Dear Ramji,
Hope you have rested well from your long trip and all has gone to your liking.
Ramji: Everything is going according to plan by God’s grace.
Peter: I wanted to bounce my take of an experience (yes an experience and yes please listen as much as you dislike it) that I had last week-end.
Ramji: Actually I like to hear people’s experiences. I make a big story about stories to make sure that people don’t run on too much but actually I like to hear people’s experiences. You always make yours short and sweet so it is a pleasure to hear them. And experience is the Self, whose story is always a pleasure in so far as there is nothing else. Swamiji used to say that everything is “HIStory.”
Peter: I had a near drowning event in the ocean, was pulled down with rip tide and was under for 10-15 seconds. I recall clearly experiencing the fear and panic along with almost involuntary movements of the body while being thrown around under the surface. I remember thinking Iswara is really an amazing force, among all the fear and panic thoughts.
Ramji: I experienced the same thing once in Hawaii. I got hit by a monster wave when I was skin diving and dragged out to sea. I lost my mask, fins, spear-gun, and stringer. Somebody saw me from some cliffs overlooking the ocean. About thirty minutes later I was rescued by a helicopter. The power of nature is exciting and addicting.
Peter: Anyhow , I somehow got noticed by my son and he was able to grab my leg and get me out of the pickle as you put it, though I coughed up water for a good half hour.
Ramji: I was lucky as I was a skin diver and had a large lung capacity so I could do without air for a couple of minutes and didn’t take on any water before I bobbed to the surface.
Peter: It was definitely an eye opener, I reflected on the memory of this experience like I would when I have had a detailed vivid dream. The body was thrashing and so was the mind with the death thought, which was generating fear and panic feelings, all of which was not specifically generated by a person, very weird feeling .
Ramji: Yes, the fear thought is instinctual, generated by Isvara, the Universal Person. Isvara’s dream may be unreal but it is certainly experienced as reality.
Peter: “I know” if this was the end, it was the end for this experiencing entity. Though this “knower” is nonlocal…
Ramji: Sorry to butt in here but “this knower” is local, unless you mean “that knower,” existence shining as unborn ever-present awareness. It is local because it is associated with the body. Vedanta calls it the “embodied self.” (jivatman) The one who observed that experience and is observing the intellect reflecting on it now is “that knower.” It so happens, however, that “this knower” is “that knower” momentarily bewitched by Maya. Or not, as your next statement seems to prove.
Peter: … I cannot really say much more except that it would not need to claim itself above or under the water at that moment or any moment for that matter.
Ramji: Correct, because “this knower” is “that knower.” It knows because there is experience to be known, but it also knows there is no need to claim anything. Its isness is enough to render all claims worthless because “it”…meaning Peter…is everything that exists. It also knows that whatever is claimable is a product of Ignorance, Maya. But since you didn’t say “I” instead of “this knower,” the story-teller, then you should “claim” that everything is me: the ocean, your son, your reflections on the body’s near demise, etc. etc. But it’s not actually a claim. It is just a simple statement of fact.
Peter: So clearly as much is clear that the ego may think it is the self, knows the self and as you have said it, can intelligently discuss the self, i.e. reflected awareness that is aware of phenomenon/illuminates experiences, thoughts etc., it has not yet assimilated the knowledge of the equality of awareness with existence (impossibility of nonexistence, immortality, etc.), because it experiences fear and panic when facing dissolution. Something “here” has never not been, that is for sure and certain.
Ramji: Nor need it assimilate the knowledge of the equality of awareness because it actually knows that awareness is existence already or it would not have just said that the ego hasn’t assimilated the knowledge of non-duality. The operative words here are “intelligently discuss.” It can’t intelligently discuss unless is it conscious and it can’t be conscious unless it exists and is aware, which means that it is the Self, existence shining as awareness. We provisionally say that the ego “borrows” awareness from the Self (pratibimba vada) but it is not the final teaching. There is no actually “borrowing” because the ego is not a separate entity. As Shankara says, “The jiva and the Self are non-different.” (jivo brahmaiva na parah)
But, if it doesn’t know the non-difference when it is intelligently discussing the non-difference of “the knowledge of equality of awareness with existence” then it should claim “I am impersonal unborn awareness.” The two step logic that equates awareness and existence is simple: (1) you don’t exist if you don’t know you exist and you can’t know that you exist unless you are awareness, and (2) you can’t be awareness if you don’t exist. That you exist and that you are aware is the innate knowledge of all entities with intellects.
We Save the Best for Last
Now, the coup de grace. You concluded the last paragraph with the statement, “Something “here” has never not been, that is for sure and certain.
So let me ask you a question, “Is that something that has never not been” you or is it not you?
I think you know but feel the need to be modest, which is good. I say that because you put “here” in parentheses which indicates that you know there is no “here” because you also know that there is no “there,” which suggests that you have assimilated non-duality.
Of course we don’t want to catch enlightenment sickness but it’s not actually a big deal to “claim” I am existence shining as whole and complete awareness because there is no second self. If there were, it would be impossible to know which one was real and we would all be totally frozen with paralysis. First and second are duality, as good as non-existent. There is a “third” and only experiencing self, which either knows itself (plus discrete experiences) or in the absence of near-death experiences, “knows” itself, which is an absurd statement in so far as there is nothing else to be known. I am the Self is a death experience, not a near-death experience.
Every day you say I. When you do, you are claiming non-duality because there is only one I. That’s the teaching of Vedanta. If you associate the “I” with the words that follow then you are self-ignorant unless the subsequent words are “whole and complete unborn actionless ordinary non-reflective awareness.” If you know that there is no association, then you are the ever-free I. Along with the knowledge of the non-association of Awareness with objects, if you know that the words are caused by the creative principle, Isvara, you can only be existence shining as awareness. Choosing to agree with scripture is smart. Tell me whether or not I should mail your enlightenment certificate. 🙂
Peter: Also, please let me know if you want me to bring you a check at TL or send my donation through Paypal. Since iswara saved my ass once, I guess as of this moment I will be able to see you again.
Ramji: If you’re seeing, you’re seeing me, Peter. I’m grateful that Isvara put you through that experience and saved your sorry ass so I can see you again. Paypal is just fine.
Love you,
Ramji
