Book Of The One -Reply to Steveji, Dhyanasaraswatiji

[Guest guest]

Dear Steveji,

 

" But when " I'm " aware of multiple awarenesses, mustn't

that which says " There are multilple awarenesses " be

just one awareness?? "

 

Well when I say I am aware of multiple awarenesses, the word aware is

being used in a different sense in the first and second instance. When

I say I am aware of multiple awarenesses (which I wouldn't because it

seems unneccesarily sloppy), it probably means that I know that

multiple awarenesses exist by means of inference. It is not " I " or

awareness which knows this, but it is mental knowledge, like all other

inference.

 

That which says " there are multiple awarenesses " is the mind - this

idea is just a mental modification. How does the mind know there are

multiple awarenesses? It doesn't know for sure, but it thinks so based

on inference, not direct perception.

 

" I think, maybe that logically all we CAN show is that there is one

awareness. "

 

To be precise, I would say that all we can show is that there is at

least one awareness. This doens't mean we have shown there is one

awareness - it means we have shown that one is sure and then there

could be more or less. The purpose of such arguments in Vedanta is not

to establish the Vedantic position but to simply to show that there is

no proof that there are multiple awarenesses. This doesn't mean there

is logical proof that there is one awareness, either.

 

Dear Dhyanasaraswatiji,

 

" What can you learn from a Shotriya - may be the scriptures , right ?

but only a brahmanishta can impart the sacred knowledge of Brahman ?(

brahmavidya) - a look or a touch is enough from a knower of a Brahman

! "

 

A look or touch (or presence more generally) from a brahmanistha may

give rise to an experience where the mind becomes pure sattva owing to

physiological conditions set up by the brahmanistha's kundalini-

shakti. However, this doesn't help because once the teacher is gone,

the physiological circumstances are gone, and the experience is also

gone. All experiences are impermanent and are just a more rarefied

aspect of samsara.

 

Only understanding the way things are can really help us and to that

end, and thus, teachings alone offer a systematic basis for gaining

atma-anubhava. People have been using them succesfully to this end for

generations.

 

Regards,

 

Rishi.