Perspectives of Brahman

Perspectives of Brahman

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Photo by Kalen Emsley

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.

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21 Comments

  1. Jerry Freeman

    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.

    1. 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. 🙂

    2. 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.

  2. 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.

    1. 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).

  3. Jose

    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

    1. 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.

    1. 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.

  4. Hi David (and Jerry) – I’m also really appreciating this article and what’s being shared between you two on the blog here, it has been very rich for me so far.

    This is still very very fresh for me (under 6 months), however I wanted to share what I wrote a couple of months ago on Eva Muller’s post about Brahman showing up here, for me – my understanding has evolved a bit since I wrote the below, and the process is continuous, however I felt it was useful to share the experiential elements – thank you!

    “Brahman was the stage that I was most curious to move into because my background is in 20 years of mind-body awareness and my awakening process has been deeply embodied from the beginning and most people’s accounts are not that, so I thought Brahman would be very different for me, which I believe it has been! It’s also interesting what you say about a decision because I called forth Pure Divinity almost immediately when I entered Brahman, and had a flavor of it in the same day, however, I still went through the refinement process of Brahman and the integration of those final paradoxes – for me the main one was Being and Non-Being – and then the Divinity really started to enter the physiology as a force and as you say, so much information became available through these stages and my sleep has been very disrupted with the increased level of alertness. Finally, I’ll mention how the uncreated aspect that gives rise to an experience of “dryness” or abstraction – though not any kind of lack more like a total fullness – was the most stark in perhaps the whole unfoldment (so far) – so different than in Creation/Consciousness. It’s all still fresh here and ongoing! I have the Next Elevations transmission in our house, which is a lovely support! Thank you Eva!”

    The original/Eva’s post is here: https://youtu.be/S89BGJPMKMg?si=HFy5oiwJPzlUgv1E

    1. Thanks, Dara. It’s good to compile examples.
      We may find different words feel more right or relate to the process in various ways. But if we can understand the underlying process, it’s much easier to support it.

      Trying to remember – I’m not sure I’d even heard of pure Divinity when Brahman unfolded. And it unfolded differently than I’d understood. It was pretty flat for a bit, partly because of life circumstances, but also the style of the shift.

      We can be refined to varying degrees on various levels. So one can have a very clear experience of the mechanics of consciousness while still not very embodied or clear on more human levels. Or have clear experiences of nature but not consciousness. etc.

      I suspect the process will get easier over time as more and more make the transition and it’s more alive in consciousness.

      1. John R

        I’m sort of closing a small circle because I also commented on Eva’s video and post (see Dara’s link above). In fact, I see that Dara and I posted replies to each other’s comments.

        My comment:

        “Hi Eva. With more people undergoing the Brahman shift, the variety of experiences is fascinating. It seems that most involve a dry nothingness, like yours, and then it’s a matter of (relative) time to progress to Refined Brahman and to ParaBrahman. In my case, the shift was almost directly to Refined Brahman, I think because refinement had begun even before Cosmic Consciousness. On a morning walk a few months after the unfoldment of Unity, I noticed that something had changed. There was a momentary detachment from everything, but the fullness and “everything-ness” of Unity seemed to be still there. Then I realized that what had vanished was the “there.” Or to put it another way, I had stepped beyond the infinity of Unity but was still inside it simultaneously. I was also nowhere, with no reference point, but I did not feel disconnected. And because it was already Refined Brahman, Divinity came out of hiding soon thereafter….”

        As Eva says in her reply to my comment, it seems Dara’s and my experiences were/are somewhat similar. So, variety is the spice of Divine non-existence! 🙂

        1. Thanks for sharing, John.
          Mine was more the 2nd type, in spite of prior refinement, but as mentioned, it seems that was partly circumstantial. Things evolved after I was able to site with it.

          (it’s funny to say “mine” about this, but it’s a word people understand.)

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