"Plain Words" – 2

                                                                                            Nome, disciple of Sri Ramana

Getting back to the issue of counting, comparison can be loosely made to the old movie the "The Matrix".  One particular aspect of the movie is the high level of programming required to run the VR, Virtual Reality that allows such realistic interaction between the many Avatars, the program tokens representing the point of view of each person sharing in the experience of that Virtual Reality.  When person no.1 does x, person no.2 must be ready to react in a manner consistent with the chosen interaction x.  With many Avatars interacting with many others. all making a number of choices every second or so, the programming has to be very robust to cover all the possibilities.

The ancient sage, Sri Shankara offered as a simple analogy a large earthen vessel with a lamp inside.  Many holes were fashioned through the walls of the vessel so that the light would shine out in many places.  These many holes were to be analogous to the many points of view in Consciousness that seem to be the many Individuals. Yet only one Light, one Consciousness, illumines all. So too, the many computer Avatars in the movie VR are only newly constructed points of view within one master computer program that projects the highly interactive Virtual Reality.  In that Virtual Reality, the many Avatars are not really many Individuals. Nor is the particular computer Avatar, that one identifies as oneself, an Individual either.

So, are there actually many Avatars, are there actually many Individuals in the Waking state, or is there only one Consciousness ?  Furthermore, whether in a supposedly computer program within a movie or, or within the Waking State Dream, the number of enlightened, however few, and the unenlightened, however many, all total to Zero in terms of individuals, and to One in terms of Consciousness.  Computer Avatars and apparent Individuals are fleeting and insubstantial, ever-changing, impermanent, and truly unreal throughout the whole time or lifetime of their appearance.  What is program code ?  What is a Thought–constructed Waking Dream ?  All these are insubstantial, ever changing, appearances without substance.  Consciousness, also Existence – Bliss, is the only changeless, enduring, and truly substantial Reality.

To find and merge in the one self, God, is the sole purpose and meaning of apparent Life.  In the Eternity of the forever Un–born with no beginning in Time, and forever enduring in an Infinite future, each momentary, indefinable, insubstantial thought amounts to nothing.  All these nothings put together seem to constitute the periodic episodes of the Waking Dream life.  And yet the same Self is also aware of the succession of Dreams in sleep and the no–thought Peace of Deep Dreamless Sleep.  Spiritual practice then, to repeat, is to discover and merge in the true Self, God, the sole Non-Dual Reality.  Of the several traditions helpful in this endeavor, Ajata Vata Advaita Vedanta, No–Birth Non-Duality is the tradition represented here, a tradition old and vast in resources, perhaps the widest path to Liberation.

[The above themes & 1600 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com ]