Pier: If I am awareness or consciousness why I am aware of only my body
Sundari: You are not Awareness or Consciousness as the nondual Self. These are words we use to describe the indescribable, and all words fail because they all have implied meanings. Awareness/Consciousness imply unaware/unconscious – even the Self implies not-Self. But we need to use words, so in Vedantic lexicon, we use these terms interchangeably to point to the one and only ever present and unchanging factor, which is Consciousness/Awareness/the Nondual Self.
The question you pose comes up for most inquirers. The first thing to ask is who is asking the question? When you use the word ‘I” who does it refer to? While there is only one ‘I”, which is Awareness/Consciousness/the Self (also called the non-experiencing witness), when the mind is identified with the personal ‘small self’ (body/mind) it seems like there are two ‘I’s’. But that is not possible as this is a nondual reality, so there cannot be two. However, Maya (beginningless ignorance or the hypnosis of duality) makes it LOOK like there are two because it feels like the body/mind and the world it inhabits are one thing, and the knower of both (the Self) is something apart from the body/mind/world.
To think from a nondual perspective, you need a means of knowledge that imparts how to discriminate between duality, that which is apparently real, and that which is actually real. Vedanta is such a means of knowledge. It answers the big conundrum of life: what is real? Vedanta defines ‘real’ as that which is always present and unchanging. If you examine your experience, you must deduce that this can never apply to the person (body/mind) or the world because everything in the apparent reality is always changing and not always present.
Both your body and mind disappear when you are in deep sleep, but they are ‘back’ when you wake up. How do you know you slept? Because Consciousness is there witnessing the sleeping body/mind. And where does the body/mind go? Back to the unmanifest Causal body from where they emerged when the body/mind ‘arrived’ in this world as a baby. But you as the Self are unborn and undying. So, the definition of what is real can only ever apply to you, Awareness, the only and only non-negatable factor, the witness or knower of the one who is born and dies, who experiences a body/mind and the world of objects.
Pier: When I say I am aware do I need the mind or body to say that are I am also aware without the body
Sundari: The definition of the Self, the real ‘I’ is: whole and complete, ever-present, unchanging, unlimited. Unlimited means the Self never changes and cannot be modified by any experience. If it was true that you as the Self/Awareness, needed a body mind to say/know that you are aware, then the Self could not be unlimited. It would depend on the body, which is an object known to it, to know itself. How could that be possible, if there is only the Self? All objects depend on Awareness to exist, not the other way around. This is a subtle point however, because the experience of any object cannot take place without the light of Awareness shining on the body. So the mind does seem to be conscious and to know/experience. But in actual fact, the mind, just like the body, is inert. The knowing factor does not belong to it but to you, Awareness. As Awareness, you know (see) only yourself because there is only you.
There is only one Awareness that enlivens every sentient being. Although there is only one eternal jiva or individual, Maya (the hypnosis of duality) makes it look like there are many individual jivas by giving sentient beings an uphadi. This is their vasana load, Subtle body, or personal ignorance (avidya). An uphadi is a limiting adjunct—that which makes something appear to be something other than it is. For instance, if I have a red rose behind a clear crystal, the clear crystal will appear to be red even though it is clear. Put it this way: the uphadi for the Self/Awareness (or what we can also call perception) is the person—the individual or Self under the spell of ignorance. It makes the Self look like it is a person – a jiva.
However, what belongs to the person does not belong to the Self because the person and Awareness do not exist in the same order of reality. The Self is that which is always present and unchanging – satya. The jiva or person and their experiences is that which is always changing and not always present – mithya. The two orders of reality are not opposed to each other (nothing opposes the Self) but they never meet, either. Freedom is the ability to discriminate between the two orders of reality 24/7.
The perceiver only looks different in accordance with the uphadi in association to it; the difference belongs to the uphadi and not to the subject (the Self). It is just an appearance in Awareness causing a sense of difference where there is no difference. Maya is a very clever trickster—ignorance is very intelligent. Maya is Isvara’s (apparent) uphadi.
The confusion is in what belongs to the person and what belongs to the Self: you think that what applies to the person, also applies to the Self. The person and the Self are not the same because of the different uphadi’s. What belongs to the person cannot belong to the Self because the Self is a partless whole. So, the Self cannot be a jiva, but the jiva is the Self. Understand? Like the wave is the ocean but the ocean is not the wave, the pot is clay but the clay is not the pot, the ring is gold but gold is not a ring. These are only apparent contradictions which resolve when the logic of Vedanta is applied to them.
As stated, the Self is not an experiencing entity. It is the witness (sakshi) of the experiencing entity, the person or jiva. The experience of the ‘experiencing you’ is limited by the upadhi through which you experience, i.e. Pier. Therefore, you only know the objects you have contact with. You cannot know what another mind is thinking or feeling, except by inference. You are the only one with a Pier upadhi. As long as you are identified with Pier, you are limited and bound by ‘his’ ignorance. I have a ‘Sundari’ upadhi so I can’t know what you are experiencing, but because my personal ignorance has been removed by Self-knowledge, I do know we are non-different because we are the nondual Self, which is all there is.
Because the mind is conditioned by Maya, duality, most people tend to impose satya (nonduality) onto mithya (duality), which can never work. As long as the so-called individual mind is under the spell of ignorance, it thinks it is separate and has to chase objects to complete itself. When ignorance is removed, you are still limited by your uphadi and cannot know anyone else’s thoughts because moksa does not confer omniscience. This only belongs to Isvara, the creator of the field of existence. So, you no longer see others as separate from you because you know that the essence of all life is the Self, you. The wave dissolves into the ocean, the pot into the clay, the ring into the gold. And you no longer chase objects to complete you.
I hope this answers your question.
Hari Om
Sundari
