/elimination/hinderance' and vikāraḥ (विकारः) meaning 'transformation/change/perturbation')
ca (च) = and
svabhāvāt (स्वभावात्) = from nature (as in part of the natural order of things)
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain/one who is sure of themselves/one who has realized for sure ।
nirvikāraḥ (निर्विकारः) = composed/unperturbed/one in repose/unagitated
gatakleśaḥ (गतक्लेशः) = free from affliction/removed of sorrows (compound of gata (गत) meaning 'gone from' and kleśaḥ (क्लेशः) meaning 'pain/affliction')
sukhena (सुखेन) = comfortably/conveniently
eva (एव) = indeed
upaśāmyati (उपशाम्यति) = comes to stillness/finds quietude॥ 11-1॥
COMMENT:
The opening line in the eleventh chapter is a beautiful mediation on the natural order of things - an order that has been cyclically set in motion since the very origins of the universe - nature (or any designated manifestation that we assign the phrase 'nature' to) does not interfere nor support the harmonious arising of things, alteration of things and the eventual cessation of things. All of the entities within this grand cycle are supported and brought to arise, endure and cease based upon appropriate conditions that are interdependently linked to produce or sustain or cease. This happens quite on its own accord and once this is absorbed within, Ashtavakra informs that latent confusion on the part of the seeker melts away.
Of course, the seeker may be left with the subjective question 'Who am I within this cycle?'. If the question is deeply interrogated, an answer that can resonate is 'Who is that who is having this particular line of question?'. If the answer is 'I am the human who is having this question', then one is forced to confront oneself with the original question of 'Who am I within this cycle?' and theretofore recursively.
The opening line in the eleventh chapter is a beautiful mediation on the natural order of things - an order that has been cyclically set in motion since the very origins of the universe - nature (or any designated manifestation that we assign the phrase 'nature' to) does not interfere nor support the harmonious arising of things, alteration of things and the eventual cessation of things. All of the entities within this grand cycle are supported and brought to arise, endure and cease based upon appropriate conditions that are interdependently linked to produce or sustain or cease. This happens quite on its own accord and once this is absorbed within, Ashtavakra informs that latent confusion on the part of the seeker melts away.
Of course, the seeker may be left with the subjective question 'Who am I within this cycle?'. If the question is deeply interrogated, an answer that can resonate is 'Who is that who is having this particular line of question?'. If the answer is 'I am the human who is having this question', then one is forced to confront oneself with the original question of 'Who am I within this cycle?' and theretofore recursively.
The answers ultimately point back to the source - firstly, the awareness which clarifies is a matter of looking within and secondly, the question really arises from our inherent sense of duality; especially our attempt to answer questions like 'Who am I' with answers like 'I am the human who is having this question' or 'I am a human' or 'I am a sentient being' imply that one feels a need to 'qualify' and 'designate'.
Somehow answers like 'I am the human who is having this question' or 'I am a human' or 'I am a sentient being' seem more normal to our conditioned mindset than an answer like 'I am'.
Answers that seek to qualify and designate indicate superimposition at work and where there is superimposition, there is duality - the focusing of being something rather than just being - a reification of the projected sense of identity rather than directly experiencing the nature of reality that Ashtavakra talks about - that harmonious cycle of arising, enduring and cessation; an awareness beyond the duality of even duality and non-duality, an awareness that transcends designations that classify this as 'one' and that as 'not-one' and this as 'self' and that as 'other', a knowledge that 'things are as it is without superposition or qualifications or designations'.
Somehow answers like 'I am the human who is having this question' or 'I am a human' or 'I am a sentient being' seem more normal to our conditioned mindset than an answer like 'I am'.
Answers that seek to qualify and designate indicate superimposition at work and where there is superimposition, there is duality - the focusing of being something rather than just being - a reification of the projected sense of identity rather than directly experiencing the nature of reality that Ashtavakra talks about - that harmonious cycle of arising, enduring and cessation; an awareness beyond the duality of even duality and non-duality, an awareness that transcends designations that classify this as 'one' and that as 'not-one' and this as 'self' and that as 'other', a knowledge that 'things are as it is without superposition or qualifications or designations'.
AVG 10.8
Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 8
कृतं न कति जन्मानि कायेन मनसा गिरा ।
दुःखमायासदं कर्म तदद्याप्युपरम्यताम् ॥ १०-८॥
PURPORT:
How many lives and how many beginnings
have elapsed preoccupied with doing the same
wearisome actions and enterprise with your
body, mind and speech? It is these befuddled
activities that, here and now, you need to relinquish.
TRANSLITERATION:
कृतम् न कति जन्मानि कायेन मनसा गिरा ।
kṛtam na kati janmāni kāyena manasā girā ।
दुःखम् आयासदम् कर्म तत् अद्य अपि उपरम्यताम् ॥ १०-८॥
duḥkham āyāsadam karma tat adya api uparamyatām ॥ 10-8॥
MEANING:
kṛtam (कृतम्) = done/did
na (न) = not
kati (कति) = how many
janmāni (जन्मानि) = births/beginnings/creations
kāyena (कायेन) = with the body
manasā (मनसा) = with the mind
girā (गिरा) = with speech।
duḥkham (दुःखम्) = pain/sorrow/suffering
āyāsadam (आयासदम्) = involving affliction/comprising difficulty
karma (कर्म) = work
tat (तत्) = that
adya (अद्य) = now/today/at this present juncture
api (अपि) = even
uparamyatām (उपरम्यताम्) = render quiet/cease/pacify ॥ 10-8॥
COMMENT:
In closing this beautiful meditative chapter, Ashtavakra brings up the aspects of renunciation and relinquishment again by reiterating that for a seeker, reality is perceived as a superimposition of the seekers concepts parlayed onto the pure undifferentiated nature of reality. Thus, the beginning practitioner mistakes empirical reality thus superimposed for their own individually acknowledged awareness. It is for this reason that the seeker will not want to assign or superimpose (even) the term 'emptiness' with any such ontological import. Undertaking that the absence of essence within existent phenomena that we conventionally call 'emptiness' is also another conceptual designation leads to the understanding that other related concepts like 'non-duality', 'absence-of-self-nature' and that 'all-things-are-unborn' are also falsely imagined constructions that we connote to conventionally existent entities (to clarify, when one says that 'all things are unborn', understand that it does not mean that things are not born but that things are not born of themselves, that is, that they have exactly zero percent intrinsic self-nature that might ontologically substantiate them).
The action of naming and designating masks the provisional and dependent nature of all existent objects and eases the seeker into a mindset that allows for the seeker to discriminate, differentiate and superimpose the designated definitions onto fundamentally undifferentiated reality. Understanding that the names and designations themselves possess no inherent value nor import allows one the insight and clarity to see that emptiness as a term is 'empty' (similarly so with other terms like 'non-duality', 'absence-of-self-nature' and that 'all-things-are-unborn').
Therefore, the chapters' closing lines aptly ask the relevant question: how many beginnings must we, as a sentient species, undergo before we transcend the practice of assigning the same wearisome conceptual designations on our actions and enterprise using the faculties of our bodies, mind and our language?
कृतं न कति जन्मानि कायेन मनसा गिरा ।
दुःखमायासदं कर्म तदद्याप्युपरम्यताम् ॥ १०-८॥
PURPORT:
How many lives and how many beginnings
have elapsed preoccupied with doing the same
wearisome actions and enterprise with your
body, mind and speech? It is these befuddled
activities that, here and now, you need to relinquish.
TRANSLITERATION:
कृतम् न कति जन्मानि कायेन मनसा गिरा ।
kṛtam na kati janmāni kāyena manasā girā ।
दुःखम् आयासदम् कर्म तत् अद्य अपि उपरम्यताम् ॥ १०-८॥
duḥkham āyāsadam karma tat adya api uparamyatām ॥ 10-8॥
MEANING:
kṛtam (कृतम्) = done/did
na (न) = not
kati (कति) = how many
janmāni (जन्मानि) = births/beginnings/creations
kāyena (कायेन) = with the body
manasā (मनसा) = with the mind
girā (गिरा) = with speech।
duḥkham (दुःखम्) = pain/sorrow/suffering
āyāsadam (आयासदम्) = involving affliction/comprising difficulty
karma (कर्म) = work
tat (तत्) = that
adya (अद्य) = now/today/at this present juncture
api (अपि) = even
uparamyatām (उपरम्यताम्) = render quiet/cease/pacify ॥ 10-8॥
COMMENT:
In closing this beautiful meditative chapter, Ashtavakra brings up the aspects of renunciation and relinquishment again by reiterating that for a seeker, reality is perceived as a superimposition of the seekers concepts parlayed onto the pure undifferentiated nature of reality. Thus, the beginning practitioner mistakes empirical reality thus superimposed for their own individually acknowledged awareness. It is for this reason that the seeker will not want to assign or superimpose (even) the term 'emptiness' with any such ontological import. Undertaking that the absence of essence within existent phenomena that we conventionally call 'emptiness' is also another conceptual designation leads to the understanding that other related concepts like 'non-duality', 'absence-of-self-nature' and that 'all-things-are-unborn' are also falsely imagined constructions that we connote to conventionally existent entities (to clarify, when one says that 'all things are unborn', understand that it does not mean that things are not born but that things are not born of themselves, that is, that they have exactly zero percent intrinsic self-nature that might ontologically substantiate them).
The action of naming and designating masks the provisional and dependent nature of all existent objects and eases the seeker into a mindset that allows for the seeker to discriminate, differentiate and superimpose the designated definitions onto fundamentally undifferentiated reality. Understanding that the names and designations themselves possess no inherent value nor import allows one the insight and clarity to see that emptiness as a term is 'empty' (similarly so with other terms like 'non-duality', 'absence-of-self-nature' and that 'all-things-are-unborn').
Therefore, the chapters' closing lines aptly ask the relevant question: how many beginnings must we, as a sentient species, undergo before we transcend the practice of assigning the same wearisome conceptual designations on our actions and enterprise using the faculties of our bodies, mind and our language?
AVG 10.7
Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 7
अलमर्थेन कामेन सुकृतेनापि कर्मणा ।
एभ्यः संसारकान्तारे न विश्रान्तमभून्मनः ॥ १०-७॥
PURPORT:
Enough with abundance and desire; enough
indulging even in devout and pious deeds! By these,
the mind does not come to find repose nor peace
here in the forlorn wilderness of the changing world.
TRANSLITERATION:
अलम् अर्थेन कामेन सुकृतेन अपि कर्मणा ।
alam arthena kāmena sukṛtena api karmaṇā ।
एभ्यः संसारकान्तारे न विश्रान्तम् अभूत् मनः ॥ १०-७॥
ebhyaḥ saṃsārakāntāre na viśrāntam abhūt manaḥ ॥ 10-7॥
MEANING:
alam (अलम्) = no desire for (as in a sense of sufficiency with what one has)/enough
arthena (अर्थेन) = with abundance and prosperity
kāmena (कामेन) = with desire
sukṛtena (सुकृतेन) = with devout and piousness
api (अपि) = even
karmaṇā (कर्मणा) = with deeds and actions ।
ebhyaḥ (एभ्यः) = from these/of these
saṃsārakāntāre (संसारकान्तारे) = in the forlorn wilderness of the changing world (compound of saṃsāra (संसार) meaning 'world' and kāntāre (कान्तारे) meaning 'forests whose paths may be difficult and forlorn')
na (न) = not
viśrāntam (विश्रान्तम्) = tranquility/repose/peaceful stillness
abhūt (अभूत्) = has become
manaḥ (मनः) = mind ॥ 10-7॥
COMMENT:
This verse is an exhortation to the seeker to look into the core of their being which at first reading might be opaque in its implied meaning. Ashtavakra mentions that one can strive to disabuse oneself of the notion that the performing of meritorious deeds naturally paves the way for a guilt-free enjoyment of the results that accrue in terms of pleasures and wealth (an idea that was alluded to in the first verse of this chapter and subtly being reminded here again).
On a deeper reading, one begins to understand that we are always free, one does not need to hoard objects that appeal to the senses in order to achieve this sense of freedom. The sense of equanimity and bliss is right here and stilling the mind of its inherent fluctuations is an approach to realizing this sense of freedom.
The notion some harbor that freedom or liberation lies within the amassing of riches or attaining the extremes of sensory pleasure or even in the doing of 'good' deeds with expectation of reciprocation are ideas, concepts and thoughts that we have co-opted from a combination of factors that included parents, organized religion, culture, education, etcetera. In a subversive sense, even the concept of liberation and its foil - bondage - themselves are dualistic notions that we harbor within our minds (similarly co-opted). Given that we sentient beings were never bound when we were born nor bound in any manner when we pass on, and given the understanding that our bodies are performing what they are designed and evolved to perform (i.e. homeostasis to sustain life and gene transmission through reproduction to continue life) and given that our minds have that inherent stillness once one gleans the space occupied between two thought fluctuations, one starts to realize that no one 'achieves' liberation because there really is no bondage to be liberated from - in the strict sense of the word - these are concepts. Ultimately, bondage and liberation are mental abstractions resulting from our being steeped within cultural conditioning and the attendant duality (from conditioning) that allows for the ego and the self-model to continue to propagate.
Extending this line of thought as it pertains to duality, the superimposition of one's devotion onto an object of one's adoration itself creates a duality between the devotee and the object of adoration. One notices this kind of a superimposition when the object of adoration and reverence (say a god-like figure named and thusly conceptualized by us) is made correspondent and equated with mentally fabricated constructs (examples include self, soul, atman, brahman and other like entities named and conceptualized by us). In and of itself, this form of superimposition is a useful path for a seeker to commence the journey towards awareness. Such superimposition of mental constructs to an object of adoration might be useful insofar as it relates to the focusing of ones thoughts and actions, but, understand that in undertaking this approach to stilling of thoughts, duality always comes along for the ride. The purported objectivity that we seek and think we obtain in terms of these concepts and superpositions is ultimately just inter-subjective agreement - a commonly agreed upon idea of legitimacy that may not be objective nor true.
अलमर्थेन कामेन सुकृतेनापि कर्मणा ।
एभ्यः संसारकान्तारे न विश्रान्तमभून्मनः ॥ १०-७॥
PURPORT:
Enough with abundance and desire; enough
indulging even in devout and pious deeds! By these,
the mind does not come to find repose nor peace
here in the forlorn wilderness of the changing world.
TRANSLITERATION:
अलम् अर्थेन कामेन सुकृतेन अपि कर्मणा ।
alam arthena kāmena sukṛtena api karmaṇā ।
एभ्यः संसारकान्तारे न विश्रान्तम् अभूत् मनः ॥ १०-७॥
ebhyaḥ saṃsārakāntāre na viśrāntam abhūt manaḥ ॥ 10-7॥
MEANING:
alam (अलम्) = no desire for (as in a sense of sufficiency with what one has)/enough
arthena (अर्थेन) = with abundance and prosperity
kāmena (कामेन) = with desire
sukṛtena (सुकृतेन) = with devout and piousness
api (अपि) = even
karmaṇā (कर्मणा) = with deeds and actions ।
ebhyaḥ (एभ्यः) = from these/of these
saṃsārakāntāre (संसारकान्तारे) = in the forlorn wilderness of the changing world (compound of saṃsāra (संसार) meaning 'world' and kāntāre (कान्तारे) meaning 'forests whose paths may be difficult and forlorn')
na (न) = not
viśrāntam (विश्रान्तम्) = tranquility/repose/peaceful stillness
abhūt (अभूत्) = has become
manaḥ (मनः) = mind ॥ 10-7॥
COMMENT:
This verse is an exhortation to the seeker to look into the core of their being which at first reading might be opaque in its implied meaning. Ashtavakra mentions that one can strive to disabuse oneself of the notion that the performing of meritorious deeds naturally paves the way for a guilt-free enjoyment of the results that accrue in terms of pleasures and wealth (an idea that was alluded to in the first verse of this chapter and subtly being reminded here again).
On a deeper reading, one begins to understand that we are always free, one does not need to hoard objects that appeal to the senses in order to achieve this sense of freedom. The sense of equanimity and bliss is right here and stilling the mind of its inherent fluctuations is an approach to realizing this sense of freedom.
The notion some harbor that freedom or liberation lies within the amassing of riches or attaining the extremes of sensory pleasure or even in the doing of 'good' deeds with expectation of reciprocation are ideas, concepts and thoughts that we have co-opted from a combination of factors that included parents, organized religion, culture, education, etcetera. In a subversive sense, even the concept of liberation and its foil - bondage - themselves are dualistic notions that we harbor within our minds (similarly co-opted). Given that we sentient beings were never bound when we were born nor bound in any manner when we pass on, and given the understanding that our bodies are performing what they are designed and evolved to perform (i.e. homeostasis to sustain life and gene transmission through reproduction to continue life) and given that our minds have that inherent stillness once one gleans the space occupied between two thought fluctuations, one starts to realize that no one 'achieves' liberation because there really is no bondage to be liberated from - in the strict sense of the word - these are concepts. Ultimately, bondage and liberation are mental abstractions resulting from our being steeped within cultural conditioning and the attendant duality (from conditioning) that allows for the ego and the self-model to continue to propagate.
Extending this line of thought as it pertains to duality, the superimposition of one's devotion onto an object of one's adoration itself creates a duality between the devotee and the object of adoration. One notices this kind of a superimposition when the object of adoration and reverence (say a god-like figure named and thusly conceptualized by us) is made correspondent and equated with mentally fabricated constructs (examples include self, soul, atman, brahman and other like entities named and conceptualized by us). In and of itself, this form of superimposition is a useful path for a seeker to commence the journey towards awareness. Such superimposition of mental constructs to an object of adoration might be useful insofar as it relates to the focusing of ones thoughts and actions, but, understand that in undertaking this approach to stilling of thoughts, duality always comes along for the ride. The purported objectivity that we seek and think we obtain in terms of these concepts and superpositions is ultimately just inter-subjective agreement - a commonly agreed upon idea of legitimacy that may not be objective nor true.
AVG 10.6
Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 6
राज्यं सुताः कलत्राणि शरीराणि सुखानि च ।
संसक्तस्यापि नष्टानि तव जन्मनि जन्मनि ॥ १०-६॥
TRANSLITERATION:
राज्यम् सुताः कलत्राणि शरीराणि सुखानि च ।
rājyam sutāḥ kalatrāṇi śarīrāṇi sukhāni ca ।
संसक्तस्य अपि नष्टानि तव जन्मनि जन्मनि ॥ १०-६॥
saṃsaktasya api naṣṭāni tava janmani janmani ॥ 10-6॥
PURPORT:
Dominions, dynasties, descendants, spouses,
corporeal bodies, luxuries and such transitory
phenomena have been lost to your being
and could not have been owned by you;
you were conditioned to be attached to them
and tried to cling to them birth after birth.
MEANING:
rājyam (राज्यम्) = dominion/dynasty/kingdom
sutāḥ (सुताः) = progeny (literal translation = sons)
kalatrāṇi (कलत्राणि) = spouses (literal translation = wives)
śarīrāṇi (शरीराणि) = corporeal bodies
sukhāni (सुखानि) = amenity/luxury/comforts
ca (च) = and ।
saṃsaktasya (संसक्तस्य) = attached dependently/yoked
api (अपि) = even
naṣṭāni (नष्टानि) = perished/wasted/lost
tava (तव) = of you
janmani janmani (जन्मनि जन्मनि) = birth after birth ॥ 10-6॥
COMMENT:
This verse has a direct reference to the idea of reincarnation and my humble opinion being that one might be able to read meaning into these lines even if one does not subscribe to the notion of reincarnation. There does not seem to be any unified clarity nor scientific understanding of rebirth from one life to another and I aver that we almost certainly can’t know anything about rebirth.
While the erstwhile formulations around rebirth involved and implied the presence of a soul that purportedly transmigrated from one physical body to another, the seeker is better served by the understanding that instead of an abiding, enduring soul, the sentient human (during their sojourn on this planet) acts more like a vessel that collects within themselves the ever-morphing cultural phenomena, truths, teachings, learnings and other lessons. This presents us with two possible choices; the first being the idea that all of the knowledge collected and wisdom (or ineptitude) garnered is incorporated and concretized within an enduring self and that self now moves to a new body after the death of the original. The second alternative being that reincarnation is simply the transmission of patterns, conveying of habits, transferring of mores and passing of values from one generation to the next. While the former (the illusion of an enduring self) does not have basis and is not tenable (as we have seen in this poem earlier), the latter - transmission of mores and a recurrence of shared patterns - can be thought of as the only plausible interpretation of reincarnation.
What we know for certain is that when we eventually die (and that is the one fact that we can be sure of), the only truth that can be posited and considered tenable is that the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements that constitute our bodies will be recycled into creatures sentient and artifacts non-sentient; we scatter as disparate components and merge back into this planet (and the universe at large) to be recycled over and over again. In this sense, one remains humbly transformed by this eventuality; indeed, we find intrinsic acceptance of the concept of reincarnation within this understanding.
Ultimately, designations like rebirth and reincarnation are concepts created by our peoples insofar as it relates to our past and our vain hope to be delivered intact into an unknown future - another form of clinging - this particular type of clinging apparently formulated by our self-models to somehow transcend impermanence and death. The seeker that strives to reach beyond such self-identification with the past grant to themselves the innate freedom to develop a mindset of clarity and harmony. The alternative is to remain in bleak doubt on the cusp between clarity in being and confusion in non-being.
In closing, it can be understood that reincarnation or rebirth isn’t something that happens to us after we die. We are transformed every second, dependent on multiple interlinked conditions that make our continued existence possible. Rebirth is something that happens to us every instant of every day.
राज्यं सुताः कलत्राणि शरीराणि सुखानि च ।
संसक्तस्यापि नष्टानि तव जन्मनि जन्मनि ॥ १०-६॥
TRANSLITERATION:
राज्यम् सुताः कलत्राणि शरीराणि सुखानि च ।
rājyam sutāḥ kalatrāṇi śarīrāṇi sukhāni ca ।
संसक्तस्य अपि नष्टानि तव जन्मनि जन्मनि ॥ १०-६॥
saṃsaktasya api naṣṭāni tava janmani janmani ॥ 10-6॥
PURPORT:
Dominions, dynasties, descendants, spouses,
corporeal bodies, luxuries and such transitory
phenomena have been lost to your being
and could not have been owned by you;
you were conditioned to be attached to them
and tried to cling to them birth after birth.
MEANING:
rājyam (राज्यम्) = dominion/dynasty/kingdom
sutāḥ (सुताः) = progeny (literal translation = sons)
kalatrāṇi (कलत्राणि) = spouses (literal translation = wives)
śarīrāṇi (शरीराणि) = corporeal bodies
sukhāni (सुखानि) = amenity/luxury/comforts
ca (च) = and ।
saṃsaktasya (संसक्तस्य) = attached dependently/yoked
api (अपि) = even
naṣṭāni (नष्टानि) = perished/wasted/lost
tava (तव) = of you
janmani janmani (जन्मनि जन्मनि) = birth after birth ॥ 10-6॥
COMMENT:
This verse has a direct reference to the idea of reincarnation and my humble opinion being that one might be able to read meaning into these lines even if one does not subscribe to the notion of reincarnation. There does not seem to be any unified clarity nor scientific understanding of rebirth from one life to another and I aver that we almost certainly can’t know anything about rebirth.
While the erstwhile formulations around rebirth involved and implied the presence of a soul that purportedly transmigrated from one physical body to another, the seeker is better served by the understanding that instead of an abiding, enduring soul, the sentient human (during their sojourn on this planet) acts more like a vessel that collects within themselves the ever-morphing cultural phenomena, truths, teachings, learnings and other lessons. This presents us with two possible choices; the first being the idea that all of the knowledge collected and wisdom (or ineptitude) garnered is incorporated and concretized within an enduring self and that self now moves to a new body after the death of the original. The second alternative being that reincarnation is simply the transmission of patterns, conveying of habits, transferring of mores and passing of values from one generation to the next. While the former (the illusion of an enduring self) does not have basis and is not tenable (as we have seen in this poem earlier), the latter - transmission of mores and a recurrence of shared patterns - can be thought of as the only plausible interpretation of reincarnation.
What we know for certain is that when we eventually die (and that is the one fact that we can be sure of), the only truth that can be posited and considered tenable is that the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements that constitute our bodies will be recycled into creatures sentient and artifacts non-sentient; we scatter as disparate components and merge back into this planet (and the universe at large) to be recycled over and over again. In this sense, one remains humbly transformed by this eventuality; indeed, we find intrinsic acceptance of the concept of reincarnation within this understanding.
Ultimately, designations like rebirth and reincarnation are concepts created by our peoples insofar as it relates to our past and our vain hope to be delivered intact into an unknown future - another form of clinging - this particular type of clinging apparently formulated by our self-models to somehow transcend impermanence and death. The seeker that strives to reach beyond such self-identification with the past grant to themselves the innate freedom to develop a mindset of clarity and harmony. The alternative is to remain in bleak doubt on the cusp between clarity in being and confusion in non-being.
In closing, it can be understood that reincarnation or rebirth isn’t something that happens to us after we die. We are transformed every second, dependent on multiple interlinked conditions that make our continued existence possible. Rebirth is something that happens to us every instant of every day.
Thursday, February 6, 2020
AVG 10.5
Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 5
त्वमेकश्चेतनः शुद्धो जडं विश्वमसत्तथा ।
अविद्यापि न किञ्चित्सा का बुभुत्सा तथापि ते ॥ १०-५॥
PURPORT:
You are unified with reality; of pristine awareness
and undifferentiated. The universe as
perceived is inert and passive and only
hallucinatory. In this sense, you are not moved
by those sensations that appear to be real
but are created within your mind. Thus, how can
the curiosity to know the extremes of pleasure
or of discontent be found within you?
TRANSLITERATION:
त्वम् एकः चेतनः शुद्धः जडम् विश्वम् असत् तथा ।
tvam ekaḥ cetanaḥ śuddhaḥ jaḍam viśvam asat tathā ।
अविद्या अपि न किञ्चित् सा का बुभुत्सा तथा अपि ते ॥ १०-५॥
avidyā api na kiñcit sā kā bubhutsā tathā api te ॥ 10-5॥
MEANING:
tvam (त्वम्) = you
ekaḥ (एकः) = one/unified/indissoluble
cetanaḥ (चेतनः) = pure awareness (literal meaning 'consciousness/intelligence')
śuddhaḥ (शुद्धः) = pure/pristine
jaḍam (जडम्)* = inert/passive/sans intelligence*
viśvam (विश्वम्) = universe
asat (असत्) = unreal/hallucinatory (sensations that appear to be real but are created within the mind)
tathā (तथा) = and ।
avidyā (अविद्या) = ignorance (as being in a state of being unaware)
api (अपि) = also
na (न) = not (as in 'not ignorant' and not being taken up by those sensations that appear to be real but are created within the mind)
kiñcit (किञ्चित्) = anything
sā (सा) = that
kā (का) = what
bubhutsā (बुभुत्सा) = curiosity about/desire to know
tathā (तथा) = likewise
api (अपि) = also
te (ते) = your ॥ 10-5॥
COMMENT:
Ashtavakra here asserts two facets of awareness – one subtle and one overt; the subtle aspect is that awareness that allows for the seeker to attain a measure of tranquility is always inherent within the seeker and this awareness can be realized by a process of self-inquiry and by living an examined life that is unbiased. The overt aspect of this verse teaches that ignorance (referred to as avidyā (अविद्या) in the verse) is non-existent within the one who has this measure of tranquility.
The one who is tranquil will have understood the true nature of the objects within the world without the yearning for additional sensory experiences. Within the context of this verse, avidyā refers to a misunderstanding of the nature of reality and more specifically, about the non-discoverability the self. In this sense, it is not lack of information (as is traditionally connoted by the word 'ignorance' or avidyā), but a conditioned perspective of the world intrinsic to the individual that prompts the individual to perceive and assign essence/basis/spirit to phenomena that may be conventionally real but ultimately empty of any such essence or spirit. This does not stem from a willful rejection of the nature of reality, but more from a misperception as a result of past conditioning. One understands that avidyaa (I would term it as 'non-insight' of the true nature of reality) is akin to a seeker mistaking conventional reality as the only conceivable reality and to misidentify entities as fundamentally cloaked within permanence (when impermanence is really the only constant within our lives). Non-insight is also the sense of conferring the notion of 'self' upon objects that are ultimately empty of any underlying stratum that abides forever. One also understands that the idea of avidyaa mentioned here (rather than the traditional concept of sin as speculated in certain spiritual traditions) is the seat for unhappiness within the individual as the individual confers spirit or self within objects that do not have any such abiding nature within themselves.
NOTE:
*In relation to Ashtavakra’s assertion (he uses the word jaḍam (जडम्)) that the universe is potentially devoid of information and by translation inert and non-intelligent, the following is a presumptive speculation (albeit hopeful) about the disparate nature of entropy, the increasing volume of information generated by sentients and my own way of reconciling the two in the far future.
Entropy increases as the universe ages. This means that the total volume of all useful information that has been generated in the far future will be at best be composed of disparate bits of information at very large distances from each other. Therefore, one surmises that while a large amount of information content might be out there, the assembling and assimilation (as in collecting and constructing the bits to make sense) of the same may well-nigh be impossible. Contrast this with the fact that as sentient beings evolve, the sum total of all information created and added to the universe is constantly increasing as sentients go through the process of evolution, adaptation and improvisation - in fact, some people might explain the classical concept of reincarnation this way - where the useful information left behind by sentient beings is added to the ever growing volume of information already amassed and the information generated by us is one way we may be remembered/reincarnated.
Reconciling these two thoughts was hard for me (the futility inherent in the idea that the juggernaut of entropy marches unstoppably and the hope and promise implicit in recovering information generated thus far in the future). This made me think of branes (short for membranes) – the hypothesis that there are other universes out there with differing sets of fundamental physical constants that may either be viable, or, be on the edge of viability or, non-viable; we sentients seem to have made the ‘viability-cut’ due to a nice blend of fundamental constants that interplay well to create structures like you and I.
If we presume that each of many universes (one of which is this particular universe that you and I inhabit where the constants align to permit life) represents a thin slice of a great whole, maybe the disparate information that we sentients have generated will at some point of time in the far future find their way into another brane where the physical constants differ by appropriate degrees that allow for the information to be reconstituted (in part or whole). If this speculative scenario manifests, it then becomes somewhat comforting to think that the information that we create and add onto the universe may have a chance of being assimilated and all of our thoughts and ideas rejuvenated again.
त्वमेकश्चेतनः शुद्धो जडं विश्वमसत्तथा ।
अविद्यापि न किञ्चित्सा का बुभुत्सा तथापि ते ॥ १०-५॥
PURPORT:
You are unified with reality; of pristine awareness
and undifferentiated. The universe as
perceived is inert and passive and only
hallucinatory. In this sense, you are not moved
by those sensations that appear to be real
but are created within your mind. Thus, how can
the curiosity to know the extremes of pleasure
or of discontent be found within you?
TRANSLITERATION:
त्वम् एकः चेतनः शुद्धः जडम् विश्वम् असत् तथा ।
tvam ekaḥ cetanaḥ śuddhaḥ jaḍam viśvam asat tathā ।
अविद्या अपि न किञ्चित् सा का बुभुत्सा तथा अपि ते ॥ १०-५॥
avidyā api na kiñcit sā kā bubhutsā tathā api te ॥ 10-5॥
MEANING:
tvam (त्वम्) = you
ekaḥ (एकः) = one/unified/indissoluble
cetanaḥ (चेतनः) = pure awareness (literal meaning 'consciousness/intelligence')
śuddhaḥ (शुद्धः) = pure/pristine
jaḍam (जडम्)* = inert/passive/sans intelligence*
viśvam (विश्वम्) = universe
asat (असत्) = unreal/hallucinatory (sensations that appear to be real but are created within the mind)
tathā (तथा) = and ।
avidyā (अविद्या) = ignorance (as being in a state of being unaware)
api (अपि) = also
na (न) = not (as in 'not ignorant' and not being taken up by those sensations that appear to be real but are created within the mind)
kiñcit (किञ्चित्) = anything
sā (सा) = that
kā (का) = what
bubhutsā (बुभुत्सा) = curiosity about/desire to know
tathā (तथा) = likewise
api (अपि) = also
te (ते) = your ॥ 10-5॥
COMMENT:
Ashtavakra here asserts two facets of awareness – one subtle and one overt; the subtle aspect is that awareness that allows for the seeker to attain a measure of tranquility is always inherent within the seeker and this awareness can be realized by a process of self-inquiry and by living an examined life that is unbiased. The overt aspect of this verse teaches that ignorance (referred to as avidyā (अविद्या) in the verse) is non-existent within the one who has this measure of tranquility.
The one who is tranquil will have understood the true nature of the objects within the world without the yearning for additional sensory experiences. Within the context of this verse, avidyā refers to a misunderstanding of the nature of reality and more specifically, about the non-discoverability the self. In this sense, it is not lack of information (as is traditionally connoted by the word 'ignorance' or avidyā), but a conditioned perspective of the world intrinsic to the individual that prompts the individual to perceive and assign essence/basis/spirit to phenomena that may be conventionally real but ultimately empty of any such essence or spirit. This does not stem from a willful rejection of the nature of reality, but more from a misperception as a result of past conditioning. One understands that avidyaa (I would term it as 'non-insight' of the true nature of reality) is akin to a seeker mistaking conventional reality as the only conceivable reality and to misidentify entities as fundamentally cloaked within permanence (when impermanence is really the only constant within our lives). Non-insight is also the sense of conferring the notion of 'self' upon objects that are ultimately empty of any underlying stratum that abides forever. One also understands that the idea of avidyaa mentioned here (rather than the traditional concept of sin as speculated in certain spiritual traditions) is the seat for unhappiness within the individual as the individual confers spirit or self within objects that do not have any such abiding nature within themselves.
NOTE:
*In relation to Ashtavakra’s assertion (he uses the word jaḍam (जडम्)) that the universe is potentially devoid of information and by translation inert and non-intelligent, the following is a presumptive speculation (albeit hopeful) about the disparate nature of entropy, the increasing volume of information generated by sentients and my own way of reconciling the two in the far future.
Entropy increases as the universe ages. This means that the total volume of all useful information that has been generated in the far future will be at best be composed of disparate bits of information at very large distances from each other. Therefore, one surmises that while a large amount of information content might be out there, the assembling and assimilation (as in collecting and constructing the bits to make sense) of the same may well-nigh be impossible. Contrast this with the fact that as sentient beings evolve, the sum total of all information created and added to the universe is constantly increasing as sentients go through the process of evolution, adaptation and improvisation - in fact, some people might explain the classical concept of reincarnation this way - where the useful information left behind by sentient beings is added to the ever growing volume of information already amassed and the information generated by us is one way we may be remembered/reincarnated.
Reconciling these two thoughts was hard for me (the futility inherent in the idea that the juggernaut of entropy marches unstoppably and the hope and promise implicit in recovering information generated thus far in the future). This made me think of branes (short for membranes) – the hypothesis that there are other universes out there with differing sets of fundamental physical constants that may either be viable, or, be on the edge of viability or, non-viable; we sentients seem to have made the ‘viability-cut’ due to a nice blend of fundamental constants that interplay well to create structures like you and I.
If we presume that each of many universes (one of which is this particular universe that you and I inhabit where the constants align to permit life) represents a thin slice of a great whole, maybe the disparate information that we sentients have generated will at some point of time in the far future find their way into another brane where the physical constants differ by appropriate degrees that allow for the information to be reconstituted (in part or whole). If this speculative scenario manifests, it then becomes somewhat comforting to think that the information that we create and add onto the universe may have a chance of being assimilated and all of our thoughts and ideas rejuvenated again.
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
AVG 10.4
Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 4
तृष्णामात्रात्मको बन्धस्तन्नाशो मोक्ष उच्यते ।
भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण प्राप्तितुष्टिर्मुहुर्मुहुः ॥ १०-४॥
PURPORT:
Attachment is to be yoked solely
to desires borne within the mind.
Emancipation is the severance of the same.
It is only by dispassion to the world of
change and circumstance that one can
recognize the serenity of self-awareness
time and time again.
TRANSLITERATION:
तृष्णामात्रात्मकः बन्धः तन्नाशः मोक्षः उच्यते ।
tṛṣṇāmātrātmakaḥ bandhaḥ tannāśaḥ mokṣaḥ ucyate ।
भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण प्राप्तितुष्टिः मुहुः मुहुः ॥ १०-४॥
bhavāsaṃsaktimātreṇa prāptituṣṭiḥ muhuḥ muhuḥ ॥ 10-4॥
MEANING:
tṛṣṇāmātrātmakaḥ (तृष्णामात्रात्मकः) = consisting solely of craving/desire (compound of tṛṣṇā (तृष्णा) meaning 'desire/craving/yearning' and mātra (मात्र) meaning 'simply or merely/being nothing but' and atmakaḥ (अत्मकः) meaning 'of itself')
bandhaḥ (बन्धः) = attachment/bondage/fettered
tannāśaḥ (तन्नाशः) = destruction of that (the reference to 'that' is as in 'of desire')
mokṣaḥ (मोक्षः) = emancipation/deliverance/liberation
ucyate (उच्यते) = is said to be ।
bhavāsaṃsaktimātreṇa (भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण) = solely by non-attachment to the phenomenal world (compound of bhava (भव) meaning 'world/that phenomenal domain of circumstance and change' asaṃsakti (असंसक्ति) meaning 'not joined/not attached/state of being detached' and mātreṇa (मात्रेण) meaning 'only by/solely by')
prāptituṣṭiḥ (प्राप्तितुष्टिः) = happiness from accomplishing/satisfaction from attaining (compound of prāpti (प्राप्ति) meaning 'obtainment/achievement/attained' and tuṣṭiḥ (तुष्टिः) meaning 'satisfaction/joy')
muhuḥ muhuḥ (मुहुः मुहुः) = time and time again/continually/regularly ॥ 10-4॥
COMMENT:
The import behind the previous verse and this remains the same; the themes of dispassion, the manacles of desire that muddle our thoughts and our thoughts themselves being drawn towards sense objects mediated by our conditioning. Of course, the awareness that results from the clarity that comes from a dispassionate understanding of entities while being grounded within the present moment is the focus of the seeker.
Repetition is a common theme across spiritual traditions especially when the writer wants to convey the importance of a concept and these verses are no different. Rather than comment on similar themes, I wanted to take this opportunity to dwell a bit on the following that seem to make my nascent understanding clearer. In addition, this also summarizes some themes that have crossed my mind while working on the first nine chapters. Again, these are paths that have been useful for me, and, of course, to each their own.
Our bodies are no different from any other entity out there - like a clod of dust or an incandescent electric bulb, all we are is just fortuitous (albeit temporal) collections of atoms and molecules with an emergent condition that we call consciousness or cognition.
To never feel absolutely certain of anything is fundamental to understanding humility and a reminder that there is much more unknown, uncertain and unclear than the known. On the same theme of humility, one’s undertaking to overwhelm opposition cannot be accomplished by force or fiat; the perceived satisfaction that one seemingly obtains by overcoming resistance through fiat is illusory.
Awareness results when one strives to overcome resistance by reasoned and logical arguments that is rooted within compassion and empathy for the other's station in the world.
No entity arises from itself, from another, from both itself and another, or from neither itself nor another.
All existent entities, ideas and phenomena are 'empty'; meaning they don't cause or define themselves, but arise and cease due to underlying conditions that are themselves dependently linked to further substratal conditions. That said, under analysis, incongruity and unreasonableness can be found within even the most analytically balanced and meticulously constructed positions - these positions and systems are there just to guide us - ultimately, one just have to find themselves.
All thinking assumes groupings that ultimately channel to defining 'name-and-form' and 'difference', but one understands that such groupings have no foundational referent as an essence within any such 'name-and-form' entities or opposing aberrations thereof. That said, if one is forced to choose between objections that are deemed rational and perceptive and concessions that are uninvolved and yielding, choose on the side of the former as the former signifies a deeper level of engagement and understanding with the other.
Linguistic expression, vocabulary and associated concepts do not refer to actual existent things. All languages that we have refined over the course of evolution recursively refers to conceptual formulations of itself.
We cannot help but live within the cultural conditioning that we have been imprinted with - if we step outside of the conditioned channels, we will either be labelled impractical or will find ourselves to be non-functioning members of society. That said, never contrive to show obeisance nor tribute to dogma or doctrine nor to preceptors who mention that their tenets and canons are the only way forward, for, there will always be a new tenet, a new gospel and a new preceptor who will have an alternative.
Thoughts within our minds are just electrical signals correlated with the manifestational equivalents of name-and-form representations that have been ingrained within us as a result of cultural conditioning. Consciousness is our process of regurgitation and presentation of information from a repository of ‘world-thought’ that keeps getting passed down.
All of our experiential problems in dealing with the phenomenal world stem from our innate need to latch onto our conditioned beliefs, conjecture and suppositions. Envy in any way, shape or form is an accelerant to the fire of desire and only serves to concretize the prejudicial conditioning that we have been culturally subjected to. Be devotedly truthful even if that path is unwieldy, embarrassing or cumbersome; for, obscuring the same by design or by accident only makes the path to awareness prejudicial, and in the long run, unmanageable.
तृष्णामात्रात्मको बन्धस्तन्नाशो मोक्ष उच्यते ।
भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण प्राप्तितुष्टिर्मुहुर्मुहुः ॥ १०-४॥
PURPORT:
Attachment is to be yoked solely
to desires borne within the mind.
Emancipation is the severance of the same.
It is only by dispassion to the world of
change and circumstance that one can
recognize the serenity of self-awareness
time and time again.
TRANSLITERATION:
तृष्णामात्रात्मकः बन्धः तन्नाशः मोक्षः उच्यते ।
tṛṣṇāmātrātmakaḥ bandhaḥ tannāśaḥ mokṣaḥ ucyate ।
भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण प्राप्तितुष्टिः मुहुः मुहुः ॥ १०-४॥
bhavāsaṃsaktimātreṇa prāptituṣṭiḥ muhuḥ muhuḥ ॥ 10-4॥
MEANING:
tṛṣṇāmātrātmakaḥ (तृष्णामात्रात्मकः) = consisting solely of craving/desire (compound of tṛṣṇā (तृष्णा) meaning 'desire/craving/yearning' and mātra (मात्र) meaning 'simply or merely/being nothing but' and atmakaḥ (अत्मकः) meaning 'of itself')
bandhaḥ (बन्धः) = attachment/bondage/fettered
tannāśaḥ (तन्नाशः) = destruction of that (the reference to 'that' is as in 'of desire')
mokṣaḥ (मोक्षः) = emancipation/deliverance/liberation
ucyate (उच्यते) = is said to be ।
bhavāsaṃsaktimātreṇa (भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण) = solely by non-attachment to the phenomenal world (compound of bhava (भव) meaning 'world/that phenomenal domain of circumstance and change' asaṃsakti (असंसक्ति) meaning 'not joined/not attached/state of being detached' and mātreṇa (मात्रेण) meaning 'only by/solely by')
prāptituṣṭiḥ (प्राप्तितुष्टिः) = happiness from accomplishing/satisfaction from attaining (compound of prāpti (प्राप्ति) meaning 'obtainment/achievement/attained' and tuṣṭiḥ (तुष्टिः) meaning 'satisfaction/joy')
muhuḥ muhuḥ (मुहुः मुहुः) = time and time again/continually/regularly ॥ 10-4॥
COMMENT:
The import behind the previous verse and this remains the same; the themes of dispassion, the manacles of desire that muddle our thoughts and our thoughts themselves being drawn towards sense objects mediated by our conditioning. Of course, the awareness that results from the clarity that comes from a dispassionate understanding of entities while being grounded within the present moment is the focus of the seeker.
Repetition is a common theme across spiritual traditions especially when the writer wants to convey the importance of a concept and these verses are no different. Rather than comment on similar themes, I wanted to take this opportunity to dwell a bit on the following that seem to make my nascent understanding clearer. In addition, this also summarizes some themes that have crossed my mind while working on the first nine chapters. Again, these are paths that have been useful for me, and, of course, to each their own.
Our bodies are no different from any other entity out there - like a clod of dust or an incandescent electric bulb, all we are is just fortuitous (albeit temporal) collections of atoms and molecules with an emergent condition that we call consciousness or cognition.
To never feel absolutely certain of anything is fundamental to understanding humility and a reminder that there is much more unknown, uncertain and unclear than the known. On the same theme of humility, one’s undertaking to overwhelm opposition cannot be accomplished by force or fiat; the perceived satisfaction that one seemingly obtains by overcoming resistance through fiat is illusory.
Awareness results when one strives to overcome resistance by reasoned and logical arguments that is rooted within compassion and empathy for the other's station in the world.
No entity arises from itself, from another, from both itself and another, or from neither itself nor another.
All existent entities, ideas and phenomena are 'empty'; meaning they don't cause or define themselves, but arise and cease due to underlying conditions that are themselves dependently linked to further substratal conditions. That said, under analysis, incongruity and unreasonableness can be found within even the most analytically balanced and meticulously constructed positions - these positions and systems are there just to guide us - ultimately, one just have to find themselves.
All thinking assumes groupings that ultimately channel to defining 'name-and-form' and 'difference', but one understands that such groupings have no foundational referent as an essence within any such 'name-and-form' entities or opposing aberrations thereof. That said, if one is forced to choose between objections that are deemed rational and perceptive and concessions that are uninvolved and yielding, choose on the side of the former as the former signifies a deeper level of engagement and understanding with the other.
Linguistic expression, vocabulary and associated concepts do not refer to actual existent things. All languages that we have refined over the course of evolution recursively refers to conceptual formulations of itself.
We cannot help but live within the cultural conditioning that we have been imprinted with - if we step outside of the conditioned channels, we will either be labelled impractical or will find ourselves to be non-functioning members of society. That said, never contrive to show obeisance nor tribute to dogma or doctrine nor to preceptors who mention that their tenets and canons are the only way forward, for, there will always be a new tenet, a new gospel and a new preceptor who will have an alternative.
Thoughts within our minds are just electrical signals correlated with the manifestational equivalents of name-and-form representations that have been ingrained within us as a result of cultural conditioning. Consciousness is our process of regurgitation and presentation of information from a repository of ‘world-thought’ that keeps getting passed down.
All of our experiential problems in dealing with the phenomenal world stem from our innate need to latch onto our conditioned beliefs, conjecture and suppositions. Envy in any way, shape or form is an accelerant to the fire of desire and only serves to concretize the prejudicial conditioning that we have been culturally subjected to. Be devotedly truthful even if that path is unwieldy, embarrassing or cumbersome; for, obscuring the same by design or by accident only makes the path to awareness prejudicial, and in the long run, unmanageable.
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
AVG 10.3
Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 3
यत्र यत्र भवेत्तृष्णा संसारं विद्धि तत्र वै ।
प्रौढवैराग्यमाश्रित्य वीततृष्णः सुखी भव ॥ १०-३॥
PURPORT:
Recognize that wherever there is craving
and attachment, the stream of the
phenomenal world flows there. Adopting
a mindset of strong willed dispassion,
absolve from the want of objects desired
for by thought and find happiness.
TRANSLITERATION:
यत्र यत्र भवेत् तृष्णा संसारम् विद्धि तत्र वै ।
yatra yatra bhavet tṛṣṇā saṃsāram viddhi tatra vai ।
प्रौढवैराग्यम् आश्रित्य वीततृष्णः सुखी भव ॥ १०-३॥
prauḍhavairāgyam āśritya vītatṛṣṇaḥ sukhī bhava ॥ 10-3॥
MEANING:
yatra yatra (यत्र यत्र) = wherever
bhavet (भवेत्) = may come to be
tṛṣṇā (तृष्णा) = craving/hankering/desire
saṃsāram (संसारम्) = stream of the phenomenal world
viddhi (विद्धि) = know thus/you should know
tatra (तत्र) = there
vai (वै) = indeed ।
prauḍhavairāgyam (प्रौढवैराग्यम्) = strong willed dispassion (compound of prauḍha (प्रौढ) meaning 'strong willed/firm/absolute' and vairāgyam (वैराग्यम्) meaning 'dispassion/non-attachment [to objects of enjoyment]')
āśritya (आश्रित्य) = endorsing/accepting/adopting
vītatṛṣṇaḥ (वीततृष्णः) = absolved from craving/free of desire (compound of vītatṛṣṇaḥ (वीत) meaning 'free of/absolved' and tṛṣṇaḥ (तृष्णः) meaning 'craving/desire/hankering')
sukhī (सुखी) = content/tranquil/happy
bhava (भव) = become ॥ 10-3॥
COMMENT:
We have seen earlier in this chapter that the default temperament of a mind that has been conditioned by cultural forces is to dwell and assign fixity to thoughts and actions that closely mirror the prior conditioning that the individual has experienced. This mindset of attachment is referred to variously as grasping, clinging, aversion, greed or craving. The state of attachment in response to a phenomenal experience can manifest itself either in physical transformations of the individual or in mental shifts of perspective resulting in an alteration of the emotional state of the individual. In most cases, the change is a physiological or a psychological stimulus indicating that the individual covets more of that experience that provided for the sense of pleasure or alternatively, none of that experience that caused a sense of hurt. Put another way, the nature of the experience and our somatic and mental states wanting more or less of the same creates either an increase in the underlying sense of passion or an increase of the latent feeling of aversion leading to strengthened conditioning.
Ashtavakra gently informs that adopting a mature disposition of dispassion that will help absolve the constant amassing of objects sought for by thought is the way to happiness. The dispassion that Ashtavakra mentions here is not an anarchic perspective of passion or desire. Rather, dispassion is that sense of awareness that comes about from clearly understanding the present moment as we encounter the present in real time - not dwelling in the past nor worrying about the future.
A state of dispassion cannot be summoned up from our being; rather, a mindset of dispassion is cultivated and arises when focus is trained towards the present state of happening as one starts to put away and not dwell on those discursive thoughts that are tied to conditioning. In addition, it should be noted that the word 'dispassion', also elicits a tendency on the part of the seeker to fall into a skeptical mindset and associate aspects of apathy, somber stoicism, indifference, aloofness, non-participation or shunning with this feeling. Far from this, dispassion is the mindful commitment to the present moment with complete acceptance of outcomes unconstrained by thoughts that constantly discriminate between alternatives and provoke choice. The insight gained leads to action on the part of the individual to steer away from a mindset of 'what is in it for me' to a mindset of 'I am at peace doing this' in the performance of their activities. The mindset itself is ego-less, the disposition calm and the thoughts not swayed by conditioning.
यत्र यत्र भवेत्तृष्णा संसारं विद्धि तत्र वै ।
प्रौढवैराग्यमाश्रित्य वीततृष्णः सुखी भव ॥ १०-३॥
PURPORT:
Recognize that wherever there is craving
and attachment, the stream of the
phenomenal world flows there. Adopting
a mindset of strong willed dispassion,
absolve from the want of objects desired
for by thought and find happiness.
TRANSLITERATION:
यत्र यत्र भवेत् तृष्णा संसारम् विद्धि तत्र वै ।
yatra yatra bhavet tṛṣṇā saṃsāram viddhi tatra vai ।
प्रौढवैराग्यम् आश्रित्य वीततृष्णः सुखी भव ॥ १०-३॥
prauḍhavairāgyam āśritya vītatṛṣṇaḥ sukhī bhava ॥ 10-3॥
MEANING:
yatra yatra (यत्र यत्र) = wherever
bhavet (भवेत्) = may come to be
tṛṣṇā (तृष्णा) = craving/hankering/desire
saṃsāram (संसारम्) = stream of the phenomenal world
viddhi (विद्धि) = know thus/you should know
tatra (तत्र) = there
vai (वै) = indeed ।
prauḍhavairāgyam (प्रौढवैराग्यम्) = strong willed dispassion (compound of prauḍha (प्रौढ) meaning 'strong willed/firm/absolute' and vairāgyam (वैराग्यम्) meaning 'dispassion/non-attachment [to objects of enjoyment]')
āśritya (आश्रित्य) = endorsing/accepting/adopting
vītatṛṣṇaḥ (वीततृष्णः) = absolved from craving/free of desire (compound of vītatṛṣṇaḥ (वीत) meaning 'free of/absolved' and tṛṣṇaḥ (तृष्णः) meaning 'craving/desire/hankering')
sukhī (सुखी) = content/tranquil/happy
bhava (भव) = become ॥ 10-3॥
COMMENT:
We have seen earlier in this chapter that the default temperament of a mind that has been conditioned by cultural forces is to dwell and assign fixity to thoughts and actions that closely mirror the prior conditioning that the individual has experienced. This mindset of attachment is referred to variously as grasping, clinging, aversion, greed or craving. The state of attachment in response to a phenomenal experience can manifest itself either in physical transformations of the individual or in mental shifts of perspective resulting in an alteration of the emotional state of the individual. In most cases, the change is a physiological or a psychological stimulus indicating that the individual covets more of that experience that provided for the sense of pleasure or alternatively, none of that experience that caused a sense of hurt. Put another way, the nature of the experience and our somatic and mental states wanting more or less of the same creates either an increase in the underlying sense of passion or an increase of the latent feeling of aversion leading to strengthened conditioning.
Ashtavakra gently informs that adopting a mature disposition of dispassion that will help absolve the constant amassing of objects sought for by thought is the way to happiness. The dispassion that Ashtavakra mentions here is not an anarchic perspective of passion or desire. Rather, dispassion is that sense of awareness that comes about from clearly understanding the present moment as we encounter the present in real time - not dwelling in the past nor worrying about the future.
A state of dispassion cannot be summoned up from our being; rather, a mindset of dispassion is cultivated and arises when focus is trained towards the present state of happening as one starts to put away and not dwell on those discursive thoughts that are tied to conditioning. In addition, it should be noted that the word 'dispassion', also elicits a tendency on the part of the seeker to fall into a skeptical mindset and associate aspects of apathy, somber stoicism, indifference, aloofness, non-participation or shunning with this feeling. Far from this, dispassion is the mindful commitment to the present moment with complete acceptance of outcomes unconstrained by thoughts that constantly discriminate between alternatives and provoke choice. The insight gained leads to action on the part of the individual to steer away from a mindset of 'what is in it for me' to a mindset of 'I am at peace doing this' in the performance of their activities. The mindset itself is ego-less, the disposition calm and the thoughts not swayed by conditioning.
Monday, February 3, 2020
AVG 10.2
Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 2
स्वप्नेन्द्रजालवत् पश्य दिनानि त्रीणि पञ्च वा ।
मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसम्पदः ॥ १०-२॥
PURPORT:
Perceive gifts, property, wealth and
even family and friends and other
such good fortunes as real within a
conventional sense but, empty of
any inherent essence that confers to
them immortality; just like the perceived
images within one's dreams. This spectacle
recognized by our minds is but a temporal
slice of our manifest awareness.
TRANSLITERATION:
स्वप्न इन्द्रजालवत् पश्य दिनानि त्रीणि पञ्च वा ।
svapna indrajālavat paśya dināni trīṇi pañca vā ।
मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसम्पदः ॥ १०-२॥
mitrakṣetradhanāgāradāradāyādisampadaḥ ॥ 10-2॥
MEANING:
svapna (स्वप्न) = dream
indrajālavat (इन्द्रजालवत्) = like a hallucinatory visual impression
paśya (पश्य) = having seen
dināni (दिनानि) = days
trīṇi (त्रीणि) = three
pañca (पञ्च) = five
vā (वा) = or ।
mitrakṣetradhanāgāradāradāyādisampadaḥ (मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसम्पदः) = friends, lands, wealth, dwellings, wives, gifts and such other good fortunes (compound of mitra (मित्र) meaning 'friends' and kṣetra (क्षेत्र) meaning 'lands/provinces/fields' and dhana (धन) meaning 'wealth/affluence' and agāra (अगार) meaning 'house/dwelling' and dāra (दार) meaning 'wife/spouse' and dāya (दाय) meaning 'gift/present/giving' and ādi (आदि) meaning 'and such other/etcetera' and sampadaḥ (सम्पदः) meaning 'good fortune')॥ 10-2॥
COMMENT:
The thoughts that arise within our minds are singularly autonomous processes that are part and parcel of our evolutionary biology; the arising of thoughts, the enduring of the same and cessation thereof is as independent a process as is breathing or the heart pumping – they happen on their own volition. The arising of the thoughts themselves and the phenomenal entities that thoughts associate themselves with (Ashtavakra gives some examples that one must not read too literally) may not be the problem in and of itself. Individual responsibility and the power of restraint lies in how we translate thoughts into action (or the lack of action as appropriate). While the individual may not be accountable for the thoughts that arise within the themselves, the individual is singularly accountable for their actions in response to the thought.
The movement or the action undertaken by the individual in response to thought is sometimes referred to as free-will or self-expression - in that sense, all individuals are free to act and react (impulsively or otherwise) based upon the current trajectory and velocity of their thoughts, but understand that once the action has been brought to bear from the mental plane to the physical, the action undertaken tends to define its own trajectory and velocity dependent upon and influenced by the trajectories and velocities of various other actions and choices that have been propagated by other entities (individuals, natural forces and other random occurrences that may or may not resonate with the individuals choices), the ensemble of which determine the outcome.
The response of any natural system to a perturbation is to go back to the natural state of equilibrium preferred by the system. In the same sense, while the individual's action itself may be construed as being presented based upon the will of the individual, the outcome may or may not be dependent upon the will of the taker-of-the-action; the outcome is dependent and interlinked upon the combined set of actions and forces that form the larger context and environment within which the individual acts. In this sense, acting upon thought and having the result of such actions conform to the expectations set by the ego may not be expected to resonate as we live within a dependent framework that is based upon factors, choices and actions that are interlinked and inter-dependent.
स्वप्नेन्द्रजालवत् पश्य दिनानि त्रीणि पञ्च वा ।
मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसम्पदः ॥ १०-२॥
PURPORT:
Perceive gifts, property, wealth and
even family and friends and other
such good fortunes as real within a
conventional sense but, empty of
any inherent essence that confers to
them immortality; just like the perceived
images within one's dreams. This spectacle
recognized by our minds is but a temporal
slice of our manifest awareness.
TRANSLITERATION:
स्वप्न इन्द्रजालवत् पश्य दिनानि त्रीणि पञ्च वा ।
svapna indrajālavat paśya dināni trīṇi pañca vā ।
मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसम्पदः ॥ १०-२॥
mitrakṣetradhanāgāradāradāyādisampadaḥ ॥ 10-2॥
MEANING:
svapna (स्वप्न) = dream
indrajālavat (इन्द्रजालवत्) = like a hallucinatory visual impression
paśya (पश्य) = having seen
dināni (दिनानि) = days
trīṇi (त्रीणि) = three
pañca (पञ्च) = five
vā (वा) = or ।
mitrakṣetradhanāgāradāradāyādisampadaḥ (मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसम्पदः) = friends, lands, wealth, dwellings, wives, gifts and such other good fortunes (compound of mitra (मित्र) meaning 'friends' and kṣetra (क्षेत्र) meaning 'lands/provinces/fields' and dhana (धन) meaning 'wealth/affluence' and agāra (अगार) meaning 'house/dwelling' and dāra (दार) meaning 'wife/spouse' and dāya (दाय) meaning 'gift/present/giving' and ādi (आदि) meaning 'and such other/etcetera' and sampadaḥ (सम्पदः) meaning 'good fortune')॥ 10-2॥
COMMENT:
The thoughts that arise within our minds are singularly autonomous processes that are part and parcel of our evolutionary biology; the arising of thoughts, the enduring of the same and cessation thereof is as independent a process as is breathing or the heart pumping – they happen on their own volition. The arising of the thoughts themselves and the phenomenal entities that thoughts associate themselves with (Ashtavakra gives some examples that one must not read too literally) may not be the problem in and of itself. Individual responsibility and the power of restraint lies in how we translate thoughts into action (or the lack of action as appropriate). While the individual may not be accountable for the thoughts that arise within the themselves, the individual is singularly accountable for their actions in response to the thought.
The movement or the action undertaken by the individual in response to thought is sometimes referred to as free-will or self-expression - in that sense, all individuals are free to act and react (impulsively or otherwise) based upon the current trajectory and velocity of their thoughts, but understand that once the action has been brought to bear from the mental plane to the physical, the action undertaken tends to define its own trajectory and velocity dependent upon and influenced by the trajectories and velocities of various other actions and choices that have been propagated by other entities (individuals, natural forces and other random occurrences that may or may not resonate with the individuals choices), the ensemble of which determine the outcome.
The response of any natural system to a perturbation is to go back to the natural state of equilibrium preferred by the system. In the same sense, while the individual's action itself may be construed as being presented based upon the will of the individual, the outcome may or may not be dependent upon the will of the taker-of-the-action; the outcome is dependent and interlinked upon the combined set of actions and forces that form the larger context and environment within which the individual acts. In this sense, acting upon thought and having the result of such actions conform to the expectations set by the ego may not be expected to resonate as we live within a dependent framework that is based upon factors, choices and actions that are interlinked and inter-dependent.
AVG 10.1
Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 1
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
विहाय वैरिणं काममर्थं चानर्थसंकुलम् ।
धर्ममप्येतयोर्हेतुं सर्वत्रानादरं कुरु ॥ १०-१॥
PURPORT:
Casting off as one does an antagonist,
cast off desires and the want for sensual
gratifications. So also, relinquish the acquisition
and preservation of wealth; a process visited
by hardship. Similarly, give up those moral
practices whose objective was to attain these
desires and worldly riches. In transcending
desires, riches and even mores, you attain
your own self: dispassionate, impartial, choiceless.
TRANSLITERATION:
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
aṣṭāvakra uvāca ॥
विहाय वैरिणम् कामम् अर्थम् च अनर्थसंकुलम् ।
vihāya vairiṇam kāmam artham ca anarthasaṃkulam ।
धर्मम् अपि एतयोः हेतुम् सर्वत्र अनादरम् कुरु ॥ १०-१॥
dharmam api etayoḥ hetum sarvatra anādaram kuru ॥ 10-1॥
MEANING:
aṣṭāvakra (अष्टावक्र) = Aṣṭāvakra
uvāca (उवाच) = said ॥
vihāya (विहाय) = relinquishing/repudiating
vairiṇam (वैरिणम्) = adversary/antagonist
kāmam (कामम्) = desire
artham (अर्थम्) = worldly riches and abundance/temporal prosperity
ca (च) = and
anarthasaṃkulam (अनर्थसंकुलम्) = mixed with hardship and difficulty (compound of anartha (अनर्थ) meaning 'loss/scarcity' and saṃkulam (संकुलम्) meaning 'combined with/mixed with/densely abounding in') ।
dharmam (धर्मम्) = good work and deeds attended to with an awareness of the present circumstances (within the context of this verse, the meaning is construed as 'the practice of observance of prescriptive ceremonies whose aim is to amass worldly riches and attain the object of one's desire/yearning')
api (अपि) = also
etayoḥ (एतयोः) = of these two
hetum (हेतुम्) = the cause/the motive source
sarvatra (सर्वत्र) = everywhere
anādaram (अनादरम्) = dispassionately/impartial/choicelessly (literal meaning is 'apathy/indifference' which does not make sense with the context of Ashtavakra's purported message in this case)
kuru (कुरु) = do/achieve ॥ 10-1॥
COMMENT:
The focus of the tenth chapter is a meditation on desire; our innate sense of craving towards entities that appeal to our senses and our need to acquire said objects of desire. Desire and its manifestations like craving, hankering and clinging seem to obtain embodiment within our psyche sometime after our births and our formative years. A fundamentally evolutionary manifestation, desire in its incipient state can be understood to arise from a combination of our body's homeostatic regulation to maintain a state of good repair and the response of the body's hormonal mechanisms to reflexively and automatically calibrate chemical responses dependent upon that innate need for equilibrium.
The ego (that is absent at the time of birth) slowly crystallizes and takes shape as we mature. The addition of cultural impingements that take the form of language and the linguistic designations imputed on objects using name-and-form are additionally subsumed by the ego in securing a firmer foothold in the process of this crystallization.
The evolution based manifestation of our innate sense of self-regulation and homeostasis morphs itself over time and matures into the ever-growing sense of a need to want to pull things into the center of ones being so that the ego can continue to 'collect' (either in a physical sense or from an emotional perspective) the artifacts implicated by names-and-form and thus obtain a sense of permanence. This feeling of wanting to pull in objects that are culturally perceived to be of value to the center of ones being, assigning 'ownership' over the object and 'claiming' the object as one's own is a constant process. This cycle of aggregating externalities into the self-centered locus slowly shifts from one sense object to another as the ego and the self cannot find lasting contentment from just one sense object. The ego is unable to find the necessary satisfaction within any one single sense-object as the defining characteristic of sense objects is rooted within their impermanence.
It is in the nature of objects to arise, endure and to be ultimately recast; for this reason and this reason alone, the sense of desire, clinging and ownership keeps shifting from one sense object to the next; an unending search that can only be eschewed by what Ashtavakra calls for within this chapter - a sense of renunciation from objects of desire (Kama), relinquishment of actions whose aim is in the amassing of physical objects that appeal to the senses (Artha) and even casting off the practice of the observance of rituals and prescriptive ceremonies (Dharma) whose aim is to amass more of and dwell within the conventional realities presented by Kama and Artha.
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
विहाय वैरिणं काममर्थं चानर्थसंकुलम् ।
धर्ममप्येतयोर्हेतुं सर्वत्रानादरं कुरु ॥ १०-१॥
PURPORT:
Casting off as one does an antagonist,
cast off desires and the want for sensual
gratifications. So also, relinquish the acquisition
and preservation of wealth; a process visited
by hardship. Similarly, give up those moral
practices whose objective was to attain these
desires and worldly riches. In transcending
desires, riches and even mores, you attain
your own self: dispassionate, impartial, choiceless.
TRANSLITERATION:
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
aṣṭāvakra uvāca ॥
विहाय वैरिणम् कामम् अर्थम् च अनर्थसंकुलम् ।
vihāya vairiṇam kāmam artham ca anarthasaṃkulam ।
धर्मम् अपि एतयोः हेतुम् सर्वत्र अनादरम् कुरु ॥ १०-१॥
dharmam api etayoḥ hetum sarvatra anādaram kuru ॥ 10-1॥
MEANING:
aṣṭāvakra (अष्टावक्र) = Aṣṭāvakra
uvāca (उवाच) = said ॥
vihāya (विहाय) = relinquishing/repudiating
vairiṇam (वैरिणम्) = adversary/antagonist
kāmam (कामम्) = desire
artham (अर्थम्) = worldly riches and abundance/temporal prosperity
ca (च) = and
anarthasaṃkulam (अनर्थसंकुलम्) = mixed with hardship and difficulty (compound of anartha (अनर्थ) meaning 'loss/scarcity' and saṃkulam (संकुलम्) meaning 'combined with/mixed with/densely abounding in') ।
dharmam (धर्मम्) = good work and deeds attended to with an awareness of the present circumstances (within the context of this verse, the meaning is construed as 'the practice of observance of prescriptive ceremonies whose aim is to amass worldly riches and attain the object of one's desire/yearning')
api (अपि) = also
etayoḥ (एतयोः) = of these two
hetum (हेतुम्) = the cause/the motive source
sarvatra (सर्वत्र) = everywhere
anādaram (अनादरम्) = dispassionately/impartial/choicelessly (literal meaning is 'apathy/indifference' which does not make sense with the context of Ashtavakra's purported message in this case)
kuru (कुरु) = do/achieve ॥ 10-1॥
COMMENT:
The focus of the tenth chapter is a meditation on desire; our innate sense of craving towards entities that appeal to our senses and our need to acquire said objects of desire. Desire and its manifestations like craving, hankering and clinging seem to obtain embodiment within our psyche sometime after our births and our formative years. A fundamentally evolutionary manifestation, desire in its incipient state can be understood to arise from a combination of our body's homeostatic regulation to maintain a state of good repair and the response of the body's hormonal mechanisms to reflexively and automatically calibrate chemical responses dependent upon that innate need for equilibrium.
The ego (that is absent at the time of birth) slowly crystallizes and takes shape as we mature. The addition of cultural impingements that take the form of language and the linguistic designations imputed on objects using name-and-form are additionally subsumed by the ego in securing a firmer foothold in the process of this crystallization.
The evolution based manifestation of our innate sense of self-regulation and homeostasis morphs itself over time and matures into the ever-growing sense of a need to want to pull things into the center of ones being so that the ego can continue to 'collect' (either in a physical sense or from an emotional perspective) the artifacts implicated by names-and-form and thus obtain a sense of permanence. This feeling of wanting to pull in objects that are culturally perceived to be of value to the center of ones being, assigning 'ownership' over the object and 'claiming' the object as one's own is a constant process. This cycle of aggregating externalities into the self-centered locus slowly shifts from one sense object to another as the ego and the self cannot find lasting contentment from just one sense object. The ego is unable to find the necessary satisfaction within any one single sense-object as the defining characteristic of sense objects is rooted within their impermanence.
It is in the nature of objects to arise, endure and to be ultimately recast; for this reason and this reason alone, the sense of desire, clinging and ownership keeps shifting from one sense object to the next; an unending search that can only be eschewed by what Ashtavakra calls for within this chapter - a sense of renunciation from objects of desire (Kama), relinquishment of actions whose aim is in the amassing of physical objects that appeal to the senses (Artha) and even casting off the practice of the observance of rituals and prescriptive ceremonies (Dharma) whose aim is to amass more of and dwell within the conventional realities presented by Kama and Artha.
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