Spirit=Spiritus=Breath... I am, frankly, astounded that no one has drawn the obvious parallel between Spirit and Prana. I waited to bring it to the forefront because I have gone on record as being a practitioner of Kriya Yoga and also, Chan/Seon/Zen Buddhist methods such as watching one's breath. Breathing is so vitally key to existence. For without it we would not exist physically. Our hearts would not beat and our minds would not think. I don't mean to get too literal about words... this thread has engendered some controversy about spoken labels, specificity of meaning or understanding and our preferred, particular names for things (or non-things for that matter). But I often wonder if the ancient Greek mystics used this one for a very, very, very specific reason.
And while I myself, do sincerely believe that whatever we choose to call that enigmatic aspect of universal being, Spirit, Atman, Anatman... is it not ultimately, That which sees through all of our eyes, DEEP DOWN INSIDE, is also the eternal witness to the mirage? It does not judge, it does not think, it does not reason, it does not dream. It simply exists. And when all else is thrown into the conceptual garbage bin, this alone remains intact. What then is it? Is it an awareness, as we understand awareness? What is it conscious of? I honestly don't know, for I am not able to simultaneously focus on this central point of Omni-awareness and treat it as an object of my attention, as I must be divided from it to see it subjectively.
Like Baba Ram Dass said so clearly,
"You can't prove the existence of God or even describe God, but you can be it." Hence, the "Self" referred to by Self Realization, would reverse translate as Atman. And I cannot see arguing with Sri Ramana Maharshi, over semantics. Both he and IMO, his wisest student, Sri Papaji proposed the notion that there is no past, no future, nothing but the now. He is famous for his one-liner,
"It never happened"
But somewhere in the tangle of all of these human ideas about the nature of reality... we gather our ideas in a basket and skip along down the Path, along the Great Way. One needs an ego to navigate one foot in front of the other and so,we lean to balance our immersions with our day-today existence as ordinary mortal beings. But this doesn't mean that the whole mind-shattering vision is left behind and we re-enter our worldly life and dismiss the peak experience. WE have begun to change the way we see everything. We approach each moment as an opportunity to open up a little more,each interaction a method for deeper understanding. And we become more and more keenly attuned to our breath.
But we have all been there, or rather, we are still HERE. We know that this is something profound but when in the mystical state, mystical trance, mystical eclipsing... or our transient ego willingly, consciously and intentionally joining through direct immersion, the everlasting insubstanciality... we are not exactly here anymore, as an
I, possessing a fixed sentient belief system. Still, an awareness glances through our earth-born eyes and does not seem to be caught in the illusory realm of mind. I say "seem" because the I that watches through me, is still ego, and conscious-awareness does appears to I as limitlessness.
So, while I truly can appreciate the idea that Atman is eternal and indivisible. You know, the whole,
"I am that I am", Deity trip. But we are stepping onto thin ice when we get too heady in our assessments. But I myself have always kinda felt both mind-sets were viable ways of piercing into a mystical state. And whether everything, including any Divinized traces of everlasting ego-soul-self, is a dream or not is existentially irrelevant. We have to experience Nirvana for ourselves, directly.
This discussion is beginning to remind me of a slim book I read in 1983, by 'Abdu'l-Bahá (son of Bahá'u'lláh, who founded the Bahá'í Faith in 19th century Persia [present day Iran]). An unusually devout man, he spent over 100+ pages trying to prove that Sufism is incorrect and Bahá'í is correct. He was responding to statements by Pir O'-Murshid Hazarat Inayat Khan (head of the Sufi Order in the West).
I won't bore you all with the details of the booklet but he felt that proclaiming that Allah is 100% present within all states and stages of apparent reality was not really true. He believed immanence was a fallacy and a delusional lie. That only through complete transcendence of the mortal paradigm, can mankind know God directly. Silly debate, really. If truth is really truth, it would apply to all aspects of being and non-being (inclusive). Not just be a partial truth, as the notion that nothing material, mental or substantial is even an authentic experience. Should not THE TRUTH, which must equally exists within every single paradigm of the All-in-All? Even the allegory I earlier raised about the infinite stack of pan cakes, each of reality unit itself, towering taller than any man-made skyscraper. I suspect that the living and breathing, yet sequentially undying, Spirit... is flowing throughout all levels and planes of this dreamscape of our co-creation, equally and playfully.
Reminds me of a verse from a great song by the 1970s British progressive rock band,
Yes. It 's within only of the choruses from the tune Fragile:
"To Look around, to look around. Yes, He is here; Yes, He is here."
Perhaps this is also a way of saying,
"All is One"? So, when we say, ALL... the material plane is also The One and therefore, most Sacred. Thought on this idea? Can an unadulterated awareness be maintained while tip toeing down the road of sentient, sequential life? And since awareness always exists on it's own terms, the notion of an everlasting Soul or everlasting awareness within (whatever you want to name it), is Soul then impermanent? Yes and no, I suppose.
Atman exists beyond ego because it is the filmiest of membranes from the Clear Light of the Void. And so are we, in our core essence, light. But also, what illusion is not wholly of Divine Mind, as God is becoming everything and every possibility, immanent and equally transcendent to any permanency of form. The trail is in the freely flowing play of consciousness. the flow of one's breath. The flow reveals the presence and all is interlinked seamlessly to the current. It's all the same force, it exists here on earth and it's all a singularity of being, despite the appearances of multiplicity. All is surely One.
Any thoughts, comments or rebuttals on these musings?
