This is a sstsang from Ben de Silva, one of our teaching contributors.
Question: I took the opportunity to join a conversation that asked the question “What is ‘Beyond the Beyond’? My response: The ‘Wise’ say that ‘Beyond the Beyond can’t be spoken of.. It is beyond cognition. It is known before its imminence..and after. It is known by inference. When one untangles oneself from personal desires and ’things’ the fine energy of ’The Beyond the Beyond’ is felt.
These moments shine through the years In your experience does this response ring true?
Ben: I think they mean the Causal Body (kaarana shariram), matter in potential form that manifests as dreamless sleep. (sushupti avastha), which is extremely blissful.
Causal matter is ‘beyond the beyond’, which is to say that it is beyond the waking state perceptions of the sense organs. It is also beyond dream state perceptions, the thoughts, feelings and cognitions which take place in the Subtle Body (sukshma shariram). There are no perceptions, etc. in the causal state, only freedom, ignorance and bliss, as mentioned. Deep sleep is experiential bliss because there is no mind there to create divisions with its thoughts. In Vedana we say that a person is “almost enlightened” when they are one with the Causal Body because they only lack the knowledge that they are consciousness/bliss itself.
Causal matter is still matter, albeit an extremely subtle form of matter or energy. It cannot be directly perceived, but it can be inferred (anumana} when the waking state entity appears after sleeping.
The words ‘moments’ and ‘shine through the years’ indicate time. The Self, Consciousness is beyond space and time. Rather, it is the source in which space and time appear, i.e. from the perspective of Consciousness, space and time are objects known by it.
The use of the 3rd person singular, ‘it’ needs to change to the 1st person singular “I”to make these statements meaningful for oneself. To re-phrase: one needs to be able to confidently say, ‘”I, Consciousness, am beyond space and time. I am the source to which space and time appear” or “In my presence space and time appear. They depend on me but I am free of them.”
“I, Consciousness am not energy. I, Pure Consciousness, am beyond the subtlest form of matter/energy. I am beyond perception via the physical body, the sense organs. I am beyond inference. I am directly experienced and known as the ever-present self-evident “I.” Personhood is a reflection of Me in the mirror of the mind. No one need tell me that I exist and that I am conscious. I am pure Being, unconditioned Awareness, complete satisfaction (tripti). I am Bliss, Happiness itself (satchitananda atma) .
Yes, to directly recognise the Consciousness that I am, the person that I seem to be (jiva), which is a mixture of Consciousness and matter, needs to be free from binding desires, cravings, aversions, etc, the mental impurities. Spiritual disciplines are simply intended to purify and prepare my mind to recognize myself; they are not ends in themselves. This is done through Vedanta which is known as Jnana Yoga and consists of hearning the teaching from a qualified teacher (shravanam), reflecting on what I have heard to remove doubts (mananam), and actualizing the teachings in daily life (nididhyasanam).
Buddhists especially love terms like ‘beyond the beyond.’ In Pali … gati, gati, samgati. It is based on their concept of emptiness, shunya. From a Vedanta viewpoint, shunya would be better translated as ‘emptied-ness’ rather than ‘emptiness’. The word ‘emptied-ness’ indicates the cognitive absence of all forms, subtle and dense, and the presence of witnessing Consciousness, illumining the absence of forms.
Phrases like ‘beyond the beyond’ unconsciously engender a mistaken sense of distance which reinforces a sense of duality. The irony is that the Consciousness I am, is ‘here and now’. There is an immediacy to my presence as Consciousness. It is, after all, what I am. How far ‘beyond’ am I from myself, Consciousness? If I’m ‘beyond the beyond,’ I’m even further away from me. There is no actual distance, only a seeming distance in the intellect arising from ignorance of Myself. That is why phrases like ‘distinct from’, ‘other than’, ‘free from’ are preferable to ‘beyond,’ although they too imply duality.
CONCLUSION
It is good that there are people thinking along these lines. But this language is not accurate enough. It is close but “a miss is as good as a mile”. Their position is understandable. After all, the Causal body is the most subtle form of matter and is like Consciousness, but it is not conscious. The subtle entity that makes the experience of bliss possible in deep sleep is called Prajna, the deep sleeper, as opposed to the waKer and the dreamer. Pranja ( pra (close) + jna (knowledge) means close to knowing what I am or “almost enlightened.” 🙂
The Swamis I studied under state that advaitic Jnana Yoga is needed to correctly and directly recognise the Consciousness I am, here and now. It is not possible, without the teaching of non-duaity. So, what is ‘beyond the beyond? An Advaitin says: “I, Consciousness”.
If the implied meaning of the words is properly understood, I can drop all such words, names and concepts and can immediately recognise myself to be, Consciousness. “I am … Myself, Consciousness/Atma/Brahman, here and now”.
