Luke: Checked out your website and enjoyed reading through it.
To keep this short and to the point, the Avadhuta Gita is beautiful and REALLY to the point lol…
But here’s my question for you based on all of your searching and studying and experience…
Is the FINAL thing in all of this the KNOWLEDGE of non-duality in the mind, OR, “abiding” as Awareness/Consciousness which is BEYOND the mind and everything, including knowledge?
… these are two totally different things, and need to be dealt with! I can see both as being “the way”, but struggle with the final answer here. If I abide as Awareness, there is no knowledge because I’m simply being That, and only That; as Awareness, there’s no knowledge about anything, not even Vedanata and non-duality.
… but if I have the Knowledge in the mind, it just seems like a different thing entirely.
Hope you understand what I’m getting at here and have some insight…
Thx!
Rory: Hi Luke, Thanks for your email. Glad you liked the website and are enjoying the Avadhuta Gita. The verses may be short but they pack a fair punch, huh?
Regarding your question of knowledge of awareness versus ‘abiding as awareness’, I think it’s important to first examine what the term ‘abiding as awareness’ means and implies.
‘Abiding’ is a verb, and abiding AS something implies action. In this context, ‘abiding as the Self’ means meditating upon our nature as awareness. This is actually the third and final stage of Vedantic practice, called nididhyasana. First, we hear the knowledge as unfolded by a qualified teacher. We then proceed to reflect upon that knowledge until it fully makes sense, enabling us to re-evaluate our existing beliefs and assumptions in the light of that knowledge. The third stage is to convert that knowledge to conviction, and this is where nididhyasana comes into play—which is to say, continued and sustained contemplation upon our nature as pure awareness/consciousness/existence.
It makes sense that it will take some time and effort to reorient our identification from the mind/body/ego to awareness because we have, after all, spent lifetimes identifying as this pseudo-self. The mind comprises layers upon layers of encrusted ignorance, and that rarely disappears overnight. A conservative instrument if ever there was, the mind tends to stick to its default settings, running the same pre-installed programming and regurgitating the same old ignorance ad nauseum. So many people attend Vedanta seminars, immersing themselves in Self-knowledge for hours, days or weeks, becoming fired up with passion and conviction, only to find that upon returning to their regular lives, like a rubber-band they instantly snap back to the same old patterns, habits and tendencies, once again identifying as a small, limited, lacking little ego.
That’s why nididhyasana is so important. In order for the knowledge to ‘stick’, we have to ‘practice’ that knowledge over and over again. That’s where abiding as awareness comes in, or taking a stand in awareness AS awareness. Self-knowledge will only translate to liberation if it has been fully assimilated and integrated into the heart of the psyche. Getting back to your question, it’s definitely not an either or choice between simple ‘knowledge of awareness’ and ‘abiding as awareness’. Both are needed. The mind has to be kept on track or it’ll keep defaulting to its baseline of ignorance. It must be re-educated and that necessitates truly CLAIMING our identity as the ever-free, limitless awareness that is the Self.
Eventually there comes a point when our sense of identity pivots from the ego to the Self; from the instruments of mind, body and senses to the ever-present, formless awareness in which they appear. At that point, Self-knowledge is no longer an abstract concept, but a Living Truth. It becomes the baseline from which we experience Self and reality. As long as the body remains, the experience of duality remains, for this world is structured by the senses, but we no longer see anything as separate from ourselves. There is only awareness and its passing content.
At that point, when the knowledge is rock solid, there’s no need to ‘abide as awareness’ so to speak because your entire psyche is reoriented to the incontrivertable knowledge that you ARE awareness. And this knowledge, properly assimilated, leads to liberation because you then know that nothing in this phenomenal world of appearance can affect you, bind you or limit you in any way. You develop samatvam, which means evenness of mind in all circumstances. Binding desires either melt away or become non-binding, and you taste the incredible sweetness and unshakable contentment of knowing that you are always free, always whole and lacking in nothing.
At that point, there’s no real need to continuously affirm your identity as awareness any more than there’s any need to continuously affirm to yourself your worldly name or address. It’s no longer knowledge to you, but fact. Self-knowledge becomes conviction and its byproduct is liberation!
That’s the true goal of Vedanta. Incidentally, this liberation is not something that is gained or added to you. Anything that can be gained can be taken away. It’s rather the revelation that, but for thoughts of ignorance in the mind, you were never bound.
You are quite correct that as awareness there is no knowledge as such, and no differentiation between ‘this’ and ‘that’, because of the simple fact that everything is awareness. There’s no beginning and no end, no up or down; no goal and no attainment. From this Absolute standpoint, there isn’t even a world, in the same way that from the perspective of the waker there is no dream-world; only names and forms appearing in all-pervading, ever unaffected consciousness.
The knowledge, then, isn’t for the Self. Awareness doesn’t need enlightenment because, as the Light, it was never not enlightened. Liberation pertains only to the mind of the jiva living in the relative world. It’s the removal of ignorance and the apprehension of Reality as it truly is rather than how it appears to the mind and senses. Knowledge is therefore for the mind, to free the mind. The mind, being as it is, requires a great deal of ‘practice’ and ‘abiding’ until this Knowledge is fully integrated and assimilated.
I hope that answers your query.
