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..:: The One ::..
By
Alan Schneider
Periodically throughout these essays, the
concept of non-dual perception and experience has been suggested. This
is possibly the single most difficult paradigm for the mind subtended by
the flesh to come to terms with, since our “local information processor”
– the ego – is fundamentally a difference engine that must
function by comparing at least two distinct conditions to achieve a
meaningful result. The entire thrust of these essays has been the
provision of evidence (where such evidence can be had),
information, and technology to look beyond the ego to the many extended
levels of alternative consciousness available to humanity. The ultimate
and final manifestation of non-dual perception is The One – the
unified field of all that can be perceived in any manner at any level,
and that which is beyond any perception of any kind at any level, yet
still exists – the world inside the Black Box that cannot be probed or
opened.
How can that which is beyond any form of experience be
known? From the working perspective of the enlightened mind
located on the Physical Plane of experience, things and processes become
at least hypothetically knowable by determining their associated
qualities through whatever techniques of investigation are productive,
and then assigning a single identifier – a name – to the
resultant body of information and impressions, however tenuous they may
be. The term “enlightened” is used here to differentiate this state of
mind from the rote ego functioning of the ignorant and uninitiated, who
frequently demonstrate “knowledge” based solely upon unquestioned
associative conditioning that simply connects chains of crude symbolic
concepts to basal emotional responses – essentially demonstrating the
Pavlovian classical conditioning paradigm. Such individuals are walking
political mechanisms that sadly can be activated to demonstrations of
horrible prejudice and discrimination by the utterance of mere words and
phrases. True knowing is both contemplative and empathetic – we
understand the meaning of a thing by deeply pondering the all of the
information available, even if some claims regarding it seem to be in
conflict with others, and by submerging ourselves in the experience of
it on all levels of its manifestation – physical, mental, moral, and
spiritual. Then we can say that we have at least begun to know
about that which we study. When this enquiry has progressed far enough,
the phenomenon of the name will customarily occur in our
consciousness.
Some of the names for The One that have previously been
suggested in these essays are the Void, the Portal of Chaos, the
Brahman, and the Presence, and all of these capture aspects of the
essential non-dual manifestation, ones well deserving of serious
investigation in their own rights. In dealing with a phenomenon that is
as pervasive, and yet indefinite, as The One, simplicity of nomenclature
and description is a definite advantage for the investigator. We are
attempting to simultaneously refer to everything at once, and nothing in
particular! If we confine ourselves to the linear logic of the Physical
Plane and senses, the very attempt quickly collapses into a hopeless
paradox. Therefore, we must find some additional modes of investigation
and discovery, ones that will lift us out of the physicality of
experience into the spiritual paradigm of knowing. Ones that
will relax the grip of so-called rational thought processing on the
imagination and higher intuitive perception. Ones that will initiate
spiritual trance as the medium of perception. In a word, ones that
utilize meditation as the investigative toolset and environment,
accessing various forms of non-linear, acausal, subtlely logical
associations that transcend the rudimentary course logic of the ego and
ordinary mind.
As has been exhaustively described in these essays, one does
not simply walk out of daily experience directly into the perception of
Infinity and The One – there are stages to be passed through beyond the
physical senses, and levels of involvement present, each serving as the
gateway to the next. The experience of The One is the result of a
lifetime, or lifetimes, of residence in successively deeper
states of trance and contemplation, as the apparent complexity of
experience is observed, processed, and released. This activity is
frequently combined with Physical Plane worldly undertakings – earning a
living, marriage, family, social interaction, and recreation. One
shuttles among these and a myriad of other possibilities as meditation
is practiced in the mix, affording higher perspectives on the otherwise
often mundane lives we may lead, showing us the higher, more refined
purpose of those lives in consequence.
The final destination of the meditation process is the
non-dual perception and experience of The One. Frequently, the step
preceding this attainment is the observation of the residual
subject-object perception present in the Soul, the last remnant
of our individual physicality in the body. As a subject, the Soul has
God as the object of its perception, and God is certainly very
close to The One. Some bodies of philosophical thought even maintain
that the Soul is God, and The One, and on the rarified level of our
discussion here, there is a measure of truth in this contention.
However, the very use of the terms “Soul” and “God” still implies a
distinction to be made between two qualitatively different states of
Being. Even if we refer to God as the Collective Soul, or the OverSoul,
and distinguish this from the individual, personal Soul – the Hindu
jivatman – the distinction is still made between the two conditions.
There is an essence of “me” present in my Soul looking into a larger
Manifestation of Light beyond, and separate from, my Soul, that I call
God. Such is the power of the physical body and senses to
constrain perception, even at the very highest levels! This is why
Buddhism pushes the envelope of perception past even the experience of
God, to the experience of The One, because it is only at this ultimate
level that the Supreme Absolute Truth is known in and as Satori.
The ego, our limited sense of individual existence, is
invested with a determined will to survival as a discreet mode of
perception, and will furiously resist even temporary excursions away
from its dominion. Appropriately ely only the pilot of our organism
as we sail through the sea of sensory perception we call life, it
persistently seeks to be not only the Captain of the Ship, but the
Admiral of the Fleet, and even the God of the Sea, Poseidon, himself! No
aggrandizement is too extravagant for the little ego as it desperately
flees from the dreaded specter of its own mortality. This is the
ultimate suffering to be relieved by meditation in the Buddhist paradigm
– the suffering associated with the fear of physical death, and this is
accomplished with finality only in Satori. When consciousness
surrenders the last vestiges of subject as it merges into
object and becomes The One, the most primal fear of personal
extinction dissolves with the last vestiges of the sense of personal
identity.
Are we dead in the experience of The One? The phrase
“No more subject” certainly seems to indicate this, since that subject,
however diluted, is still “me”, and implies “me-ness” as a perceptual
manifestation. But, what is death, anyway? Is it simply the end
of sensory perception? Is that perception the root of, and dependent on,
subject-object duality? Some clues to the resolution of this last
question of this essay can be found in the philosophy of Yoga. For the
Yogi, the experience of the senses is an illusion created by the
spiritual turbulence associated with physical action – the term “Karma”
literally means “action” in Hindu Sanskrit. For the Yogi, the Atman, or
Soul, is the only reality, one present behind the Karmic turbulence of
the transitory sensory illusion, an expression of, yet simultaneously
existing in unification with, Brahman – The One referred in this essay.
The Yogi seeks the state of perceptual unification with the Soul,
Brahman, and The One through the practice of the moral structure of the
Yoga lifestyle indicated in the Yamas and Niyamas. This unified
condition is referred to – is named – Samadhi in the
theory and practice of Yoga. Samadhi is a state of existence typified by
non-existence. No experience of physicality or other subjective
condition, other than Ananda – Spiritual Bliss – is present
there. This Bliss can take the form of the Divine Light, Perfect Divine
Love, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, and it is
characterized by the most extreme distance possible in the Yoga paradigm
from the physical experience of life as defined by the senses. Is this
death? Well, the term “Samadhi” literally has the meaning, of
“completion”, in Sanskrit, possibly a reference to the physical
“completion” of life. This interpretation illustrates why the Yogis of
India rub themselves down with ashes from the cremation grounds to take
on the appearance of a corpse, starve themselves to the point of
emaciation, practice punishing austerities, and renounce all worldly
involvement – they perceive this existence as an illusion, and the
condition of death as the Truth! The closer they can bring life’s
illusion to death, the more real they become as the Atman – the Soul –
experienced in Samadhi. It is of great significance that there are
several Samadhis that fall short of literal physical death, but Maha
Samadhi, is the Yoga term for this condition of ultimate, permanent
reunion with SAT.
Buddhism takes this principle to the conclusive stage of
seeking The One in all phases of living in the illusion, but
particularly in meditation. Many of the features of the Yamas and
Niyamas of Yoga are incorporated in The Noble Eightfold Path of
Buddhism, and the Buddhist frequently lives in renunciation and
austerity. The distinction between the two paths is seen in their
conceptions of the key term detachment. The Buddhist paradigm
sees the Yogic goal of Samadhi as just that – still a goal, and a
symptom of attachment, albeit to non-existence, for that reason,
although there are also Buddhist variants of Samadhi stressing
contemplation as the mechanism of Ascension, as opposed to meditation.
To be truly non-attached is to accept existence and nonexistence with
equal disregard, and to seek The One by seeking nothing as the
preferred state of consciousness, the final level of meditation beyond
even Samadhi. This level can be attained, but cannot be described using
any terminology in any language. It must be experienced at first hand by
the aspirant.
What is The One? Perhaps it is
God’s absolute state of Peace within the form of the Logos – “In the
Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.” Perhaps it is Pure Nothingness – the Void – and a condition of
absolute Peace for that reason. Perhaps it is the Infinite Field of
Divine Love and Light of Samadhi. Perhaps it is the Great Mother of all
Creation, unfolding Existence in the Dance of Shiva, or Nothing and
Everything expressed nowhere and everywhere, as the beating wings of a
humming bird...
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2008, Alan Schneider)
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