Recently, I had an extended discussion with Jerry Freeman about the use of terms like Brahman and ParaBrahman. It became clear that our different use of the words was because of a different experience of the process.
It seems the difference is in the degree of refinement. I’ll explore 3 versions of the process across a spectrum. There is a full range of possibilities, but these styles are based on examples that others have shared with me.
1) Seemless:
When refinement is high, we can experience Brahman as completing Unity. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi described Brahman as the 10th stage of Unity. The shift from Unity into Brahman is relatively seemless, and not unlike prior stages of integrating layers of Unity. Wholeness shifts into totality. Consciousness is integrated in totality. Divinity then develops seamlessly within Brahman. We might call the last Divine Brahman.
I used to think including Brahman in the stages of Unity was a contrivance to stay within the 7 states model that climaxed at Unity. Should have known better. Jerry refers to “Simple Unity” and Brahman as “Fully Matured Unity.” He observes that using an inclusive term like Unity allows better communication with diverse communities. Buddhists reject the term Brahman, for example.
2) Stages:
When refinement is not as high, as is more common, Unity and Brahman are experienced as very distinct stages. Unity falls away for Brahman. We go from being everything everywhere to nothing nowhere. We find Brahman beyond consciousness or Atman, the cosmic Self, unlike the above. This is how I’ve framed it in my writing, as this was my process and that of many others that I’ve met.
It’s worth mentioning that some people with refinement get to the doorway of the Brahman shift and step back. They can feel the impeding shift into an apparent nothing. Usually, there’s a bit of back and forth until they’re willing to let go. (It’s notable there can be a choice at this point.) Sometimes this back and forth can bring more of the refinement into the shift, reducing its contrast. But some are unwilling to let go of the richness of Refined Unity and remain there.
At first, we can experience the Brahman shift more by the loss of Unity and the prior enlightenment. Over time, the more subtle ‘what is there’ becomes apparent. Brahman comes to know Brahman. It can integrate more in our lived humanity, too. And then, another distinct shift can happen into pure Divinity. As a distinct shift, apparently out of the previous experience of Brahman, the term ParaBrahman may be used, meaning Beyond Brahman. This is also quite unlike the first example where Brahman becomes Divine.
We can see a few sizeable differences in the framing of the process between these two styles of experience. In the first, Brahman is inclusive, whereas in the second, Brahman is a stage in the process with a before and after.
3) Brahman alone:
When people have gone through the stages in consciousness with little of the refined stages (just Self Realization, Unity, and Brahman), they typically have a distinct Brahman shift, then stay there. It takes refinement to go further. Over time, refinement can show up and move things along, but this requires practices and healing to culture it.
Summary:
This suggests that a more inclusive framing of the 3 higher stages is Brahman, Refined Brahman, and pure Divinity/Divine Brahman.
Some of the Vedic texts do mention ParaBrahman, but in retrospect, I can see the more highly regarded one’s use just Brahman, in the more inclusive way.
This also suggests why Maharishi just focused on Brahman after the early 80s. It fundamentally included all three.
These variations are reminiscent of the different styles of the initial awakening, Self Realization.
I don’t relate to “Brahman” as Divine because of a #2 process above. I’ve described it as like the afterglow of Divinity. Also, the quality of alertness that allows Brahman to know itself has a subtle masculine, Shiva quality to it. Whereas I relate to Divinity as feminine. I can appreciate this relates to my nature, too. But with this new perspective, we’ll see what reveals itself. Are they really different?
This exploration will continue to evolve.
Davidya
Addendum: After our discussion, Jerry wrote Brahman, Reductionism and the Fractal Character of Awakening. (pdf)(Linked with permission.) As I’ve observed, the reason there’s so many of us beings is so that all the varieties of experience can unfold. None of us are going to have the same journey. A map can be useful, but is inherently reductive and is never the actual road. As Jerry observes, the process is fractal in nature. The very act of experiencing something allows it to expand and iterate further.
Addendum 2: Another point came up in the discussion on the topic of healing. I observed that accurately gauging what remains—ignorance or the need for healing—is very difficult, as various faint remnants are hidden in diverse ways, only to reappear unexpectedly for processing. As long as we remain in human form, we’re subject to our nature and history. However liberated we are, we are doing so through this human form.
The conversation with Jerry was within a larger conversation that originated with our conversation with Susanne Marie
https://davidya.ca/2024/11/29/awakening-beyond-unity-no-self-and-brahman/
Thanks for posting this, David. It’s a breakthrough in making sense of the many, seemingly contradictory descriptions of stages of awakening. Well done.
Thanks, Jerry. It happened because you were willing to hash it out and share your own unfolding. Much appreciated.
And thanks for posting the link to my article, “Brahman, Reductionism and the Fractal Character of Awakening.”
In just a few days since I first started circulating the article, it has already generated a lot of discussion. In one of the conversations a friend pointed to some research that mentioned fractal brain functioning. I replied:
“Interesting article about brain functioning being a fractal process. It certainly makes sense that it would be, since so many things in nature work that way.
Searching online, I found this from Dartmouth College:
“Brain Networks Supporting Complex Thought Mirror Fractals”
Posted on October 07, 2021 by Amy Olson
Study: The mathematical structures convey how brain activity patterns repeat.
https://pbs.dartmouth.edu/news/2021/10/brain-networks-supporting-complex-thought-mirror-fractals
The more you look at the way fractals function in nature, the more obvious it seems that our experience of expanding stages of awakening would function according in the same way. Awakening is, after all, a natural process involving a highly sophisticated biological system.
Facinating, Jerry. It makes a lot of sense. Words by themselves are just sounds, or letter patterns on the page. Reading, many sound the words. Then there are the meanings, and associations with prior experiences and memory, worldviews touched on, archetypes, and so forth that can arise when contemplating a work. A different reader will iterate differently. If we come back to the same work a few years later, the layers will generate distinctly also.
And yes, as I mentioned in the addendum, the very act of experiencing something (assuming we’re not constrained) causes it to further express into more detail, fractally. The more we look, the more there is. 🙂
Hi David and Jerry,
Many thanks to you both for sharing your insights.
Hi Jerry – when you first commented on David’s post about the role of the teacher, I recall that your additional insights on early Unity vs. mature Unity snapped my mind into an aha moment that started the shift into nothingness.
Like many who have recently awakened without refinement, stepping into Brahman felt like a final destination with nothingness predominating.
I’ve had glimpses of divinity, being filled with light and feeling another shift into what felt like Super Ultra Unity with nothingness as the foundation. Funnily enough, my body then felt like shutting down from the overwhelming energy, and the divinity stopped flowing in.
Another time perhaps.
Hi Stephen
Thanks for the feedback. I think it’s pretty common for the light to come in stages. It’s a LOT! It did a major karma burn after the first round. 🙂
Thanks for confirming David! The worst part is trying to sleep, and when your eyes are closed it’s just light haha
(laughs) Yeah. And the laws of nature in the body start purifying, adding to the mix…
Very interesting and clear. And I relate to this: “It’s worth mentioning that some people…get to the doorway of the Brahman shift and step back.” My system wasn’t ready years ago, and the beyond the beyond of it all was a lot. So there was a distinct downshift back into unity (but not the “simple unity” of prior), until there was far more refinement (and lots of healing!). But a flowing back and forth happened for years, with lots of dips into what was experienced as terrain beyond unity. And then one day there was a very ordinary “pop” that occurred. A simple letting go. And there was no turning back, so to speak. Thanks for this.
Nice, Sarah. Thanks for sharing. Interesting you got a taste well in advance.
And yes, no turning back. Once you’ve really seen, it can’t be unseen. (laughs)
I’ve observed previously how the pattern of awakening, God Consciousness, and Unity has a similar pattern to Brahman, Refined Brahman, and Divinity. For example, in both awakening and Brahman, it can sometimes feel like stepping off a cliff into the unknown. The first 3 in consciousness, the second 3 post-consciousness (depending on the style above).
Thank you!
I hear an echo, from the wonderful film “Beyond the Clouds” by Michelangello Antonioni
“We know that behind every image revealed there is another image more faithful to reality, and in the back of that image there is another, and yet another behind the last one, and so on, up to the true image of that absolute, mysterious reality that no one will ever see.”
Michelangelo Antonioni, Al di la delle nuvole
Thanks, Jose.
I disagree with the last line though. It’s only mysterious until it’s known. And when we are it, it can be including being seen. However, all that does take place in the context of a human form. We’re designed to experience one thing at a time. It can be a very big and complex thing, like our universe. But not everything, everywhere, all at once the way some high beings experience it. Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gia explores this.
Superb work David!
Thanks for taking your time to discuss (also to Jerry) and then write about this. Will bring much clarity.
Thanks, Michael. It brings together several models of the process, so I’m pleased.
Would a refinement mean that there is more of a spectrum or intermediary steps?
Hi Nancy
What refinement does is allow recognition and perception of more detail. For example, the layers of being between consciousness and the physical. This means the experience has a greater spectrum of what is largely the same process. And we may recognize more intermediate steps that would otherwise not be noticed.
With Brahman specifically, there is the recognition of the much more subtle unmanifest qualities present. And the potential capacity to contain more, as in the Seemless style.