As we explore
fundamental reality
or consciousness
through the window of the quantum
body and beyond,
I want to share with you
the three
principle practices
that I have
been using
to have access
to my own fundamental nature.
Of course, in the previous post
I mentioned my daily practices and also
the direct method,
which has been very effective for me
and has been popularized recently
by great teachers
like Rupert Spira,
Craig Good,
Lucy Francis,
but drawing from the teachings
of Atman and Krishna ...
and I've explained
that method before.
So today I would
like to share with you
the fact that
if you combine the teachings of yoga,
the eight limbs, the eight
limbs of yoga,
raj yoga, Patanjali yoga
and a deeper understanding of
Sankhya philosophy, which is
usually referred to as dualistic,
although I have my
own interpretation of it,
and then combine it with the deeper
understanding of Advaita,
then we have a total map
for the exploring of consciousness
and of course
other practices like mindful
awareness and
direct method, etc..
So very briefly, Sankhya
is one of the six systems of
philosophy
and in India or Indian philosophy
and it is usually considered dualistic
in that pure consciousness
is called Purusha or Shiva,
and then the
fluctuations of consciousness
are called, which are vrittis,
you know, vritti means fluctuations
or vibrations or shaktis.
All of those words, they give us
the experience of everyday reality.
So the fundamental
reality is pure consciousness.
The fluctuations of consciousness
are innumerable
and they're considered, well,
they're actually in Sankhya
there are 24 and they are considered
the way we experience the
universe.
So that's experience of reality.
And then Purusha, pure consciousness
is the basis of all reality
and in Sankhya philosophy,
the duality that Sankhya talks about
Purusha, or pure consciousness
is fundamental,
and it
manifests
as Prakriti, or nature.
Purusha is pure,
witnessing consciousness,
unattached, unchanging, eternal.
It does not actually experience.
It illuminates what is called Prakriti.
Prakriti is Nature, Creation
and prakriti is the dynamic,
evolving principle,
encompassing everything
from the
subtlest mental phenomena
to the physical universe.
It is composed of three
inherent qualities of principles
called gunas.
Guna simply means qualities.
Sattva, which is creativity
and clarity; Rajas, which is activity
and transformation; and Tamas,
which is inertia
and ultimately ignorance.
Ignorance of reality camouflages
reality sattva,
rajas and tamas.
You can think of them as creativity,
transformation, inertia,
and in modern language, quantum
language, yeah, Quantum,
after all, we are talking
about the quantum body.
In quantum language, spin,
charge and mass.
So this is prakriti,
that eventually
manifests as the physical world
are individual bodies
and are internal and are internal
experiences of mind, intellect and ego.
So the internal organ
that Sankhya talks about,
the organ of knowing.
Antahkarana.
That's prakritis' finest product.
It's the internal organ,
which is "Manas",
mind, responsible for coordinating
sensory information and generating
thoughts and emotions
and feelings.
"Buddhi", the intellect,
the discerning factor.
"Ahamkara", the ego-identity,
provisional ego-identity.
And "Jnanendriyas" and "Karmendriyas".
Jnanendriyas are the five senses
and Karmendriyas are
the five motor organs.
Then there's
something called "tanmatra".
Between the mind and the elements
exist the five subtle
elements, or tanmatras,
that represent the essence of
sound, touch, sight, taste and smell.
So, if right now, your imagination,
you can hear a song
or remember a conversation
or remember a piece of music,
That's the tanmatra of sound.
So similarly, there are
tanmatras of taste in your imagination.
You can experience
pineapples or Chinese food or
spices.
And so there are
tanmatras for sight, sound,
sensation or touch,
form (which is of course,
sight), taste and smell.
And these tanmatras
are the subtle essences
of perceptual experience,
subtle sound subtle taste,
subtle sight, subtle smell,
and they are the subtle essence
of the five
senses.
Then there's prana and the body.
Prana is the vital energy
that animates the physical body
and is composed of five gross elements:
earth, water, fire, air and space.
See? Earth,
water, fire and space are matter
in all its different forms.
Space is the vacuum.
And so air is matter
in its vaporous form,
water is matter in its liquid form,
and then earth
is matter in its solid form,
and fire is matter
in its transformative form.
And so prana and body,
they are also modes of knowing
and experience
and therefore projections.
And they are basically
modes of knowing,
okay, modes
of knowing and modes of experience.
So think of pure consciousness
vibrating as mind,
intellect, ego,
and then projecting
the world
through the tanmatras,
the five subtle senses,
the five gross senses,
the five motor organs
and the experience of space,
air, fire, water and earth.
And so this is Sankhya,
but Sankhya,
even though it's dualistic,
is in a way, hinting
or not hinting, saying that
what we call pure consciousness
and its modes of knowing,
which I just enumerated 24
of them,
pure consciousness, and it's modes of
knowing is all of reality.
So think of a projector
projecting a movie
and the projector is the light
of awareness and the movie
is the contents of awareness.
and Sankhya regards these two as
different entities,
although interdependent
and says you can
be in the world
and participate in the world,
but just remember that the projection
is in time
and purusha is not in time.
So your real identity is your consciousness
and the projection is your experience,
which is
mind, body and the world.
And since it's a projection,
you can be free of it as well.
Now what does Advaita say
and Vedanta say?
It's slightly different,
but it's marginally different.
It says that the projection of
consciousness, the movie
that you're watching,
which includes, by the way,
your body and your mind,
that projection is an illusion.
And a lot of people
don't like
the word illusion because it
doesn't seem real.
But we're in this world and it's
totally real.
So, you know,
they don't like the word "illusion",
so we can say, "impermanent
reality", a reality
that is changing
and evolving
and recycling
but impermanent.
The only permanent
reality is pure consciousness.
So Advaita says this is illusion
and you can disengage from it,
and Sankhya says you can engage in it,
but recognize that it is impermanent.
And if you don't like the word
illusion, just use the word
impermanent,even in Advaita.
Okay?
However, Advaita
says if you
stay grounded in pure
consciousness, then
what is happening as the projection,
you lose your attachment
to it slowly because you'll see
it's impermanent and nothing ever
satisfies you because it moves on.
And the only thing that is eternal
is the joy of Sat
Chit Ananda, which is
pure existence, pure knowing
and pure bliss.
Okay,
Sankhya says you can do both.
You can be in the world
and not of it,
and you can also
upgrade the illusion or the upgrade
the impermanent reality.
Since you're in it,
you might as well enjoy it.
Okay.
And that you do through yoga.
Yoga is actually
the best way, not only to you
to access fundamental reality,
but also to upgrade it.
And yoga has eight principles: Yama
which is social intelligence;
Niyama, which is
emotional intelligence;
Yoga Asana, the postures
which is understanding
the body
as a field of awareness
through the practice of Asana;
(very interesting) and then Pranayama,
learning to regulate that body
through breathing;
then Pratyahara,
interoceptive awareness;
and then finally, Dharana,
which is focused attention; Dhyana,
meditation; Samadhi, transcendence.
Put these three together, yoga,
Sankhya and Advaita, non-duality,
and you have a perfect map
for accessing
your true nature as formless,
infinite, fundamental,
irreducible, eternal
and timeless
and not subject to birth or death.
So that's a short
summary of yoga,
Sankhya and Advaita.
I hope that's useful.