Click to receive updatesJnaneshwar: 13th Century Indian Saint
I'd like to share an original manuscript of Jnaneshwar, the 13th Century Indian Saint, and a commentary scribed by Chuck Surface, a divine yet humble friend, regarding this full and complete understanding. It beautifully captures the great secret of emptiness in it's entirety. it is the moment of realization that there never has been or will be anything but centerless, unlocatable, choiceless Love expressing itself infinitely.
Here is Chuck's commentary:
A phrase that perhaps best expresses the focus of advaitic teaching is, "Thou art That" – unlocatable, timeless, spaceless, Presence-Aliveness within which all appearance-manifestation-form arises. Not "This", the world of arising appearance-manifestation-form. Not "This", the body, mind, emotions, personal identity, and other aspects of the felt sense of a separate, embodied self. Advaitic teaching points, relentlessly, to "Not This, but That, thou art."
The advaitic phrase, "Neti, neti," or "Not this, not this" is used to negate all that is not "That". I am not the body, not the mind, not the emotions, sensations, perceptions, and feelings that are experienced. I am That within which all of these things arise. And on, and on. Not this, not this, not this... but That.
One day, bound in identification as a separate embodied entity, we come to the direct experience of them"self" as timeless, spaceless, Presence-Aliveness. And from that Experience of Being they declare, "I am That."
We begin...
I am this body, mind, and personal identity; an object existing separately from other objects in space and time.
And come to...
I am That within which, as which, all manifest form arises, including those feelings, perceptions, and sensations that formerly gave rise to the felt sense of embodiment and personal identity.
Little is said of "enlightening" beyond this "point", beyond the Experience of Existence as "That". And a common perception is that this is the be-all and end-all of enlightenment or awakening. But if one abides only as "That", one remains in a subtle duality; the "advaitic trap".
Perhaps it's the conditioning of years of advaitic sadhana itself that leaves a subtle residue of duality within the "Liberated" being; years of negating This, and Attention turned relentlessly to That. Perhaps the very path to Liberation conditions us. In the jubilation of Freedom, so often we see the planting of a flag, the summit declared, and all further "enlightening" dismissed.
For if "Thou art That", then what of... "This", the world of arising appearance-manifestation-form? Abidance merely as That is, in fact, a subtle identification. For where do "I" begin and end? Where is that place, that boundary, where Aliveness-Presence-Consciousness starts and stops?
As wondrous and rare as Existence as That is, Dharma expressions from this perspective can sometimes be lacking in Richness and Heart. For the View can be cerebral and transcendent, with a lingering disdain, however subtle, for what was, for so long, seen as the "Maya" of immanence.
Although the suffering of self-identity may have ceased, the full potential of Enjoyment has not yet been fully realized through the embrace of Shiva and Shakti, Transcendence and Immanence, "That" and "This" – the dissolution and completion of all duality; an Experience of Being in which:
I do not feel myself expanded as all that is,
A part of everything, and everything a part of me.
I do not feel myself as "That" within which all that is, arises,
Everything arising within me.
I do not feel myself...
At all.
What is, simply is,
And "I" am nowhere to be found.
A day comes when Consciousness forgets "you", entirely, and the felt sense of division between That and This, Shiva and Shakti, Formlessness and Form, however subtle it may have been, vanishes.
In this Experience of Being, the world of appearance-manifestation-form is transformed from the treacherous, dangerous harlot, Maya, into one's own Beloved Expression in Form. Form is Formlessness. Formlessness is Form. Negation and Confirmation, simultaneously both at once and, impossibly, beyond all duality, in the "logical contradiction" that is the closest expression of truth; for subtle, residual delusions have vanished; even the lingering identification of "I" as "That".
"Thou art That", the advaitans say,
"That", within which all arises.
"Neti, neti," they say.
Not this, not this, but only That, thou art.
All that arises is "Illusion", they say.
Only That within which all arises is "Real".
Such a compassionate lie,
A Loving deceit, useful for a time.
For thou art not simply That,
But This, as well.
Both That and This.
And Neither, of course.
For All is clearly Illusion... even... "That".
And yet, any fool can see that Everything is Real.
Far from the village,
Road vanished into path,
Path vanished into hillside,
Hillside vanished into Vastness,
The Known vanished into Wonder,
Look!
One of the most perfect expressions of this Experience of Being comes to us from Jnaneshwar, a 13th century saint who, although he lived only twenty-two years, left a profound impact on Hindu spirituality. In Jnaneshwar's writings, Shiva is the formless, unmanifest Absolute, and Shakti is manifest form. Shiva is "That", and Shakti is "This" – all that arises in and as That. But the most precious gift of Jnaneshwar is his communication in words of the inexpressible truth that Shiva and Shakti are One. Shakti is merely Shiva – unmanifest, objectless, unmoving – moving into and as form. Jnaneshwar brilliantly communicates this inexpressible truth through verse, in which "He" is Shiva, and "She" is Shakti.
If That is He,
And This is She,
Embrace, Relax, and Be.
There are "logical contradictions" galore in Jnaneshwar's writing. But if you read from your Heart, you'll be taken...
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