Chapter 8

AWAKENING

 

“Jesus Christ knew he was God. So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, they’ll say you’re crazy and you’re blasphemous, and they’ll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing). However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, ‘My goodness, I’ve just discovered that I’m God,’ they’ll laugh and say, ‘Oh, congratulations, at last you found out.”

― Alan Wilson Watts, The Essential Alan Watts

Now let’s look at some of the most widely used terms on the topic of enlightenment. Let’s begin with comparing the meanings of ‘awakening’ in the traditions of Advaita Vedanta and Theravada Buddhism and Neo Advaita.

 

ADVAITA VEDANTA

First of all, the word ‘awakening’ is never used in traditional Vedanta. It is more often used in Buddhism and refers to enlightenment or an aspect of this. It implies ‘awakening out of ignorance’ or having some kind of wakeup call that things are not what they were thought to be. It can mean a lot of things to different people and can cause a lot of confusion.

The word ‘awakening’ often refers to a first glimpse at reality. Usually meaning annatta, no self, or annica, impermance, or dukkha, the cause of suffering.

The problem with an awakening glimpse is that you can’t force it to stick or last. It’s kind of like trying to hold a beach ball under the water; as soon as you let go it pops right back up to the surface.

A sudden awakening can occur spontaneously or serendipitously from a near death experience, stepping off a bus in France or being run over by a truck. A traumatic experience, a walk in the park, or even meditation can do this. Or it can occur while reading a book, exercising, or going to a satsang. It is anything that stops the ‘projector’ from working and thus enabling one to see what is behind the scenes as one’s true nature. When this is realized, even for just a split second, it is like stepping out of time and space and seeing reality for the very first time. It’s like being the man up in the projector room looking down at the audience watching the film, laughing and crying and getting excited by the plot.

There is a major difference between an awakening, or having just one insight, and complete liberation. In the Vedanta tradition, ‘liberation,’ known as moksha, is when one clearly knows one is Brahman. A rough English translation of Brahman would be non-dual awareness; meaning both subject and object. By subject they mean awareness, and by object they mean everything that arises in this awareness

Vedanta states that in true liberation there is no longer any identification with the ego/person, no psychological suffering, no binding with bad habits or negative conditionings (vasanas), and no more fear or desire. But unless you were born pure, like Ramana Maharshi, or you have undertaken certain practices such as those that Adi Shankara[1]put forth—discrimination, dispassion, equanimity, and so on—will you have or gain these fruits? Or if you were born into a nurturing environment, had the right education and good influences from a very early age? Or if you did not suffer any kind of traumatic experiences growing up as a child, but rather were well taken care of and protected from the negative aspects of our society and culture, all its violence, greed and sex on TV, the news, crime, wars, and so on?

Let’s be crystal clear about this: unfortunately most of us were not born saints, but instead we entered this realm with lots of karmic baggage.

TV AND SOCIAL MEDIA

As to the far-reaching influence of television, many are simply addicted to it. Statistics show that by the age of 18 we see an average of 200,000 violent acts on TV. An average child sees about 20,000 television commercials a year. By the age of 65, someone has seen millions of commercials, most of which sell useless and unnecessary products. Many of these advertisements use subliminal advertising to promote greed, lust, and every kind of sensual desire.

In the US, on average, most homes have their television sets on for almost seven hours per day. People watch TV while eating, and some even leave it on while sleeping, utilizing it as a companion of sorts. They see the TV set as a part of the family. They passively sit back on the couch and allow all the media to pollute their mind-streams day after day.

As a result, one becomes desensitized to all the violence after having seen so much of it for so long. A similar thing happens to soldiers serving in war zones for extended periods of time.

We now have the same situation happening with the Internet (social media) and the bombardment of online advertising, whether it be for purchasing products, for dating or sexual pleasures, or for wasting hours and hours of one’s time. The mind pollution of advertising has infiltrated every aspect of our culture, including art, music, film, and dance. There is no escape. So unless you were born and raised in a remote jungle in the Amazon, the odds are your hard drive and software are highly contaminated and heavily programmed to turn you into a compulsive consumer, forever striving to keep up with the Jones’.

Back to the various terms regarding enlightenment, ‘epiphany’ is often used and usually refers to a glimpse of one’s true nature. It is like a metaphor in the sutras, in which there appears a glass of water containing sediments. As long as the glass is undisturbed, the sediments remain at the bottom and the water is clear. As soon as the glass is shaken, the water becomes murky. The same thing happens when a person has an epiphany or awakening experience. One’s delusions are temporarily seen but not completely eliminated. In order to eradicate these impressions, it takes much time and effort. One must watch one’s thoughts, one’s instincts, and one’s reactions. One has to be aware and alert at all times. One has to be empty of all the sediment that is in the way of the mind.

There are different stages of an awakening. These can be ongoing, like a Polaroid picture that develops over time. There is the falling and stripping away of one’s ignorance, one’s beliefs, concepts, views, and opinions, as well as the dissolving of other veils of illusion, psychological crutches, cravings, aversions, and masks.

The most prevailing misunderstanding about an awakening glimpse is that having a glimpse is the equivalent of liberation/moksha or full enlightenment, like realizing anuttara samyak sambodhi (unexcelled perfect enlightenment), like the historical Buddha.  However the Buddha will only occur every 5,000 years or so, or when the dharma, the teachings that show the way to truth, are lost.

VEDANTA

In Vedanta, awakening or realization seems to be more of an expanded sense of self. They term it ‘the Self’ with a capital S, to indicate one’s true nature, also known as Brahman. However, this Self does not expand or blow up like a balloon. They say that this Self encompasses everything already—infinity, timelessness, and boundlessness, as well as all physical and un-manifested matter, all empirical time and all space.

From a traditional Advaita Vedanta perspective, ‘self-realization’ could also be described as an epiphany or metagnosis brought about by the first stage, or sravana, listening to a qualified and competent teacher over a period of time. Then, manana, the second stage, by reflecting on these teachings and following up with questions and the clearing of doubts until an understanding or an insight occurs through which absolutely no doubt remains in the mind.

Vedanta also offers karma yoga, as well as bhakti devotional yoga, or surrendering to a guru.

They offer a third or final stage, and that is nididhyasana, this form of meditation is persistently contemplating on the Self. On awareness, the witness, the observer, at all times, in order to know one is ‘Brahman,’ both as subject- awareness until it is assimilated, integrated, actualized, as well as the object(s), arising in awareness.

Shankara is quite clear (as is the tradition before him) that the ongoing practice, besides simply “abiding (lucidly) as the formless Self of all selves,” is viveka and vairagya, as well as the other wholesome virtues/traits in his six-fold schema, known as sadhana chatushtaya sampatti.

1.shama. Means mind control.

2. dama means having the body under control.

3. uparati is a mind beyond all likes and dislikes.

4. titiksha is having an attitude of forbearance.

5. shraddha is faith in the teachings and teacher.

6. samadhana means having one pointed concentration.

According to Vedanta, after realization some people do fluctuate back and forth between identifying with their ego’s sense of self and their true nature. They essentially forget that they are non-dual awareness due to their conditionings. In most cases, they never attained the proper knowledge in the first place, or a competent teacher did not effectively answer their questions. They were never exposed to the complete teachings in a systematic way, so large gaps remained in their knowledge and understanding. Shankara had 15 exercises to practice this as outlined in his Aparokshanubhuti. [2]

Adi Shankara asks: “How can moksha arise merely by repetition of words without affecting the dissolution of whatever is drsya (cognizable through the senses of perception or through the mind) without knowing the truth of the atman?” (Vivekachudamani verse 65)

Adi Shankara states: “Reflection (manana) is hundred times superior to listening (sravana); meditation (nididhyasana) is hundred times superior to reflection; nirvikalpa samadhi is infinitely superior.”

In Verse 63 of the Vivichchudamai, Adi Shankara says by realizing one’s identity with Brahman, the one without a second in samadhi, one becomes the pure chit, knowledge absolute, and the duality of subject and object vanish altogether. Short of this, ignorance, which is the cause of all evil, is not destroyed.

However, others say that according to Advaita, nirvikalpa samadhi is only a means for obtaining single pointedness of the mind (the samadhana of sadhana chatushtaya sampatti), not a means for knowing brahman. Others also say it’s a waste of time and try to distance themselves from this scripture. Some even say it wasn’t written by Adi Shankara at all. The problem is that if you have never attained nirvikalpa samadhi, you may not know un-manifested Brahman, or pure un-conditioned timeless awareness, awareness without an object in this way. Shankara said - “Reflection, manana, is a hundred times superior to listening, sravana; meditation nididhyasana, is a hundred times superior to reflection; and nirvikalpa samadhi is infinitely superior.”

The reason the above is said to be true is that being it can wipe out all your doubts immediately and irrevocably, so that you can concretely realize you are not just the mind and body.  This is not to say that that nirvikalpa samadhi is absolutely essential for this realization.

More importantly, a major obstacle is not understating karma and karmic imprints (samskaras and vasanas). Not understanding the mind and how it operates—the type of mind one has and the mind-body-breath connection—whether it’s rajasic (too active), or tamasic (too dull and heavy). Ideally, the mind has to be sattvic (bright and clear). One will have a clear mind through various factors such as one’s diet and meditation practice. If you drink cups of coffee all day long and eat sugar and junk food, your mind will be rajasic, and over-stimulating your mind and craving excitement can be destabilizing.

A method for stabilizing your mind/body is through sadhana, (yoga and samadhi practices) and through studying scripture, all of which help to sustain one’s discipline and keep the mind, senses, and breathing in check.

One’s spiritual practice could also include, prayer, meditation, fasting, yoga, celibacy, mantra, yantra, devotion, karma yoga, even diet and nutrition in order to purify one’s bad habits or karma.

Therefore, one really needs to reconsider one’s lifestyle and the type of job one does. In rare instances, one may become stabilized in this perfect awareness permanently and naturally without any effort at all because of one’s karma.

In effect, what we have are two sets of obstacles to overcome, internal and external. The first obstacle is that one’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, instincts, and desires take up one’s attention and focus. Secondly, the external world of appearances (maya) does the same thing, and so you get pulled in from both directions, both inner and outer. Vedanta states that until this is understood, you won’t be able to get out of either of these currents. When one does see this clearly, it’s like looking back at one’s jail cell from across the street. At the stage in which one is crystal clear about this and has had all doubts erased, it’s usually final in the sense that there is no way of turning back because of what is understood. The person clearly sees through the illusion of identifying with the wrong self. One sees through the lie and can’t look at themselves or others the same way ever again. A sublation of who they thought they were takes place.

In some spontaneous cases where this realization happens suddenly, it may result in uncontrollable laughter and joy. On the flip side, if the person is not ready for it, it can create confusion and doubt and a need for more seeking.

According to Vedanta, ‘self-realization’ is knowing what you are at all times and what you are not. If you lose sight of it or need to do some kind of maneuver to get back into it, all it means is that you never clearly understood or knew what it was in the first place. In most cases, it may be that there are too many karmic impressions and conditionings remaining. The mind is still not pure enough or is confused or lacking knowledge. It’s still contaminated with all sorts of habits, views, conditionings, desires, beliefs, aversions, and ignorance. Once a person truly knows that they are non-dual awareness, that they always were this and will always be this, that they were never born nor will they ever die, then there is no losing sight of it. At this point, all ignorance and fear drop away because fear is related to the fear of death. If you are not afraid of death, you are not afraid of anything.

THERAVADA BUDDHISM

In the Theravada Buddhist tradition, experiential understanding and wisdom can bring about an awakening; however, not just by book knowledge. Often it is as a result of ardent practice, discipline, and action, combined with the way one lives. Be it one’s ethical and moral conduct, sila, or one’s practice of samadhi and insight through meditation and following the Noble Eightfold path. There is a definite cause that can lead to awakening taking place.

The Theravada Buddhists put emphasis on moral conduct such as not lying, stealing, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, having sexual relations in any harmful way, as well as not using harsh or unkind speech, or hurting others with vulgar language or humor such as sarcasm and put downs.

The steps of gradual awakening that Theravada Buddhism puts forth are more of a science and skillful means of self-discipline and hard work. The Buddha said being lazy isn’t going to get you anywhere and is one of the hindrances to overcome. If you follow certain guidelines, an insight will eventually take place.

True liberation in Theravada Buddhism means you are liberated from your addictions, your bad habits, your fetters, desires, aversions, delusions, and karma. You are liberated from having to be reborn. You won’t have to keep going through this birth-and-death cycle. It’s not about simply saying you are non-dual awareness or have no sense of self, which still indicates delusion because anyone can utter these words. The challenge is to live it, day-to-day, moment-to-moment, year-after-year. That’s the main difference.

However, the Buddha also said repeatedly that samadhi/jhana alone is not enough to destroy the defilements, that all meditation experiences are in fact temporary and conditioned. The Buddha said that the key to liberation is to break the link in this chain below and keep practicing this every single day.  As things arise, you witness and don’t react. This is a continual practice. You do this over and over; not reacting to sensations or feelings in the body as they arise, but rather just observing them until they fall away or no longer bind.

Chain of Dependent Origin

·        Dependent on ignorance, volitional formations arise. The Buddha said that conjecture about the origin, etc., of the world is considered an imponderable and can lead to confusion, but on a practical day to day basis, we can put the theory of dependent origination into our meditation practice.

·        Dependent on volitional formations, consciousness arises. The way this works is that dependent on ignorance, volitional formations arise. If we can look at it this way, our day to day reality, because of our ignorance, unawareness, we act on our conditionings, or imprints, seeds that are implanted in the subconscious mind stream.

·        Dependent on consciousness, mind-body arise. With consciousness we become aware of our physical bodies and thoughts. 

·        Dependent on mind-body, the six senses arise.  The four aggregates of feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness arise.

·        Dependent on the six senses, contact arises. Sight, sound, touch, hearing, smelling and mind, contact arises.

·        Dependent on contact, sensation arises. Feeling arises; feelings are of three types; pleasant, painful and neutral feelings. It is through these feelings that our past karmas work themselves out and bear their fruit.

·        Dependent on sensation craving and aversion arise. This is the point where new karma and rebirth is created. This is also the gap or place where we can break the chain so that no more rebirth is created and liberation is attained.  Instead of giving in to craving, contemplate on this craving as it arises and passes away. If we are able to continually let go, not to succumb to these cravings, over time they will disappear and the fetters will be broken.

·        Dependent on craving and aversion, clinging arises. There are four types of clinging: (a) Clinging to sense pleasures, (b) Clinging to views, theories and beliefs, (c) Clinging to rituals, rules and observances, (d) Clinging to the notion of a self within the five aggregates.

·        Dependent on clinging, the process of becoming arises. Rebirth arises; with clinging we create more karma.

·        Dependent on the process of becoming, birth arises, with new created karma the cycle of rebirth continues. Dependent on birth, aging, and death arise, together with sorrow, lamentation, and physical and mental sufferings and tribulations.

Our present consciousness is a continuum of our past lives and will also be present in the future rebirths, but this can be brought to an end with the cessation of ignorance, volitional formations, sankharas come to an end. With no more formations comes the cessation of consciousness. With the cessation of consciousness there is no mentality-materiality; with the cessation of mentality-materiality there are no more sense faculties, no more contact, no more feeling.

When there is no feeling, there is no more craving and clinging, no more accumulation of karma, no birth; with the end of birth there is no more ageing and death. That is the cessation of suffering and nirvana. So what we have to do to prevent feeling from leading to craving is to be mindful and clearly aware of the thoughts and feelings that arise and not to cling to them or act out on them. If we lack mindfulness when pleasant or unpleasant feelings arise, it leads to craving or aversion and keeps the cycle continuing. For example, if we examine our consciousness, a thought may arise when a physical or a mental object enters the mind. It sees the object and the sense door consciousness is activated. Then this arises and passes away. Then the object is seen but not known as to what it is, then it is known, registered.  Then investigated some more. Then discrimination takes place.  Then it’s judged, at this point an action or decision takes place. This is the place or time when you have to make the right decision, or take the right action and it is the part that creates the karma through intention.

EXPERIENCES

As far as awakening experiences, many philosophers, intellectuals, rationalists, linguists, and scientists assert that what can be experienced can also be explained. Logically they have a strong argument, but they overlook the fact that some experiences, especially in deep meditation, defy explanation and have little to do with logic. There are countless everyday experiences that cannot be articulated. For example, until a child puts his hand in a fire, he will not understand what being burned is, a blind person will not be able to imagine the color Prussian blue, and a deaf person will not recognize a Flamenco guitar.

Experience, being subjective, is constantly prone to interpretation. If you speak Russian to someone who speaks Japanese, there will be confusion. In order for someone to understand another’s experience, they would have to have the identical or similar experience.

Some schools use terms like ‘Buddha nature’ or the ‘ground of being’ instead of the Self with a capital S. For example, you can call it atta (self) or anatta (non-self), but in either case there will always be an awareness of this anatta-non-self. You can say that you are not the five aggregates, which are the physical form, perception, sensation, the mental formations of thoughts and ideas, and feelings.

So what is it that knows that you are not this? One has to investigate exactly why this is. But again it’s like the two sides of the same coin. In all of these schools there is no ‘personal self’ or identification with the mind/body complex. As far as a ‘self’ (atta), it’s not looked at the same way in Theravada Buddhism. One doesn’t identify with anything as being the ‘Self,’ so there isn’t anything to clutch onto for one’s identity.

In Buddhism there are all sorts of epiphanies one can have such as in depth insight into dependent origination, karma, and so on. You may not be able to see un-manifested awareness without attributes (as in Vedanta), but you can know it and understand it.

What you know and what you can convey concerning non-conceptual awareness can be problematic because it’s not an object that you can see or feel with your senses.

ATMA AND ANATTA

Vedanta says the reason for this is that it’s the only subject, and this subject cannot be objectified in any way, shape, or form. In a way it’s like looking at optical art or surrealist paintings such as the magic mirrors of M.C Escher. Suddenly a visual shift takes place. This happens when drawing or making artwork. Your brain switches from left mode to right mode. It’s subtle like this. One minute you don’t see it and then suddenly it’s crystal clear. It’s like looking at the form as well as the space between and around the form; like painting the gaps between one’s fingers. It’s so subtle and simple, natural and ordinary, that it can be easily missed or overlooked. Like looking for your eyeglasses when they’re on your head, meanwhile you never took them off. You just thought you did so you turn your house upside down looking for them

Theravada Buddhism says there is no atma, (in Sanskrit this means self or person), nor is there anything to identify with. Some will say that even ideas or concepts like Brahman or an infinite God, could be seen as a self. Even this is negated. Nothing is left to grasp onto at all. In the end, even views, opinions, and beliefs have to be abandoned. Let go of anything that will keep one grasping or that prop up a sense of self.

Can anyone be taught how to get to this place, to have this kind of insight or experience? It’s not a place, but yes, it has been successfully taught for thousands of years. One way is through various stages of meditation where you can get to directly see and know this for yourself. Most types of meditations will never take you there because it’s not the right type of one-pointed concentration that will lead to samadhi. What you go through is a process of ‘jnana neti neti,’ not this-not this, as you go through the various layers, beginning with the physical body. Neti neti is the pathway of negation. Vedanta says there is a positive affirmation that comes with the realization that one is not the mind/body complex and that awareness is non-dual. In other words, it’s everything, all matter and no matter, manifested and un-manifested. This final equation is known as ‘Om.’

In Jhana meditation, stage one of Theravada meditation, there are blissful feelings, sensations, and more subtle objects like thoughts and investigation—a one-pointed mind. In stage two, there are no thoughts or anything else arising, except factors such as rapture and happiness. Then in stage three, the rapture tapers off, and there is just happiness and a one-pointed mind. In stage four, all of the happiness falls away, and there is just equanimity and a one-pointed mind. In essence you see that you are not what you always thought you were, or the five aggregates.  Then there are more stages after this.

Many traditions in the past have attempted to set up schools or religious institutions to bring on awakening. In some ways, it could be described as artificially striking someone with lightning. History shows that a number of them were successful.

The Zen, Chan, and Tibetan monks were masters at this, and they turned it into an art form. They created the perfect conditions and the monastic environment for awakening to take place. Yet even under these perfect circumstances, it didn’t always work. Trying to do this on one’s own, outside of these traditions, is not so easy because of the many distractions and dangers that can arise.

Even if one has a glimpse of awakening, there is no guarantee the ego, meaning the conditionings and everything else, will not boomerang or seep back in again as a brand new awakened reincarnation. This is one of the key dangers in all of this; it is so easy to become self-delusional and not see one’s blind spots, or to become inflated and get sidetracked with other things that may arise during the process. This is where a person with experience (a spiritual friend) may be helpful, someone who has been through the process, made all the mistakes, and can see through all the pitfalls and illusions.

Awakening can also happen effortlessly, like walking in one door and out the other without any kind of painful earth-shattering or frightening experience. Or it can happen gradually and almost unnoticeably. At times, it is only recognized later and integrated over time. There are no rules as to how one can awaken; however, it’s much better if you walk into a rainy mist rather than a downpour of rain where you will get drenched or washed away by the flood, because most people are not ready for the downpour.

Awakening can be pointed to in many ways. It is not always an experience, and it’s also not just about having experiences or waiting around for these insights to occur, because that may never happen. Vedanta says that the ‘words’ give you a direct path to the knowledge, for instance those in the Upanishads.

The Buddha said it happens in four ways:

1. With samadhi and reflecting on this.

2. With insight alone.

3. Or with both insight and samadhi.

4. Or because the mind experiences agitation.

NEO ADVAITA

Neo Advaita more or less has no practice, but they do have ‘non dual pointing,’ mostly given in a satsang.  You can also purchase private pointing on skype video or the telephone usually for a fee. Satsang is used by many Neo Advaita seekers, some times as a form of recreation or live entertainment.

Continue to Part 9