Experiencing Brahman

Experiencing Brahman

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi spoke of how dynamism is afraid of silence and silence is afraid of dynamism. The first we may experience in the approach to awakening when the lively mind is afraid of the empty, silent “void”. If we’re not clear enough, it’s not recognized as ourselves but rather an opposite.

Once Self Realization is established that deep inner silence can be nervous about dynamism or liveliness. It wants to stay above the world. Yet moving back in is the flowering of the next stage. By the peak of Unity, there is no separate silence, just values of infinite alert liveliness. Silence and dynamism have merged as two aspects of one consciousness.

Come the Brahman shift, we again find the lively alertness dubious of the nothingness of Brahman. As before, at some point, we surrender into it. Soon, we again find the liveliness swelling, then unfolding into pure Divinity.

While some use the word “Brahman” for any transcendent experience beyond thought, it really should be reserved for that which is beyond consciousness.

As we are it (in the broadest sense of those words), we can have ‘tastes’ of Brahman long before awakening. However, because it is beyond the dynamics of consciousness, it is without content and is thus only there as a blank spot. It can’t be said to be experienced because experience takes the dynamics of consciousness. When consciousness is still foggy, Brahman is much the same as settling down into the quiet depths of still consciousness.

As a result, it’s premature to call a gap in experience Brahman. That would be a little like calling fog “sky”.

While I don’t recall this happening here, people may have a taste of Brahman itself long before the stage. However, a clear taste of absolute nothing is terrifying if we don’t know who we are. Much smoother to step through those stages of unfolding and come to it from a deeper place.

Thus, it is normal to first both:
– discover who you are at depth
– gradually refine the vehicle or vessel for clarity

Then we’re in a place where even the nothing of Brahman can be known without fear, beyond the veil of consciousness.

When we become absolutely nothing (recognize we always were), we can once again become everything. Brahman becomes the platform for unfolding to pure Divinity.

Of course, words like “nothing” and “everything” are inadequate to describe what is beyond anything. 🙂
Davidya

Last Updated on December 18, 2016 by Davidya

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15 Comments

  1. Jim

    Hi David, yes, well said – On the spiritual journey to Brahman, it is best not to hold onto anything, and allow the magic of daily life present us with the means to have all our dreams come true.

    We are offered so many opportunities on the path, many beyond our ability to earlier comprehend, but it is absolutely necessary to ask ourselves at each point, “Is this my true identity?”.

    If the question can still be asked, with further transcendence necessary, the journey is not complete. It can be tempting though, to shore up such perceptions, when partially to the goal (Brahman), by owning them and using them as a means for self-justification; ego stories.

    Brahman only knows Brahman as you have said, so when there is no longer a need to ask the question, “Who Am I?”, the transcending is done (tc, cc, gc, uc) and we have arrived at a solid foundation of consciousness, for further refinement and discovery.

    1. Hi Jim

      Yes, also well put. It’s not so uncommon to feel beyond the ego, then get caught by it again further along. While there was some validity to the first impression, there is a series of surrendering to the layers of attachment.

      Also, as you mention, by simply living life, we wind down the habits of being that no longer serve us and open to deeper values that can then flower through us.

      1. Amaryllis

        “Also, as you mention, by simply living life, we wind down the habits of being that no longer serve us and open to deeper values that can then flower through us.”

        Beautiful! Clear!

  2. Jim

    Yes, there is a lot said about the ‘me’, the personality not changing as we awaken. And perhaps it doesn’t, as the fundamental values we have remain consistent. But they become purer, and with no resistance, easier to express in daily life.

    So, as the notion of resistance becomes increasingly foreign, this opens another doorway, into the Divine. We begin to embody Divinity, with the personality to match.

    Not a mood, but a natural progression, playing out the mission that has been set, achieving life’s goal; our birthright as humans; Brahman and Para-Brahman; Divinity.

    Quite a glorious time, the heavens rejoice.:-)

    Thanks, as always, David, for bringing the Veda into daily life, and expressing these precise perspectives on the spiritual expansion we all experience. A pure joy.

    1. Hi Jim
      I’ve seen it vary. For many, the person stays more or less the same. Just less and less prone to drama. Purer, as you put it.

      But some people do a lot more role-playing or hold a fake persona that will collapse over time. I know a compulsive liar where that fell away after they woke up.

      But yes, agree very much otherwise. You are more than welcome.

  3. Jim

    Hi Amaryllis, you are most welcome. Yes, these portals are hidden from an ordinary mind, but become available with purification. As one example, I have developed quite an ability to do energy healing over the years, but had no idea about this ‘talent’ until my mind was clear enough and still enough to notice.

    1. Right, Jim. Sometimes we can become aware of gifts but find them hard to access. But with purification, the fog lifts, the channels open.

      I’ve found we tend to discover new ones when life brings opportunities. Then they surface.

      1. Amaryllis

        Hearing you both talk, I am imagining our world at a time in its evolution, where ‘our birthright’ unfolds as naturally as breathing, and all of this wading-through-concrete (which is how it feels sometimes!) is a stage in human development that doesn’t happen any more…

        It seems that suffering is not *necessary* for development, but arises because resistance is woven into the fabric of our culture (I am not talking about, for e.g., not feeling searing pain when a loved one dies; I think that will also be part of the human experience).

        Anyway, love to both of you for your healing words, which I am receiving joyfully

        1. Hi Amaryllis
          Yes – no wading-in-concrete during a full golden age. Clarity is high and full unfolding is normal.

          Aversion is a natural response but not always appropriate. So suffering can still arise, but it is vastly more rare and we much more easily recognize the issue and learn. Then we don’t fall back into that again. Kind of a teen phase thing.

          Pain can arise but is much more easily healed. The pain of a loved one’s death, for example, has appropriate understanding, like that they don’t really die. Still grief of departure to be processed but not oppressively.

          Dark emotions are entirely unfamiliar. This is one the things that accelerates the decent in consciousness – when they start to arise, people get more caught in the unfamiliar…

  4. Wayne kernodle

    Hi, Davidya.

    The idea that Brahman is empty or that CC is empty and the process of how this becomes something is quite an extreme process. Meaning that when Brahman is gained it is like gaining a vast ocean one can set in for hours, and when one is ready to evolve to Gc, it has become small like a shallow pond. The honesty one needs is great to admit one has nothing. That one can make suffering for oneself still is important, as it seems most do not go past this point, especially if they have been given a elevated seat of Guru for example. Then this small and individual experience is much bigger and mirrors totality in the vast knowledge which is available. The hard part to believe is, that one has gained anything at all worth having. As not everyone is filled with bliss in CC. Some do not have any at all. It seems that we do not really enjoy Brahman until we have started to rise to GC, and can see with the heart and the sixth chakra then is bright and open. The long road of emptiness is worth looking at, as it is a hard place to be. Referred to as “The dark night of the soul.”

    1. Hi Wayne
      To be clear, I don’t use the term “Brahman” as equivalent to transcendence or Self or presence. It is that which is beyond Atman and the dynamics of consciousness and a reference to the post-Unity stage. I talked about this from another angle in the article.

      Only Brahman is the knower of Brahman so we have to go beyond consciousness. That only happens when consciousness knows itself fully in late Unity. I’ve written several articles on that.

      Some people refer to CC as a “no-self” stage. Sometimes because of the terminology of their tradition, and sometimes because of experiencing it as emptiness. However, if there has been a long history of samadhi, it’s more likely to be recognized as the Self and as full.

      Brahman does not become. It simply remains itself. It is also not like an ocean – that is Atman or consciousness. Some people do mush the terms together but they’re not the same thing.

      Many do have a concept of a single shift and yes, that can get them stuck. But equally, people who expect the shifts to come a certain way can also get in the way of the process. Fundamentally, it is one of non-doing, of letting go or allowing that gets us out of the way and allows the stages to unfold.

      And yes, people too often start teaching prematurely. I’ve known several to get caught in their own self-importance as they gained a following.

      In earlier articles I talk some bout the 3 “am-egos” or 3 layers of ego. This corresponds with what Adyashanti called head, heart, gut. It’s not until the gut release of the core identity, ideally with the Unity shift, that the seeds of ego control are resolved.

      And yes, bliss is a quality that may not develop until the shift has matured and integrated. Only then can it be called nirvana or sat chit ananda. We all have a “bliss body” (the 5th kosha) but until the mental and emotions sheathes are clear enough, the bliss is masked.

      The dark night of the soul can take several forms. It depends what we have that is unresolved. It’s also not required. It may come with an experience of being empty as a person. This is quite distinct from experiencing consciousness as emptiness as above.

      And that is very, very different from knowing the nothing of Brahman. In this case, it is devoid of “something” because it is prior to all creation. There is no lack. And as it works out, this is the platform for unfolding to Pure Divinity.

      Again, I’ve written on these topics elsewhere, See Key Posts or use Search.

      Thanks for the comment!

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