Truth Untruth and In-Between

In Vedanta everything is divided into three buckets

Truth(Sat): Truth is something that exists changeless forever and all places.
A good example is empty space it is the same everywhere irregardless of time or place whether India or America or morning or evening. (Of course according to Vedanta there is only one such thing and it is not space which is itself changeable)

Untruth(Asat): Untruth is something that never existed or will never exist anywhere. For example 1=0 or that the table is red and the table is blue. It essentially refers to a logical contradiction.

In-Between(Mithya): Things that have temporary existence are true in one place and not another. For example this table is red is true today and tomorrow after painting it over this table is blue is true.

The theory of Karma

Karma has become a popular term even in the west. However, it is misunderstood as an accounting system wherein good deeds are punished and bad deeds are rewarded through a cosmic system.

Karma is more simple than that. To understand karma we first need to simplify our world picture.

In the Vedantic world picture there are only two agents. Atman and Ishwara

Atman is the self known as I am by everybody. Rest everything is Ishwara, i.e. everything other than I am.

Thus my, thoughts, feelings, emotions and even the body are actually part of Ishwara and not mine at all.

You can think of ishwara as the world plus psychic objects such as thoughts emotions and even your body. Usually when people think of the world they remove the latter two from it.

Among the things that appear to the Atman there are certain organs that can act on Ishwara, these are karmindiryas e.g. hand feet voice etc. (Similarly Jyanendriyas are the means of knowing Ishwara for the Atman.)

Karma then simply is an action of the Atman upon Ishwara through the karmindriyas, i.e. means of action.

Since Ishwara is a connected whole the effect of an action cannot be know by the Intellect. The intellect being the source of knowledge for Atman, I Atman cannot know the results of my actions with full certainty.

In fact the impetus for actions, the thoughts only come from Ishwara itself. Atman only has the choice to act or not act. Even the set of actions available are not in its control.

This in a nutshell is theory of Karma. Atman which is whole and complete in itself is given a choice whether to act or not. Generally action is performed to seek fulfillment, but Atman needs no fulfillment. However being unaware of itself and believing the intellect Atman imagines itself to be so and so and thus performing actions to gain something.

Some actions have a predictable effect on Ishwara, for example if hunger arises, If the action of eating is carried on then hunger will go away. Most actions are not so predictable, their result relies on multiple connections in Ishwara and cannot be calculated by the human intellect.

In a nutshell while the power to act or not act is with Atman. The choice of actions and their results rests solely with Ishwara.

What is the ego

The ego is said to be a negative thing; something that keeps us in thrall; which must die for us to be awakened.

This is a blatant piece of misinformation, since the ego is the one that can actually not die, as long as you are alive and is the only gate thorough which the Brahman is attained.

How is that, well what is the ego, the most consistent definition of this is the feeling of I am.

In every experience that you have there is a ever present feeling of I am.

If you recognize this feeling in all experiences then you can see that this is at its core unchanging.

(At first you may not believe it, but by slow observation of this you will become ever sure of this fact)

All that happens happens outside of it (thoughts/feelings/physical stuff) does not affect the unchanging feeling of I am.

What this is is none other than the reflection of awareness in mind, and thus just like the awareness is ever constant like space and so is its child the ego the same.

By holding onto the ego you realize its source and see it everywhere, in every experience God as awareness is with you. In fact it is not with you but as you.

Enlightened and nonenlightened

Enlightenment is an unfortunate turn of phrase to describe an uncomplicated state of affairs.

Most people live in a state of near constant attachment from one phenomenon to another.

One thought to another, one worry to another, one feeling to another, one object to another.

An uncomplicated state of affairs is in which you stay as you are despite the churning of objects.

You know yourself as you are amidst this changing phenomenon, stable and peaceful.

You only see yourself as awareness of the changing phenomenon, awareness always stays as it is.

It is not changed by the every varying phenomenon.

To create gurus and reverential figures out of those that see this simple fact is highly unfortunate, but perhaps unavoidable due to deep conditioning in us of high vs low, better vs worse.

This deep conditioning operating day in day out causes mind to look in terms of good vs bad, heros vs common folk, rich and poor, enlightened and non-enlightened.

Buddha on his high pedestal vs us mere humans who can never be so great.

Belief vs Empirical in Vedanta

Vedanta has a strong empirical component, but it also has a substantial component that is taken on faith.
Here are the two components

Empirical component: The observation of I am or consciousness, identifying that consciousness is separate from the objects that appear in it even body or mind.

Faith based component: That consciousness is unified, that even matter and energy are a manifestation of consciousness, I am God.

In many cases these components are taught together, but it is good if the seeker knows what and what can be experienced.

The idea of ourselves

That we are a human a man a woman all this comes from thought.

It is just an idea that we are attached to.

If we were not to attach to these ideas the essence of us is consciousness itself, i.e. we are just consciousness.

If we were to rest in this consciousness and not let us take attachment away from it then there would be no conflict.

The whole of vedanta boils down to this: Experience is happening and you are the experiencer, if you can observe attachment and drop it you will return to your true nature, timeless limitless and bliss.

Inside or outside

Things that we see, things that we hear are said to be outside.

While thoughts that appear emotions that are felt are assumed to be inside of me.

This distinction is arbitrary and just a manner of thinking.

In reality what happens is that everything is outside of me.

I can perceive things both "inside" and "outside".

And thus I perceive all, nothing that I perceive is inside.

All perception though is through the senses. Thus the traditional view of 5 senses is quite incorrect.

Corresponding to these 5 senses there must be many others.

For example we perceive pain, now which sense is this?

Internal senses that perceive emotions, thoughts pain feeling.

If there were truly something inside me I would not be able to perceive it.

Is enlightenment for all?

Is it possible for an animal or child or mentally challenged person to be enlightened?

Very likely not and here we come to the role of discriminative intellect.

In and of itself consciousness does not know it's nature. Only through calm observation and discrimination can it appreciate the distinction among consciousness (itself) and attachment.

All this requires the discriminating faculty which is only present in (some) adult humans. Even there it is rare because it is developed through much practice in mediation (such as Vipassana).

A somewhat simplified analogy can be that of quantum physics. Although it us the way that things work and have always worked only few can grasp it and the knowledge of it took a lot of time to appear amongst humanity.

So is the knowledge of the self. Knowledge is in the nature of the intellect and not of the self/consciousness itself.

Thus the state of knowledge or enlightenment is not possible in animals children etc unless the intellect is also present.

That is it is possible but since discriminative intellect is a prerequisite it is quite unlikely.

Story of the three robbers

Once a man went through a thick forest. Three robbers stopped him on the way. They took away everything he had. The first robber tied him to a tree. The second robber said let's kill him here. The third robber said we have got what we needed, let him be, he will die on his own or survive as may be his fate.

And so off they went leaving the traveler behind.

Later the third robber returned he gave the poor traveler food and drink and when his strength was restore took him to the gates of the city.
Oh traveler you must travel from here to the city on your own said he.

But good sir you have between so kind. Come with me to the city leave those wicked people behind. A virtuous person like you surely will be forgiven. I have heard that a great king lives in these walls. He treats everyone equally.

Said the robber, oh man I cannot enter the gates of this city.

This city will burn me if I enter here.

For I like my brothers am a creature of the forest.

My work is done here. I must leave.

And off he went back.

(Originally narrated by Sri Ramakrishna)

Schrodinger

Schrodinger is one of the fathers of quantum physics. At the heart of quantum mechanics lies the Schrodinger equation.

Schrodinger is one of the rare scientists who has thought deeply about the process of science itself. As pointed out earlier on this blog, he also recognizes that at the that science excludes the observer from the field of observation. While it is the most important thing in the whole  business of life (the ground of being as vedanta says). In addition science also excludes subjective objects from its enquiry, leaving a "colourless and soundless and unpalpable" universe.

Here is a collection of some of the quotes from him on these lines.

"[the principle of objectivation] [...] By this I mean the thing that is also frequently called the "hypothesis of the real world" around us. I maintain that it amounts to a certain simplification which we adopt in order to master the infinitely intricate problem of nature. Without being aware of it and without being rigorously systematic about it, we exclude the Subject of Cognizance from the domain of nature that we endeavor to understand."


"[...] The reason why our sentient, percipient and thinking ego is met nowhere within our scientific world picture can easily be indicated in seven words: because it is itself that world picture. It is identical with the whole and therefore cannot be contained in it as a part of it. But, of course, here we knock against the arithmetical paradox; there appears to be a great multitude of these conscious egos, the world is however only one. This comes from the fashion in which the world concept produces itself. The several domains of 'private' consciousness partly overlap. The region common to all where they all overlap is the construct of the 'real world around us'. With all that an uncomfortable feeling remains, prompting such question as: is my world really the same as yours? Is there one real world to be distinguished from its pictures introjected by way of perception into every one of us? And if so, are these pictures like unto the real world or is the latter, the 'world in itself', perhaps very different from the one we perceive? [...]

There is obviously one one alternative, namely the unification of minds or consciousness. Their multiplicity is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind. This is the doctrine of the Upanishads. [...]

Still, it must be said that to Western thought this doctrine has little appeal, it is unpalatable, it is dubbed fantastic, unscientific. Well, it is so because our science – Greek science – is based on objectivation, whereby it has cut itself off from an adequate understanding of the Subject of Cognitanze, of the mind. But I do believe that this is precisely the point where our present way of thinking does need to be amended, perhaps by a bit of a blood-transfusion from Eastern thought. That will not be easy, we must beware of blunders – blood transfusion always needs great precaution to prevent clotting. We do not wish to lose the logical precision that our scientific thought has reached, and that is unparalleled anywhere at any epoch. [...]

Objective and Subjective

I am is the only subject, while anything else that can be perceived is an object.

Here is what objective and subjective mean in normal language.

Objective means something that can be observed by many subjects. Such as trees, clouds, cars basically anything external.

Subjective means something that can be perceived by a single subject.  Such as thoughts emotions feeling which are essentially internal.

Note that the so called subjective things are what are most important to me.

While the objective things are of secondary importance, in fact they derive their importance from my subjective thoughts and emotions about them.

Science as by its nature only focuses on the objective things. 

Meditation is cheating

Happiness which is sustainable is impossible in this world.

Following is the mechanism of happiness and unhappiness.

First a thought (as desire) arises in the mind.

This creates a disturbance in the natural peace of the consciousness.

This disturbance then creates the potential energy which goads us to achieve the object, which we think will give us happiness.

This object will make us feel fulfilled, because it will remove the disturbance creating potential.

This is the mechanism by which work is happening in the world.

So it is quite clear, the basis of the activities in this world is the disturbance created which creates a potential which then impels us to remove this disturbance by obtaining the happiness attributed object.

This is how the system was designed by its clever designer (hat tip to God).

The Vedantins and the Buddhists are then trying to hack the system.

By meditation you bypass the whole thought->attachment->disturbance->energy->attainment->cessation cycle required for object attainment.

You stop it at the attachment phase itself.

This way disturbance is never created and one can remain happy.

This is why the meditators can remain happy they have hacked the system to give them happiness by bypassing the whole business.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-scientists-figured-out-who-the-worlds-happiest-man-is-2012-11

We can say that the world is created to not give us happiness by for us to chase happiness and never get it.

Unhappiness/dissatisfaction is the potential energy that makes the world run. Once it becomes permanent then how will the activities of the world take place.

By bypassing the rules of life meditators are thus cheaters.

The three gunas

There are three gunas that are said to operate in the mind.

The three gunas are sattva, rajas and tamas

Tamas is inertia, it is the feeling of helplessness of laziness of depression. It is not all bad however, when you sleep you need tamas

Rajas is energy, it is the can do spirit enthusiasm, bubbliness

Sattva is harmony, it is the discriminative intelligence, wisdom which can recognize and balance the other two.

Sad to say however that Sattva is the rarest of gunas, and so people that are wise are rare.

Rajas is celebrated in today's society as a "man of action", "always doing something or other" things "full of vigor".

Tamas is however universally condenmed.

The upshot of all this is that there is an excess of Rajas in today's society.

Two forces

Two forces is all that is required to understand the seemingly myriad complexity of life.

The two forces are simply awareness and attachment.

Awareness is simply the fundamental force of life on which everything else is built.

Whatever is built on awareness is simply due to attachment.

If attachment were not there objects will arise randomly in awareness.

And as they arise they will also dissolve.

However, due to attachments things are propagated.

This whole world beautiful or ugly as it may seem is the handiwork of attachment.

However, it is built on top of awareness.

When awareness is gone the world cannot exist. There first needs to be an observer to see the world.

However, just seeing will create transient objects in the world that rise and fall randomly.

It is attachment that then binds awareness to objects, once awareness is attached to an object, then the object derives stable existence.

At the very heart we humans are no complex than just this interplay of two cosmic forces.

Vedanta and Science as means of Knowledge

Vedanta and science are ultimately descriptions of the universe.

Science has a way of describing things based on what they infer from their instruments.

Atoms, electrons, photons quarks, mass gravity.

This is good as it goes, but in our day to day life scientific instruments is not what we live life through.

For us the scientific description of the universe is not useful.

An object can have various levels of description.

For example, a car can be described in terms of its brakes accelerator and steering wheels.

It can also be described in terms of the intricate mechanics that make it up, such as gears, levers, engines and such.

For a driver driving a car what is useful is how the brakes and the accelerator works.

He should have an intuitive understanding of these things rather than the in depth understanding of combustion engines.

Similarly for us and our instruments of perception, the theories of Vedanta are much more meaningful and impactful.

They have a profound impact on our way of living on our mental health our feelings and emotions.

Life is simply the interplay of forces.

See it as it is through deep observation. Vedanta only gives you hints into what you should look for.

To perceive it clearly is to move away from darkness into light where things become meaningful. Life is no longer a mystery and the universe is your own.

Observe with your instruments the interplay of attachment and awareness that is your life.

The goal of life

Since childhood we have been asked to do this or that.

Otherwise we are not worthy.

It is always about becoming something or other.

The spiritual pursuits are similar with things to be done and goals to be achieved.

All this is bogus.

There are two forces of attachment and awareness that create this world.

Indeed they create us as we are.

Being created by the interplay of the forces of nature there is nothing worthy or unworthy here.

Attachment and Awareness: The fundamental nature of the universe

Attachment is considered a negative thing in spiritual teachings.

However, like awareness it is also one of the things that makes the world.

Awareness and attachment together make the world possible.

You attach to your body, without it you will not care for hunger and thirst and die.

If attachment were not there awareness will not thus perpetuate objects such as the body.

This will not cause the universe we see today.

Attachment is not a problem.

On the other hand like awareness it is one of the fundamental forces that build the universe.

Subject and Object

Vedanta boils down to just one statement:

"You are the subject and not an object."

Anything that can be perceived is an object.

The one that perceives is the subject.

Since objects rely upon a subject they are not unconditioned, hence they have conditional being.

An object in itself is unknown, the subject perceives a projection of the object.

While subject does not rely upon objects, hence it has unconditional being.

This last statement is hard to believe in for most of us.

We assume that once say our body is gone we will also cease to be, while vedanata says it is not so.

The subject is not conditioned upon the object body is an object hence I being the subject am not conditioned on it.

Observation is all there is

Enticing as the ideas of Vedanta are, in the end it all boils down to observation.

According to Vedanta all perceivables are objects.

Thus thoughts and emotions are also objects just like any other.

Yet we have too much attachment to them. In fact we take them as what we are.

We are not an object and can never be perceived.

However, we attach to these subtle objects as soon as they arise.

This attachment then feeds them.

Thus, we need to develop the discipline of non attaching to these objects to be as pure Brahman.

The only way to do so is observation.

In the final reckoning enlightenment boils down to knowledge.

Knowledge that you are never the object but always the subject.

While the objects come and go the subject persists.

Space

The concept of space is most amazing.

Let's say there are two kinds of space physical and psychological.

Physical space is what remains when all objects are removed.

In the absence of objects space is neither big not small.

It just is.

Neither beautiful nor ugly nor green nor blue.

Nothing can be said about it except through negation.

That is any physical object that can ever exist is not space.

Space is the absence of all.

And yet it is the basis of all.

Without space nothing could exist

It is the most fundamental.

Physical space though fundamental has little to do with us.

But curiously something analogous to it is behind I Am.

Psychological space.

When I remove all objects of perception through neti neti what remains is psychological space.

This psychological space is what is life itself

It is what makes experiencing possible.

Yet it is nothing that can be experienced.

It is the absence of all experience.

And this space is so intimate that it is the one behind consciousness itself.

I am in the purest is this.

We are this eternal indestructible object, and we barely recognize it.

The fundamental reality

The fundamental reality of the universe is what remains if we keep removing everything that can be removed.

The scientist will say if I keep removing everything then what will remain is empty space.

This is also what most of us believe in that if we keep removing everything then empty space would remain.

Vedanta however gives a different answer.

It says if you keep removing everything, the one thing you cannot remove is you.

If you remove the observer then there is nothing not even empty space.

You cannot be removed at all, what remains after you is removed still requires you to imagine it.

There is not a thing in the universe that is there without you.

The Void

Void is the absence of everything.

Void is also the space in which everything is possible.

These descriptions also apply to Brahman equally well.

Science assumes that there is something called empty space in which things can be.

For Vedanta the reality is not the empty space but consciousness itself.

Purged of all its attachments consciousness becomes empty, empty like the space of physics.

In Buddhism void is said to be the end goal of nirvana.

To return to the empty space from which the world appeared.

The space is not dead, it is life itself, it is consciousness, it is perceiving and experiencing.

Whatever in alive in us is this space, which through attached to concepts and ideas and forms does not realize its indestructible nature

Buddhism and Vedanta

Buddhism and Vedanta are kindred spirits.

The great thing about Buddhism is that Buddha's teachings have survived almost unaltered from the time he taught it.

The Vedantic tradition is strong today due to people such as  Ramana Maharishi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. The scriptures of Vedanta the Upanishads and Geeta  have truth, untruth and myths all mixed up in them and are therefore hard to make use of.

Ramakrishna Paramhansa once remarked that reading the scriptures is like trying to eat sugar mixed with sand, when you don't even know what is sugar and what is sand.

With Buddhism there is much less sand that has come in the sugar.

Weightlessness

The end goal of meditation is literally weightlessness.

All the objects bind Brahman and keep it moored.

Objects are whatever can be perceived whether physical or nonphysical.

When through the practice neti-neti all these weights are thrown overboard.

What remains then is weightlessness.

Vedanta and Religion

Religion is generally based on myths, emotions, faith and belief.

Vedanta literally means end of knowledge, it is based on none of the above.

Indeed attaching to any thought  or emotion is something that takes you away from pure consciousness.

So what about the books and teachings of Vedanta?

Yes they are thoughts and the seeker attaches to them initially.

The analogy given by Buddha was that his teachings were like a thorn used to remove another thorn.

After the thorn is removed both the thorns are thrown away.

Another analogy that was given by him is that of a man using a raft to cross the river.

When you reach the other shore you also throw the raft away.

Pure consciousness is realized when not attaching to any form that can be perceived, whether thought, emotion or a physical object.

In pure consciousness even the exalted thoughts of Vedanta are but a blemish and must be discarded as well.

But for a seeker they act as an antidote towards annihilating preexisting attachments.

In practice faith is required to be able to make use of the antidote, without faith the thoughts of Vedanta will not gain enough strength to annihilate the preexisting thoughts.

The point of Brahman

One can very well argue that what is the point of knowing the Brahman?

There are human cares and concerns which are more immediate.

Health, survival, reproduction, money.

Indeed these are more pressing concerns.

Then can Brahman, help us with these pursuits?

And indeed since Brahman is all powerful can't he take care of these rather small concerns?

To this it can only be argued that indeed Brahman is the doer of all things.

It is the being in all beings.

However, knowledge of him will not make all beings direct their efforts towards you.

All the knowledge of it can do is this.

Knowledge of it will make you feel truly home in this world.

Just as a home is  a place where you can be yourself, you don't have to fight, you don't have to pretend.

Knowing Brahman you realize that the whole world is same as you and hence you are afraid of nothing.

Knowledge of it can only give peace and oneness with the universe.

The Spirit

The spirit is our connection to the universe.

Call it spirit or Atman or Brahman, or simply just I am.

The current scientific worldview makes us disconnected from the world.

It posits consciousness as a fragile highly complicated mechanism which is but an accident in a lifeless universe.

In reality, it is extremely simple and complicated, that which cannot be simplified further and the most fundamental force in the world.

It is also extremely solid and more stable than anything else in the world.

Realizing the spirit we find that we are not disconnected from the universe.

We are intricately linked with the very core of the world.

We are the very basis of the world. The force that holds it together.

Not an accidental spark in a lifeless world but a wave of a great ocean.

The ocean in which the universe appears and disappears as but a blip.

Neti Neti

Neti-Neti is an advanced meditation technique to discover your essence.

What is known as the self or Atma.

In this technique see everything in and around you.

Anything that you can see or perceive is not you.

Here seeing does not refer to just seeing through the eyes, it refers to all ways of perceiving.

For example emotions can be felt but not seen.

In this way remove all the things that are seen as not you.

After removing all the things that are seen as not you what remains is the real you.

Thus whatever you see is not you, whatever you feel is not you.

It is not an intellectual exercise but something that is done with the whole being, invoking all the senses and ways of perception.

Being and becoming

At our core we are the eternal, changeless now (or consciousness or Brahman)

Since birth we have been told that we should be doing this or doing that.

Strive towards becoming this or that.

However, we are already fully complete as we are.

At our core nothing can change.

Being and becoming are like two ends of the same line with the mind in middle.

When mind hankers after something it struggles in the field of becoming.

When becoming is complete mind comes to the being and relaxes there.

Soon enough however a new becoming attracts the mind and takes it away from being.

In Vedanta, it is said don't be this or that just be.

Be as you are.

The moment of now

The moment of now is the same as Brahman.

In the individual it reflects as being as I am.

All of the activity that takes place does so in the current moment, the moment of now.

Feeling "I am", bring me immediately to the now.

Now is different from past and present. Now is the place where everything happens.

Past and present are in imagination and memory.

Now has the three characteristics attributed to God: Omniscience, Omnipresent and Omnipotent.

Dissecting God

We imagine that god  is a giant entity who is running the show of the universe with his great power.

In reality God is on the same level as us tiny humans.

He is in fact as he is in the puniest of insects.

He exists as is in all living things and is as powerful (or powerless) wise (or stupid) good (or evil) as they are.

Lets see how this mundaneness of God can be reconciled with the all powerful being of mythology.

The characteristics of God are: Omniscient Omnipresent and Omnipotent

This all fits if you consider God as a distributed system.

Your consciousness is part of God, which although being part is also same as the whole.

This means that. the characteristics of consciousness are such that if you add two consciousnesses you still get one consciousness.

Although consciousness is apparently divided among various organisms when all of them are destroyed it will remain as the one it is.

Consciousness is not a material thing.

In the material world 1 + 1 = 2.

In the immaterial world of consciousness it is rather 0 + 0 = 0  (or infinity + infinity = infinity)

And maybe this is why in Buddhism consciousness is refereed to as shunyata (or zeroness).

While in Hinduism it is referred to as Brahman (or the infinite)

Thus god having divided itself into small consciousnesses animates each living being.and is attached to their joys and sorrows.

Seen as a distributed system now the characteristics of God make sense.

Omnipresence: In the absence of consciousness nothing can be.

Omniscient: In the absence of consciousness nothing can happen.

Omnipotent: Without the power of consciousness nothing can happen.

Although seen as three different powers in reality all three powers in fact boil down to one thing.

There is just one living being who has split up into the multitude. Without this being nothing is nothing arises and quite simply there is nothing.

All that happens whether seen as good or evil is as he wills it.

The third eye

The Hindu god Shiva is shown with three eyes.

Two of the eyes are as in normal humans. The third eye is in the middle of the forehead.

Unlike the two eyes which see external objects the third eye sees inward.

The symbolism of this imagery is quite beautiful.

The third eye is present in us humans, however it lies dormant.

The third eye essentially is the power to see your body and thoughts and emotions as an object as any other physical object in the world is seen with the physical eyes.

To be able to observe thought and feeling without getting attached to it.

This seeing is of course not visual, this seeing is more of a feeling.

Vipassana meditation is directed towards observation of thoughts and emotions. Regular practice of it leads to the waking up of the third eye.

When the third eye of Shiva opens the world is destroyed.

What this means is that the third eye is fully awakened then consciousness is separated from the body and from the mind.

When this happens the false world of illusion is destroyed.

A person who can do this unceasingly is said to be enlightened.

Pure and commingled consciousness

The nature of the world we see around us can be explained by the commingling of the consciousness with the objects that appear in it.

In consciousness appear all objects, hence it is the ground of being. It is known as the Brahman in Vedanta, the basis space of all there is.

In Buddhism it is also known as void or emptiness. Much like the concept of space in physics, the emptiness or vacuum is the very ground of things it is in which other objects appear.

Much like the vacuum of physics however the vacuum hardly remains pure i.e. completely empty.

Indeed in physics in a vacuum matter and energy is spontaneously created all the time.

Pure consciousness does not remain pure and gets commingled with the thought forms that arise in it.

This is similar to how elements behave in nature, most elements in nature cannot remain in pure form but get attached to something or the other as soon as they are allowed in contact with them.

More on Attachment

Attachment is one of the most intriguing phenomenons.

Pure awareness without attachment is free and joyous.

However awareness can hardly remain in its pure state.

It has a very strong tendency to attach.

Most live their whole life without even knowing about the possibility of pure awareness without attachment.

The deepest attachment is of course to the body.

Attaching to the body pure awareness becomes a distinct person separate from a hostile universe.

Why does pure awareness which is brahman itself attach so firmly?

Location of the self

It is commonly accepted that I am located inside the body.

However, this is not really true. First there is unattached awareness in which various objects arise and body is one of the objects of awareness.

Thus first awareness exists, then various objects arise in it.

One of them is the body.

In fact awareness can be considered to be like a field with no particular location in space.

However curiously awareness does not exist in pure form for long and soon the process of attachment begins.

As soon as attachment to body begins, the pure field becomes a living being.

As soon as I am the body idea is established, the formless, spaceless, indestructible consciousness now has become a vulnerable creature, located in space and time

Koshas (Or the various bodies)

In Vedanta it is said that a living being has five bodies. As an empirical science anybody can experience these bodies. If you cannot experience these bodies then trust your experience more than the scriptural doctrine.

Lower three bodies.

The physical body (annamaya kosha): This needs no explaining.

The breathing body (pranamaya kosha): Breathing is said to be a separate body in and on itself. By focusing on it carefully we can discern it more clearly.

The mind (manomaya kosha): This is the field that generates thoughts and emotions.

Upper two bodies

Focus body (Vijanmaya kosha):

Now here is the interesting part. This is the ability to focus and perceive things without attachment to them.

Most people cannot perceive thoughts without getting attached to them, why?

Because this requires the use of the focus body.

To observe without attachment is the gist of it.

This body lies withered away in humans like a muscle that has never been used.

All efforts of meditation are directed towards awakening this body.

Once this body is awakened the process of attachment becomes extremely clear.


Bliss body (Anandmaya kosha):

This body is very rarely felt. It is activated in a mystical experience.

Most spiritual seekers chase the Bliss body. They want a permanent high, a state of forever mystic union.

What they should be seeking is the fourth body, the ability to discriminate.

Bliss is temporary but knowledge one gained is permanent

(well as so long as the body lasts. For there is no knowledge in Brahman))

Beyond the five bodies lies Brahman the ocean of consciousness. When the light of brahman is filtered through these five sheaths then a human arises from the Brahman.

In and of itself Brahman does not know its nature since all it knows is "I am". It is only through a functioning Vijanmaya kosha that the Brahman can perceive itself.

Mind

Anything in vedanta refers to something that can be experienced.

Thus mind is something that we experience everyday. 

The mind is the mechanism that generates  thoughts and feelings.

The mind generates thoughts and feelings randomly and incessantly.

I (or consciousness) then attaches to some of these thoughts and feelings by giving them attention.

Fed by the energy of the consciousness these thoughts and feelings then grow larger.

Over time these thoughts and feeling form a personality.

All this is due to the attachment of the consciousness to the thoughts and feelings.

In the final measure consciousness is the power behind all things.

Awakening happens when consciousness realizes its own nature and is able to see this mechanism clearly at any point in time.

Does consciousness realize its own nature with the help of the mind?

Science vs Vedanta

Vedanta much like science is an empirical discipline.

And so we start with experience. The ground of all experience is consciousness of I am.

The first primacy is of consciousness other things then appear in it.

This is my experience this is your experience and this experience is of the scientist.

Consciousness is the basis of everything on which other things arise and dissolve.

When consciousness disappears other things also disappear.

As an empiricist even the dream world is real, since I can experience it.

The reality to anything is given by consciousness, in its absence nothing will appear.

Not atoms not energy not space.

The current prevailing scientific worldview is that the world is made up of atoms and space and energy.

In this worldview life is a random permutation of atoms and so is consciousness.

This is because of one fundamental error, to agree to the empirical method we must agree that there is an experiencer. The primacy of the experiencer  (and of consciousness) must be accepted.

The fundamental nature of universe is thus not atoms or energy but consciousness itself.

Attachment

In pure being there is perfection.

There is no desire nor is anything incomplete.

But this not our state, why?

Because we have become attached, although pure in myself as soon as thoughts and emotions arise I attach to them.

If I attach to negative thoughts negative emotion I become a sad person.

If I attach to positive thoughts and positive emotions I become a happy person.

Attachment to good actions and thoughts leads to being a good person.

Attachment to bad actions and deeds leads to being an evil person.

We are always attached to something or another, and fail to see ourselves for what we are.

Vedanta and empiricism

Vedanta is all about empiricism.

Do not accept anything that you cannot experience for yourself.

It is all about observing all your experience in detail and finding out more about the process of experiencing itself.

Looking in minute detail at the actual process of consciousness and of life is meditation.

Going deeper and deeper till you cannot go any deeper.

When you cannot go any deeper then you reach the self.

The self, brahman, atman, consciounsess, ground of being, all there is.

The multiplicity of I am

In Vedanta it is said that Brahman is one.

How is this possible?

We have the murderers and the saints, the good and the bad.

If we are all really Brahman and Brahman is one why this difference.

Is Brahman the same in Hitler and Gandhi?

Here is what they actually mean by the singularity of I am

In school, I was taught in chemistry class that water is the same whether it is from a pond or from your tap or from a puddle.

On the face of it, it appears to be a ridiculous statement. Water from the tap is clean from the puddle is muddy and water from a pond is green.

Clearly they are as different as different can be.

Well the chemist would answer. Water is the same, the differences are only due to things that are not water.

And so it is. The same water becomes the tap water and the sewage water, despite being the very same substance.

In the purest essence there is not even an atom of difference between Hitler and Gandhi.

I am is the only constant

In the Vedanta there is the changeless contrasted with the transient.

Brahman and Maya.

Shiva and Shakti.

These words have become obscured by time and evoke in our mind images of legendary beings and far away realities.

The reality behind these things is far more immediate and at work constantly in our mundane life.

It is as simple as say the force of gravity that acts on us day in and day out, while we pay little attention to it.

The changeless is I am.

The feeling of I am, the sense of being never changes.

It is the ground of all activity and experience.

The eternal changeless.

The activities and experiences keep on changing, this is the field of Maya.

Shiva is I am.

He is the power that animates all activities.

For indeed without I am no experience can appear, no activity can occur.

Everything else is Shakti, the transient forms they all appear in I am and merge in I am.

Thus Shakti has no existence without the eternal I am.