Describing post-consciousness stages is profoundly abstract. Even this article has been waiting over a month for it to “gel”. There is the hazard of people making odd concepts from this material. But some do find the pointing very valuable. When it’s the experience, pointing to other aspects brings out nuances that might otherwise not have been discovered.
With the Brahman shift, we move out of stages in consciousness and into an arena of great profundity the mind cannot fully grasp. We don’t know Brahman as an individual or Self (Atman). Brahman is known by itself. It combines opposites in one totality, resolving the greatest of paradoxes. There are many things we can say it’s not and yet it also is. It is not consciousness and yet consciousness is it, for example.
When Refined Brahman unfolds, we find the prior refinement process continuing but we’re now mostly exploring beyond perception. We’re refining knowing itself and the ability to know.
We say Brahman knows Brahman and yet it is already a totality of knowing. It is more a revealing of totality to what is here, to our current capacity.
And in that refinement of knowing, ParaBrahman becomes recognized and “moves in”. Then the totality of knowing is more obvious as pure Divinity. Brahman becomes known almost as a shadow of Divinity.
In Threads of Divinity, I touched on how pure Divinity is as if networked, interconnected by virtual threads of knowing. We experience these threads as the structure of the cosmic body, life, and consciousness. These are fundamental origins, deeper even than the dynamics of consciousness. (see Awareness and Foundations)
These threads arise from what is described as Shakti(s)*, the flow of pure power of the Divine as an uncreated impulse or intention.
However, it must be made very clear here. This is not an intention in consciousness that is creating. It has even less to do with a thought in your mind. This is not power as in energy or kundalini shakti. This is pure Divinity, beyond all creation, existence and consciousness. Divine Shakti(s) are uncreated. Pure totality. Pure power.
Yet these potent impulses “lead” to the appearance of all creations, the many universes in our creation, and untold numbers of beings. They are the source of all the laws of nature and cognition. They are grace itself.
Davidya
*Sanskrit doesn’t pluralize by adding “s” to the end. But the “s” is needed to make sense in English.
I cannot help……everytime you talk about the “pure divinity stage” i get a strange (but pleasant) warm feeling within my chest.
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As I’ve shared before, I think it’s more that Brahman knows ONLY Brahman. Meaning that Brahman knows that every speck of it is Brahman, that there is nothing other than Brahman.
Hi Share
Right. From a Brahman perspective, there is only Brahman. Nothing else has ever been created. There is an appearance that arises in consciousness, but that is only ever in Brahman.
However, prior to Brahman stage this is not the experience. Some people refer to pure consciousness and transcendence as Brahman. And while this is true from Brahman, it is only a concept prior. A concept that can get in the way of what is being experienced in one’s current stage. It is more useful to notice what is here than favour concepts.
For example, ‘Consciousness is Brahman’ is a Mahavakya, and a realization. But this doesn’t mean the experience of pure consciousness and the dynamics of subject and object are the same thing as Brahman. In Brahman, these have merged. Brahman is beyond consciousness and the field of Unity stage.
I mention this as it’s important to remember context. “Knowledge is different in different states [stages] of consciousness” as Maharishi used to say.
This particular article is about ParaBrahman which is beyond basic BC and quite overshadows it. This is somewhat like the difference between CC and Unity in GC. Same fundamentals but a very different appreciation of it.
A classic story relating to knowledge and experience is the one about the snake and the string. The man is filled with terror because he sees something long and curvy on the path ahead. A friend comes along and tells him that it’s a string. Should the man stay with his experience of terror or should he take his friend’s concept of string into account and feel calmer?
In thinking about this story, I was realizing how perception plays a bridging role between knowledge and experience. It’s a fascinating area of inquiry.
Right, and the key role of consciousness in determining where we’re experiencing from and thus how we perceive.
Another variation of the story has the man in a dark room, mistaking the string for a snake. His friend comes and brings the light (of knowledge). Then the reality is seen.
An excellent attempt at trying to convey that utter sense of impersonal power that comes alive with the ongoing maturity of Brahman.
The outward means of expression don’t change, but there is an awareness of the mechanics for everything from the simplest thought, to the myriad forms and dynamics around us, more profound and complete than any state of consciousness can be. Through the awareness and expression of this totality, life remains complete in the wholeness of its awareness, whatever the circumstance we may find ourselves in. And the means to do whatever we wish is always available as a result.
A depth far beyond the steady flame of CC, a strength and creativity exceeding the Gods and Goddesses of GC, and a union far more comprehensive than that of UC. Embracing and enjoining it all, we continue to taste the ever ripening fruit of Brahman, Para-Brahman.
Nicely put, Jim. I especially liked the last paragraph.