Awareness

[Guest guest]

Lewis wrote:

--- ombhurbhuva <ombhurbhuva

wrote:

 

Hi Lewis and Anders,

 

Michael: Ordinary language tries to

distinguish

between awareness and consciousness but

the boundries

are permeable. Raja Yoga with its graded

meditations

starts with a gross object and ends with

the

objectless, immaterial. In this view is

of things,

you become aware of something, you notice

something.

They would reject as imprecise the

expression 'he

recovered consciousness'. This allows

them to accept

consciousness in deep sleep but not

awareness.

Awareness would be linked to 'vritti' or

mental

modifications and the general shape of

these vrittis

would be determined by the sort of sense

modalities

that the human has. These are a sub set of

what are

sometimes called upadhis or forms of

limitation. They

are species specific. The forms of

limitation are

forms of limitation (limiting adjuncts) of

Pure

Consciousness and as that retain its

nature of

immediate self consciousness. This nature

is the key

to the self-inquiry of the jnana marg.

 

Lewis: A restatement follows: Vritti are

also

considered to be thought waves produced by

various

mental functions in relation to mind

substance

(chitta) in Raja Yoga. Depending on what

is focused on

the vritti, appear as modifications of the

mind stuff.

A tree is focused on and the mind stuff

through mental

functions forms a tree, which appears. An

upahdi has

several meanings. Upadhi is a vehicle or

base that is

the mere appearance of unseen Reality or

center of

consciousness. The body, for example,

would be an

upadhi housing the Atman and veiling its

appearance,

acting as a limiting adjunct to/of it. It

can also be

seen in the way it is used above as

superimposed

attribute that veils and colors the view

of any

appearance experienced that lies under it,

before it,

above it, becoming the base of how the

appearance

appears. So a single appearance appears

different to

two observers engaging different upadhis

and even more

so for a third, who has no such upadhis.

It is similar

to a taken-for-granted reification in that

both act as

limiting adjunct, lens, instrument, to

whatever is

viewed through it. The upadhi or

reification as

superimpositions are removable. The

removal reveals

the appearances closer to what they are

and diminishes

identity and self-consciousness and

reveals Pure

Consciousness and Nirvana. Upadhi is found

in both

Hindusim and Buddhism. [upaadaana is a

cognate term].

Awareness can be considered to be an

upadhi in its

relation to vritti, mental functions, and

mind.

 

Michael: Using an analogy of material

identity,

awareness is considered to be like the

bangles,

bracelets, rings that are made out of the

gold of

consciousness. Waves, billows, foam are

all alike

ocean/water etc. Usually the distinction

is marked by

the contrast between (lower case)

consciousness and

(upper case) Pure Consciousness.

 

Lewis: Awareness can be considered to be

an upadhi in

its relation to vritti, mental functions,

and mind, a

lower consciousness, a " surface

awareness. "

 

Lewis, as you know, there are those who

reject the

idea of Consciousness and accept

awareness. There are

even those who covertly impugn awareness

and affect to

puzzlement re self consciousness. The

Tenth Man story

may be relevant here. Certainly it is an

important

juncture in the seeker's life to hear from

a wise

bystander - That thou art.

 

Michael

 

The Tenth Man

An Advaita Vedanta Version.

 

The story about the Swami and his

disciples crossing a

river. When arriving on the other shore,

the Swami

counted his disciples and it turned out

that only nine

persons had successfully crossed the

river! He counted

all his disciples over and over again,

concluding:

" There is one missing. We are only nine

people, and it

should be ten! " Then a stranger walked by.

He

overheard the conversation, and said to

the Swami:

 

" But there are actually ten persons. You

have forgot

to count yourself. You are that tenth

person! " . From

the uttering of these words, the Swami at

once

realized that he was the tenth person.

 

Well, the words of the stranger gave the

Swami direct

knowledge about himself as the tenth man.

He didn't

have to put this knowledge into practice

or anything.

The very understanding came immediately by

the words

of the stranger. ShravaNa gave him perfect

knowledge,

because he was the tenth man from the very

beginning.

He did not become the tenth man.

 

Another Version of the Tenth Man Story.

 

The 'Tenth Man' Story

by Wei Wu Wei

 

You know the quaint story of the ten monks

traveling

together from one Master to another, in

search of the

enlightenment they had failed to obtain?

Crossing a

river in flood, they were separated by the

swift

current, and when they reached the other

shore, they

reassembled and one counted the others to

make sure

that all were safely across. Alas, he was

only able to

count nine brothers.

 

Each in turn counted the others, and each

could only

count nine. As they were weeping and

bewailing their

drowned brother, a passing traveler on his

way to the

nearest town, asked what their trouble was

and, having

counted them, assured them that all ten

were present.

But each counted again, and the traveler

being unable

to persuade them, left them and went on

this way.

 

Let us continue the story:

 

Then one monk went to the river-side in

order to wash

his tear-stained face. As he leant over a

rock above a

clear pool he started back and, rushing to

his nine

fellow-monks, he announced that he had

found their

poor drowned brother at the bottom of a

pool. So each

in turn went over to the rock in question

and, leaning

over, looked into the depths of the pool.

 

When all had seen their poor drowned

brother, whom,

owing to the depth of the pool, they could

not reach,

they celebrated a funeral service in his

memory.

 

The passing traveler, returning from the

town, asked

them what they were doing and, when he was

told,

pointed out to them, and assured them,

that since each

had celebrated his own decease, and since

all had

celebrated the decease of each, one and

all they were

well and truly dead. On learning this each

monk was

instantly awakened, and ten fully

enlightened monks

returned to their monastery to the intense

delight of

their grandmotherly old Master.

 

Note: The Tenth Man is the only man: there

is no

other.

 

" Absolute absence is also absolute

presence. But the

absence of presence-and-absence is the

inconceivable

truth. "

 

Lewis

 

**********************

 

Hi Lewis,

Thanks for the amplification. I

could perhaps quibble over - " The body,

for example, would be an

upadhi housing the Atman and veiling its

appearance,

acting as a limiting adjunct to/of it. "

The individual mind as a form of

limitation of pure consciousness is the

witness so awareness as such is a form of

limitation.(In advaita the mind is inert)

The Atman is not housed being nondual with

Brahman.

 

What I wanted to do was give a short

account of the Advaitic view and propose

the already latent difference in English

of 'awareness' and 'consciousness' as an

expression of the core idea. I assumed

that the story of the Tenth Man was

familiar but perhaps it's not. Lewis are

you pulling our legs with your Buddhist

version?

 

The tenth Man is a type of the error of

not noticing that which is always on. Tat

tvam asi is also used in the Chandogya

Upanisad in the analogy of the salt

solution:Ch.Up.VI.13.1:

After keeping this salt in the water, then

come to me in the morning'. He did

accordingly. To him he said, 'O dear one,

fetch that salt which you kept in the

water at night'. He could not find it

after searching.

 

'O dear one (you do not perceive it),

remaining dissolved as it does. (Now, if

you wan to perceive it) sip from its top.

How (does it taste)?

'It is salty'.

Sip from the middle. How does it taste?

It is salty.

Sip from the bottom. How does it taste?

It is salty.

Throwing this away come to me.

 

 

With regard to that, he acted in that way

(and said), 'That (salt) exists always.'

 

To him, he (the father) said, 'O good-

looking one, you cannot perceive Existence

though it is verily present here itself.

Surely it is here.

 

That which is this subtle essence, all

this has got That as the Self. That is

truth. That is the Self. Thou art that,

O Svetaketu.

 

Michael