In part eight of the recognize series I want to discuss the central point of difference which sets my message on Awareness apart from the popular view within the nonduality community. I am mainly in agreement with traditional Advaita Vedanta on the point that preparation must take place in order for recognition to result in liberation. While I’m usually found reading the writing and doing the writing of direct pointing according to what has been called the neo-advaita or modern western school of thought I recognize one important aspect that I think gets overlooked these days.
The point is this: recognition of Awareness is possible for any apparent person but that doesn’t become a reality as far as the apparent person is concerned until discrimination between Awareness and appearance becomes habitual. That is, to the apparent individual there is at all times a clear discrimination (viveka) that is undeniable with respect to reality. This person can’t help but see at all times that reality is one, that the apparent reality is only an appearance of multiplicity, there is never a forgetting of this truth. He knows it in his or her guts and is always conscious of it. This is the reason why if I am asked if I am awakened or liberated I say no. I have had an awakening experience, I have recognized Awareness as what I truly am, I can discriminate between the true and merely apparent, but this is not a habitual reality for me. Sometimes I forget!
Why do I forget? Because, and this is how you know you’re not liberated, I do not have complete and utter dispassion (vairagya) for the apparent world. Why is discrimination not habitual? Simply because I am still in certain ways attached to what appears as reality. There is forgetting or amnesia due to the attachment to objects like the self-assertion, pleasure, the aversion of pain, character roles, and any other form of sense-object. As long as there is attachment to what appears to be reality there is in equal measure a degree of avidya. Recall that we found avidya, which is Sanskrit for “ignorance”, to be the veil that masks the recognition of Awareness. Ignorance is taking the phenomenal world to be real and as a result clinging to it.
Attachment to the apparent universe, whether it’s the self-assertion (who you think you are) or an addiction to Cocaine, indicates that there isn’t a complete discrimination with respect to what is true about what you really are. To the liberated person no attachment whatsoever arises. For example to him or her there is no concern for self, that is no self-centeredness because there is ever-present recognition that other apparent persons are only apparent. This person knows that another person is just a manifestation of their own true Self. There is a habitual intuition that “I am Awareness and my neighbor is Awareness as well! Therefore how can I act selfishly towards my neighbor, he or she is Me!” (In fact this whole line of thought would never occur, the liberated would simply act dharmically – in harmony with what is.)
If there was however self-centered action, whatever it may be, though I may have recognized Awareness as my true nature I still forgot and fell back into the habit of being a “doer” trying to act on my own behalf. I fall back into the old perspective of being a person opposed to other persons. Then there’s anxiety about how these “others” wish to affect me. Do they want to harm “me” or help “me”, it’s all about “me” after all! Re-assuming these habitual patterns after recognition reveals that there is not sufficient dispassion for the appearance of things. Because there is not complete and perfected dispassion ones discrimination is clouded. You can’t fully re-cognize what you truly are because you are to some degree still under the influence of your attachments to what appears to be reality. You are only ignorant of the truth because you are attached to this world.
This is where my message diverges from others. I can not in good conscience tell you that if you truly recognize Awareness that’ll be the only time you’ll ever have to do it. Recognition is an ongoing process as far as the apparent person is concerned. That is until there is complete discrimination which has blossomed out of utter dispassion for the apparent world. Ignorance dissolves in the light of truth. Recognizing that you are only Awareness should move you to drop your attachment to sense-objects. I mainly focus on the self-assertion or ego-self. That’s because it’s the “I” which owns all the attachments to sense-objects. I can’t love getting drunk unless “I” am hanging around thinking I’m a separate person who enjoys drinking.
As you continue to read these recognize posts you should invest yourself in seriously investigating what is said. When you recognize that you are only Awareness you realize the “you” you thought you were was only a fiction. You can see then that all its desires, dislikes, habits, convictions, and beliefs are only an ignorant clinging to unreality. By continually seeing through the illusion of the self-assertion attachment to sense-objects falls away.
Recognition is simply another way to say discrimination. When we discriminate between what is real and what is not we recognize what is true, we re-member who we are. It’s like seeing a stranger in a dark alley, you have no idea who they are, then as they step into the light of a street lamp you recognize them as your friend whom your meeting for coffee. Darkness is ignorance and recognition is a lamp allowing the light of truth to dispel the darkness of avidya.
Therefore I can confidently recommend practices that foster both discrimination and dispassion. I have no problem taking account for the appearance of reality. Simply saying it’s all illusion and that you should drop it does nothing for an alcoholic. You teach him to recognize who he truly is, you encourage him to cultivate dispassion for what is not true. Complete dispassion and the eventual final discrimination between the real and unreal frees the addict from the attachment to drink. He must make an effort to put down the bottle, he must renounce alcohol in order to gain the clarity of mind to focus on the content of discrimination.
For attachment has one function being the diversion of attention away from Awareness. If you’re not looking at Awareness you’re looking at an object. If you reply, “Well “I’m” not looking at any thing!” then you’re only alternative is to be grounded in Awareness. Since a lack of things, sense-objects, leaves only objectless Awareness. An alcoholic can’t say that he’s not attached to alcoholism, so how can he be grounded in his true nature? Practice, the cultivation of discrimination and dispassion, is impossible if “I” do not exist…right? Yet have we not seen practice lead to the complete recognition of Awareness? As illusory as meditation for instance may be does it not calm the mind and cultivate the right conditions for recognition to occur?
“But isn’t that just one way, an illusory way? Why not just recognize Awareness and avoid the appearance of things altogether?” Sure we can do that, if your investigation results in a clear and permanent discrimination. This was the case with Ramana Maharshi, but how often do we see this happen in the apparent world?
In the next post I’ll elaborate more on practices that cultivate discrimination and dispassion, we’ll discuss precisely what preparation entails. For the time being I encourage you to continue investigating the nature of who you think “you” are, endeavor to simply re-cognize what was always true about your essential nature. But take some time as well to inventory any attachments you have. What things that you can’t help but continue to cling to repeatedly cloud your discriminatory faculty and cause amnesia. Why do you keep forgetting what you are? Be honest with yourself.
