EsoBites: Real I: The Master Within (12)
October 17, 2016
Dissecting Brahman-Atman Operational Theory (6)
Based upon the significant originality and formulations of Atman in the Vedanta Schools, the philosophers and mystics of the Upanishads and post-Upanishads periods were unable to find a satisfactory compromise. In other words, they did not effectively apply the Law of the Library at Babel to the problem of Atman. Perhaps, the concept is too nebulous or beyond human reasoning?
The major impediment to accepting either the Advaitin or Dvaitin views, monism or dualism, is that the most parsimonious conceptualization of Brahman is “the state of nonexistence” (which you remember means exactly what it says–Brahman is what is without material and psychic description)
For Atman to be the ‘personal’ side of Brahman, it must be equal to Brahman and so cannot exist as an “I.” If it is nonexistent, then the words personal and impersonal are without meaning or significance with the totality of Brahman. For nonexistence cannot give rise to nonexistence, as nonexistence contains all imaginable and unimaginable possibilities and impossibilities for any potential physical/aphysical universe.
Subsequently, Atman is not equivalent to Brahman and to be experienced must have its residence within the confines of the physical/aphysical worlds. The most one can say is that Atman, or the personal God, is a projection of information, power, and malleable pattern into the confines of the manifest universe so that sufficiently evolved mental beings will formulate Sacred Being Images consistent with their level of evolution and structure of society. The purpose of these Sacred Being Images being to act as ‘chaotic attractors’ for initiating and maintaining conscious, or post-biological, evolution.
I have discussed how such Sacred Being Images are formulated in past discourses and leave review up to my dear readers. Unfortunately, I cannot be more concise as to how such Sacred Being Images are related to Brahman, as images are in existence and Brahman is in nonexistence.
However, the Sacred Being Image, or Atman, while not God Absolute, is a projected Sacred Being Image (formless until human-like creatures give it form) possessing a particular set of divine attributes (Knowing, Observing, Presence, Transcendence, Intending, and Caring). This Atman is the nidus, or the hub of the universal wheel of Creation as so is linked via the Noble Organ to all creatures. Atman continuously and altruistically bestows and radiates Light, Life, and Love to all creatures, awaiting patiently for a man or a woman, young or old, to feel that something is amiss in his or her life, and begin his or her path of conscious evolution, liberation, and so one.
As Atman is connected to the inner heart of every preconscious creature, Atman suffers the pains of existence even more so than we do. For Atman must suffer the agony of knowing that many are called to Atman, but only a few will ever succeed. And the loss of every ‘potentially perfected Soul-Personality’ is greater in magnitude than the suffering experienced by every loving mother who has lost a beloved earthly child from the day such losses began.
In truth, Atman, like Brahman, is not a Being in the sense that you and I are beings.
Atman “Just Is.” Atman is the “I AM THAT I AM.” Christians call Atman the “Holy Spirit or Comforter.” Nothing more can be said.
To finish this series on the meaning of the term, “Master Within” or “Inner Self,” I posit that the weight of scientific, psychoistic, and spiritual evidence is clearly against people being born into this world with a perfected Soul-Personality, with a perfect monad of Divinity, with a personal inner guardian Master, and similar concepts. The Master Within or Inner Self is a misnomer and needs to be discarded as such terms are confusing.
Rather, the Spiritual Source that Brahman, or God Absolute, places into each and every universe is a projection of God’s capacity to Love all creatures unconditionally. Brahman’s presence within our universe is Atman and it is to Atman we are drawn towards, as ‘That which Bestows all that is valuable onto us who can only receive.’
I call the link between myself and Atman, the Noble Organ. Kabbalists utilize terms built around the hanging Tree of Life. Gurdjieff would call such link, a Ray of Creation. Buddhists call such the Ancient Well-Tread” Path.