Gita Down: Visada Yoga of Despair, The Door to Grace

There are currently six billion possible interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita; here’s one concerning Chapter One. Arjuna takes a new perspective.

The battle between good and evil is about to begin, and Arjuna, who literally has God, aka Krishna, on his side, decides to move into the middle of the battlefield to take a look at his enemy.

And from this new point of view, his world is shattered. He sees the brotherhood of humanity, literally. There, within the evil forces of Dhritarashtra, he sees family and friends. The world is not as black and white as he believed.

And in a moment of despair, he drops his weapon and sits right down, not out of some philosophy of non-violence as Gandhi is quick to point out in his commentary on the Gita, and not out of some misguided morality as others have understood, but from the shock of one who has suddenly seen the falsehood of belief and thus the madness of this world.

It is exactly a similar moment of despair that brought Siddhartha Gautama to his quest for Buddhahood.

For some, these moments are epiphanies that play out for years. Adyashanti talks about his experience as a child when he realized the grownups around him actually believed their own lies. It led to years of Zen meditation before his awakening. Or this moment may be a sudden realization as Eckhart Tolle has related when he sees through the duality of his suicidal anguish.

It is the Dark Night of the Soul or maybe Disturbing Years of Twilight. But this suffering and despair is indeed a yoga that brings us toward the necessary questioning of what the world is, and more importantly, who I am. And, in turn, the grace of God, Krishna, Consciousness, What I Am, will reveal nothing but the truth.

The fact that Arjuna sits down is not a fluke. It’s not some weakness on his behalf. Yes, there’s attachment and yes, there’s rationalization, and yes, yes, yes, there’s deep dark confusion. It all comes from the human response to a sudden realization something’s rotten in Kurukshetra.

And without such a moment, Krishna doesn’t have his say.

My Three Nisargadattas

1. Reading

Reading Nisargadatta can be confusing for the novice. I know because I’ve been there. It sometimes appears he is advising contradictory practices. In a way, he is. Although it is true he is always Consciousness speaking to Consciousness, he is also speaking about various aspects of one state, and instructing practices toward each.

And in his talks, Nisargadatta is speaking to a spectrum of participants and communicating to each in the manner of their current understanding. So one’s own understanding will not necessarily be similar to the understanding receiving the instructions he is giving. Don’t be concerned with that though.

Nisargadatta’s talks are not directed toward the person. They are directed toward Being. Leave the intellect out of the way. What is intended to be understood in the current moment will be understood. Upon subsequent readings, other understanding will be revealed. Each reading is a new experience.

2. Wisdom

However, a simple guideline to Nisargadatta’s wisdom will be useful. Here, in what may be the simplest, clearest, most comprehensive assertion of spiritual metaphysics I’ve ever seen, he speaks of the three ways of naming the one state:

In reality there is only one state; when distorted by self-identification it is called a person, when colored with the sense of being, it is the witness; when colorless and limitless, it is called the Supreme. [bold formatting is mine]

One could do no worse than read that one sentence once a day ad infinitum. For in effect, Nisargadatta’s Way addresses these three aspects in a spectrum of various approaches.

As an aside and a note of comparison, in Christian terminology, these would be known as the sinner (to whom God the Holy Spirit descends), God the Son (or Christ Consciousness), and God the Father. Also, Nisargadatta often refers to the Supreme as Pure Awareness, which is reflected (colored) in phenomena as Consciousness.

3. Practice

For that which is called a person, he advises: “No effort can take you there, only the clarity of understanding. Trace your misunderstandings and abandon them, that is all.” In other words, deconstruct the person; this could be called the work of the spiritual warrior. From the state of pure being like a newborn, one has been domesticated, or socially conditioned, into a person. One has identified with various thoughts which have been delivered to you by parents, relatives, teachers, and friends, with which you, as pure being, have agreed to. It is the role of the spiritual warrior or seeker, to trace these misunderstandings and abandon them, letting them drop away in the light of understanding. In doing so, one loses the human form, revealing one’s Being.

For that which is called Being or the witness, Nisargadatta advises: “There is nothing to seek and find, for there is nothing lost. Relax and watch the 'I am'. Reality is just behind it.” In a similar instruction, he says:

There is awareness [i.e The Supreme] in every state of consciousness [i.e Being, Witness]. Therefore the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness.

In other words, being conscious of being conscious is in itself the heartfelt way to reality.

As for the Supreme, he advises: “Keep quiet, keep silent; it will emerge, or, rather, it will take you in.” Similarly, he has said: “The only way of knowing it is to be it. The mind cannot reach it. To perceive it does not need the senses; to know it, does not need the mind.” Here we arrive at the absolute instruction, the one for which there is no one to receive. Therefore, for most, it will only be valuable as a pointer to some distant space or time. It is as if Nisargadatta is pointing to that time before the Big Bang, to that space of no space: here and now.

If one were to create a timeline to these instructions, it would be:

1.      Trace misunderstandings and abandon them; deconstruct the person, lose the human form.

2.      As no person, without attachment or identification with thought, be conscious of being conscious, watch the I Am.

3.      In Being, keep silent; there is nothing further you can do; the Absolute will take you in.

But they are not a timeline, and will often be practiced simultaneously in some fashion: deconstruct thought; meditate being; be silent—be That.

A Story of Reality

In essence, this is the story: God the Child (the One, Universal Consciousness) has fallen asleep, descending from Light to molecular matter. And in its earthly stirrings, in the early grips of that groggy aumnesia that comes from an abrupt waking into human nodes of self-awareness, this Unified Network of Consciousness identifies with each seemingly separate node and "each" usurps the Absolute Subjectivity of the Unknown, God the Parent. It isn’t and so it suffers accordingly. WAKE UP! This is your yogi calling, the satguru, the Holy Spirit.

the god sutra sonnet

you are the crown of creation; all this so-called evolution has dreamed you up for what?

the body has ten thousand (& that number is used the ancient chinese way) quintessential galaxies within its universe within the parabrahman.

in other words, you ain't the body except the body likes to think it is, because it does, wouldn't you, if you were the body?

seriously. the body-mind tries to usurp (thank you ramesh) the ultimate subjectivity but it always fails, then tries again, and always fails.

and this is why surrender is the ultimate act of any spirituality, beyond any beginner's practice of energy or silence or that in-between.

so holistically it's known there absolutely is no you; so how could you do anything? in fact, anything you do is refutation of that holistic.

this is 'resting in awareness;' it's surrender to what is; don't get caught in all the language; just see the seeing; seeing will see.

here's the religious rub. consciousness is the mirror reflecting an absolute. so one thinks if one polishes the mirror, one will see clearly.

and here's where all the yogas come into play, whether they be dietary or moralistic, attempting to clear that mirror, bless them all.

but here's the ultimate rub. only consciousness clears itself. so drop all yogas; drop body-mind. consciousness will do what it needs to do.

but ultimately, one needs to follow one's bliss, whatever that may be. as Nisargadatta Maharaj was wont to say: earnestness is everything!

to be more precise, one WILL follow one's bliss. for it is the destiny of awareness to be aware. and being aware is, you guessed it, bliss.

it's not as if there's some soul within you; there's just you hidden by the thought there's some soul within you.

please! this is not some atheistic lazy bs. it's not that i don't believe in god; i'm just god who doesn't believe in me.

zero whacks one sonnet

sunlight rising from its bed to greet itself—

smoke gets in the I.

fourteen billion years and they put you on the daze shift.

when lost in doubt, try and look

to love, compassion, and forgiveness for true north.

how separate is the living body from surrounding air—

you can pick your god but not your knowing.

i have no opinion about any of my many opinions.

a good joke is a form of neti neti—

zero whacks one that breaks in two:

unknown but not unbelievable.

like a fly a compound i,

10000 spy one hue and cry—

dropout of memory and attend now.

the fire-bird sonnet

embodiment is not thoughtlessness;

one wakes from the dream to be in the dream—

no matter, what happens.

in the practice of detachment,

religions are formed around attachment to practice.

trees dropping off leaves—

bare tree awareness!

a working class zero is something to be.

look for the one with the sun in her eyes and she's gone—

reflection, illumination, dark mother of light.

the ball keeps bouncing; after inward comes outward—

going crackers: in the soup but not of the soup.

the phoenix rises from the ashes of self-destruction;

the fire-bird flies on the fuel of pure reality.

one sonnet to real them all

after hacking through the weeds, rest in the clearing.

after weeding through the hacks, clear in the rest.

the inarguable that one reaches after all the argument negates the arguable.

not nothing to do, but nothing ever did. accept that and be done.

the devil is in the details and the details are in time.

truth will not be realized tomorrow.

the revolution will not be memorized.

the crucifixion is self-inquiry; the death is resting in the peace of awareness; the resurrection is the embodiment of the absolute. amen.

it's all so sri-real!

all one: mirror reflection & presence.

all one: energy intelligence & existence.

all one: bliss consciousness & being.

all one: universe wisdom & god.

—watching the shimmering river flow.

arising sonnet

it's never too late to know you're full of shit and evacuate yourself.

taking things personally is the meaning of life for any person.

ego is the master deceiver; abandon all hope ye who divine it.

feel the i of this manifested storm lost in the wind of the me.

who knows what love lurks in the dreams of men and women? only the heart knows!

first, pay attention. then, pay attention to attention.

be beyond the box that's thinking outside the box which is just another box inside the same old box.

feel the affectionate foundation of that universal presence and let it build one’s house of dawn each day.

peaceful self-intelligent energy arising out of pure potentiality of the big unknown once had a great notion to jump in the river and drown.

don't think, be aware of being aware, be; it's not rocket science!

not taking the personal personal and resting in that which has always been being.

we interrupt this dream to say there are no interruptions in this dream that can be said.

ego is the antichrist; the workaday world is the antilove; the second coming is your awakening; the final judgment is now; arise!

only this: only now is alive; only play is work; only love is purpose. and only resting in peace is the way which that manifests this.

Nisargadatta On a Living

Q: To live, one must look after oneself, one must earn money for oneself.

M: You need not earn for yourself, but you may have to—for a woman and a child. You may have to keep on working for the sake of others. Even just to keep alive can be a sacrifice. There is no need whatsoever to be selfish. Discard every self-seeking motive as soon as it is seen and you need not search for truth; truth will find you.

Q: There is a minimum of needs.

M: Were they not supplied since you were conceived? Give up the bondage of self-concern and be what you are—intelligence and love in action.

Q: But one must survive!

M: You can't help surviving! The real you is timeless and beyond birth and death. And the body will survive as long as it is needed. It is not important that it should live long. A full life is better than a long life.

*****

M: Abandon all self-concern, worry not about your welfare, material or spiritual, abandon every desire, gross or subtle, stop thinking of achievement of any kind. You are complete here and now, you need absolutely nothing.

It does not mean that you must be brainless and foolhardy, improvident or indifferent; only the basic anxiety for oneself must go. You need some food, clothing and shelter for you and yours, but this will not create problems as long as greed is not taken for a need. Live in tune with things as they are and not as they are imagined.

Reality is what makes the present so vital, so different from the past and future, which are merely mental. If you need time to achieve something, it must be false. The real is always with you; you need not wait to be what you are. Only you must not allow your mind to go out of yourself in search. When you want something, ask yourself: do I really need it? and if the answer is no, then just drop it.

Life is worthy of the name only when it reflects Reality in action. No university will teach you how to live so that when the time of dying comes, you can say: I lived well I do not need to live again. Most of us die wishing we could live again. So many mistakes committed, so much left undone. Most of the people vegetate, but do not live. They merely gather experience and enrich their memory. But experience is the denial of Reality, which is neither sensory nor conceptual, neither of the body, nor of the mind, though it includes and transcends both.