Seeker: My understanding (possibly mistaken) is that Advaita Vedanta (AV) maintains that the Godhead or Brahman (whatever sound we make to represent That) is Unconscious Consciousness (an oxymoron). It is said to be the Dreamless Sleeper, or as Isaid, the ‘Unconscious Consciousness’.
Reply: In brief, your email is about the nature of Brahman.
‘Unconscious Consciousness’ … how did you reach this conclusion? Is it your own analysis? Is it the teaching of a particular school or philosophy? This description of Brahman is NOT what Advaita Vedanta (AV) states.
The term ‘Unconscious Consciousness’ is not so much an oxymoron but is really an inherent contradiction, perhaps a paradox, but does have any ontological, existential reality.
Seeker: Besides the fact that Delta (dreamless) sleep is merely the autonomic function of our human brain while asleep, and not the Godhead of the Universe,
Reply: Yes, correct. That is the description of total causal matter and of the individual causal body … deep dreamless delta sleep … where there is the experience of ignorance … “I do not know anything” and of pleasure … “I enjoyed the experience of a good, restful sleep.”
This is definitely not Brahman.
Seeker: Brahman is in fact Absolutely Conscious, Utterly Awake, Utterly Aware and, furthermore, Self-Aware and Infinitely Intelligent. Not merely aware of Itself when It manifests as us. It is also Loving.
Reply: Yes, correct. That is the description of Brahman in AV … Sat Cit Ananda … pure Presence, unconditioned Awareness, complete Fulfilment, permanent Peace, absolute Happiness.
Seeker: Brahman is not merely the abstract Principle of Love. (Love cannot be Love unless it is being expressed concretely. Love is not Love if it is merely an abstraction.)
Reply: I use the word ‘Lovingness’ which is unconditioned (beyond conditioning) Love, the nature of unconditioned Brahman. It is from this unconditioned Love-Brahman that unconditional love as well as conditioned love is expressed through the subtle body of living beings. Such expression of love is found not only in humans but also found in the animal world.
Seeker: When this physical body dies Brahman is ‘freed’ as ‘our’ little consciousness which ‘splits open’ and the Infinitude of Brahman ‘rushes in’.
Reply: This is not the teaching of AV. The sentence implied movement or change. There is no ‘freed’ nor ‘splits open’ nor ‘rushes in’.
When a clay cup, the material structure, is broken, does cup-space get ‘freed’ or does total space ‘rush in’? There is no movement at all. Cup-space and total space are one and the same. Names and phrases are for human communication. There is only one, unmoving space. Any seeming movement could be perceived by an unknowing human intellect to be actual movement of space. The trigger for such an interpretation is the change in the structure of the cup plus the ignorance of the person. Space does not move, only appears to move, seems to move.
Similarly, when the physical body dies, the Wise who are confirmed as Brahman while alive, continue as Brahman after the physical body dies. Brahman does not move nor change nor get modified. The nature of Brahman is stillness itself, changeless, unmodifiable. It is the human mind-body mechanism which ceases.
Seeker: Brahman is permanently those sentient beings It manifests as. Brahman does not change in Its essential Self, but It continues to multiply Its Eternal Manifestations for Its own enjoyment.
Reply: Can you see the contradiction in these two sentences?
The teaching in AV is that Brahman only ‘seems’ to be sentient beings. Brahman only ‘seems’ to multiply. The word ‘seems’ points to nonduality, Advaita, because a ‘seeming’ appearance is as good as no appearance, or really no appearance at all when enquired into, eg. the desert mirage or blue sky.
Similarly, there is only Brahman, nothing else. ‘Multiply’ means change. As you said, Brahman does not change. So, manifestation is only ‘seeming’, a seeming appearance of multiplicity of an unmoving, unchanging Brahman.
Seeker: It is, after all, the Enjoyer is It not?
Reply: This is the belief of one school and is refuted in a text called ‘Pancadashi’ by Vidyaranya. Brahman is neither the Enjoyer nor a non-Enjoyer.
When manifestation, commonly called ‘creation’, is entertained as an actual reality, many unanswerable questions arise. If God is a loving God, why is there evil and pain? Does God enjoy such evil and pain? Is God really such an ‘enjoyer’? Why did God create or manifest at all? For whose benefit?
Seeker: If It is merely the Great Dreamless Sleeper, the Unconscious Consciousness, It ‘enjoys’ nothing but is in fact nearly insensate just as our brain is when in Delta sleep.
Reply: Note the first word ‘if’. This description is not the teaching of AV, as stated earlier.
Seeker: Just as we are made up of countless living cells, so too is Brahman. Except, of course, Brahman is more than merely the sum of Its parts and none of Us are literally single celled organisms.
Reply: This sentence implies ‘parts’. Brahman does not have parts. Brahman is one, seamless, unbroken whole. The closest example we have is space which is one and seamless.
Seeker: How can Enlightenment be “Awakening” if all that occurs when we Awaken is that we ‘return’ to the Infinite Dreamless Sleep of the Infinite Dreamless Sleeper?
Reply: All seeking begins with ignorance. The unenlightened are overcome by ignorance. Enlightenment or Awakening is another way of saying ‘removal of ignorance’.
Then what is always present, Brahman, is revealed and recognised. There is no ‘return’. Brahman never ‘departed’ to ‘return’. Brahman is always and already present. Do I recognise the Brahman I am, here and now? This is the core of the Self-enquiry of AV.
Also, Brahman is not the Infinite Dreamless Sleeper. The phrase indicates the total causal matter, Antaryami -Ishvara. That is not Brahman.
Seeker: This is where Western Spirituality divides from the Far East.
Reply: The mystics in Western Spirituality like St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, Hildegard of Bingen, etc. had insights into aspects of the teaching of AV and described ‘no division’. So too the Sufi mystics like Kabir, Mansour.
At the Vedantic level of understanding, there is no division. There is neither East nor West. There is just ‘is-ness, am-ness, be-ingness, pure Presence, unconditioned Awareness, infinite Lovingness’. One word for all these terms is Brahman.
Seeker: God/It is not the Infinite Dreamless Sleeper, the Unconscious Consciousness, the Self that is Not Self Aware. In fact, insects have that sort of ‘consciousness’, an unconscious consciousness. Brahman is not less than we humans but is More.
Reply: I avoid using the word ‘God’; there are too many interpretations and nuances. ‘Brahman’ is a better word for our discussion. AV states: “That Brahman, you are, here and now.” Hope you recognise the huge-ness of that statement.
To sum up
‘Unconscious Consciousness’ is not the nature of Brahman.
Words are only pointers or indicators to something else, to that which is other that the word itself. The words must be dropped to recognise that which was indicated by the words. This principle applies even the word ‘Brahman’. What is present when even the word ‘Brahman’ is dropped? “That, you are. Tat, tvam asi.”
All seekers begin from ignorance; that is the capital we begin with in this spiritual journey. Thus, any conclusion reached will be based on ignorance and will definitely be mistaken.
How do we circumvent this problem of ignorance?
We need to temporarily trust a source of knowledge of Brahman. Such trust is temporary until I can verify the validity of the teaching for myself. The Vedas are such a source and is worthy of trust because it has led so many to the accurate understanding of Brahman.
The Vedas are a means of knowledge using words to give me knowledge which is not available through any other means of knowledge like sensory perception, cognitive inference, presumption, logic, etc. This knowledge must not contradict nor be contradicted by the other means of knowledge. This knowledge must also give me a benefit, ie. inner freedom from suffering. The Vedas do this. The end portion of the Vedas, Vedanta, explains the nature of Brahman.
The irony is that, here and now, we are Brahman and not the individual persons or forms we appear to be. The problem is that we do not know, we do not recognise this existential fact.
Please refer to the document on: “Gregor Samsa, the Insect-man”. That insect-man, who is convinced he is an insect and not a human, is always being human and experiencing his humanness, even while he is convinced that he is an insect. The problem is that he does not know this fact.
Similarly with us … we are Brahman, here and now, always and already Brahman even while we are convinced we are an individual human being. The problem is that we do not know this fact about our true nature until it is pointed out by Vedanta.
Those who come to this knowledge and recognise its reality, are indeed blest.
