AWAKENING (Plainly Stated) -

When You surrender to the ultimate reality, it flows into you instantly, lifting You past ordinary human limits into a situation of transcendence.

Your personal perception merges with the consciousness of the entire Kosmos, dissolving your sense of separation and anchoring You deeply in your true source.

Most people wander ungrounded, unaware of the life force breathing through them or the vital energy sustaining them--an essence beyond both body and mind, known as the divine (bhagavat) across all ten directions.

As your inner self opens, it first awakens vertically--experiencing profound height and depth.

Once this profound vertical axis is firmly established, your awareness naturally expands horizontally.

When your height and depth finally converge, your vision reaches the outermost edges of the Kosmos.

Your consciousness blooms in all ten directions, all born from a single inner path--a quiet journey home.

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If the unmanifest becomes manifest thru continuous creation, then no other intellectual devices or premises are required as attempts to explain the obvious. We could say that everything is created to be self-evolving because that is intrinsic to its existence and the nature of creation itself. This explanation then imputes duality, that of "created" vs "creator." This can be transcended easily by seeing the obvious, that creation and creator are identical. In nonduality, there is no separation between a creator and that which is created. As limitations are released, the Kosmos reveals itself not to be different from Divinity. As the Self is realized, the divinity of all Creation, in all its expressions, goes forth with shining power and absoluteness. It is self-effulgent, self-revealing, self-identical, and complete in total unity and oneness. The absolute is exactly that. The infinite presence of all things is beyond all time and space, forever complete, perfect and whole. All points of observation disappear and there is the omnipresence of that which Knows All by the fact that it Is All. As Reality stands forth in its stunning self-evidence and infinite peace, it appears that the block to Realization was the mind itself, which is not different from the ego; they are one and the same. The state of Awareness is the level of "nomindedness," which is not the same as "void" or "nothingness." Those terms refer to form. The Ultimate is the realm of non-form, non-limitation, and nonlocality, and therefore of the ever presence of the totality of the All. There is only existence. Existence requires no cause, and to think as much is to create a fallacy of logic. By Existence, we mean discernable thru observation, and it imputes a hypothetical change of conditions of nonexistent to existent. However, that which is always (that which is in its foreverness) is in its completeness beyond all time; looking for a primary cause is an artifact of mentation that arises along with the concepts of time and space. Beyond time and space, there are no events, no beginnings, and no endings which are beyond the categories of human thought and reason.

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The Subjective Experience or Realization of Allness -

It is an awareness of a condition that has always been present. The novelty of sequential experiencing disappears as do expectation, regret, or the desire to anticipate or control. Existence AS Existence is total and complete. All one's needs are already fulfilled. There is nothing to gain or lose and everything is of equal value. With the elimination of preference, all form is seen to be equal in value; in fact, its common value is only that it has form. The weed is the same as the diamond--each may differ in appearance, but not in intrinsic value. Their beauty is equal because it is innate in all form. Everything is equal by virtue of having existence. Nothing is in the process of 'becoming', it already is its own identity, complete and perfect. Existence is never incomplete. An 'instant' is an artifact of attention and has no independent reality. There are no 'instants' in the world. The unfolding of Creation is continuous; it does not go from incomplete to complete, it goes from complete to complete. In one instant, it can appear to be completely 'this', and in the next instant, it can appear to be completely 'that'. Everything exists outside of time and not within it; therefore, nothing exists in time nor is subject to it. Time is merely a style of perception. If one looks at a chair, one sees a chair and does not see time. If one looks at a clock, one sees change, but not time. Time is an abstract concept projected onto observable form. The descriptive quality that we call "time" actually stands still. Events seem to move, but time is unmoving. Time does not exist, change, or have duration. It is stationary. Measurement moves, planets move, but the contexts of space or time are stationary. There is no self-existent reality such as time, and because time is stationary, it is always that which is beyond here and now. Time never changes because there is nothing to change. Change requires form; time has no form. Time is a concept of measurement, and concepts exist only as mental phenomena. Without the presence of the Human brain, even a concept such as time could not occur. The mind assumes that nothing can exist unless it exists in time, which is a mind game. If time is nonexistent, then so is the notion of 'place'. We can see spatial relationships, but there is no such thing as 'place'. 'Place' has no independent existence; it is a mentation. 'Space' is a concept. The mind imagines that if something exists in a place, then that place must be a space. Like time, 'space' is an imagination. There is no 'place', there is no 'where', there is no 'here', and there is no 'there'; neither is there a 'when'. Existence is independent of form, time, space, or location. "Now" is also a concept. There is only foreverness--that which is the Self is felt/known as a quality of ALWAYS and is not experienced as a current instant that would be analogous to a place or episode in linear time. In the nonlinear Reality, there is no time track upon which to position a moment or an instant denotable as "now".

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"That all opposites--such as mass and energy, subject and object, life and death--are so much each other that they are perfectly inseparable, still strikes most of us as hard to believe. But this is only because we accept as real the boundary line between the opposites. It is, recall, the boundaries themselves which create the seeming existence of separate opposites. To put it plainly, to say that 'ultimate reality is a unity of opposites' is actually to say that in ultimate reality there are no boundaries. Anywhere." ~ Ken Wilber.

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MIND/NO MIND -

The Search for the Self -

Events, including thoughts come into manifestation as a consequence of intention and prevailing conditions. Mentation is no exception to the fact that there is no such process as causality causing the train of thoughts. Dualistic perception includes a programed time track that is superimposed on ordinary experiencing, including the thinking process itself.

The mind then assumes that the thought train evolves sequentially, step-by-step thru time, when actually, what really happens is that thoughts arise timelessly, all at once. Each thought arises from a 'space' of nonverbal silence which is discernable a split 'nanosecond' immediately prior to the emergence of the thought form.

This observation can be detected by focusing interest on the field of energy out of which the thoughts arise instead of on the content of the thoughts themselves. By doing this exercise in contemplation or meditation, one is focusing on unchanging context instead of content. This is the field of consciousness called the witness/observer, without which one would be unable to know or register what is being thought.

The field is autonomous, nonvolitional, and a quality of consciousness. The Buddha thought the eternal nonverbal void ('emptiness') of the Buddha mind (meaning 'no-mind') was discernable 'between thoughts'. The attempt to discern the gap between thoughts (estimated to be 1/10,000th of a second) is not as likely to succeed as discerning the reality that is a priori to the silent matrix out of which thoughts arise.

It is likely that the Buddha was referring to the same phenomenon but merely worded it differently. It is simple to observe that although there is a 'talking mind' going on at the same time, there is also a silent awareness that is more global and unfocused and operates automatically. Contemplation or meditation that focuses attention on context rather than content facilitates moving one's identity from the transient and volitional (thereby becoming personal) to the unchanging quality of awareness itself.

This leads to the discovery that one is the field and not the specifics of the content. This jump in realization can be very sudden, which is a level of satori. The field of conscious awareness is not time-tracked, and it is silent, autonomous, effortless, peaceful, all-encompassing, and unprogrammed. It is free, unbound, spontaneous, tranquil, and not subject to birth or death. Discovery of this field is simple, easy, and relaxed.

The realization is a consequence of 'allowing' rather than 'trying'. It is surrendered to rather than acquired. As desire for, and the ego's obsession with, control is relinquished, the field presents itself for recognition. Traditionally, the relinquishment of the ego's programs has been described as arduous and difficult, requiring many lifetimes to accomplish. On the contrary, a profound humility and willingness to surrender all to God at great depth makes it possible for the transition to occur in a split second. Thus, the pathway to enlightenment may be viewed as a slow process or a sudden one. When realization locates its identity as consciousness itself, the dominance of dualistic perception fades away and the final doorway to Revelation is close at hand.

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The unaware intellect presumes that the source for its capacity to think and be aware is exclusively in the physical brain, but the brain is the means and tool whereby the linear and nonlinear interact. Whether one understands that the source of life is the material or realizes that it is the spiritual differentiates higher-level awareness from the lower levels.

If we explore the relationship between mentalization and the brain using consciousness, we find confirmation that thoughts exist independently of the brain. The brain is activated by thoughts and is their correlate within the physical domain of form, much as the physical body is the correlate of the etheric body (They are isometric).

Like a radio that converts unseen energy waves into intelligible sound, the brain is a receiver instrument of the energies of thought forms. Thus, the attractor fields of the nonlinear domain of consciousness influence many minds and brains simultaneously. Like an unseen radio transmitter, the attractor field radiates 'frequencies' which are accessible to those instruments with which it has concordance (The mechanism is concordance and not causality).

A calibratable level of consciousness then exists as an independent field that contains concordant thought forms attuned to the frequency of that attractor field. The field therefore sustains, supports, and gives a 'home' to similar thought forms. If an individual mind attunes to that level of consciousness, the field tends to potentiate the emergence of associated thoughts. This may result in the phenomenon of entrainment as the associated emotions increase the energy of alignment and commitment to the field. As an aside observation, historically, this is one example of how people have been influenced for the better or for the worse.

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All societies could benefit by implementing into their school systems instruction in the Four-Valued Logic of Nagarjuna, Meditation, Martial Arts, Yoga, and Music

The spiritual quest could be simplified as the task of transcending the limitations of linear, sequential duality created by perception so as to reveal Reality, which is unlimited and nonlinear and therefore nondual. Life is lived solely on experience and none other. All experience is subjective and nonlinear and, therefore, even the linear, perceptual, sequential delineation of 'reality' can't be experienced except subjectively. All 'truth' is a subjective conclusion. Once having understood that the only significance or importance of the linear, perceptual world is how it is subjectively experienced, the quest for truth shifts from 'out there' to within. To the worldly, success is something 'out there' to 'have' and to be acquired. To the more experienced and sophisticated, it becomes apparent through wisdom that the source of happiness is within the subjective inner world of experiencing, which is the result of inner qualities, meaning, and context.

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Buddha's Four Noble Truths come to us from 500 B.C. India. The First Noble Truth is indisputable: We experience pain because we are aware of the fragile, finite, temporary nature of our lives. The Second Noble Truth addresses the additional suffering caused by craving and attachment. The Third Noble Truth offers the terrific, good news that when we take control of our free-running, chattering minds, we have the opportunity to exchange suffering for gratitude. And the Fourth Noble Truth describes the Buddhist Eightfold Path of the right view of right living, which leads to the end of suffering.

Intuition and Logic

The principle of superposition and the transcendence of Aristotelian thought allow our conscious mind to be more intuitive, unrestricted, and unconditioned. The real test of this is in applying Nagarjuna's four lemmas to our everyday lives and the here and now. Following, are practical steps for developing intuitive wisdom. They are: (1) the dissolving and surrender of egoism and dogmatism, (2) the application of self-criticism and naked awareness, (3) the incorporation of new nondual logical forms. This transformation requires honesty, fearlessness, and practice. Example: the interrelation of the physical and non-physical world often manifests in the state of our health. The body is made of atoms, molecules, and physical systems. If we are ill, some part must need repair. What might be causing the illness is our response to an angry partner, boss, or even a wayward thought. So, here would be a physical illness in response to a nonphysical event. And we now know that sustained stress of any kind can not only make us sick but can make us stupid (by directing blood away from the cognitive centers to our muscles and the reptilian brain). So, our bodies control our minds just as our minds control our bodies. Body and mind are mutually co-arising. Nagarjuna's logic system attempts to show us a way to transcend dualistic thought patterns thru the realm of rational discourse. Here are the four lemmas as an illustration of Nagarjuna's methods. First, we must negate the first two lemmas: (1) this is true and (2) this is not true. The third lemma is the attribution of two contradictory qualities: (3) this is both true and not true. And the fourth lemma is a denial of two contradictory qualities: (4) this is neither true nor not true. Lemmas 3 and 4 describe the Middle Way, dissolving polarities and artificial separations. It's as though all beings have a fundamentally complex nature. In mathematics we would say that we have both REAL and IMAGINARY parts, corresponding to a real, concrete material part, in addition to an imaginary, spiritual, dependently co-arising part. To think in the negation of logical thought can be baffling if one has had little or no introduction to the Madhyamika system. Something or someone you thought about as real; you must also place into a new relationship and consequently consider unreal. But it is not unreal as if it never existed; it is unreal in that it has no independent existence. An entity is neither being nor nonbeing. It is "being" only in relation to something else. Until dependent arising, the entity is "nonbeing" or empty of individual essence. As in Nagarjuna's Madhyamika-Karika XXIV:9: "There is no entity that is not dependent. An absolutely non-relational entity does not therefore exist." The Madhyamika thinkers, whilst using all the resources of dialectic philosophy and logical disputation, search to arrive at an approximate idea of the unconditioned understanding of ultimate reality. But this understanding remains beyond the comprehension of those who look for release from pain and suffering outside themselves in ritualistic or psychological saviors. Release comes from within thru change in our perception of what is real and not real, and thru seeing our relationship to the whole. When we view the world and people as an interrelated whole, we lose the "I" vs "they" construction that creates competition and separation. This reality is only accessible to one who sees beyond the duality and illusion of separation.

Our Limited View of Ourselves:

Duality and Two-Valued Logic as a Cause of Suffering -

Aristotle's goal, around 350 B.C., was to codify the essential nature of science by defining its forms and laws--inspired by his teacher, Plato. He also introduced linguistic structures that began the foundation of Western civilization--the study of logic. His plan was to define objective reality by expounding on what we label "objects," things having their own reality outside our apprehension of them. Aristotle taught that objects have inherent properties in the physical world independent of the observer. Until quite recently, Western civilization has exclusively used Aristotelian two-valued logic (A, or not A) logical objective orientation. In two-valued logic, the world is either eternal, or it is not eternal--not both. Aristotle called this the "law of the excluded middle." Something being true or not true (A or not A) is a corollary of the idea of independent existence and identity. As we must learn from both quantum physics and Nagarjuna, however, the observer is not independent, but always affects the observed. The important Buddhist teaching of sunyata (emptiness) also informs us that things are empty of inherent meaning and have only the meaning we give them. This means that they can't have the independent existence that Aristotle declared. This is the Buddhist principle of mutual co-arising--like the mutual and simultaneous appearance of a magnetic field whenever one has a propagating or time-varying electric field. A lightning strike, as well as a comb pulled thru your hair, generates both a magnetic field and an electric spark. Similarly, in modern relativistic physics, Einstein taught that there can be no space without matter and no time without events for time to delineate. Time and space, gravity and inertia, and the Buddhist karma are all examples of what's meant by mutual co-arising. Since Aristotelian logic focuses mainly on externalized observation of "facts" and "figures," when this system is applied to the individual, a split takes place between the "I" and the "other." The two-valued Aristotelian "law of the excluded middle," with the resulting split, provided a logical institutionalized basis for millions of human beings to exist as slaves, entrapped by intellectual and emotional constructs. The law of the excluded middle is the law of separation. As we have seen thru the ages, the structured dualism is the idea that "everyone who isn't with us is against us." If someone makes a remark about your performance or appearance, you have several choices as to how you might respond, or what you might experience. You could tell them directly what they can do with their nasty comment. That feels good for a moment. Or you could repress your resentment and paste it into your resentment scrapbook. But there actually is a middle ground between acting out and repressing. It's called "letting go" and experiencing your own open-hearted and energetic flow of loving awareness. Although someone said "Boo!" nothing is actually happening beyond the meaning you give it. This is one example of why we can become passionate about exploring and learning to live in the excluded middle. Slavery was the rule in ancient Athens, as well as in Europe and America. Slavery could exist only in a separatist and dualistic culture of "self vs other." There are the "us Greek men," then there are the others, including women and slaves. From the Greek's radical idealization of men came machismo and paternalism, as well as the general acceptance of slavery and oppression of the other. Two-valued logic gives rise to lack of empathy and fear of the other, whether it manifests as a Christian Crusade, an Islamic Jihad, or plain old-fashioned Western imperialism with its extermination of indigenous people. For example: Pope Pius XII successfully saved German cripples from Nazi euthanasia because they were largely Christians. But he expended not so much effort to save millions of German Jews and gypsies because they were "the other." A dramatically dualistic worldview inherently leads to suffering. It has done so for millennia in religions that have the self-appointed task of creating separation between us and experience of the divine. This is equally true in politics, economics, and human relations, all of which are organized in a hierarchical power structure. In a dualistic system, there are fewer options. Even in our modern Judeo-Christian institutions, two-valued logic is built in. We have a powerful, omnipotent deity out there, and a puny little self (me) down here. This construct of thought has the effect of separating us from our divine nature by projecting our searching elsewhere and is the idolatry that we are warned against in the Ten Commandments. Idolatry implies separation, and the idea that there's an omnipotent "god" out there is an idolatrous idea. There is in fact, no separation. In the more expansive and inclusive (neither A nor not A) four-valued logic description of nondual realities, the world is neither eternal nor not eternal. The glass is neither half-empty nor half-full. A profoundly nondual view says that you and the deity are inseparable. Jesus tells us in the recently discovered Gospel of Thomas, "When you make two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer, and the outer like the inner, the upper like the lower, and when you make the male and the female into one...then you will enter the [Father's] domain"--unifying you with all there is, it is who you are! Poets, mystics, and composers experience this and can show us this experience of the divine, which is both nondual and nonconceptual. For more than two thousand years, the human nervous system in the Western world has been ensnared in the restrictive, oppressive, often delusional orientations of dualism, which is reflected in the very structure of the language we habitually use. The word "divine" comes to us from the Sanskrit DIVA, which is a name for God, whereas the word "devil" comes from the Sanskrit word for division (dvaidha). So, the devil is the root idea behind all dualistic thought. In Hebrew, "Satan" has the Aramaic root STA, meaning the slipping away or the causing of separation, more commonly known as the adversary, divider, or enemy. The "devil" or "Satan" is that which divides or separates us from our divinity, from each other, and from nature. The devil has no more independent existence than does evil. Saying that it does is like saying there are two forces in the world: cold and heat. In fact, there is only heat and the absence of heat, energy and the absence of energy, light and the absence of light. It is logically incoherent to speak of anything as a source of darkness. Darkness can't be the source of anything, let alone the often-heard idea that "the devil made me do it." Evil is not a separate entity simply existing out there. Satan represents the loss of our inherent goodness of not using our divine abilities. Such divisions and separations are the source of most human suffering. The destruction of the World Trade Center on 11th of September 2001, was the result of the collective thoughts and actions of Eastern and Western societies for many centuries, exemplifying the egoism, misunderstanding, and separation of religious and political institutions. It would be absurd to say that the catastrophe was due to actions on a single day and to neglect our shared responsibility in creating this planetary force--a horrific and indisputable example of mutual co-arising.

Note: The Pythagorean mystery school of the 6th century B.C. taught compassion and nonduality in ancient Greek times, so ideas beyond two-valued logic are not entirely culturally bound. Similarly, in pre-Christian times (6th Cent. B.C.), Lao Tsu, the great Chinese master of the Tao, also taught nonduality and created the Yin and Yang image as a powerful and enduring symbolic representation of female and male nonseparation in which each contains a significant representation of the other.

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Nagarjuna's purpose in emphasizing nondual emptiness (sunyata) is to bring our ordinary consciousness (which is conditioned) as close as possible to naked unconditioned consciousness. The goal is to come directly into contact with this naked awareness, which is who we are. Naked awareness is our entry point to the experience of nonconceptual emptiness that is free of ME and MINE. Suffering is instantaneously released when we finally surrender ME and MINE; suffering can't be released until that surrender is accomplished. The fundamental teaching is that the pristine spacious experience of naked awareness, or awakened Self (bodhichitta) must be free of the egoic ME. Nagarjuna demonstrates with near mathematical precision that suffering is unnecessary if not impossible if when we experience the true nature of reality. Suffering is the result of our limited understanding of the world composed of separate, discrete entities that interact with each other and with ourselves. Nagarjuna addressed this problem in the Two Truths doctrine, which is based on the view of two realities--SUBJECTIVE reality and ULTIMATE reality. Our understanding of the two truths is important to our happiness and freedom from suffering because it provides us the tools to distinguish reality from illusion. In our daily life, direct perception and experience of the world are hugely clouded by our projections and preconceptions, causing significant misapprehensions. Relative or conventional reality involves our everyday experience of the world and is often based on culture and language. For example, Christians, Muslims, and Jews each have their own "true" way of worship. We agree to call a thing a table if it is composed of four posts and a plank and we use those parts in a certain way. A COURSE IN MIRACLES (ACIM) expresses conventional reality by saying, "I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me."

Everything Is Dependently Co-arising -

Nagarjuna taught the folly of attempting a dualistic explanation of ultimate reality by separating it from our conventional experience of the world. The empirical world is our "means" to the unconditional understanding of the ultimate. The nonconceptual truth beyond duality is the "end." This suggests that we are to be consciously in the world and, at the same time, not restricted to it. In practical terms, when we give up seeing the world thru our conditioning, we no longer project our fears, hopes, and prejudices onto everything we encounter. The importance of the "two truths" teaching is to point this out. Then we can experience naked awareness, limitless mind, and unbounded consciousness. Nagarjuna's tetralemma helps us to make this shift by destroying the idea that things have an independent existence. Along this same line, the great physicist Werner Heisenberg taught that "The idea of an objective real world whose smallest parts exist objectively in the same sense that stones or trees exist, independently of whether or not we observe them...is impossible." The eighth-century writer Shankara wrote in his Crest-jewel of Discrimination that our most significant life goal is to discern reality from illusion. Nagarjuna taught that when we cease reifying things and the self, we then drop our emotional attachments to objects, personas, and concepts of the world. We surrender the ego by giving up the notion of "I" and "mine." Then we can experience the undifferentiated nature of ultimate reality. Until that point of realization, we misperceive existence. The illusion of separation inhibits our awareness of ultimate reality by confining our awareness to only a small part of reality. As Nagarjuna teaches, conventional reality and ultimate reality are not separate realities. He illuminates the truth of nonduality thru his teachings on emptiness and dependent arising to which he says that all things, concepts, and persons are empty of self-nature and only arise to exist dependently on other factors. To be perfectly clear, the teaching here is that nothing at all exists independently. What we're describing here is not esoteric, but simply mental housecleaning. It should be done daily, or at least every Spring. A more thorough understanding of the two truths includes an understanding of the central theme of the Madhyamika karika--emptiness or sunyata. Nagarjuna said that understanding emptiness leads to a greater truth of how things really are. He said that all things are empty, and he used the tetralemma to prove it. It's important to remember that emptiness does not deny the existence of conventional reality or things but says that all things have no self-nature or intrinsic essence. Nothing exists on its own, divided or separated from other things. Everything is interdependent and can't exist without other things, including the Self. For example, a location can't exist without an object in that location, and an object can't exist without a location. This is the meaning of emptiness and dependent arising. Einstein said the same thing in his general relativity theory: We can't have empty space. The object and its mass define the space. Relativistic frame-dragging experiments with a gyroscope spinning in space investigated the gravitational effects of the spinning earth (NASA Gravity Probe Mission). The experiments showed that the nature of space itself is affected by the spinning earth, just as Einstein predicted. Nagarjuna explains:

Whatever is dependently co-arisen

That is explained to be emptiness

That, being dependent designation

Is itself the middle way.

Something that is not dependently arisen,

Such a thing does not exist

Therefore a non-empty thing

Does not exist.

Emptiness and dependent arising are inseparable. Nothing has independent existence and nothing can manifest on its own. Buddha further explicates dependent arising:

When this is present, that comes to be

From the arising of this, that arises

When this is absent, that does not come to be

On the cessation of this, that ceases.

Since nothing can exist on its own and everything is dependent arising, reality can't be two separate things. There is no correctness to the idea of "us" and "them." In using Nagarjuna's tetralemma--the four lemmas--we begin to question our own reality thru the Madhyamika system of reasoning. We gain a new vision beyond the illusion of a "single truth." Nagarjuna's teachings of the "Two Truths--conditioned truth and naked truth--is important in understanding that any "single truth" is an illusion. The fourth lemma, in particular, introduces us to a transcendence of reason encompassing plural truths--the important idea that most things are NEITHER THIS NOR NOT THIS. We go beyond the incomplete, two-valued logic of Aristotle (the logic upon which the West has functioned/dis-functioned on for centuries), with the four-valued logic of Nagarjuna, into an expanded awareness, which allows us to transcend limitations of our ordinary awareness of spacetime existence. In the Madhyamika system, this transcendence is the wisdom identified with undifferentiated intuition and ultimate reality. The intent of the doctrine of Two Truths is to move us beyond the phenomenal sphere of events and activities to new realms of being where we find the ultimate undifferentiated and unseparated from the locus of awareness. This is the wisdom (prajna) that comes thru an intuitive identification with ultimate reality (spaciousness). That is, the ontological status of prajna requires a mystical intuition of the ultimate that comes about once the logical reasoning of the first three lemmas has been exhausted. This entire movement is clear in Nagarjuna's Madhyamika-sastra 2:XVII:

What is the Buddha after his Nirvana?

Does he exist or does he not exist,

Or both, or neither?

We will never conceive it.

Murti tells us: "The death of thought is the birth of wisdom; devoid of distinction [judgement], it leads to wisdom." The death of thought means the death of Aristotelian dualistic thought, the limited logic of the perceiver and the perceived. Such thoughts or concepts create distinction or separation. Perfect reasoning allows release from the naming and grasping that create separation and suffering. Again, the four lemmas help us out of this dualistic thinking. In a soul-searching sketch, then, the system may be quickly, however grossly, summed up in this way: The individual finds himself in a phenomenal world of unhappiness, in which the Buddha tells us in the first of his Four Noble Truths, "To exist is to suffer." It is as if he is saying: This phenomenal realm (samsara) is composed of subject-object relationships. This is further explained by the second noble truth: "Suffering is caused by attachment, craving, or desire." This obviously expresses a subject-object bifurcation--separation and judgement--as the root cause of suffering. As with the four lemmas, we must understand the first two Noble Truths to appreciate the last two of the Noble Truths. We must learn about the possibility of choices (lemmas 1 and 2). In the same way, we must develop and experience a sense of self in order to discover that the concept of self is an illusion. The third and fourth Noble Truths are: "The end of suffering is attainable" and "the Eightfold Path leads directly to the end of suffering." The Eightfold Path is generally associated with: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. Adhering to the elements of the Eightfold Path keeps us on a trajectory of freedom and spaciousness. Departing from the path does not mean we are bad, but it deflects our attention from the direction we want to be headed.

The Model of the Real and Unreal -

Everything real is interdependent and nothing unreal exists. The fundamental cause of suffering has traditionally and correctly been identified as with ignorance of our true nature. Ignorance is the illusion of separation between subject and object, between self and other. This dualism is unreal in the sense that it creates divisions within ultimate reality. When we desperately attempt to maintain ego--individuality and autonomy--we maintain the belief that we are a body separate from other bodies. We continually seek ways to verify our own story, or self-identity. This is the insidiousness of the ego thought system. The illusory perception of ourselves vs others is the root cause of suffering from fears, anger, problematic relationships, addictive behaviors and depression. Because of this mistaken identification of ourselves in relation to others, or in relation to the ultimate, we can spend an entire lifetime on futile obsessions, only creating further suffering. Seeing the dependent co-arising of everything around us is the first step toward understanding the real nature of our experience. Contrary to many Americans' cherished view of rugged individualism, Nagarjuna would agree with the idea that within a social fabric, "no man is an island unto himself." Everything real is interdependent. Nagarjuna taught that even our own existence "is not a thing in itself; it is in relation to other entities, and these in turn depend on others." This is the meaning of dependent arising and emptiness. Nagarjuna is establishing that all phenomena depend on each other, and any particular phenomenon lacks reality in any independent sense. The usual Western philosophical criterion for any phenomenon or entity to be ultimately real is that it possesses its own being or essence, which means that it is "independent of conditions"--usually unrelated to others, un-generated, ever enduring. In the logic of Nagarjuna, if a thing must have independent existence in order to exist, then nothing exists because nothing has independent existence. Since the Madhyamika sutras show that 'there is no entity that is not in a relation' of mutual dependence, then there are none that possess own being or self-nature. "If entities are relative, they have no real existence" (apart from the meaning that we give them), according to Madhyamika-sastra, 1:X:1-2. Madhyamika thinkers do not deny our uniqueness, nor do they assert that beings have an independent or separate existence in any sense. Fire is not separate from the fuel for the flame, yet fire and fuel are unique. The Madhyamika system teaches us that there is no real difference between ultimate reality and empirical phenomena, boundaries, and separations are illusions of our own making, then the idea of a separate ego maintaining a suffering state can be equally seen as an illusion. The world of illusion can be compared to a mirage; it is not absolute nonexistence, but it is a deception and greatly misperceived. An illusion appears to be real, and it is a tangible and visible phenomenon. The deception lies in its being mistaken for what it is not. Behind all of these illusions, there is only undifferentiated identification with the ultimate. In the words of Nagarjuna in his Madhyamika-sastra 2:XIX-XX:

XIX. There is no difference at all

Between nirvana and samsara.

There is no difference at all

Between samsara and nirvana.

XX. What makes the limit of nirvana

Is also the limit of samsara.

Between the two we cannot find

The slightest shade of difference.

The reason there is no difference between the bliss of nirvana and the ever-encircling chaos of samsara is that they are both only ideas residing in consciousness. We, of course, always have the freedom to change our mind if we don't like what we are experiencing. In the preceding verse, Nagarjuna is addressing the Buddhist paradox or double bind that says "grasping for nirvana is still grasping!" As Alan Watts writes in The Way of Zen, "How can I let go of grasping, when trying is precisely not letting go. Trying not to grasp is the same as grasping." Watts then points out that "Nagarjuna answers, that all grasping, even for nirvana, is futile--for there is nothing to be grasped." The Madhyamika writers and teachers have constructed a system full of methodological triggers to bring one to intuitional realization. The tetralemma, which exhausts the possibilities of rationality, is designed to lead us into an intuition of the unity of all things. This is PRAJNA (WISDOM) which is beyond thought and word. It is obtained when we realize intuitively our identity with the ultimate. Murti confirms this by saying: "Nondual knowledge or wisdom is contentless intuition. Nothing stands out against it as an 'other' confronting it." It's your nonlocal awareness filling all of spacetime. The multidimensional of nondual reality is undifferentiable. The important concept of independent arising or co-origination (pratitiya-samutpada) in its ontological operation shows that there is nothing that cannot be placed in dependent relation with another thing or idea, when dependent relations are ALL THAT IS. The fact that the world arises holographically rather than through simple causality is why our intuition allows us to know more than what our five senses provide. With this nonlinear understanding of mutual co-arising, we can change the thoughts of suffering and division into the joy of awakened mind and the unity of Oneness.

In the words of Nagarjuna's Madhyamika-sastra:

The Perfect Buddha

The foremost of all Teachers I salute.

He has proclaimed

The Principle of (Universal) Relativity,

'Tis like blissful (Nirvana),

Quiescence of Plurality.

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MEDITATION -

The main purpose of meditating is to remove your attention from the environment, your body, and the passage of time so that what you intend, what you think, becomes your focus instead of these externals. You can then change your internal state independent of the outside world. Meditation is also a way to move beyond your analytical mind so that you can access your subconscious mind. That's crucial, since the subconscious is where all your hurts, bad habits, and behaviors that you want to change reside. In most people, the subconscious comprises 95% of the mind. The remaining 5% is your experience of mind during your waking hours. Uncovering and mastering more and more of the subconscious results in greater and greater awakened awareness.

The best time to meditate is in the morning and evening, when the door to the subconscious opens.

BRAINWAVES are electromagnetic waves produced by activity in the brain. The frequency of these waves is measured in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz). Brain-mapping research shows that each of our states of consciousness is associated w/a specific pattern of brain activity.

Brainwave categories:

Beta (30-31Hz) is associated w/ordinary consciousness, focused awareness and linear, step-by-step thinking.

Alpha (13-8Hz) is associated w/relaxation and meditative calm where the mind moves from the external to the internal world.

Theta (8-3.5Hz) is associated w/creativity, insight, dreaming states, meditation.

Delta (3.5/0.5Hz) associated with restful sleep. Advanced meditators are capable of mind awake/body asleep in the Delta pattern.

Epsilon (0.5Hz) associated w/advanced meditators such as Tibetan monks

Gamma (30-85/40-100Hz) is associated w/advanced meditation, expanded consciousness, greater synthesis of sensory info.

Hyper-Gamma (100-200Hz) associated w/deep insight and inspiration, intuitive and psychic enhancement and a profound ecstatic state of meditation.

Lamba (200Hz) associated w/ advanced meditators such as Tibetan monks.

Note: Low-frequency Epsilon waves and high-frequency Lamba waves are associated w/higher consciousness and have an interconnectivity in support of each other--though at opposite ends of the wave spectrum. The Epsilon waves ride upon/within the Lamba waves.

Note: Research performed with highly developed yogis, artists, inventors, and advanced meditators found that during their peak experiences they all exhibit high levels of a particular combination of ALPHA-THETA brainwave pattern called the Awakened Mind Pattern.

Gamma Brainwaves -

Gamma brainwaves were discovered in 1981. Gamma waves are more compressed and have a smaller amplitude (except for Hyper-Gamma and Lambda) compared to the other types of brainwaves. Although their cycles per second are similar to high range Beta, there is not an exact correlation between them. Having high amounts of coherent Gamma (and faster Hyper-Gamma and Lambda) activity in the brain is usually linked to elevated states of mind such as happiness, compassion, and increased awareness, which usually entails better memory formation. This is a heightened level of consciousness that people tend to describe as having a transcendent or peak experience.

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Levels of Human Consciousness -

Over years of study, millions of calibrations have defined a range of values accurately corresponding to well-recognized sets of attractor energy fields, much as electromagnetic fields gather iron filings. The following of these energy fields have been adapted so as to be easily comprehensible.

It's very important to remember that the calculation figures do not represent an arithmetic, but a LOGARITHMIC progression. Thus, the level 300 is NOT twice the amplitude of 150; it is 10 to the 300th power.

An increase of even a few points represents a major advance in power; the rate of increase as we move up the scale is enormous. The ways of the various levels of Human consciousness express themselves are profound and far-reaching; their effects are both gross and subtle. All levels below 200 are destructive of life in both the individual and society at large; all levels above 200 are constructive expressions of power.

By describing the emotional correlates of energy fields of consciousness, keep in mind that they're rarely manifested as pure states in an individual. Levels of consciousness are always mixed; a person may operate at one level in a given area of life and on quite another in another area. An individual's Overall level of awareness is the sum total effect of these various levels.

List of various energy fields -

Energy Level 20: Shame - Energy Level 30: Guilt,

Energy Level 50: Apathy - Energy Level 75: Grief,

Energy Level 100: Fear - Energy Level 125: Desire,

Energy Level 150: Anger - Energy Level 175: Pride

Energy Level 200: Courage -

Energy Level 250: Neutrality -

Energy Level 310: Willingness -

Energy Level 350: Acceptance -

Energy Level 400: Reason -

Energy Level 500: Love -

Energy Level 540: Joy -

Energy Level 600: Peace -

Energy Level 700 thru 1,000: Enlightenment.

COURAGE: ENERGY LEVEL 200 -

At the 200 level, power first appears. When subjects have been kinesiologically tested at all of the energy levels below 200, it has been found and readily verified that all go weak. Everyone goes strong in response to the life-supportive fields above 200. This is the critical line that distinguishes the positive and the negative influences of life. At the level of Courage, an attainment of true power occurs; therefore, it's also the level of empowerment. This is the zone of exploration, accomplishment, fortitude, and determination. At the lower levels, the world is seen as hopeless, sad, frightening, or frustrating; but at the level of Courage, life is seen to be exciting, challenging, and stimulating.

Courage implies the willingness to try new things and deal with the changes and challenges of life. At this level of empowerment, one is able to cope with and effectively handle the opportunities of life. At 200, for instance, the energy to learn new job skills is available. Growth and education become attainable goals. There's the capacity to face fears or character defects and to grow despite them; anxiety also does not cripple endeavor as it would at lower stages of evolution. Obstacles that defeat people whose consciousness is below 200 act as stimulants to those who have evolved into the first level of true power.

People at this level put back into the world as much as they take; at the lower levels, populations as well as individuals drain energy from society without reciprocating. Because accomplishments result in positive feedback, self-reward and esteem become progressively self-reinforcing. This is where productivity begins.

NEUTRALITY: ENERGY LEVEL 250 -

Energy becomes very positive as we get to the level that is termed NEUTRAL, because it's epitomized by release from positionality that typifies lower levels. Below 250, consciousness tends to see dichotomies and take on rigid positions, an impediment in a world that's complex and multifactorial rather than black and white.

Taking such positions creates polarization, which in turn creates opposition and division. As in the martial arts, a rigid position becomes a point of vulnerability; that which doesn't bend is liable to break. Rising above barriers or oppositions that dissipate one's energies, the Neutral condition allows for flexibility and nonjudgemental, realistic appraisal of problems. To be Neutral means to be relatively unattached to outcomes; not getting one's way is no longer experienced as defeating, frightening, or frustrating.

At the Neutral level, a person can say, "Well, if I don't get this job, then I'll get another." This is the beginning of inner confidence; sensing one's power, one isn't easily intimidated or driven to prove anything. The expectation that life, with its ups and downs, will be basically okay if one can roll with the punches in a 250-level attitude.

People of Neutrality have a sense of well-being; the mark of this level is a confident capability to live in the world. This is the level of safety--people at this level are easy to get along with and safe to be around and associate with because they're not interested in conflict, competition, or guilt. They're comfortable and basically undisturbed emotionally. This attitude is nonjudgemental and doesn't lead to any need to control other people's behaviors. Correspondingly, due to Neutral people's value of freedom, they're difficult to control.

WILLINGNESS: ENERGY LEVEL 310 -

This positive level of energy may be seen as the gateway to the higher levels, jobs are done WELL and success in all endeavors is common. Growth is rapid here; these are people chosen for advancement.

Willingness implies that one has overcome inner resistance to life and is committed to participation. Below the 200 calibration, people tend to be close-minded, but by level 310, a great opening occurs. At this level, people become genuinely friendly, and social and economic success seem to follow automatically.

The Willing aren't troubled by unemployment; they'll take any job when they have to or create a career or self-employment for themselves; they don't feel demeaned by service jobs or by starting at the bottom.

They're helpful to others and contribute to the good of society. They're also willing to face inner issues and don't have major learning blocks. At this level, self-esteem is high and is reinforced by positive feedback from society in the forms of recognition, appreciation, and reward.

Willingness is sympathetic and responsive to the needs of others. Willing people are builders of, and contributors to, society. With their capacity to bounce back from adversity and learn from experience, they tend to become self-correcting. Having let go of Pride, they're willing to look at their own defects and learn from others. At the level of Willingness, people become excellent students. They're easily trainable and represent a considerable source of power for society.

ACCEPTANCE: ENERGY LEVEL 350 -

At this level of awareness, a major transformation occurs, with the understanding that one is oneself the source AND creator of the experience of one's life. Taking such responsibility is distinctive of this degree of evolution, characterized by the capacity to live harmoniously with the forces of life.

All people at levels below 200 tend to be powerless and see themselves as victims, at the mercy of life. This stems from a belief that the source of one's happiness or the cause of one's problems is "out there." An enormous jump--taking back one's own power--is completed at this level, with the realization that the source of happiness is within oneself. At this more evolved stage, nothing "out there" has the capacity to make one happy, and love isn't something that's given or taken away by another but is created from within.

This level is not to be confused with passivity, which is a symptom of apathy. Acceptance allows engagement in life on life's own terms, without trying to make it conform to an agenda. There's emotional calm with Acceptance, and perception is widened as denial is transcended. One now sees things without distortion or misinterpretation; the context of experience is expanded so that one is capable of "seeing the whole picture." Acceptance has to do essentially with balance, proportion, and appropriateness.

The individual at the level of Acceptance isn't interested in determining right or wrong, but instead is dedicated to resolving issues and finding out what to do about problems. Tough jobs don't cause discomfort or dismay. Long-term goals take precedence over short-term ones; self-discipline and mastery are prominent.

At the level of Acceptance, we're not polarized by conflict or opposition; we see that other people have the same rights as we do, and we honor equality. Whilst lower levels are characterized by rigidity, at this level, social plurality begins to emerge as a form of resolution of problems. Therefore, this level is free of discrimination or intolerance; there's an awareness that equality doesn't exclude diversity; Acceptance includes rather than rejects.

REASON: ENERGY LEVEL 400 -

Intelligence and rationality rise to the forefront when the emotionalism of the lower levels is transcended. Reason is capable of handling large, complex amounts of data and making rapid, correct decisions; of understanding the intricacies of relationships, gradations, and fine distinctions; and expert manipulation of symbols as abstract concepts becomes increasingly important.

This is the level of science, medicine, and of generally increased capacity for conceptualization and comprehension. Knowledge and education are here sought as capital. Understanding and information are the main tools of accomplishment, which is the hallmark of the 400 level. This is the level of Nobel Prize winners, great statesmen, and Supreme Court justices. Einstein, Freud, and many of the other great thinkers of history calibrate here.

The shortcomings of this level involve the failure to clearly distinguish the difference between symbols and what they represent, and confusion between the objective and subjective worlds that limits the understanding of causality. At this level, it's easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees, to become infatuated with concepts and theories and end up missing the essential point. Intellectualization becomes an end in itself. Reason is limited in that it doesn't afford the capacity for the discernment of essence or of the critical point of a complex issue.

Reason does not of itself provide a guide to truth. It produces massive amounts of information and documentation but lacks the capability to resolve discrepancies in data and conclusions. All philosophical arguments sound convincing on their own.

Although Reason is highly effective in a technical world where the logic of methodologies dominate, Reason itself, paradoxically, is the major block to reaching higher levels of consciousness. Transcending this level is relatively uncommon in our society.

LOVE: ENERGY LEVEL 500 -

Love as depicted in the mass media is not what this level is about. What the world generally refers to as LOVE is an intense emotional condition, combining physical attraction, possessiveness, control, addiction, eroticism, and novelty. It's usually fragile and fluctuating, waxing and waning with varying conditions. When frustrated, this emotion often reveals an underlying anger and dependency that it had masked. That love can turn to hate is a common perception, but here, an addictive sentimentality is likely what's being spoken about, rather than Love; there probably never was actual love in such a relationship, for Hate stems from Pride, not Love.

The 500 level is characterized by the development of a Love that is unconditional, unchanging, and permanent. It doesn't fluctuate--its source isn't dependent on external factors. Loving is a state of being. It's a forgiving, non-condemning, maturing, and supporting way of relating to the world. Love isn't intellectual and doesn't proceed from the mind; Love emanates from the heart. It has the capacity to lift others and accomplish great feats because of its purity of motive.

At this level of development, the capacity to discern essence becomes predominant; the core of an issue becomes the center focus. As reason is bypassed, there arises the capacity for instantaneous recognition of the totality of a problem and a major expansion of context, especially regarding time and process. Reason deals only with particulars, whereas Love deals with entireties. This ability, often ascribed to intuition, is the capacity for instantaneous understanding without resorting to sequential symbol processing. This apparently abstract phenomenon is, in fact, quite concrete; it's accompanied by a measurable release of endorphins in the brain.

Love takes no position, and thus is global, rising above separation. It's then possible to be "one with another," for there are no longer any barriers. Love is therefore inclusive and expands the sense of Self progressively. Love focuses on the goodness of life in all its expressions and augments that which is positive--it dissolves negativity by recontextualizing it, rather than attacking it.

This is the level of true happiness, but although the world is fascinated with the subject of Love, and all viable religions calibrate at 500 or over, it's interesting to note that only 0.4 percent of the world's population ever reaches this level of evolution of consciousness.

JOY: ENERGY LEVEL 540 -

As Love becomes more unconditional, it begins to be experienced as inner Joy. This isn't the sudden joy of a pleasurable turn of events; it's a constant accompaniment to all activities. Joy arises from within each moment of existence rather than from any other source; 540 is also the level of healing.

From level 540 up is the domain of saints, advanced spiritual students and healers. A capacity for enormous patience and the persistence of a positive attitude in the face of prolonged adversity is characteristic of this energy field; the hallmark of this state is compassion. People who have attained this level have a notable effect on others. They're capable of a prolonged, open visual gaze, which induces a state of love and peace.

At the high 500s, the world one sees is illuminated by the exquisite beauty and perfection of creation. Everything happens effortlessly, by synchronicity, and the world and everything in it is seen to be an expression of love and divinity. Individual will merges into divine will. A Presence is felt whose power facilitates phenomena outside conventional expectations of reality, termed MIRACULOUS by the ordinary observer. These phenomena represent the power of the energy field, not of the individual.

One's sense of responsibility for others at this level is of a different quality from what's shown at the lower levels: There's a desire to use one's state of consciousness for the benefit of life itself rather than for particular individuals. This capacity to love many people simultaneously is accompanied by the discovery that the more one loves, the more one can love.

Near-death experiences, characteristically transformative in their effect, have frequently allowed people to experience the energy level between 540 and 600.

PEACE: ENERGY LEVEL 600 -

This energy level is associated with the experience designated by such terms as TRANSCENDENCE, SELF-REALIZATION, and GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS. It's extremely rare, attained by only 1 in 10 million (1 in 10,000,000) people. When this state is reached, the distinction between subject and object disappears, and there's no specific focal point of perception.

Not uncommonly, individuals at this level remove themselves from the world, as the state of bliss that ensues precludes ordinary activity. Some become spiritual teachers; others work anonymously for the betterment of mankind. A few become great geniuses in their respective fields and make major contributions to society.

These people are saintly and may eventually be officially designated as such, although at this level, formal religion is commonly transcended, to be replaced by the pure spirituality out of which all religion originates.

Perception at the level 600 and above is sometimes reported as occurring in slow motion, suspended in time and space--nothing is stationary, and all is alive and radiant. Although this world is the same as the one seen by others, it has become continuously flowing, evolving in an exquisitely coordinated evolutionary dance in which significance and source are overwhelming. This awesome revelation takes place non-rationally, so that there is an infinite silence in the mind, which has stopped conceptualizing.

That which is witnessing and that which is witnessed take on the same identity; the observer dissolves into the landscape and becomes equally the observed. Everything is connected to everything else by a Presence whose power is infinite, exquisitely gentle, yet rock-solid.

Great works of art, music, and architecture that calibrate between 600 and 700 can transport us temporarily to higher levels of consciousness and are universally recognized as inspirational and timeless.

ENLIGHTENMENT: ENERGY LEVEL 700 thru 1,000 -

This is the level of the Great Ones of history who originated the spiritual patterns that countless people have followed throughout the ages. All are associated with divinity, with which they're often identified. This is the level of powerful inspiration; these beings set in place attractor energy fields that influence all of Mankind. At this level, there is no longer the experience of an individual personal self separate from others; rather, there is an identification of Self with Consciousness and Divinity.

The Unmanifest is experienced as Self beyond mind. This transcendence of the ego also serves by example to teach others how it can eventually be accomplished. This is the peak of the evolution of consciousness in the human realm. Great teachings uplift the masses and raise the level of awareness of all of humanity. To have such vision is called GRACE, and the gift it brings is infinite peace, described as indefinable, beyond words.

At this level of realization, the sense of one's existence transcends all time and individuality. There's no longer any identification with the physical body as "me," and therefore, its fate is of no concern. The body is seen as merely a tool of consciousness through the intervention of mind, its prime value that of communication. The self merges back into the Self. This is the level of nonduality, or complete Oneness. There is no localization of consciousness; awareness is equally present everywhere.

Great works of art depicting individuals who have reached this level of Enlightenment characteristically show the teacher with a specific hand position, called a MUDRA--wherein the palm of the hand radiates benediction--this is the act of transmitting this energy field to the consciousness of Mankind.

This level of divine grace calibrates up to 1,000, the highest level attained by anybody who has lived in recorded history--to wit, the Great Avatars for whom the title "LORD" is appropriate: Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha, and Lord Jesus Christ.