Read the 20^th Chapter of the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “Ekam evadvityam: Living without a Center”.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as a “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

The last chapter in the book and the last exercise in this series is about the question of what happens after.

The liberated person, the enlightened one, a sage, whatever we call him, does he perceive differences? If not, how can he, or she, continue to live among us? If he is thirsty, would he not take a glass of water? If yes, how and why? It’s all consciousness; why is there any need to continue with the show of multiple masks slipped on the face of the one?

How does life continue after liberation? Is it any different than before? Do enlightened people see and feel things that others don’t? Do they have any special abilities? Can they fly or visit other planets? Or are they turning into a passive bag of meat, waiting for a body to die out, so their soul can be free from that ultimate burden, too?

There are answers to these questions, and yet, those answers will probably confuse anyone in the usual human condition.

Here is how Vivekachudamani describes how the enlightened live:

“Established in the ethereal space of consciousness, he wanders in the world, sometimes like a madman, sometimes like a child. He may look like a ghost; he might be even drunk, wearing his clothes, or go around naked.

He walks alone, the embodiment of desireless desire, but still enjoys everything, remaining eternally satisfied with the Self that is present in all.

Sometimes, he is a fool. Sometimes, a sage. He might be a king with royal splendor. Sometimes, he wanders around and sometimes is calm and silent, immovable like a python. Sometimes he is respected, sometimes insulted, and sometimes unknown to anyone – such is a life of a liberated one, ever enjoying the supreme bliss.”

Apart from bliss, which is everpresent, anything else is a possibility. There are no rules, and there is no fixed way to live your life after the illusion is gone. It can be literary anything. There is no way to recognize an enlightened one by their words, actions, or behavior. Forget the pictures of sages on the mountain, holy men teaching the scriptures, or ascetics sitting under the tree. Forget any images you have or might have about life after. All are wrong, and all can be right.

Liberation, enlightenment, or moksha means freedom. No more, no less. Unpredictable, unconditional, never-to-know-in-advance freedom. That’s why Vivekachudamany speaks about a madman and a sage, about royalty and a drunkard, a respected one and the one insulted, a celebrity, or a complete unknown.

And to add to that, don’t think you are the one who will choose. The choice will be made, but not by the forgetful ahamakar, you, who believes he is „the other“, something different and separate from wholeness. Ekam evadvityam, remember? The separation is not true, nor will it ever be. So, why does it matter who will choose? The final answer is: consciousness will choose – the one that is.

***

Still, at the end of the book, aware of the curiosity and a need for at least some understanding of what unpredictable freedom means, there are some descriptions and explanations.

• Enlightened hangover: A time (few months up to a few years) immediately following the full understanding of the illusion of the center.
• Identity: gone. A short explanation of how it is possible to function without it.
• Functional reconstruction: Whenever a need for action presents itself, the process of functional reconstruction of the previous personality with all its abilities, memories, likes, and dislikes, will commence.
• Thoughts: Thoughts are present, but there is no more I-ness who would say, „Those thoughts are mine, I am thinking them“.
• Emotions: Present. Stronger. However, there is no particular preference as to which one is welcomed and which is not. Derivate emotions, the ones initiated by interpretation, are gone.
• Global empathy: Since consciousness is one, the suffering caused by illusory separation is felt all around.
• Relationships: The standard obligations of a relationship might be respected, but they can be broken equally often. Freedom in thinking and feeling, non-attachment to emotions, and a capability to feel more, may lead to an entirely new relationship paradigm.
• Physical body: The physical body will have a mind of its own. It will rarely be the subject of common illnesses but can develop some unusual ones.
• Decisions: The liberated one does not make any decisions. If a decision is made, it is made by consciousness, the one and only.
• Plans: Time is a construct of the mind, and consciousness does not operate within it on the level of freedom. But, it does work within the time on the level of actions. Plans are decisions with consequences in time.
• Karma: With the karma factor (I-ness) gone, the consequences of actions can cling to no one.
• Behavior: The free flow of thoughts, and especially non-interference with the process of making decisions, can initiate entirely out-of-ordinary actions (crazy wisdom).

***

Ekam evadvityam – a life without a center. That is the promise of viveka, and fortunately, that is your destiny. I tried to describe it to you, but it is clear: you’ll never know until you live it. Don’t fall for a description. Go for it. Live it yourself, as soon as you can.

Questions for thinking

This is the end of the “Viveka talks” exercises. I hope you had a lot of food for thoughts going through them.

I also hope that I did/will answer all your questions. Nevertheless, here is one more chance to ask them.

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 19^th Chapter of the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “Dealing with fear”.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as a “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

Since you want reality, not a story about it, you have no other choice than to do something and check it for yourself. That is, if your mumukshuta, a desire for liberation, is strong enough.

But what if it isn’t? What if you have doubts, maybe even fears of losing the life you have?

Maya promises many wonders and delivers them, at least temporarily. The problem is that she dies out with time, and when that happens, everything that she gave you disappears with her. That will happen to you, too. That is happening to you, over and over again. But, every time it happens, you crawl back to Maya and do everything you can to gather yourself together and start serving her again.

So, it is quite natural to ask yourself what will happen to your life when (or if) Maya leaves.

Fear is not a problem. There is nobody out there, in the past, present, or future, who tried to sever the connection with Maya and bring her realm down without being afraid. So, it is entirely understandable and reasonable if you feel that way. I would not take you seriously if you claim you are not afraid to part with the illusion in your life.

However, I recommend that you face the fear BEFORE it consumes you entirely.

Spontaneous deconstruction of an illusion is a beach. It can ruin your life so profoundly that you would need another body to recover and start again. Hopelessness, depression, mental disorders, and all kinds of weaknesses of the body and the mind are quite possible. But, those experiences are not consequences of the deconstruction of the illusion; they are consequences of fighting against it due to fear.

That’s why you’ll do well if you follow your mumukshuta, even if it is not so overwhelming to make you give up everything in your life. Despite possible fear, deliberate and voluntary facing the illusion is the prevention of future hardships that are surely waiting for you around the corner.

However, you should be aware of one special feature of the fear ignited by the mumukshuta. Basically, all our previous fears were created by the threat of forces that hold the center of power. If we were fighting, the goal of the fight was to come nearer to the center or take it by ourselves. The whole drama of life is based on such a centralized structure of reality. It’s all about who is up (in the center) and who is down (far from it). If you are down, the solution is obvious – you have to climb up; you have to take control. Don’t be pussy; fight for yourself, claim your power, do your thing, make yourself strong, and rule over our universe.

But now, everything has changed. The fear and the fight you’ll experience are entirely different from anything you did before.

The insight of a decentralized reality changes everything you know about yourself. Until now, you have been the center of everything. All experiences are orbiting around you; they were yours. Now, you suddenly understand that „yours“ is an illusion, and there is nothing to cling on anymore.

The loss of control and identity is the root of existential fear during the deconstruction of an illusion.

Bear in mind that fear is not a problem. The problem is what we do to avoid it. So, don’t even try to do that. Face it. Go through it. You are not the first, nor the last, who is going through the same process of disillusionment. Fear will do you no harm, but avoiding it, running away, and all the things you do while trying to make it disappear might.

Think more about the fact that it is an illusion you are losing. The control you thought you had – it was not there. The identity you thought you had – well, just a mirage. The true reality is not changing just because your false reality is now crumbling into ashes. You never had that what you think you are losing now. So, what’s there to worry about?

***

The last part of the chapter, “Dealing with fear” speaks about what you’ll lose and gain with the deconstruction of the illusion.

You’ll not lose a capability for ordinary happiness (it will come and go as always), but you’ll gain access to ananda – inner bliss independent of outer circumstances.

You’ll not lose a capability for being successful (as until now, success will sometimes come), but you’ll gain access to punja – fulfillment in activity and perception of indicated activities.

You’ll not lose a capability for emotional relationships (they will stay more or less the same),  but you’ll gain access to prema – individualized but unconditional love.

Ananda, punya, and prema – not so bad, isn’t it?

And now, if you still remember the fear, don’t be a fool and a pussy. Fear will pass.

The bliss is forever.

Questions for thinking

You have read most of the Viveka book now. You should understand clearly that your life is probably 99% an illusion. Also, you must feel some level of mumukšuta; otherwise, you would not read until this point.

What about fear? Do you feel it? What is it that you fear the most?

When you think about severing the connection with Maya in your life, what are your doubts? Can you think about why not do it; why wait a little and give yourself some more time?

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 18^th Chapter from the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “What to do with all this?”.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as a “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

Before answering the question of “what to do with all this”, let me remind you what viveka is about.

• discovering, not learning
• letting go, not doing something
• being, not experiencing
• recognizing illusion, not creating or achieving something new

Viveka deals with the structure of consciousness, as it is present within us and within our minds in the form of original ideas. It is based on common sense and the ability to discern, which is already present in the manomayakosha ()the mind) of every human being.

Correct application of viveka leads to liberation (moksha), a natural, authentic, non-warped state of reality – a true reality.

There is no manual describing how to do it. But there are guidances, hints and pointers. You received it through Viveka talks exercises.

What to do with all this?

The first answer is simple: nothing.

But the question is: can you do it? Can you let it go and, for a while, forget about the truth and liberation? Can you devote your time to experiencing life, whether it is an illusion or not?

Some people will say yes, and simply decide to wait for liberation to happen (because it will, eventually) spontaneously.

But, for those with really strong mumukshuta (desire for liberation), this is not an option. They can do one of the following:

• try to do it alone
• find a viveka mentor

The first option: do it alone

It can be done, but it is hard work with many downsides.

You’ll have to write — a lot. On paper, count on at least ten to twenty notebooks, maybe more. Of course, in the age of computers, a couple of gigabytes of text would suffice.

Writing is the only efficient tool if you want to examine your thinking. Talking to yourself or someone else is not recommended. While speaking, people tend to include emotions, defense mechanisms, and behavioral patterns. You don’t want that to get in your way. And if you were hoping that you could do it by only thinking to yourself — forget it.

Practice analyzing all ideas and concepts; see if they are conceptual or categoric constructions. While doing that, pay attention to the subconcepts requiring belief, hanging onto thin air, or the ones that are just plain wrong. Reject such subconcepts and, with it, reject the conceptual constructions they helped build.

Downsides:

• If you succeed in working on the purification of your mind diligently, that could require occasional or permanent withdrawal from everyday activities.
• Next, disillusionment is an emotionally tricky process. Your mood can fluctuate, and the presence of other people can prove to be challenging, if not impossible.
• You’ll be alone all the time, which means losing a lot of time being stuck in your ideas without encouragement, support or an example from anyone.

All in all, your mumukshuta must be enormous for you to endure through that process, stay sane, and finish enlightened.

Second option: find a viveka mentor

There are not many around. And actually, this is the only downside of such an approach. Everything else with mentorship is better, quicker and easier than doing it alone.

If your destiny brings you to me as a mentor, here is what we will do.

There is a structure of seven key questions. You should not know what the questions are before starting the process. The reason for that is the innocence of your mind and minimalizing the possibility of spoofing yourself with in-advance-made answers. The questions may be different, but the seven I work with are quite efficient, so I like to stick with them.

So, instead of leaving you to yourself and the influence of the ups and downs of your life, we have a systematized approach. One more change is that you will not be alone. I usually work with small groups of five to ten. We don’t have to be in personal contact, at least not live. Online communication works just fine.

The writing part is the same as described before, but this time it will be viewed by each group member, plus by myself as a mentor. Emails are perfect for such a purpose.

So, you’ll write like hell, every day, sometimes a couple of emails daily, for at least four to six months. The writings will not be personal (that you can do for yourself). The group will try to find an answer to each key question. Together. We will not move to the next question until each member of the group confirms the understanding of the answer.

If four to six months seems a lot, you are mistaken. It’s the shortest time possible. The idea is that during that time, you’ll travel the same path that would take you years if you try to do it alone.

The upside of having mentorship and a guided process of deconstruction of an illusion are: it takes much less time than doing it alone; emotionally, it is more comfortable with the support of the group, and intellectually, it is more challenging due to the interventions of the mentor. The group inspires and enables continuous work; the mentor provides clear directions and fast reactions to mistakes. The process is quick, direct, and without compromise.

Downsides:

• There are not many people in the world who can serve as viveka mentors.
• There is a possibility that someone from the group fakes the process. There are spiritual tourists out there, who will apply to this process just from curiosity, and who will go through it like observers. Of course, that is not a concern for the rest of the group. If there is such a faker among participants, he or she is doing that at their own cost.

***

So, there you have it. Now you know what to do with all this. Good luck.

Questions for thinking

Before deciding what you want to do, go back to the Viveka talks exercise number six (Living student), and read again about mumukshuta and other prerequisites for the viveka approach.

After you remind yourself about that, ask yourself: “Is my mumukshuta strong enough to enter the process of deconstruction of illusion RIGHT NOW, or would I rather wait.”

If you feel that waiting is not an option, and you also understand that mentorship is a rear opportunity, then you should know what to do. (Before you contact me, prepare an extensive explanation in writing why you think I should devote my time to mentor you.)

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 17^th Chapter from the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “Purification Exercises”.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

Exercising does not hurt as preparation for the real job of piercing through the more substantial ideas. You don’t have to explain „a car“ to yourself or your neighbor. But, when it comes to the fundamental constituents of reality, the confusion is much more palpable. Those fundamentals are buried deep in our consciousness. Between them and our everyday thinking, there is a universe of constructions and possible mistakes.

To emphasize the importance of exercising the discerning ability, I’d like to remind you about the fundamentals of viveka.

• There is no proof – nor will ever be – about the independent existence of the outside, material world. Consciousness is all we know.
• We are dealing with ideas we perceive as „things“, not with „things“ themselves.
• The laws governing those „things“ are other ideas perceived as abstract rules behind the processes between „things“.
• Science investigates things and operations between them under perceptual consensus. The results science offers are valid, practical, and independent from the paradigm behind them. Your computer will work the same way, no matter the explanation of what is the reality behind it.
• However, the fundamental paradigm behind the explanation of our reality can have a crucial impact on the direction technology is heading.
• Science will probably hit the wall if it continues to insist on the explanation of consciousness as a side effect of the complex structure of biological matter.
• Technology, partial as it is today, will continue to destroy the parts of reality instead of preserving them and using them for achieving further wonders.
• On the other hand, the only true scientific paradigm – consciousness as the field of reality – does not create such problems. There are no walls and no partial solutions. Everything created with the understanding of fundamental ideas inside the consciousness will be holistic.
• There is hope in viveka that our science can change without giving up what has been achieved until today.
• By practicing viveka, you are investigating a new scientific approach, calling it spiritual or whatever you want. The viveka paradigm opens a field of new possibilities. All knowledge –ALL KNOWLEDGE – is inside you. You don’t need anything else besides your mind.

Don’t lose the above points from sight as you practice the first baby steps of viveka. It is the beginning of something unimaginable, and the amount of work ahead can not be foreseen. However, the promise is so exciting that it is certainly worth the effort.

***

In this chapter, you’ll find four rather simple purification exercises. The first one (deconstruction diagram of an idea of “a car”), we already did in the previous Viveka talks exercise.

The second purification exercise is about understanding the idea of “freedom” as possible lakshana for consciousness. The question is: “Is freedom a construction? And more specifically, is freedom a conceptual or categorical construction, or maybe both?” You’ll find the answer in the chapter, but please, think about the question before you read it.

The third and fourth exercises can look like mind games or some kind of meticulous logic for beginners, but do not underestimate their value. The insights you will gain from them can save you from generalizations and relativizations of the truth. Also, they can show you that, while learned ideas require learning, you don’t have to ask or learn from anyone to find an answer to the questions about the basic structure of reality. The answers are in the structure of your mind, in you, and that’s where you have to look to find them.

We can discuss the answers in a “questions for thinking” section.

Questions for thinking

Think about the two statements:

Everything is an illusion.

Everything is the truth.

First, establish that you understand why both statements are false (write the argumentation for yourself, without looking in the book).

Second, establish the fact that this reveals the basic structure of reality and that you actually don’t need a perception of “things” outside the mind to find it.

And, third, if you still have doubts…

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 16^th Chapter from the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “Nine Golden Rules of Viveka” on Mirror.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

It would be great if one could describe, write down and give all the tools necessary for deconstructing the illusion. Unfortunately, that is not possible. Ramana Maharishi once answered a student’s question about giving enlightenment to someone with “I could give, but they could not receive.”

Nevertheless, in this chapter, you’ll find the list and the description of the most potent tools for deconstructing the illusion. You’ll find them as given, but you’ll also find that you cannot receive them. Those rules are not worth much if you don’t discover them by yourself.

A quote from the chapter as a reminder of our situation:

“The mind is making a mistake in the interpretation of reality. Enchanted by Maya, it hides and sometimes replicates what is truly real. But mostly, the mind projects its own false reality, making discerning between the truth and an illusion difficult for itself. The mechanic of those transgressions is the mechanic of language or thinking. The mind is forced to construct complex ideas and automatically jumps from one to another. That enables it to think quickly and builds further constructions based on previous ones. Without that mechanism, we would be unable to understand the universe of ideas, create new experiences, make conclusions, learn, and investigate new possibilities of conscious living. Also, without that, it would not be possible for us to turn our attention to ourselves and start the new conscious wave of creation as fully awakened beings.

The bad news is that in the meantime, under the spell of illusion, we live an impaired life. At the present state of our evolution, that is the human condition, with all its drama and suffering. Anyway, the mind makes a mistake, and the mind should correct that mistake.”

The Sanskrit expression for it is pragya aparadha. Literary, it could be translated as „the mistake in cognition“, which is a little wider than the „mistake of the mind“, but can also be used. In the previous exercise, we took an idea of the car and deconstructed it all the way down to “reality”, “existence”, and, in the end, to… well, did you find out the answer to the puzzle? ?

What is next? What should we do (or not do) to correct the mistake of the mind?

If you continue on the path of viveka, there are a lot of doings in the future and even more undoings.

In Chapter 16^th, I made my best effort to describe all nine tools of viveka. There is no point in repeating the description here. Please read the full chapter.

Here is a list of viveka rules:

1. Rejection due to construction
2. Rejection due to exclusion
3. Rejection due to learned knowledge
4. Rejection due to allegoric expressions
5. Rejection due to false premise
6. Rejection due to complexity
7. Rejection due to redundancy
8. Acceptance due to opposition
9. Acceptance of the most precise meaning

Basically, those rules describe a form of acceptable viveka answer (in viveka, acceptable is, by default – correct). As you can see, seven of them are rules for rejection – they describe what SHOULD NOT be in an acceptable viveka answer. The last two are affirmative, but only if the previous seven are not found.

Without „walking the path“, which means the practice of viveka, you’ll probably find those rules quite abstract. This book is not supposed to be a manual. I don’t think it is possible to write a manual of viveka in the way our western mind would prefer. Shankara didn’t do it, and it is evident to me why. To you, it may be a little disappointing, but the disappointment comes from a habit of taking in information from somebody or something outside you. Viveka can make your consciousness the field of exploration – by you, using what you are, to find out everything about the universe of ideas, about that mess of things you call your reality. To commence such an enterprise, you’ll have to become a scientist. A real one, true scientists. Not the one who believes in something without proof. In a way, viveka can start a whole different science with different technology. There is a massive amount of work ahead, and the beginning – like all beginnings – is not easy.

Questions for thinking

There are no special questions, but two firm suggestions for a kind of tryout viveka exercises:

1. Spend some time studying the nine rules of viveka. Try to understand them the best you can according to your current information.
2. Here and there, listen to how people are talking around you. Or you can spend some time on social networks and read how they write. Try to implement some of the viveka rules, and see if you can find one sentence (spoken or written) which is viveka acceptable or even almost viveka acceptable. (It is not a mistake – find ONE almost viveka acceptable sentence in the language-induced noise around you, and I’ll congratulate you for discovering a diamond among an enormous pile of garbage.)

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 15^th Chapter from the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “Searching for Lakshana” on Mirror.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

One sutra in Vivekachudamani (247) comes closest to the direct description of the viveka method. That description is hidden inside the context of discerning between the one consciousness (ishwara) and different vantage points created in the first wave of creation (atman). Nevertheless, that instruction is valid for any and all viveka procedures aimed at a correct understanding of the universe of ideas (the world, reality).

Quote sutra 247:

“Hence, the two terms are to be correctly understood through their discerning characteristic so that the absolute identity between them may be established. Neither the method of accepting all meanings nor rejecting them all will suffice. One must discover the truth through the process which combines the two.”

Buddhi can apply viveka to any word (idea), using language as the operational field. The task is to discriminate between different words (ideas) and to establish the firm identity of that idea in comparison with any other. To do that, buddhi must find a factor of differentiation, a quality that signifies that by which something is recognized. That quality is called lakshana.

The search for a lakshana – a discerning quality of an idea that makes it unique compared to any other idea – is the process of purification of the mind required for unveiling the truth and showing Maya her place in the order of things.

In practice, that means that every thought (idea, word you use) has to have a lakshana known to you. Please note that in ordinary thinking or speaking (that is what you do every day) rarely or seldom lakshana is clearly known to people. They think (and speak, and make conclusions and decisions) based on unclear ideas, which are viveka unacceptable, meaning the ideas without clear lakshana. Those ideas can be systematized into three major categories:

• Allegorical (implied, shared, and double meanings)
• Conceptual constructions
• Categorical construction

There is no point in repeating a detailed explanation (please read the chapter “Searching for Lakshana”). It may sound complicated at first, but once you get the grip, you’ll quickly see that most of our thoughts are at least in one of the viveka unacceptable categories. That means, basically, most of our thoughts are worth nothing.

That conclusion may sound drastic, but if you want to get rid of an illusion, drastic is a way to go.

On the other hand, it may seem all ideas are categoric or conceptual constructions, but that is incorrect. Further, there are certain levels of precision applicable to different categories of objects. That means the minimal usage of construction is sometimes allowed, not by rules, but by the nature of the idea we want to deconstruct.

And, you should know, some ideas are very near to being pure and undividable. And some are literarily undividable because they are the essential elements – real atoms – of our reality.

Questions for thinking

For this exercise, I would like you to solve one puzzle.

There is a picture in the Chapter “Searching for Lakshana”. It is an example of deconstructing the idea of “the car”. The process of deconstructing should be clear (read and reread the chapter), but there is one thing I left out of the book.

Look at the graph.

At the bottom, you’ll see an arrow pointing down from basic ideas like “time”, “space”, and “matter”. Then, below them, you’ll find “reality” and “existence”. And there is one last arrow pointing down to… what?

Can you guess or consciously deconstruct those basic ideas with one more at the bottom of all of them?

What is there at the base of our reality?

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 14. Chapter from the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “Language Can Save Us” on Mirror.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

The idea that language is an extraordinary feature of the human mind and requires special attention is expressed in the oldest texts from Indian culture. Rgveda 1.1.164: „The ultimate abode of language is the Absolute.“

What is language? Clearly, it’s not just any sound that carries a meaning. The sound of words is only a secondary level of language. Perhaps, the reason why language attracted so much attention from philosophers interested in truth and reality lies in the fact language doesn’t even have to be expressed with audible words to be language. Language is more about thinking than speaking.

Adi Shankara and Vivekachudamani claim that with the use of a language (thinking), the forgetful vantage point can remember its true status and possibly start a new wave of creation as an awakened soul.

Scientists agree that the appearance of language, and therefore true human thinking ability, was sudden and abrupt. It was kind of a quantum leap, not a gradual development. That happened not so far back in our evolutionary history. Paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall dates that abrupt and sudden event within the narrow window of 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.

The fourteenth Chapter continues with the creation story from the previous “The Cave of the Mind” and explains the third wave of creation. Quote:

The first wave of creation is behind us. The „divine“ network of fully conscious elements is stable and alive. The second wave is also behind us: the vantage points of milliard atmans turned their attention to themselves and thus became lesser creators.

The result of the second wave is illusory separation from the rest of consciousness and the creation of I-ness. The Sanskrit term for that feeling is ahamkar. So, the first wave of self-referral processes inside the consciousness created your soul – atman, and the second wave created you – ahamkar.

Ahamakar becomes the center of its reality. In the beginning, it just perceives, experiences, and feels. But, the „I“ is the child of consciousness and, as such, requires understanding. The citta element (awareness) of manomayakosha is present before buddhi (understanding).

The appearance of buddhi (discerning quality, intellect, language) changes everything. As you will see, that change is for the better and worse.

To understand what is going on, buddhi starts using signs or symbols. When something happens, perception or experience, buddhi creates a sign for that event. Now, another reminder: we are in the cave of the mind. There is nothing around us but ideas. So, the sign buddhi uses is nothing but another idea, an idea about the idea.

What just happened is the third wave of creation. Thoughts, language, and ideas „inside the mind“, are all parts of one consciousness, but they appear to be separated and placed inside the mind’s container, which belongs to an owner, ahamkar. It is not a true reality, of course. It is an illusion, but nevertheless, an illusion with consequences.

With signs and symbols created by buddhi, ahamkar can now identify the events when they repeat. It is possible to put them in a relationship to other events or use proportions to understand the strength or impact of experiences.

Maya equally powers the third wave of creation as the first two. However, in the first wave, Maya is in „divine“ hands. The consciousness is one, not many, but it appears as many due to conscious interaction between different functions of the same consciousness.

The second wave of creation is equally inevitable. The propagation of experiences requires forgetting. Maya is employed by the power of creation to hide the fact that a vantage point is just that, a vantage point, not a new entity.

Nevertheless, a vantage point now has the apparent status of a separated being. Atman is not gone, but it is hiding behind ahamkar. That is a critical point: the control over Maya was transferred to an individual.

Maya is a perfect servant, obeying whatever the master’s bidding is. And in the third wave, ahamkars are the masters.

I wrote that the appearance of buddhi (thinking, language) changes everything and that change is for the better and the worst. The role Maya starts to play in creating the realities of different ahamkars is for the worse. Now, what’s for the better? Quote:

“The mind operates with constructions. The complexity of construction increases the probability of a mistake. The mistake in the mind is the mistake in reality – an illusion. It is important to understand that buddhi is a discerning quality of mind. If the mistake is made in meanings, quantities, proportions, etc., the buddhi can identify it. That’s his job. A corrected mistake is a step towards reality with less illusion. The first stages of purification of buddhi through constant and diligent application of viveka (that means learning how to think properly) will gradually eliminate the illusion from the third wave of creation.”

When the buddhi is purified enough, he could pierce through the second wave and free the atman from ahamkar. Do not be surprised if that success creates the fourth wave of creation, the one in which Maya returns to the arms of the divine.

Questions for thinking

• Write in your own words, what is “the first wave of creation”?
• What is the “second wave of creation”?
• What is the “third wave of creation,” and in whose hand is Maya then?
• What are the negative sides of the appearance of budhi (thinking, language)?
• What are the positive sides of the appearance of budhi (thinking, language)?

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 13. Chapter from the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “The Cave of the Mind“ on Mirror.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

“The Cave of the Mind” is one of the most important chapters in the book. It doesn’t speak directly about viveka but explains how all this came about. “All this” means literary the whole world of experiences, everything you perceive, think, and know. It also explains how and why one particular point in consciousness made a mistake and forgot its place in wholeness. Actually, the right way to say this is that from the very first moment of forgetting, this particular point is making the same mistake all over again, every time something happens related to it, inside it, or around it.

That particular point is – you. It is the feeling of the separate existence of a “somebody”, a subject that exists independently from the rest of the uni-verse. That feeling is wrong, of course, because nothing in consciousness is separate from anything else. And since, as per viveka and common sense, everything IS in consciousness, everything is connected in one wholeness. The feeling of separateness is false. It is an illusion created by a vantage point that, being conscious of itself, has a false impression of being in the center of everything else—that center becomes all-important. Everything else revolves around it.

In reality, however, consciousness is de-centralized. No part of it is more important than any other part. Each point in it, whether a thought, a feeling, perception, or any other experience, has the same value. That value comes from the truthfulness of existence. Each point in consciousness is true.

What is not true is the feeling that all those points, all events in consciousness, belong to someone. The illusion of the center (I-ness) creates a sense of belonging. The sense of belonging creates a further false impression and the illusion continues indefinitely.

Actually, it continues until a particular property of consciousness becomes a tool for slowing down and finally destroys the advancement of illusion.

Here is a quote from Chapter 13:

“One of these elements, one of these points of consciousness, is the point you conveniently but erroneously call – yourself. Shankara and Vivekachudamani would call it – atman, the Self. Not exactly you, but what is behind you – maybe a soul would be a possible word to label that function. Anyway, the inner structure of consciousness enables innumerable vantage points from which consciousness looks around and observes all the fun activities created by itself, becoming aware of its existence.

Without going into details (there are details!), each vantage point, atman, Self, or soul, whatever you want to call it, surrounds itself with tools for experiencing delicate finesses of creation. One of the tools is called buddhi. That word is sometimes translated as intellect, sometimes merely as mind. The first translation is better, although intellect may sound somewhat elitist. Buddhi (the faculty of discerning) is in pair with Citta (the faculty of „being aware“). Buddhi is a part of the mind because buddhi can not apply viveka (to discern) if there are no thoughts. The manomayakosha is the „cave of the mind“, and in it, there is also buddhi, capable of using viveka, and behind all that is a vantage point, atman (functional element of One consciousness), which is no different than Brahman (One consciousness as a whole).”

Complicated? It may sound so, especially when you follow the natural expression of the oneness of consciousness. There are myriad layers upon layers BEFORE the mistake is made, and forgetfulness becomes the reality of “you”.

Please, read and reread this chapter. It is worth the effort. Once you get it, everything will become much clearer.

Bear in mind that the whole process is natural. Even the dreadful forgetting is a natural result of the mirroring of consciousness onto itself.

And so is the remembering. The cave of the mind contains all that is necessary to restore the wholeness, even when it seems all is lost in the black hole of the I-ness.

***

The whole process is self-referral. It happens in the consciousness because of its property of awareness.

However, we can split the self-referral process into a few phases. The first phase is the original (you may call it “divine”) self-referral process when the consciousness observes itself and „splits“ its functions into three (subject, object, and the channel between them).

This process continues until all “natural laws” are created and the stage is ready for even more “splitting” in the form of different experiences. All is well, fun, and happy when the “splitting” is divine. The problem starts with this (a quote):

“The second wave of self-referral processes starts when a specific vantage point turns its attention to itself. Theoretically, the same thing should happen as in the original splitting of one consciousness into three „parts“ or functions. However, the formation of a new „eternity“ inside the present one is just a repetition of already present interactions, a redundancy that is not fun anymore. Nevertheless, consciousness is conscious and, thus, unstoppable. It wants to continue creating new experiences (having fun). The only solution to the problem of repetition of the already created network of the inner structure is separating that particular vantage point from the wholeness of One consciousness. That specific vantage point must FORGET that it is a part of the whole. And it forgets.

And that is how YOU are born! That is how I-ness came into existence.”

The original self-referral multiplication of consciousness is similar to what happens when you put a mirror in front of a mirror. You’ll get endless reflections. But, if there is already a mirror inside the mirror, and you put it in front of another mirror with a mirror inside it, you’ll get a ridiculously complicated picture that is impossible to follow. That’s how original forgetting came about. It was caused by the second wave of self-referral processes inside the consciousness. Due to the nature of consciousness, that was inevitable. For the first time, the illusion of separation is created, and that illusion is the cradle of Maya; unborn, divine-rooted Maya – because she is a part of reality from its beginnings.

***

The rest of the creation process is history. The emergence of all the bodies, including manomayakosha, follows. Identification follows. Separation deepens. The worlds of experiences are created.

However, in the mids of all that mess, one faculty is born: the faculty with the ability to remember. But, before remembering, this faculty brought about a whole new playroom and a wonderful new toy: language.

In the playroom of language, viveka, the mortal enemy to Maya, will be born, trained, and cultivated.

Questions for thinking

This time I don’t have questions but suggestions for mental exercises.

1. Imagine the mirror in front of a mirror. Each reflected mirror has the same ability to reflect as the original one. The same happens when one point in consciousness relates to another (thinks, feels, perceives). With this picture in mind, ask yourself the classic “Who am I” question. Watch what your mind is doing, trying to answer it. You are literary creating a “you” with the answers.
2. Note that, before you try to answer the “who am I” question, there was no defined “you” in need of an explanation. There were experiences, and now you are constructing the “what you think you are” from these experiences.
3. Think about the “divine network” of self-referral “events” and “things” in consciousness. They represent natural laws. You can discover them, but you can not change them. Still, they are IN consciousness, readily available for you to know them. One question, though: do you understand that perceptual consensus (the fact that every conscious being experiences basic natural laws in the same manner) is the perception of a “divine network” representing the early phases of the creation story?
4. Maya is just a natural law. With the senses, you’ll perceive its results. With the mind, you can perceive her directly. Sit in front of a mirror and watch yourself for a minute. What you see is an illusion, but this illusion is not your enemy. Change your attitude towards Maya. She gives you trouble, but not because of being what it is. The trouble is in forgetting and the birth of “you”.

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 12. Chapter from the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “Viveka – the Sword of Truth“ on Mirror.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

Many spiritual seekers developed quite a repulsion for everything and anything „mental“. They literary escaped from such things in the opposite direction towards the warmer and comfier fields of the heart.

You may hate Shankara or me, but if you want liberation from the illusion, you’ll have to deal with the mind.

Here is one of the most prominent quotes from Vivekachudamani (172):

vāyunānīyate medhaḥ punastenaiva nīyate |
manasā kalpyate bandho mokṣastenaiva kalpyate ||

The winds gather clouds together, and again the wind disperses them.
Similarly, the mind creates bondage, and again it creates liberation.

Spirituality welcomes newly „awakened“ people with intense emotions, heightened sensitivity, different states of consciousness, understanding, empathy, and universal love.

The upside of that movement is that spiritual seekers start to breathe more lightly. They find not only inner peace but also a long-lost feeling of security and hope. Many find new creativity and become successful, confident, and much healthier than before.

The downside… well, if you run away from thinking, you could end up losing that ability. If by neglecting it, you lose a lot of mental discrimination, your bullshit detectors could turn off, and you’ll probably end up believing nonsense.

The fate of the mind as a villain in spiritual circles is sealed by many old and new sources – texts, books, and teachings.

But, Vivekachudamani brings up another idea: The problem is not the mind; the problem is in mind! There is a vast sea of differences between these two statements.

If you follow the first (mind is the problem), you’ll end up losing the mind and, with it, the sharpest tool for dismantling the illusion. If you follow the second (the problem is IN the mind), you have a chance to discover viveka and lose the illusion.

So, love it or hate it, the mind is the battlefield where truth and illusion fight for the dominion of your reality. You are in the middle of that fight, and you can not run away. You can try as many do, but that’s the point. There are two kinds of people on that battlefield: the soldiers of Maya – the ones who run and run and run, and the soldiers of truth who are standing upright, trembling from fear but facing the beast nevertheless.

A quote from Chapter 12:

The mind is the only feature of consciousness that can discriminate on the most delicate levels. Since the superimposition of an illusion on top of reality can be very sophisticated, we need a sharp tool to separate one from another. The expression „the Sword of Truth“ (from the title of this chapter) attributed to viveka is actually poetic. It is meant to inspire your mumukshuta and make you see yourself as a warrior of truth.

One thing should be clear, though: placing our hope for winning the battle over illusion on the mind does not depreciate the value of other functions of consciousness. Quite the contrary, that just means that the diagnostic is precise, and now we know which part of „us“ is problematic, so we’ll have to work on it. The other parts are free from mistakes and should be all right once we eliminate the main problem.

If we want to express it in a Vivekachudamani way, it will sound like this: the other bodies of ours do not participate in the creation of an illusion. It’s all happening in the manomayakosha.

Or, even more bluntly: manomayakosha is responsible for the awareness of all experiences. It is there, in mind, that we can say: „I am experiencing that“. It is happening all the time, without exception.

It happens when bliss rises in your anandamaykosha.

It happens when you experience Universal Love.

It happens when you travel through astral planes.

It happens when you experience the highest peaks of divine consciousness.

It happens when you have clear personal contact with God.

It will happen again and again, no matter what you EXPERIENCE.

And because of that, you’ll stay firmly grounded in the illusion.

Forever… if you don’t get rid of the mistake of the mind.

And for that, you’ll need a sword, a tool, a scalpel. And you’ll have to fight; you’ll have to work, cut, and cut, and cut through the thick veils of mental parasites in your mind.

Questions for thinking

1. Do you clearly understand the difference between the “mind is a problem” and “the problem is in mind” statements?
2. Does focusing on the purification of the mind diminish the value of the other parts of our life (other koshas or bodies)?
3. Is viveka applicable in the higher states of consciousness?
4. If the mistake of the mind is not corrected, what will happen in higher states of consciousness?

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Read the 11. Chapter from the book “Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru” entitled “Three Powers of Maya“ on Mirror.

Remember: this article/chapter is tokenized, and you may buy it as “writer’s NFT!”

Points to consider

The eleventh chapter speaks about Maya’s structure, the illusion’s mistress. Let’s start this exercise with a quote and a reminder.

“Relying on the archimedean point of viveka, we found ourselves in the world of ideas. As we continue walking through it, don’t forget where you are. It is our home, the only place we truly live in. It is easy to forget that the material world is just an assumption and let ourselves be deluded with perceptual consensus. I can remind you about that fact from time to time, but it will not be enough if you continue forgetting.

Maya, the all-powerful Lady of the Illusion, abides in the same world of ideas and thoughts. If she gets you, your reality will be delusional. Your experiences, completely real to you, be it happiness or suffering of any kind, will be just a mirage in the distant clouds. Instead of life, you will live a dream. Or a nightmare, who knows.”

Illusion in psychology

Common sense tells us illusion is created on the level of perception, attention, and interpretation.

Perception: our senses are limited. They don’t carry over everything that is „out there“ in the real universe of ideas.

Attention is a potent tool for hiding, enhancing, or, again, distorting reality. Magicians and illusionists often use that to distract us, surprise us, and create an illusion. Soft spirituality and positive thinking often use attention to create specific experiences, thus inducing a change in our reality. Nevertheless, that “change” is a change from illusion to illusion.

Interpretation can be cultural, social, age-related, or gender-related, but mostly it is heavily dependent on individual beliefs. The interpretation part of an illusion is the cause of a lot of suffering in the world, especially in the field of politics and religion. Furthermore, the interpretation may directly influence attention and perception, making us blind to something we should see with healthy eyes or a sane mind.

Illusion in advaita

In advaita, Maya has been defined as having six main characteristics:

• Anadi – eternal, unborn, without the beginning
• Nivartya – mortal, possible to terminate
• Varana – it veils and hides
• Viksepa – it projects and creates
• Anirvacaniya – hard to define, slippery
• Bhavarpa – it is attractive, looks positive

Bhavarpa, looking positive and attractive, is an interesting quality that explains why people want it and why it is so hard to get rid of her. However, the good news is nivartya: Maya can die. It is possible to end her dominion and find an exit from her realm. Sometimes, that quality goes under the name of jnana-nivartya. That means the mortal enemy of Maya is – knowledge.

Illusion in Vivekachudamani

Vivekachudamani explains the three powers of Maya and connects them with three great elements – so-called gunas. Those elements are tamas, rajas, and sattva.

Tamas gives rise to the power of hiding and distorting.
Rajas gives rise to the power of projecting and creating.
Sattva gives rise to the power of replicating and reflecting.

The first two powers are easy to understand (from previous considerations), but the third one escaped the attention of most commentaries. Moreover, that power’s strength – and danger – is almost unheard of. In this exercise, we’ll focus on the third Maya’s power.

The usual spiritual interpretation of „sattva“ is good, desirable, and virtuous. But liberation is not about being good or virtuous; it’s about the truth. And Vivekachudamani is clear about that: sattva gives power to Maya. Enormous power because as purer the sattva gets, the reflection of reality is more accurate.

The differentiation between the idea of „true“ and „accurate“ can explain the catching trap of an illusion created by sattva.

Reality’s representation (reflection) can be accurate, but it is still just a representation. Shankara was stuck with the analogy of dreams, but we have VR. Virtual reality can be completely accurate and precise to the details, especially when quantum computers take over, possibly with neural interfaces, but it will never be true.

That understanding completes the all-attractive impact of Maya. Quote:

„First, in the tamas-attractive mode, Maya makes people inert, ignorant, and insecure by hiding or distorting the true reality from them. After that, there is not much work with keeping them imprisoned. They want to stay in because an unknown danger threatens them out there (whatever there is). Second, in the rajas-attractive mode, Maya makes people capable and ambitious. She promises them the fulfillment of their dreams. Who would say no to such an offer? So, people gladly stay in her arms. And third, in the sattva-attractive mode, she plays on the card of human virtues and nobility. She promises them divine rewards, heavens, goodness, and bliss in this life and an afterlife. It is hard, if not impossible, to see through such a pleasant deception.“

If you want liberation, all that must die. Tamas must die, rajas must die, and to the surprise of many, sattva must die too.

Questions for thinking

1. Thinking about common sense and psychological explanation of illusion, in your opinion, in which field Maya is the strongest: perception, attention, or interpretation?
2. Can you remember from previous exercises why advaita claims that Maya, illusion, is eternal, unborn?
3. Do you truly understand the difference between the idea of “true” and “accurate”? Give one example (not present in the eleventh Chapter of “Viveka”).
4. Can you give an example of a sattva-driven person deeply immersed in illusion?

It is your turn now. Write your thoughts, comments, or questions.