AJA THOMAS ON CONSCIOUSNESS IN VEDANTA

Vedic priest Aja Thomas writes:

"People want to know what is God, and what is God consciousness. The reality is that consciousness IS God. Consciousness is totally singular, as is God. They are two names for one thing. The illusion is that there is an individual separate from God or separate from consciousness. The 'individual' seeks to know God or to be in God consciousness. But first one must understand what that individual is.

The 'individual' says "I am--" this or that. There is an assumption that they are limited, that the consciousness of 'I am' is limited. But when 'I am' is not equated with this or that, when it remains simply as consciousness, as awareness, it has no boundary. This is the consciousness which is 'God'. In the Bible, God says, "I am that I Am," not that God is this or that, but consciousness itself. The best example that can be given is that of the ocean and the wave. A wave is nothing but the ocean. A wave has no individuality of it's own. It is in fact only the ocean taking the form of a wave, pushing up as a wave. If the wave believes it is separate from the ocean, it may wish to reunite with the ocean. But water is water. There is not a boundary where the wave ends and the ocean begins. It is only the form which arises that suggests waveness different from the ocean.

If the wave were to inquire as to what it actually is, it would find that it is nothing but water. Not water as wave, but simply water. In the same way, if we inquire as to what we are, what is our pure subjectivity, we find that we are simply consciousness. All of the this's and that's are not what we are. When we say "I am this" or "I am that", we are identifying with an object. Even a statement like "I am consciousness" identifies us with something. But when we recognize that we are ONLY consciousness, there is nothing to limit us. The wave saying, "I am the ocean," suggests that there are two things, the wave and the ocean. But when God says, "I am that I am", there is not two things, only one. When we let go of any and every identification other than being pure consciousness, we are no longer limited to individuality or form. We are what is. There is not a separation between the consciousness that we are and the consciousness that God is. They are one consciousness, God arising or occurring as human, as everything. So the question is not, "What is God consciousness?", but rather, "What is NOT God consciousness?" It is only a matter of letting go of all identifications, including being God or not being God, being individual or not being individual. Simply be as pure consciousness, I am that I am, and then you are that all."

Aja Thomas is the author of In This Moment: Teachings on the Nature of Consciousness (2002).

MAYBE

The Big Bang, so-called, created our universe 13.2 billion years ago, give or take a billion. However, ours is not the only Big Bang, much less the only universe. Many more are occurring elsewhere all the time; space is endless and therefore there is no limit to how many Big Bangs and universes there can be.

Depending on these other Big Bangs, time in these other universes may be quite different than our time, some faster, some slower.

In all the universes there are life forms everywhere, ranging from the primitive to the complex. The more complex forms are self-aware or self-conscious, reflecting the greater consciousness that is the ground of being itself, from which everything emanates. Highly complex life forms may be essentially only consciousness, with little physical presence at all.

After the universes are created, they collapse eventually back into themselves, resulting in more Big Bangs. There is no end to this cycle, any more than the cycle once began.

And it has no purpose. It just is what it is and is as it is.

Still, something else is going on with all this. Other dimensions are present, what we call psychic dimensions. This is the realm of the paranormal, beginning with clairvoyance, extrasensory perception and the rest, and extending to, at the extreme, the occult. The more complex the life form, the more these psychic phenomena are experienced. What we call the spiritual world and what we experience as the "spiritual" is part of this psychic dimension. It is a universe all its own, conceivably.

Finally, the more complex the life form, the more readily it can know the ground of being. This knowing, however, is on an intuitive level, a feeling level, not on the level of the intellect, for the ground of being is not something separate from the complex form, not something to be looked at as an object by the subject complex form. The ground of being IS the complex form. The complex form IS the ground of being.

HOW TO BE A NOBODY

In an article entitled HOW TO BE A NOBODY, Aja Thomas, a Vedic priest in Portland, Oregon, talks about getting free of the egoic self as a way to liberation. He writes:

"No matter what spiritual path you're on, and particularly if it is somehow related to non-dualistic tendencies, i.e. Advaita Vedanta, most aspects of Buddhism, etc. the principle is that the 'individual' CAN'T get it. Why? Because the individualized person is an illusion, or at the very least, a temporary manifestation. Enlightenment, Awakening, Self Realization, God Consciousness, etc. are about either destroying, bypassing, avoiding, transcending, obliterating, or recognizing the illusion of that ego-self.

...For various reasons, depending on the philosophy, consciousness arises as, and/or, identifies with an individual egoic persona. That persona is an object of Awareness or Consciousness and can not (NEVER) be enlightened. And yet, a large percentage of people seeking 'enlightenment' DON'T get that. They want to BE the one who becomes enlightened. You know, the checklist model.... Graduate from college, get the mate, good job, get ENLIGHTENED, nice house, Ikea stuff, buff yoga body, etc. This is why they say the price for enlightenment is EVERYTHING!!!!!!

Or as Ashtavakra Samhita says it - "When there is an 'I,' there is BONDAGE; When there is NO 'I,' there is MOKSHA (Liberation)." So the prerequisite for Enlightenment is where there IS NO "I".

How I see this translated is something like a whole series of 'new age' or 'spiritual' books on the shelves of Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and of course on Oprah, with titles like:

How To Successfully Be A Nobody!
Nobodiness for Dummies!
Achieve Supreme Nobodiness NOW!
Everybody's Guide to becoming the Best Nobody Possible!
Being a Nobody for Fun and Profit!
The Perfect Guide To Being A Perfect Nobody!
The Better Guide To Being A Perfect Nobody!
The Best Guide To Being A Perfect Nobody!
Be a Better Nobody Than All Those Nobody Wannabes!
Be the Most Abundant, Cool, Prosperous, Good-Looking Nobody in the WORLD!
Screw All Those Other Nobody Posers - Be the REAL Nobody.

Of course, this would also open things up for innumerable satsangs, intensives, vacation retreats on how to become a Nobody, and how easy it is to be a Nobody, so you too can put out your Nobody shingle and be the world's most famous Nobody - more prosperous, beautiful, saintly, healing, loving, compassionate, etc. than all the other Nobodys (which of course translates into being able to charge a helluva lot more than the other Nobodys).

All right, I think we have MORE than driven the point home. So what is it REALLY to be a nobody? How is this 'achieved'? That is the quandary, isn't it?!

First, the simple part. What is it that stops you from actually being a nobody? It is the 'idea', the feeling, the experience that you ARE in fact a somebody. No matter what else is going on in your life, it appears to be predicated upon a sense of a 'YOU'. It all revolves around that. "I" am here. "I" experience this person here. "I" experience the world. "I" AM what is present. Even removing everything else, that basic feeling of "I AM" continues. But is that real? Who or what is 'aware' of the sense of "I AM"?

This is where "Self Inquiry" comes in. The 'process' is simple, but the undertaking of it is not necessarily. Depending on what 'process' you follow, it generally looks like one of these, or some variation of them:

1. Neti Neti, (not this, not that). Keep looking at whatever arises and separate it from the Awareness which is aware of it. "I am not the world because I am aware OF the world. I am not my thoughts or body or emotions because I am aware OF those things." And so on and so on until you're left with simply...
2. Abiding as the "I". This can also be called 'watching the watcher', or 'Being Aware OF Awareness'. Resting or abiding as the "I AM".
3. Resting in the 'Knowingness' that there IS ONLY ONE THING here, which includes both the Seer and the Seen and there is no REAL boundary between those apparent 'two'.
4. Contemplating that there is NOTHING BUT GOD, anywhere, ever, including that apparent something which is apparently contemplating it.

And so on...

The real key, however, is not so much which you do, but that you do it CONSISTENTLY AND CONTINUOUSLY. It is not a practice of 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at night. It should be done as much as possible 24 HOURS A DAY. Even then, it will generally be a few years of constant practice before YOU get it!!! Ha Ha, get it? YOU get it?!! Oh, never mind!

Wait, that's IT...... "NEVER MIND!" NO MIND!!!



The above article is found at Aja Thomas' blog, barnashram.blogspot.com.

BLOWING OUT

Alan Watts, in a lecture entitled "Limits of Language" that he gave in Philadelphia in 1973, states: "There is nothing you can do to liberate yourself, to change yourself, the reason for which is ringing loud and clear. The reason you cannot do anything about it is because you don't exist--that is as an ego, a separate will. It just isn't there. Well, when you understand this, you're liberated (the paradox).

When I say YOU, it is as you conceive yourself to be, that is as your ego, your image of yourself. It isn't there. It doesn't exist. It's an abstraction. It's like Three. Do you ever see Three, just plain, ordinary Three? No. Nobody ever saw it. It's a concept, a vikalpa. So in the same way is one's self. There is this happening, this suchness (physical existence), yeah, sure, you bet. But it's not pushing you around, because there is no YOU to be pushed around.

By dying to yourself, by becoming completely incompetent, and found that you don't exist, you are reborn. You become everything."

This view is echoed by J. Krishnamurti, not identified specifically with any religion, but whose heritage is Hinduism. He said, "There must be the understanding that there is nothing, nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing you can do to improve, transform, or better yourself. If you understand this completely you will realize that there is no such entity as YOU. Then if you have totally abandoned this ambition, you will be in the state of true meditation which comes over you spontaneously in wave after wave after wave of amazing light and bliss."

When one has died to himself, has accepted that he is not his socially-conditioned ego, he returns to beginner's mind, or no-mind, as Zen terms it. And what is beginner's mind, or no-mind, but consciousness alone, the so-called watcher or observer. And what is the watcher or observer but the divine itself watching, observing, witnessing itself doing what it does, hence "You become everything," as Watts puts it, Krishnamurti's "amazing light and bliss."

There is, however, an option. Beginner's mind, or no-mind, can be just this, just consciousness. It need not have attributes or be ascribed to any entity. It can just be. It can be Suchness, Tathata, that which is so of itself. All the same, it is experienced as peace, joy. It is the "blowing out" that is nirvana.