Originally Posted by
devotee
Namaste Spirit Seeker,
Advaita is a difficult subject to understand and this has to be kept in mind before trying to give one's own explanation on "What Advaita should be". I will give you some examples :
a) You take a piece of diamond and a piece of iron. Are they two or same ? Diamond is diamond and iron is iron. So, at this level, these are certainly two things. Now let's go at a level where you can't find a difference between a particle and a wave ... i.e. let's go at lowest of sub-atomic level ... even below quarks and anti-quarks, if possible. It has been proved that matter can be converted into energy. As all types of energies are basically the same, we can safely conclude that at the lowest level, all matter whether Iron or diamond must have the same essence from which it should be made up of. Otherwise too, if go reverse i.e. converting energy into matter, theoretically it is possible to create any matter from the same energy. Even if stop at energy and say that it is the substratum of everything around us ... we end up seeing everything in this world as essentially the same energy.
So, though the reality is that everything is Consciousness ... in absence of any valid instrument to prove it, we agree to the assertion that "Everything is nothing but energy" and proceed with this. So, what do we get ?
"All Matter and energy are essentially same thing."
However, it doesn't mean that the distinction has disappeared at the gross level. Diamond, Iron and Energy have their own characteristics at the gross level.
b) For understanding Advaita, the above example is barely sufficient due to its severe limitations as we are unable to deal with Consciousness directly. Advaita says that Everything is Consciousness. Consciousness is Brahman. Now, that said, it is not that Consciousness has partly converted into humans, partly into stones, partly into trees etc. No, the conversion has been Only apparently. What does it mean ?
For understanding this let's first have a look on this invocation verse of IsAvAsya Upanishad :
"Om purnam-adah purnam-idam purnaat purnam-udacyate. purnasya purnam-aadaaya, purnam-eva-avashishyate "
===> That is infinite, this is infinite; From That infinite this infinite comes. From That infinite, (when) this infinite is taken out; balance remains as infinite.
"That" in the above verse is used for Brahman and "This" is used for this universe. So, the verse says that Brahman is limitless and from it is born this universe which again is limitless. After this Infinite Universe comes out from the Infinite Brahman, the Infinite Brahman remains.
So, everything is Brahman and "Nothing" has really converted into anything else i.e. there was Brahman to begin with and Brahman alone remains at the end. How is it possible ? Are we able to understand what it says ? It is difficult. Why ? We are going to deal with how Consciousness behaves and we have hardly any idea of how consciousness acts. The verse says something which seems impossibility but this is only due of our lack of knowledge on how Consciousness behaves.
c) The Dream analogy :
By analysing our dreams, we can understand the above verse though it won't by what actually happens. However, our purpose will be served by analysing the Dream-phenomenon.
In the phenomenon of dreaming :
a) There is only One Consciousness i.e. of the Dreamer. There is no other consciousness taking part in the dreaming process.
b) While dreaming many characters are created and a story line too is created which runs the dream. The various characters acting in the dream i.e. all the persons whether friends or foes, girls or boys, men or women, stones or pearls, tress or birds ... everything is creation of Dreamer's consciousness. There is no other material which changes into the characters of the dream and there is no other cause, so we can safely say that Dreamer is the material and efficient cause of the whole dream world.
Please note here that every character in the dream acts on his/her/its own. The dreamer has its separate entity in the dream which may not be exactly as he really is and he or even the dreamer don't know how a dream character is going to behave the next moment (that shows that the actions of the dream characters are not pre-decided by the dreamer). There may be some characters created in the dream which could not be friends of the dreamer (so, creation can act against its own creator apparently) and yet those characters are created and act on their own. Anything cannot act on its own independently unless it has a consciousness of its own. Therefore, every character in the dream must have its own Consciousness otherwise their actions should have been known to the dreamer in advance who is the Consciousness behind the whole set of characters in the dream. But we all know that the dreamer doesn't how one dream character is going to do the next moment in the dream.
Now, let's analyse the dream phenomenon :
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i) There can be no doubt that there is Actually only one Consciousness i.e. that of the Dreamer. There is no consciousness which is added to or subtracted from teh Dreamer's Consciousness i.e. before dream, during the dream, the Consciousness of the dreamer remains the same.
However, though it was One Consciousness alone to begin with and one alone remained during the dreaming session and also after the dream ended, there were many separate consciousnesses perceived during the dream. This gives us an idea of unique characteristic of Consciousness i.e. Without being actually divided into many, one Consciousness can give rise to perception of many consciousness apparently. . This is called ChidAbhAsa (phenomenon of reflected consciousness) characteristic of Consciousness or Brahman.
Now, armed with this knowledge, we can answer all your questions on Spiritual world :
a)
===> You are right. However, from Absolute point of view, everything including you is just like a dream-character which has the Consciousness of the Dreamer as the substratum. The Spirt is as real as you are. At the Absolute level, both you and the spirit are unreal. Only Brahman exists.
b)
===> True. Not because Brahman is formless Brahman is neither formless nor with form it is beyond all mental constructs. The Perceived Jeeva is Brahman in absolute sense and the perceiver i.e. you too are Brahman. This is possible due to special power of Consciousness to see multitude within itself (as in dreaming state) and still remaining the same. This unique power of Brahman is called MAyA. Brahman can be with this power and also without power i.e. this power can be manifest and also unmanifest. When this power is unmanifest i.e. lies within Brahman, it is Brahman's Absolute state which alone is the sole reality and is called the "Fourth State" of Brahman. When this power is manifest three entities apparently comes into being : God (the third state of Brahman), The Waking state (i.e. this manifest world), the Dreaming state or the Subtle world which is the world of all of us before birth and after death.
You question is whether the spirit to whom you are talking is real or unreal and just a mental construct. In this question, you have assumed that "You are real". Now, that means (by taking that assumption) that you are speaking from the Waking state (Gross world state) and from that state you are real and also the spirit is real. If you say that "I am Brahman" and the "Spirit is Brahman" these statements are from the Absolute state. Both the statements are correct as long as you keep seeing from one state. However, you will be in serious difficulty to understand things when you mix up the phenomena of two different states. From the Absolute state, the spirit to whom you are interacting is a mental construct (of Brahman and not yours as an individual) but so you are. You cannot say : "I am real" and "the spirit to whom I am talking is unreal".
OM
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