Saturday 30 October 2021

Sankara's Adhyasa Bhasya: Advatic Stone Kicking

A la Samuel Johnson - ‘Thus I refute thee’ of the immaterialism of Bishop Berkeley.  It sounds like that, because in both the translations of the adhyasa bhasya (Preamble to the Brahma Sutra Bhasya) at my disposal the declaration of the foundational externality of perception is declared emphatically.

(a) It being established etc. (Swami Gambhirananda)

(b)It is not a matter requiring any proof etc. (George Thibaut)

Then there is the paradox that this externality, which is so patent that it does not require proof, comes burdened with the aporetic: how does that object out there, a material entity, come to be somehow inside me as a cognition which we intuitively accept as a true picture of what the object is.

No wonder the idealist says ‘stop, there is no outside and externality is an illusion’ and by the great razor of Occam this is the simplest explanation.  That only leaves one with the difficulty of an illusion of something that has never occurred.  A rare beast indeed.

Sankara declares that externality (a) should be impossible; (b) it would be wrong, given the aporia/impasse just detailed.  Nevertheless it is so.  Let us describe what seems to be taking place and work from there towards a transcendental hypothesis which accounts ontologically for it.  This is a ‘saving the appearances’ operation and is begun with the concept of superimposition viz. adhyasa.

More anon.

 

Monday 25 October 2021

Vedanta and Cybernetics

 It’s not surprising that some scholars of Vedanta forget that the mind is inert (jada) or unconscious by nature and only ‘thinks as it were’ (Brh.Up.) due to its pervasion or transfusion by pure consciousness.  The mind then is material interacting with other material entities and objects.  Epiphenomenalism and the causal problem are not a topic in advaita per se and they arise only as controversion.  Why those scholiasts forget the jada nature is probably due to their entrancement by problems spawned by Western epistemology.

That is a very large discussion which I will get to in time.  In this note I consider the materiality of the Body/Mind/Spirit complex and its tendency to therefore fall under the sway of multiple cybernetic factors, feedback loops, the bogus homeostasis of gratified desires and if we want to stay within the purlieus of Vedanta, the good old time gunas.  To get those loops to move in an upward and not a downward spiral requires an admission that struggling at the level of vasanas (tendencies, dispositions) leaves us in the toils of cybernetic control.  Strictly; upwards, downwards and sideways are paths in the maze of maya.   Ironically by using feedback loops we can revert to the source of consciousness which frees.  Pranayama, mantra, prayer and ritual are enabling practices that we are told advance the dawn of knowledge (vidya) but however perfectly performed are not liberating of themselves.   The jnani (enlightened one) can say:

“I am the Self of all, as the intellects of all beings are illumined by Me who am of the nature of the Light of Consciousness only.” (Upadesa Sahasri Chap. XIV on Dream and Memory: #7)

Monday 18 October 2021

Sally Rooney blocks translation of her novel into Hebrew

 If you’re explaining you’re losing.  That’s a poor lookout for ‘hasbara’ which means explanation in Hebrew but they can’t help pleading their case with an unlikely uniformity of scolding accusation which must include anti-semitism and why are we Israelis being singled out when there are some many other bad actors you neglect.  Consider it a compliment that you are open to moral persuasion and the mild sanctions that underline the seriousness of your confiscation and extirpation.

Sally Rooney is blocking the translation of her latest novel into Hebrew on B.D.S. grounds a move that is popular in Ireland.  I wonder why.  I once bought a packet of double edged blades from Israel by mistake.  The good news is that they were useless.

Sunday 17 October 2021

Cutting Sankaracarya, Cutting Advaita

 I’m adapting the saying of Frank Pain from his book ‘Practical Woodturning’ - ‘cut the wood the way the wood likes to be cut’.  How does Sankaracarya cut Advaita and who does he cut it as?  As a Teacher and non-dually straight to the consciousness of the seeker that has come to him:

“with fuel in his hands, he should approach a teacher versed in the Vedas and established in Brahman in order to know the Eternal.”

The earnest disciple with full faith in the wisdom of the Vedas will receive instruction according to the rubric of the mahavakyas.  Dwelling on them and drawing out their implication is his path.   Another type of seeker will be served Vedanta with a helping of rational argument.  Those two types are dealt with in the first chapters of ‘Upadesa Sahasri’

(1) A Method of Enlightening the Disciple

(2) The Knowledge of the Changeless and non-Dual Self.

The latter instruction and explication is heavily epistemological and culminates in the argument for the nature of the Self deduced from the knowledge that we have been in a state of Deep Dreamless Sleep (Sushupti).

Upadesa Sahasri is Sankara’s only authenticated non-commentarial work and we may assume that it covers his classic procedure.  The other work that stands out as an onto-epistemological disquisition peculiar to him is found in the preamble to the Brahma Sutra Bhasya.  This is also known as the adhyasa Bhasya (superimposition).

Those are my thoughts on the shape of an introduction to Sankara.  Follow the tags for more on each topic.

Saturday 9 October 2021

Deep Dreamless Sleep and the Witness (Saksin)

 “How can there be any special property in Me who am changeless by nature and witness the modifications of the minds of all without any exception?  (How can again there be any change in Me) who witness the mind and its functions in the waking state as in dream?  But as there is the absence* of both the mind and its functions in deep sleep, I am Pure Consciousness, all-pervading and changeless.”  (# 3, 4 Chap. XI  Nature of the Witness: Upadesa Sahasri)

*Therefore witnessing the mind and its functions is not in the nature of the Self. (note by translator Swami Jagadananda)

This is a very important observation.  The knowledge in the form of ‘I have been in a state of deep dreamless sleep’ can only arise if there was what I have called a dark samadhi i.e. a perfect non-reflexive awareness which is contentless.   The analogy proposed by Tripura Rahasya is of a mirror coated with tar perfectly reflecting that blackness.  One understands the purport of that image while doubting the physics.  In any case the Witness aspect of Pure Consciousness is a detached knowledge of the mental modifications.  The mind is not conscious, counter intuitive as that is to the avidya (ignorance) stricken.

“It thinks as it were” (Br.Up.)