Good morning
exploring the Brahma
Sutras and related scriptures.
I thought,
let's call this series exploring Brahma
Sutras and related scriptures
and the Brahma
Sutras, of course,
have a history as the Vedanta Sutras,
attributed to somebody called Badarayana.
And before that, even to Vyasa
who wrote the
Mahabharata,
according to
Ancient law.
And of course,
the Shankara
and many of the monastics from
the
Ramari
mission.
But as I read these Sutras,
I find some of them redundant and some of them arcane and some of them
actually may be confusing to modern people and modern societies.
So I'm taking the liberty of using the Sutras to trigger
whatever thoughts come to me randomly and put them
to the best of my ability into a coherent hole that might
be of benefit to you, may not be of benefit to you.
This is my journey right now and I'm sharing it with you.
So with that little bit I will read to sutras
right now
in Sanskrit
and then we'll see what they trigger. OK.
So the first one says
शास्त्रयोनित्वात् Śāstrayonitvāt
it says Brahman
is known through the scriptures.
And then the second
principle there,
a statement there which is an extension of that
says the first cause
is an intelligent principle.
OK. The first cause is an intelligent principle.
So let's discuss these two ideas, but then let's actually
expand on them and
then expand on them and actually maybe even
start a few spiritual practices
that might be helpful. But I'll need your feedback and see if
you are finding this enjoyable at all.
OK. So
here we go.
Brahman is the ultimate reality, the ground state of all existence. OK.
But this ground state is a state of pure awareness.
And this ground state has been experienced
by great Seers, Sages,
Richis, avatars enlightened beings.
And
we might say messengers of the divine,
they in turn
contributed to spiritual practices
that we can talk about.
And these include many things, Raj Yoga, the eight limbs of yoga,
which I have spoken about social emotional intelligence,
understanding the body as a field of awareness through
postures and yoga
techniques,
withdrawal of the senses, interoceptive awareness.
And
that's one huge contribution, yoga
called Raj
Yoga. But then there's
the yoga which is devotion and love.
Basically, love is the means to realization, self realization.
There's karma yoga
which is love and action in my view.
And there's gyan
yoga, the intellectual principle,
these are
various methodologies to
that have contributed to spiritual literature, literature,
the other is our own inquiry, our own inquiry into the nature of reality.
And that is a meditative practice
inquiry, including the direct method.
Then there is
a very important cause here principle here is that
the knowledge we acquire of spirituality
is a different kind of knowledge.
It's not something we know, rather, it's something we become.
So there's an expression
to the extent that you
know Brahman, you become Brahman.
And
these are very important principles.
Then of course,
there are all these different schools of interpretation of spiritual
literature schools.
You may have heard of
as the
what do you call it? The
six
schools of Indian philosophy, Sankhya,
which
is a dualistic school where Purusa
and Prakrti
are experienced differently but represent the same underlying reality.
That's one Sankhya,
we can explore that as
also contributing to tantra.
Then there's Yoga
which I've just talked about the different types of yoga.
There's something called Nyaya,
which is logic, inference and deduction,
but also
understanding the limitations of human knowing,
which we
and philosophical systems call epistemology,
the limitations of knowing and the modes of knowing.
And so that is
part of what might be called Nyaya
as well
to use logic, to understand the limitations of logic, to use rationality,
to understand
that actually, rational thinking, logic, reason.
they don't give us access to reality,
they only upgrade the experience of perceived reality.
But that's nice too, isn't it?
And then there's something called Vaisheshika,
which is metaphysics into the nature of reality beyond the physical.
There is Mimamsa
which is basically the integration
of various
understanding of literature,
the study of hermetic.
And finally, there's Vedanta
which is
my favorite
know that by which all is known. And
what is that?
Atman
and Brahman
pretty
extensive literature here.
And what I would like to do is
start with some basic principles
that are inspired by
the sutra
but then take off independently on our own
and shoot the breeze and see if it helps
us. It helps me by the way to share all this with you.
So today, let's do a very simple
examination of
something that both the the
what do you call it?
Vedantists and the
some contemplative traditions of Buddhism
agree on.
OK.
So in the Buddhist version, all phenomena arise
from
and emptiness
and that emptiness
is
the intelligent principal. The first cause.
Emptiness is the intelligent principle, the first cause.
But then there is
the different
vocabulary in
Vedanta, the emptiness is referred to as
as
the formless
without which form is not possible.
And that,
which asks these questions that which inquires into the nature of the mind,
nature of the intellect,
nature of the ego nature of the body nature of the physical world
that which enquires and that which wants to seek understanding
is formless and invisible.
And it acquires some understanding by examining
form and phenomena
as expressions of
that formless.
OK. So whatever the, whatever you wanna call it,
whether it's emptiness,
chidakasha,
formless fundamental reality, Atman Brahman,
that which we call I
I am,
we're meaning
all the same thing.
So you cannot directly
see yourself because you're invisible.
What you see as the ongoing changing body.
Mind is a symbolic representation of the invisible.
And so is the world. So is everything that you call an object.
So is everything that you call a thought. So is everything you call a feeling.
So is everything we call a quality of experience or qualia.
And all these phenomena arise from emptiness or the formlessness
as interdependent co-arising
interdependent co-arising
nothing exists by itself
even
objectively and also subjectively.
So you can take any example, OK, and say, OK, this is a book and
this is made of paper. The paper comes from a tree,
the tree is the entire ecosystem of
trees and other biological organisms
that the tree
represents the flora, the fauna, the bees, the bugs,
the
the microbiome, the weather patterns
and of course, the trees all the way also made of the same elements and forces
as the universe. So
it's held together by subatomic forces, strong and weak interactions,
electromagnetism, gravity
and all of that is part of the cosmos. So
in that tree, not only in that tree, in a fruit, in a leaf, in a twig, in a branch
is the whole universe. So the tree is the interdependent co-arising
of the universe, the ground state of which
is
the
zero point
infinite
potential energy state. The singularity
that's one very deep level of examination of any object,
doesn't matter what that object.
It could be a book, it could be
a hand, it could be the spectacles, it could be that painting.
When you really look into the nature of it,
you end up
with the ultimate reality.
And so too is every other phenomenon that we experience,
you know, you look at sunrises in the east and west.
But that's an appearance of a much deeper relationship of,
you know, the earth circling on its own axis going around the sun,
the complicated movement of
the sun, moon and earth as related to each other. So the sun rise is just
the appearance of an entire universe of interdependent happenings.
So is the weather, you know, you say, what's the weather like today
is the interdependent co-arising
of things like temperature, pressure, humidity, wind clouds,
et cetera.
Look at the decomposition of death
of any biological organism
involves so many things, microorganisms, temperature, moisture,
you know,
all kinds of
elements and forces
or look at wave propagation of sound, which requires
the movement of air as a medium,
wave propagation of ocean as waves of water, water being the medium
propagation of light with space.
And then ultimately,
the propagation or the manifestation
of the whole universe from probability waves in an infinite consciousness.
So this is amazing, isn't it?
That no one thing exists by itself?
And that leads to a deeper understanding of
empathy and compassion and love and joy and compassion
and letting go. Because
you
as body, mind
don't exist
by itself, you're the matrix of
beingness.
Yeah, the matrix of inter beingness.
OK. So
with that
today, let's do a simple, there are many exercises that go under the
heading of something we call Mahamudra,
the great seat of contemplative inquiry
and to the nature of reality.
So right now as you're looking at me,
instead of looking at me on your screen,
actually look at the space, bring your awareness to your eyes, look at the space
and note that this space right in front of you is connected
to intergalactic space
that just by putting your attention here in this space, you connect it to everything
all that exists.
And this space doesn't have a form,
doesn't have boundaries,
doesn't
although some cosmologists will say it's expanding
and
that's called dark energy,
forget the
nuances of mathematics and all that. But
this space right in front of you is connected to
all of space intergalactic, infinite space,
a little bit of contemplative awareness of this
space and you're connected to all that exists
and now
close your eyes
and experience your own body as empty space.
Of course, in that empty space,
you may hear sounds, you may feel sensations.
images and qualia may crop up and disappear as soon as they do,
but they are modulations of space.
And in that space is the matrix of all existence.
So
experience your body as made of space, as formless
and
make that your internal reference point and now open your eyes
and look at your body and look at everything around.
This is the interdependent co-arising
of empty space
of empty space.
The first intelligent principle because this space is not just
empty
and void is the womb of creation.
It has self organization,
self regulation,
synchronicity,
evolution
and
infinite possibilities
make the formless
your constant companion
and we can
delve deeper as we explore these sutras
and related scriptures. It doesn't matter if the scriptures include
Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism,
Yoga Vasistha, Baghvad Gita,
And some of the other texts
that
I'm not mentioning right now.
But they're part of this great body of scripture.
OK. My friends
have a wonderful day and let me know if this is useful.