Download PDF - Stillness Speaks

time when it was appropriate? Greed, ambition, power, pride, lust, jealousy,possessiveness, avarice, acquisitiveness - the mind is a cornucopia ofunworthy values we take for real and pursue with intensity. Yet none last.The Self alone endures, the only reality.THE CORRECT VIEW OF EMPTINESSAn object that can’t stand alone or can be resolved into anotherobject or the Self on analysis should be considered “not-self” andtherefore unreal. 42 The physical body can be resolved into its constituentelements: air, fire, water, earth. Therefore it is unreal. Are the elementsreality? Only with reference to the body. The elements can be resolved intosmaller units; let’s say atoms. As we go down and down, more and morespace, the fifth "element," appears between the units until they dissolve intonothingness. Now only space and the Self remain. Since space is notconscious and depends on Awareness it can be resolved into Awareness. 43Can awareness be resolved? Does it depend on anything other than itself? Isit known by anything other than itself? As the Self, the Knower, you areunresolvable, irreducible.Time is apparent. As we increase the units from naoseconds tomilliseconds to seconds and on up to years, centuries, ages, etc. the spacebetween the units increases until time eventually runs out and only space,which on analysis turns out to be nothing more than a concept, remains.Space is a concept because it depends on the conscious being experiencing it.The view of it by a person walking from New York to San Francisco is quitedifferent from that of an air traveler flying from New York to San Francisco.Concepts can be further reduced to mind and mind to Consciousness.Consciousness is not reducible because before you know of the existence ofan object you have to be there as consciousness. Even to speak of objectsthat one doesn’t know or objects which are known to exist independent of anindividual’s experience implies Consciousness. There is no one or no thing42 Unreal or apparent doesn’t mean that an object isn’t experienciable, simply that it doesn’t last - or that itdepends on something else. The famous Upanishadic statement “Brahma satyam jagan mithya” is oftentranslated “The Self is real, the world unreal.” But because we tend to think that experience is real andtherefore might be inclined to question Vedanta’s contention that experience is not real, it might be better totranslate “mithya” as “apparent,” a less provactive term. Brahma satyan jagan mithya means “The limitlessSelf is real, the world is apparent.43 Space depends on awareness in that without awareness we have no knowledge of space. Awareness,however, doe not depend on space because space is insentient. Awareness is self-aware i.e. it needs to otherlight to illumine it.32