When Consciousness looks upon itself
What does it see?
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#1856 - Tuesday, July 12, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
Exclusive to The Highlights
Gabriel Rosenstock
Street Dancer T
here once was a boy who danced on the street,
danced with his arms, danced with his feet.
He danced all day from the sun's first light -
danced with stars in the purple night.
'Nothing to lose!' he cried, 'Nothing to lose!
nothing at all but the soles on my shoes!'
And people would stop and stare a while
shaking their heads with a little smile …
Sometimes he'd wriggle, sometimes shake,
sometimes he even danced like a snake.
At times he was wild, at times he was tame -
no two dances were ever the same.
He had names for his dances, Falling Snow
was the name of a dance that was terribly slow.
He made up others as he went along:
Polish Goose and Tibetan Gong.
Sometimes he'd chant or sometimes he'd hum -
mostly he just preferred to be stumm.
Was he born to dance? Nobody knows …
But when he was born he wriggled his toes.
He was dancing as soon as he learned to walk
dancing before he was able to talk.
'Hello, I see you're dancing too!'
he once exclaimed to a shy bamboo.
One day he met a holy man
who said, 'Things dance as best they can!
Everything - look! Even that table!
no, nothing is solid, nothing is stable!'
And the boy understood that dancing was good,
everything dances as everything should.
'Well, I'll dance the blue sky!' the little boy said,
'I'll dance the green sea, the flat ocean bed,
'I'll dance for the young, dance for the old,
dance in the heat, dance in the cold.
'I'll dance every colour, dance every sound,
dance in the air, dance on the ground. '
I'll dance you a river! Dance you a lake,
the falling leaves, the crooked rake. '
Dance you whales that roam the sea,
dance you Time and Eternity.
'The sickle moon, the planet Mars,
the thousands and thousands and millions of stars!
'Yes, I will become the dance,' said he,
'I am the dance … the dance is me!'
e-mail: grosenstock@forasnagaeilge.ie
Janaka Stagnaro
Here are some following thoughts that arose from Mark and
Sarlo's
discussion (from issue #1852: http://nonduality.com/hl1852.htm):
The Ratings of Gurus
What a fun topic. And very appropriate at this time of the year
with
MLB all stars happening. However, with baseball it is a little
easier
to find the great ones. There are certain criteria by which to
judge,
such as batting average and RBIs and strikeouts; yet even with
such
clear guidelines undoubtedly disputes will arise. How much harder
it
is to judge what teacher is "there!" It seems
every tradition has
such signposts, along with saints and sages who have chopped down
such notions. Is he a vegetarian, has he gone beyond that and
eats
meat? Is he celibate or has he lots of shaktis? Is she a
householder
or does she live in seclusion? Does she ask for money or lives on
what others give without asking? Is there anger or does he use
anger
for others' benefit? Does she have titles and dresses spiritually
or
does she look like anyone else with no titles at all? Is he a
pacifist or a martial artist? Is she an artist or write books, or
does she simply sit in the silence? Does he work miracles and
speak
eloquently or is he just very ordinary? The questions are endless
and
lead nowhere.
Sarlo, on his Guru Rating List, has me down as a Mini Advaitin,
(is
that like being a mini me?) and that I have been finished off by
Ramana and ACIM. But what does "finished off" mean?
Does that mean
that Janaka is perfect in his Awareness and actions? God, I hope
not.
Does it mean that I am no longer searching to find perfect
answers in
a swirling world of forms? Maybe I can buy that. In Monty
Python's,
Life of Brian, Brian, the reluctant prophet, is being chased by
would-
be followers. When cornered Brian yells that he is not the
Messiah. A
follower cries, "Only a true Messiah would say he is not the
Messiah." "What chance does that give me?" replies
Brian. "All right
then, I am the Messiah." "He is the Messiah!" they
all exclaim.
The problem is all the baggage and expectations we have about the
title Guru or Teacher; just like we have the same with
Presidents.
Every human will have faults, even our leaders. Hell, so does the
Earth. They tend to shake things up a bit, reminding us how
imperfect
the world is as a place to stand firmly upon .And who is it
anyway
that sees the faults, the Infinite Self or the ego? Many years
ago
when I was just consciously starting out on the Path I had a
dream. I
dreamt that I had met Jesus who was wearing blue jeans and
smoking a
cigarette. Definitely not fitting my image about what he should
look
like or doing. I called him on it and he agreed that it was a bad
habit and said he would go out into the desert to quit smoking.
Then
we stood in front of the masses in Constantinople. He spoke first
and
then I. I told them that they needed no one to tell them what was
true, that the Truth was found in each and every one of them.
Yes,
yes, they cried. Be the leader of our new church. No, I said, you
don't need anyone. And I awoke in tears. A few days later I was
reading An Autobiography of a Yogi as I hitchhiked across the
States.
It felt so familiar, being a disciple and having a master. I
cried to
God to send me my teacher. A couple of months later I was sitting
in
front of him, along with the chosen few, out in the desert of
Arizona. He touched me and I went into bliss, he manifested gems
for
me, called in space ships, channeled Ascended masters, told me of
my
past lives, knew the scriptures, knew everything I thought and
loved
me as his son. Then I saw devotees with his hands on their
throats as
they would not surrender to his will and soon I felt his around
mine.
I fled. Not from fear of death, but because I failed to
surrender. I
sought to make myself more worthy to surrender as he cast me out
to
the "outer regions" of God. Like Cain I fled to
Australia, marked by
the Son of God, as he claimed to be. Yet on a bus I met a little
old
lady who invited me to her ACIM study group. And when I read in
the
Course: You are as God created you. It felled me. How could I
ever be
outside of God, Who is everywhere? Months later I went back and
confronted him with that question and walked away, this time in
freedom.
I had forgotten the Truth and looked for someone to tell me what
is
true. It was not the teacher that was false, it was the whole
premise. The search can only lead to the false because it is a
false
start. Every relationship is but a mirror of what we believe.
Believe
that someone will complete us and they will, for a time, until we
are
ready to see the truth. And this does not mean that we do not
have
our relations with parents or lovers or teachers. It just means
that
we cannot be attached to them always being there the way we want
them
to in the forms we expect. All forms will come and go. I am a
Waldorf
teacher and have spent years teaching children. I have taught not
because I have reached perfection as a human being but because
the
work has inspired me and that I have the talent for it. I was
made to
do it. And I learned from it as well. And the children moved on.
If
we can look at spiritual teachers in the same way and not put
them
into celebrity status then we can learn from them-and then move
on. I
write about God and talk about God not because I an Avatar, or a
Perfect Master, or Boddhisattva, but because that is what I
really
enjoy doing, and like to share what I love, and feel that
basically
every other topic is a dead end, leading only to death. It is
when I
try to fit the part or not fit the part of what a spiritual
teacher
should be, or if I try to figure out what level of jnani I am or
not
that I get all fucked up. It is simply the mind dividing up God
and
categorizing into little compartments of lies.
For me, Ramana is the perfect teacher because he pretty much
stayed
out of figuring out the rights and wrongs of the knotty world of
form
(and there is nothing wrong about being a bit naughty), and
always
had us focusing on the real question: Who am I? Who is it that
asks
all these questions? As for the rest, I just let God take care of
His
business of creating this Mystery called the World.
Hari Om
Janaka
www.janakastagnaro.com
Namaste Jerry,
A student sent me this. It has been typed from
my original manuscript for a book published in Europe 3 years
ago. I hope you enjoy this piece on the little known Krama
system.
Guru Om
My Love
Markandeya
Krama System
Krama system does not recognize either the Pratyabhijna system or
the Kaula system. In Krama, the absolute is reached in
stages of succession. To this end, Krama also describes in detail
the rise of prana Kundalini as it moves in succession from one
chakra or psychic center to the next. Krama primarily concerns
itself with space-time, and therefore is primarily a system of
Goddess worship in the form of Kali, There are twelve forms
of Kali in this system, but they are to be considered as the
twelve movements of one cognition as it pertains to object,
knowledge, and subject. The first four Kalis represent the
stages of objectivity or prameya; the next represent stages of
knowledge and the means thereof or pramana; the final four Kalis
represent the stages of the knower or pramata. In the
following description of the 12 Kalis, I am indebted to Jaideva
Singh for his notes on verse 1 of the first section of the Spanda
Karikas:
4 Phases of Objectivity (Prameya)
1) Srsti Kali – When the will to manifest arises in Kali and
there is the movement towards manifestation, She is Known as
Srsti Kali. This is the conception of creative power in
relation to objectivity (Prameya).
2) Rakta Kali – this is maintenance (sthiti) of the
objectivity through the five senses.
3) Sthitinasha Kali – This is the power of samhara or
withdrawl of the objective world, brining about termination of
objectivity and a resting within Herself.
4) Yama Kali – This is that Indefinable aspect which
represents her anakhya or transcendental power in relation to
objective experience.
*As mentioned earlier, these four powers of srsti, sthiti,
samhara and anakhya are relative to the objective (prameya)
aspect of the energy of Consciousness.
4 Phases of Knowledge (Pramana)
5) Samhara kali - When Kali, also known as Para samvid or Supreme
Consciousness in this system, brings about the disappearance of
objectivity by digesting them in knowledge (pramana) She is known
as Samhara Kali. This is srsti or the emergence of
knowledge in the stage of pramana.
6) Mrtyakali – This engulfs even Samahara Kali; She swallows
up even the residual traces of the idea of withdrawl of the
objective world. This is the sthiti or maintenance stage of
Pramana or knowledge.
7) Bhadrakali – This is the power by which She destroys or
dissolves all sense of vitiated or limited ideas in association
with the senses and their objects. This is the aspect of
samhara or withdrawal in the stage of Pramana or knowledge.
8) Martanda Kali – This is that transcendental power by
which She brings about the dissolution of the twelve senses in
the ego-self. The twelve Indriyas or senses are the five
senses of perception, the five organs of action, the manas
(mind), and the buddhi (ascertaining intellect). This is
that anakhya or transcendental phase which reduces the
ego-feeling to such an extent that it becomes without substance.
*As mentioned earlier, these four phases of five through eight
represent the srsti, sthiti, samhara, and anakhya phases of
pramana or limited knowledge.
4 phases of Subject (Pramata)
9) Paramarkali – In this stage of pramata or the limited
subject, objectivity (Prameya), and limited knowledge (Pramana)
have been transcended, but the limited subject still retains the
primal limiting veil of pasu or anava mala. In this phase
She represents srsti in relation to the limited subject. As
the Ahamkara or mind merges with her Creative Power, the
emergence of awareness of limitation is evident. This
emergent awareness of a movement away from limitation and towards
Parasamvid or Supreme Consciousness should not be confused with
vitiated type of knowledge that is linear in nature.
10) Kalagnirudrakali – When Parasamvid brings about the
identification of the limited subject with the Universal Self,
She is known as Kalagnirudrakali. This kali represents the
power of maintenance (sthiti) in relation to the limited subject
as it comes to abide or rest in the Universal Self. At this
phases She is also known as Mahakali.
11) Mahakalakali – She brings about the dissolution of the
small ‘I’ which is relational and exists as a point in
space time, and brings about abidance in the perfect ‘I’
which is the Bliss of the Absolute Consciousness characterized by
awareness that is completely autonomous and possesses the
absolute Knowledge/Power to accomplish any and every thing. This
phase represents the power of samhara or withdrawal in relation
to the limited subject.
12) Mahabhairava-ghora-candakali or Mahabhairavacandograghorakali
– This state represents the transcendental state of anakhya
in relation to the limited subject. This refers to that
state of Para Samvid which transcends all descriptions in words,
hence it is called anakhya. This is the Akula stage.
In it the subject (Pramata), the knowledge and means thereof
(Pramana), and the object (Prameya) are all dissolved in the
perfect I-consciousness. This is also called Para or the
Highest because all the previous states are Her manifestation.
And so it is in the Krama system that objectivity is dissolved,
then limited knowledge of objectivity and means thereof are
dissolved as well and finally, the limited subject comes to rest
in the Supreme.
This system of Goddess worship in the form of Kali is termed
shaktopaya. In it, the reverse path back to Supreme Consciousness
is one of successive graduations, hence the worship of Kali who
is the Goddess of time and space. This is Krama system.
This small treatise is made possible by the grace of Lord Shiva,
through Lord Shiva, as Lord Shiva, to the glory and bliss of Lord
Shiva; my humble praise and undivided devotion go to my beloved
Bhagavan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, my beloved Swami Muktananda
(Baba) Paramahamsa, and my beloved Mahamandaleshwar Nityananda
(Guruji) of Shanti Mandir, and the world.
M Wampler
Park Hills, MO. U.S.A.
Oct. 30th 2000
http://primordality.com/preface.htm
by Michael Spirit
When Consciousness looks upon itself
What does it see?
I could just as easily have regarded the Cosmos as a happenstance of physicality, as an incidental artifact of an as yet unknown process of blind Chaos from which a Universe might emerge.
We really do not know what it is that we are born into because we interpret existence through an electro-chemical synthesis of senses and brain and therefore perceive a synthetic reality. ( All we are really able to perceive is a molecular coding in our gray matter. ) Our interpretation of space and time is a neurological translation of a quantum process that may only be conceived through mathematics ..and I assure you by my own experience - through deep meditation, but through normal classical observation, little of its true construct is actually perceived.
"There is no God".. as many Philosopher/Scientists in this day and age believe, "There is only our immature perception of a classical world, fraught with danger, that each of us are born into." I hear this quite often and I certainly understand the viewpoint, given the rigorous pursuit through Ockham's Razor of scientific fact.
But then I ask ..what is IT, actually, that many of us still call "God"?
I have carefully considered this question my entire life. What is the process of existence within which we dwell? ..and I have reached an inescapable conclusion. In order for a Universe to exist at all, however we perceive it, it must have come from a process that can only create a Universe by acting upon and through itself, a Wholeness of a Higher Order undivided from itself though differentiated within itself ..and in Dynamic Self-Encounter.
What would drive this
process continuously and infinitely?
(From whence comes dynamic self-encounter?)
The Basis of Creation, the Primary Axiom of all Universal law is that a Wholeness is greater than the sum of its parts - hence it is unbalanced and thus seeks equivalence within and of itself ..and this curious, but fundamental fact that seems to go against all logic is nonetheless born out by the mathematical tools that are required to measure whole systems. If one attempts to measure a circle or a sphere, one must use an irrational number such as PI, which always leaves an irrational and therefore, dynamic remainder. (..and do not even begin to think that a wholeness would not have curvature. The straightest line conceivable is ultimately curved. A Wholeness is undivided from itself and therefore constrained to itself, stressing every part of itself. Such constraint is from whence curvature comes).
But, what does this mean
in the grand scheme of things
and how does this apply as the basis of creation?
We look out upon the Cosmos even through our limited neurological interpretation and yet still perceive a constrained Universe. In the simplest understanding, if we consider the totality of the Cosmos, its spherical/elliptical construct is due to the curvature and therefore constraint of space-time. If we consider the fact that we cannot look out into the heavens to more than a distance of fifteen billion light years ..if we consider the fact that Hubble's Constant states that matter fifteen billion light years from us must be moving away at near the speed of light - hence we can see no further ..and finally if we consider that the speed of light itself restricts the velocity of matter, we must conclude that the Universe is a closed system undivided from itself, (consequently, the constraint of all Universal Constants and the laws of equilibrium and conservation of energy, ie "nothing is ever lost, only transformed").
It is a "Wholeness" from which nothing can escape.
A Wholeness must act upon itself, for what else is there to act upon? Could it act upon another Wholeness, another Universe? If it could, then these two systems would be constrained within an even Greater Totality, undivided from each other as part of a Higher Order ..and since a Wholeness is greater than the sum of its parts and thus unbalanced, such Higher Order would continually drive its own self-encounter, forming diversified constructs within its own Infrastructure, (hence the creation of multiple Universal Expressions interpenetrating each other, all undivided from and as part of the infrastructure of a Greater Totality - a Multiverse). Of course, such Universal Constructs expressing within a Higher Totality are not individually separate from each other or from the Higher Totality and therefore do not meet the strict criteria of each being an individual Wholeness. If they exist within and as part of a Higher Order, then they are supported systems that require the forces of the Higher Totality in order to exist.
So now we can conceive of a driving force inherently fundamental to the Foundation of Creation, a Higher Totality in Dynamic Self-Encounter , driven by the fact that it is greater than the sum of its parts - driven by its own intrinsic Dynamism seeking balance ..within and of which Expressions - "Universal Spans", (our Span/ Expression conceived by science as the "Big Bang"), may be spawned.
A Wholeness, even the Highest Totality, need not have size nor space. It can be an infinitesimal Iota - a sizeless condition, acting upon itself instantaneously and continuously, but it must express that action in some way within itself. If it is sizeless and spaceless and the Ultimate Totality, it would not display an "outside", since there would be nothing beyond it, all of existence contained within it, but it would still nevertheless have an infrastructure, an internal condition where its stress upon itself would be expressed. The action or "Tension" of a Wholeness upon itself must express as a multiplicity of diversities within itself, ( being in continuous self- encounter ), and thus its infrastructure though constrained, would be continuously and infinitely rearranged.
It is difficult to imagine an object that has no "outside", but has an "inside", given the limitation of our sensory perception, but it is not impossible given our propensity for mathematics. Isaac Newton conceived of such an object in his formulation of the Calculus and he called it a "Fluxion", a sizeless, spaceless function of Wholeness in dynamic self-encounter generating infinite diversity within its own infrastructure.
If we try to conceive of it from the outside, it isn't there - we imagine a "nothingness" and so cannot imagine from whence or how the Universe has emerged. The source Fluxion appears as a mystery that we call Chaos. If we interpret it from the inside, we see its infinitely changing infrastructure as the Cosmos, but still cannot imagine an "outside" - because there is no outside - and so still we cannot conceive how or from whence the Universe has emerged.
In a Spiritual sense the mystery source becomes the Creator that we call God, somehow ruling from outside of the Universe, but nevertheless intimately entwined with it, and in the scientific view ..a Quantum Foam devoid of the logic of Classical Physics that has "somehow" created the Cosmos, (still perceived by the way, if only infinitesimally by science, as a "Creator"), and yet again I must point out that there is no "outside".
The Totality and Infrastructure of such an infinitesimal Wholeness would be constructed of the very force, the very law that drives it, as its own dynamic tension of imbalance upon itself, as the Axiomatic Willfulness of Creation. There is only one condition in existence that meets this criteria..
Consciousness!
It is sizeless and spaceless, but nevertheless Willful. Energy flows. Gravity constrains. Matter remains at rest until moved and remains in motion until interfered with. Matter is constructed of energy and energy is constructed of interactive "space-time" and space-time is constructed of the Primary Law of Creation - the instantaneous, continuous and therefore "Willful" Tension of a Sizeless, Spaceless, but Dynamic Wholeness upon itself - and that is what Consciousness is.
So now we have narrowed this concept down a bit. We can say that Consciousness,
The Fire That Lights Itself,
is the Primary Law of ...and the "Substance" of Creation and that this Cosmic Fluxion, this one and only Infinitesimal Wholeness, in Willful Self-Encounter is not other than this, from which has emerged our "Big Bang"...and many others ...and the entirety of Existence.
How would the
Infrastructure of such a Condition
be affected by its Tension upon itself?
The stress of the Inertial Tension of an Iotic Wholeness upon itself must be taken internally, as such a structure has no "outside". Since the structure is "spherical" - ( actually elliptical due to differential stresses and weaknesses within its infrastructure and sizeless from every conceptual "outside" perspective ), the internal stress placed upon its infrastructure must express elliptically as well, as bubbles of inertial "space-time". Since the stress of a Wholeness upon itself affects every part of the Wholeness instantaneously, the stress upon its infrastructure is directionless, but nevertheless dynamic, (hence the "sphericity" of an emerging, expressing bubble, (Big Bang), of space-time). The infrastructure must express spherically within this Greater Totality from which it is undivided, (hence the curved structure of the Cosmos). But since this Greater Totality is acting upon itself there are always two undivided actions transpiring, the part that is acting, (the Wholeness), and the part being acted upon, (the Infrastructure of the Wholeness), and it is here in this process that the diversification of the Infrastructure and the further stress upon the Totality must occur. As a bubble of space-time emerges and expresses into the Wholeness, the infrastructure of the Wholeness is differentially stressed and at some point must express another bubble of space-time and therefore many "Universal Spans", many "Big Bangs" may be spawned, an infinite number, interpenetrating and interactive, within and of the Wholeness of this same process as,
The Universe of Universes
The Multiverse
And this Entirety
of Condition is what
we interpret as the Cosmos!
I know it is an Inertial Wholeness even through my classical neurological interpretation, because the Cosmos seeks equilibrium. Water seeks its own level, gases automatically fill a container, atoms and molecules unite wherever and whenever possible.
Its primary function is "Imbalance seeking Equivalence", a Willful Function of Duality and therefore it acts upon itself through all of its undivided parts.
The simplest function of the Calculus describes the Multiverse perfectly. A function acting upon itself generates an infinite multiplicity of diversities within and of itself. It does not exist in space or time, for this Fluxion Foundation acts upon itself instantaneously, an Iota as the Noumenon of all Phenomena, as cause within its own effect! ..But within and of itself it is a Wholeness ..and nothing but that ..but within that, a Wholeness is always greater than the sum of its parts, (hence the existence of irrational and transcendental numbers), and through this fundamental attribute, Imbalance continually seeks Equivalence, generating an unending series of realities within and of its own structure.
Within such infinite diversity, Universes, Worlds and Life are generated ..and life forms being what they are, (Electro-Chemical Perceptors), especially higher life forms born into this process as Neuroceptors, (such as we), perceive the Wholeness from which they extend as "World" and thus such Localized Consciousness interpreting "space" and "time" are created Interactively and Undividedly within.
And then this process, undivided from the life forms it has made of itself thus looks back upon itself through the synthetic, analytical realities of its progeny and sees itself uniquely through their eyes as the Physical Cosmos!
Here is the seat of all Consciousness, the Foundational Axiom of Creation, as we and all that we perceive and beyond, are but extensions of this greater Universal Mind, whose thoughts we perceive and interpret as our own reality.
In all sincerity, I plead my case,
If not a Creator in
Self-Creation,
Then what shall I call this..?
Copyright 2001, 2002 - All rights reserved Read the entire book online: http://primordality.com/preface.htm