This content explores the Advaita Vedanta perspective on enlightenment, defining it as self-knowledge or the realization of pure consciousness, and clarifies the role of the mind in this process through the analogy of a solar eclipse.
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We're going to have a deep dive into the
philosophy of enlightenment in Adita
Vanta with the help of the eclipse.
So it goes like this. So now I'm drawing
from a manual of Adita Vanta called
Vanta Sara the essence of Vanta. There
the question is taking from the upanishads
upanishads
can you know consciousness atman or
brahman with the mind or can you not
know can the mind not reveal it what's
the role of the mind if you say it it's
not an object not something that the
mind can think about then there's no
other way of knowing it
if you think it's the mind can know it
then it's an object of the mind
And the opanisha seemed to say both
things here just now we read we we
heardisha the teacher is saying no mana
the mind cannot reveal consciousness.
We again read again and again
not accessed by speech or by the mind
but the also says there are opishas
which say
only by the mind it can be realized.
So the question now remains can it be
known by the mind or can it not be known
by the mind or you can define it further
what's the role of the mind in
enlightenment in fact what is enlightenment
enlightenment
deep dive
we have defined enlightenment as knowing
what is consciousness as knowing what I
am self-nowledge
now in the vanta sara it says first we
must understand in vanta what is meant
by knowledge what do you mean by knowing
something what happens when to know
something then we will know what is
meant by self-nowledge knowing ourselves
how is it different from ordinary
knowledge what is ordinary knowledge
we're sticking very close to the teach
students original question how do I see
hear smell taste touch same question is
going on what is ordinary knowledge and
what is enlightenment special knowledge
knowledge of ourselves
Not entirely essential but it's very uh
fascinating though exactly what happens
when we experience life and then how can
we relate that to enlightenment self-realization
self-realization
what happens when we become enlightened
it goes like this according to Vanta
there is pure consciousness existence
consciousness bliss sat anund or pure
consciousness just awareness bare awareness
awareness
Not an awareness produced by the brain,
not an awareness in the mind, but
awareness just consciousness itself
which is not an object but which
illumines all objects. So that's there.
How does it do that? The
answer in vanta is that pure
consciousness which is everywhere
is reflected, channeled or limited.
There are three schools of vanta which
have these three models reflected,
channeled or limited. Um those who study
vdanta you would have heard of
pratibimada abhasawada nachada
and remember none of this is speculation
sounds very abstract no it's all within
our experience if I ask you do you feel
aware do you feel conscious yeah where
do you feel conscious here in the body
make it more precise well more subtle in
the mind what feels conscious most
conscious to us is our own thoughts
feeling feelings, emotions, our inner
life feels most. That's where we find
most consciousness, most of awareness.
That's where we find the first blooming
of awareness. When we wake up from a
dream, for example, when we wake up from
sleep, in our waking moments, that's the
first clear feeling of I'm aware.
So awareness is first manifested in the
mind. It is in vantic terms, it's the
mind which holds the reflection of pure
consciousness. or limits pure
consciousness and then uses it. It
channels it to the body and the senses
and then it's channeled into seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. In
the mind, it illumines thinking,
remembering, desiring, ego, intellect,
all of that. All our conscious experiences,
experiences,
it starts with conscious consciousness
being reflected in the mind. This
reflected consciousness in the mind.
which we are all experiencing right now.
Shadow of consciousness or reflection of
consciousness. Think of it like this. My
face if I bring a mirror in front of me,
my face will be reflected in the mirror
and it'll look pretty much like my face
depending on the mirror. So yeah, convex
mirror, concave mirror will give you
different reflections. So the mind actually
actually
this is the theory that it reflects sort
of quote unquote reflects consciousness.
You have a pretty good working faximile
of consciousness in the mind right now.
Vanta says that's not real consciousness.
consciousness.
You are the real consciousness. What you
are seeing what we feel in the mind as
consciousness is like seeing your face
in the mirror.
And then the pathway to enlightenment is
right there. How would you become
enlightened? How do you know yourself as
pure consciousness? How would you go
from the reflection of your face in the
mirror to the real face? How would you
do that? There's no way of teaching you
that inward turn is what is necessary.
That you have to do yourself. The last
thing that Vanta can show you is the
appearance of consciousness in the mind
and then tell you you are shining on the
mind as pure consciousness. Go from that
consciousness in the mind back to
yourself. Anyway, but that's not our
journey. Our journey is outward now. How
do we know stuff in the world? We're
trying to explain how that equation
works. Consciousness plus object is
equal to experience. Still trying to
answer the original question of the
student. So reflected consciousness in
the mind illumines the movements. Now
bantic epistemology movements in the
mind are illumined by the reflected
consciousness. You have a thought 1 + 1
is two. That's a thought. That's a
movement in the mind. In Sanskrit this
is called chitti
a mental modification. And in that
mental modification consciousness is
reflected like a face in the mirror.
That reflected consciousness in that
mental modification gives you the
experience 1 + 1 is equal to two. When
you when you just think 1 + 1 is equal
to 2. There are two parts to it. There
is a mental modification and there is a
conscious experience. The conscious
experience is because of the reflection
of consciousness in that mental
modification and the particular form of
that experience. What is that particular
form? It's a thought 1 + 1 is two that
was provided by the mental modification.
So in every now this is the sum summary
of what I'm talking about all this
gibberish jibber jabber is every
conscious experience has two parts.
There's a mental modification and
there's a reflected consciousness.
a mental modification and a reflected
consciousness. Mental modification
illumined by that reflected
consciousness. In that mental
modification, it's like the face in the mirror.
mirror.
Every experience is a mental
modification. I look at the beautiful
flowers there. What happens? The light
from those flowers comes into the eyes
and then it sets up electrical impulses
racing along the optic nerves to the
brain. And from there nobody knows how.
Nobody knows how. From the optic nerves
in the brain it is presented to the mind
is a mental modification. In the mind
there's a mental modification chitti
about what? About oh what pretty
flowers. That is the mental modification
and the consciousness reflected in that
mental modification. Oh what pretty
flowers that illumines it. And then I
get the experience ah pretty flowers.
And this is true of all our experience.
If you're reading something, you are
working, you are thinking, imagining,
suffering, remembering,
all of it. What do you call life? All of
this is mental modification illumined by
reflected consciousness. And to
understand this, that is no speculation.
Just check in your experience. You will
find something happening in the mind. Of
course, something happening in the world
and the body and the senses and but
finally something must happen in the
mind. That's the mental experience,
mental modification. And it feels like
something it shines. It's revealed.
That's the reflected consciousness.
Neither of it is you.
But this is how knowledge takes place
according to Vedanta. This mental
modification for those who are
interested the Sanskrit word is vitapi.
The reflected consciousness in that
mental modification in Sanskrit word is
if you translate
becomes unintelligible gibberish.
Pervasion by mental modification,
pervasion by reflected consciousness.
Put them together, you have knowledge,
you have experience, you have knowledge. Now
Now
also explains ignorance. There's
consciousness all around. What's behind
me? I don't know. Why don't I know this?
I don't have any mental modification
about it. The moment I look around, ah
there's viveand behind me. Now I have a
mental modification. It was immediately
illumined by uh reflected consciousness.
In Sanskrit there was vitapi
pervasion by the mental modification.
And there was falabi pervasion by the
reflected consciousness. And I had the
experience ah here is varandanda.
This is ordinary knowledge. All our
knowledge, whatever we do in life, all
of it works like this. This is the
claim. This is the vantic epistemology
of knowledge. Now, what about enlightenment?
enlightenment?
Remember here a table or those flowers
are the object and I can use the
instrument, the eyes and the mind and
then reflect consciousness on it and
then say I I'm seeing the flowers. But
now what is the object? The
consciousness itself,
not the flower, not the m eyes, not the
mind, not even the mental modification,
not even the reflected consciousness.
The original consciousness is now the
object of my study when I want self-realization.
self-realization.
How do you do that? How do you do that?
How can I have
realization of my original consciousness?
consciousness?
Here is where the eclipse becomes
useful. This I heard from a Swami in uh
Kankal in Harido.
He said I I had asked him a question
about this enlightenment something
I didn't understand what did he what did
he mean and I asked one of the disciples
to explain it to me it is a well-known
at night the moon illumines the Earth
imagine the earth is this world and the
moon is uh illumining the world with
moonlight but you know it is sunlight
actually it's a sun's light falling on
the moon which illuminates at night you
don't see the sun though
now the sunlight is illumining the world
in darkness okay now how do you how do
you know the world you use the moon to
reflect the sunlight and then illumin
the world similar ly how do we know the
world the world in vanta in in our
day-to-day life you use pure
consciousness reflected from the moon of
the mind focused on this world this is
how we know the world how do you know it
the technical details plus
plus
pervasion by mental modification plus
pvasion by reflected consciousness
notice what is the pervasion by mental
modification here it's the moon focused
on the Earth
and the moon changes its phases. That's
why you get different kinds of
illumination throughout the phases of
the moon. So the focusing of the moon on
the earth is important. That's pervasion
by the mind. And the reflected
consciousness, the the sunlight
reflected from the moon as moonlight. It
illumines whatever the moon is pointing
towards. It's like taking a flashlight
into a dark room. What do you do when
you want to see something in a dark room
with a flashlight? If I switch it on and
then you point it towards what you want
to see, there is light. It will reveal
but it won't reveal the whole room. It
has a narrow beam. So you pointing the
flashlight is important. That is called
pervasion by the mind. And then the
light from the flashlight will illuminas
by reflected consciousness. So two
things are necessary. The mind must
orient itself to what you want to know.
And then the reflected consciousness
will reveal what you the mind has
oriented itself to. It's as it sounds
very fancy. It's as simple as I want to
know what's in this book. What must you
do? Well, you must open the book. You
must look at it. You must read it. All
of that in the service of pervasion by
the mind. And the reflected
consciousness in the mind will reveal
whatever you put into the mind. That's all.
all.
Moonlight reveals what's there in the
earth. But the moonlight is coming from
the sun. Now what's our project? I want
to know the sun.
How can the moon help me to know the
sun? And then the teacher says solar
eclipse. What happens in solar eclipse?
Well, the moon comes between the earth
and the sun,
right? And the dis of the sun is
obscured for a while. Two things will
happen. One, the earth will pass into
darkness for a while.
Notice why we are required to turn away
from worldly life in spiritual pursuits,
not just monastic life, in meditation,
in self inquiry. Everywhere the mind is
turned around into itself.
It's like the solar eclipse. In the
solar eclipse, the light is no longer
being reflected from the moon to the
earth at night. What's happening? The
moon has come between the sun and the
earth. Now what is happening is quite
remarkable. The light coming from the
sun is now reflected back towards the
sun. Right? The moon has come between
the sun and the earth. The light coming
from the sun no longer comes to the moon
and goes to the earth. Rather it comes
to the moon. It's reflected back towards
the sun. Now let me ask you a question.
Is the sun illumined by reflected moonlight?
moonlight?
No. That's a ridiculous question. What
do you illumin that which is in
darkness? Was the sun ever in darkness?
Does the sun require illumination? No.
It doesn't require the measly moonlight
for its own illumination. One, because
it's self-elillumined with a thousand
times more light than the moonlight. And
not only that, the moonlight is also sunlight.
sunlight.
Even if the moon faithfully reflects the
light back to the sun, it's not
necessary. But what is necessary? The
moon must come between the earth and the sun.
sun.
So this is a good example for
illumination. What happens in
illumination for enlightenment is
self-realization or this enlightenment
is the mind to put all this simply the
mind must be thoroughly oriented towards
atman brahman god whatever you call it
must be immersed in will it know thereby
will the mind be able to illumin atman
brahman god? Not at all. The moon cannot
illumin the sun. Need not illumin the
sun. What will happen is the moon will
be flooded by the already existing
sunlight. Similarly, atman, Brahman, our
real nature, pure consciousness is
already continuously shining and
revealing itself.
It's just when the mind is properly
oriented towards it,
then something remarkable occurs. You
realize the light is realized by itself.
The sun realizes itself as light.
There's no other way of putting it. Sri
Ramach Krishna says bodhara
consciousness realizing itself as consciousness.
consciousness.
Pure consciousness realizing itself as
consciousness. Did the mind play a role
or not? Did the moon play a role or not?
Yes and no.
What was done? What what role does the
mind play? The precise answer, the
mental modification of the mind is
necessary. What is not necessary? The
reflected consciousness is not necessary
or in our technical language
is necessary. Palabi is not necessary.
Pervasion by mental modification is
necessary. Pervasion by reflected
consciousness is not necessary for
self-realization because you are
unlimited consciousness yourself. You
don't need to reflect consciousness back
from the moon towards yourself to
realize oh I am consciousness. No.
How do you orient the mind towards
yourself? Vantaishads,
Gita, the disha va the method of the
seer in the scene. The punch va the
method of the five layers of the of the
human personality. The austra the three
states of waking, dreaming and sleeping,
the analysis. These are all ways of vitap
vitap
of pervading the mind focusing the mind
on Brahman through this analysis
and this analysis will not reveal atman
or Brahman that is already self-revealed.
self-revealed.
So when the illumination comes pervasion
by the mind is necessary pervasion by
reflected consciousness not necessary.
This is the vantic epistemology of enlightenment.
This also explains the two upanishadic
statements. By the mind it cannot be
known. By the mind it can be known. By
the mind alone it can be known. It
cannot be known because the reflected
consciousness in the mind is not necessary.
necessary.
Is meaningless
for self-realization. It can be known
because mental modification is
necessary. The mind must be focused on
God on atma, Brahman, whatever you call
it. Mind is ne that's why complete
dedication of the mind in spiritual life
is absolutely necessary. The complete
inward turning away the solar eclipse of
let the world pass into darkness for a
short while. Then you will the sun will
This is called in vanta brahakari.
This is a technical term
that flower when I know the flower this
is called flower flower
mental modification with the content of
the flower. Brahma mental modification
with the content focused on Brahman. How
do you get it through vanta
supported by meditation by devotion by
all sorts of spiritual practices that's
all that we're trying to generate in the
mind. So the mind can know Brahman and
cannot know Brahman in these two very
precise senses. It's not being my
mysterious or vague a very clear
philosophical sense in which the mind
can know Brahma. I I have not come
across any anywhere that enlightenment
is so precisely analyzed as in Vanta.
This is extraordinary how close they
get. You can't say anymore. This is the
The whole thing can be deceptive. [Music]
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