Signs of the Nameless Way of Balance

For the wise and sincere observer, the Nameless Way has a message at every crossroad,
announcing itself across every culture and every continent since the beginning of time.

☯ The home of every living being on Earth is the Way. The Way gives room to all living beings. Every single living being holds the way sacred. Their reverence for the Way, and their obedience to is authority, are natural and unforced. Exercise power in accordance with the Way, and people will not be violent or disruptive. If you have true knowledge, you know how to be ignorant. If you are truly strong, you have the strength to be weak.

☯ To have without possessing, to do without claiming credit, to lead without controlling ― these are the mysterious virtues of the Way. When we seek power, we lose the Way. When we lose power, we find the Way. But beware of taking pride in finding the way, for fear that you will start claiming to live by high moral standards ― and then lose the Way again. If you know when enough is enough, you know enough.

☯ Wise people hear about the Way, and try hard to follow it. Ordinary people hear about the Way, and wander on and off it. Foolish people hear about the Way, and make jokes about it. After all, if the Way were not funny, it would not be the Way. People of the Way follow the Way; they belong to the Way. Eventually by following the Way you arrive at a place of inaction; in that place nothing is done, and nothing is undone.

☯ People say that the Way's brightness looks like darkness; that advancing along the Way feels like retreating; that the Way is so soft that walking along it is hard. If you listen to the Way, it seems dull. If you taste the Way, it seems insipid. Yet you cannot get enough of it. The Way is to the world as a stream is to a valley, and a river to a sea.

☯ The Way is hidden, so it has no name. But only the Way can bring you into existence, sustain you, and fulfill you. Following the Way makes that which is, become what it should be. The Way never does anything; yet it leaves nothing undone. Through following the Way, human beings are fulfilled. If heaven deviated from the Way, it would fall apart. Through following the Way, heaven is pure.

☯ People who know the Way are observant, subtle, penetrating and wise. Their wisdom is too deep for others to fathom. To follow the Way is to be fulfilled and happy, without fulfillment. To follow the Way is to grow old, and yet constantly be young. If you follow the Way, there is nowhere for death to enter. All things that are contrary to the Way are fleeting. If you know what endures, you follow the Way, because the Way endures forever.

☯ A wise person leaves the egoistic self behind, and moves forward on the Way. A selfish ego is extraneous to human life; and by leaving it behind the wise person reaches the center of life. Why let the self go? Without letting go of the self, the soul's needs cannot be met. If my mind is modest, I shall walk on the Way. If my mind is arrogant, I shall walk in fear. The Way is long, going around many mountains; but people prefer shortcuts.

☯ Why was the Way honored in days of old? People believed that, if they sought the Way, they would find it. And they believed that if they needed shelter, the Way would provide it. Thus the Way was honored above all things under heaven. If you move by the light of the Way, your movement takes you nowhere. At the center of the wheel there is stillness. ☯

― Tao Te Ching

Pogo vs. Towers of Confusion - Epic Battles

General Confusion, the veiled enemy within our lines, slips in through the gates of deficient understanding of the efficient and latent factors, variables and patterns governing the actors and the field of activity in our existence. A stubborn human lack of insight offers him a safe haven, a virtually infinite breeding ground for his clandestine sabotage.

As thorough and symmetric understanding of our base existential dynamics decreases, entire infrastructures and establishments collapse — ground to dust and powder in the heat of their own increasing friction, meeting their demise with the cancer of pathological asymmetry, leaving but a residue of ashes scattered in the winds of entropy. To gain a clear perspective, Pogo has to conquer the Towers of Confusion first.

Pogo starts his quest up the long and slippery steps of the Tower of Confusion.
He needs to press the red button at the top and take the whole tower down.

The Troops of Entropy, led by General Confusion, will mercilessly burn to ashes world empires, nations, corporations and companies, social environments, networked platforms, software architectures, and even your very own psychological domains. The Winds of Entropy and the slow-acting Poisons of Confusion can decimate everything from the smallest microcosm to the greatest macrocosm.

Learn to observe and understand the dynamics across your systems, seek to transcend the pandemonium through astute wisdom. Understand the functional symmetries of your environment, and seek to nourish and advance them with your thoughts and actions. Symmetry leads to balance, and balance is a prerequisite platform for happiness and fulfillment — rewards rarely found on the slippery slopes of confusion.

If you drive a submarine, you can move under the waves of Confusion.
Otherwise, cultivating a high lung capacity can be a versatile asset —
especially in a two-player game with a one-seater bubble submarine.

"Pogo starts from the bottom and has to find his way up to the top. Along his way to the top of the tower, Pogo encounters many different enemies, mostly shaped like basic geometric shapes. Pogo can shoot some of the enemies, while some are impervious to shooting. Contact with an enemy knocks Pogo down to the ledge below. If there is no ledge below, Pogo falls into the sea and drowns. Once he has reached the top of the tower, Pogo needs to enter a door to trigger the tower's destruction mechanism. After that, the tower crumbles to the sea. " 

Nebulus was one of my great inspirations during my early formative years with technology. Pogo's enemies, as the common problems we encounter in our lives, are mostly shaped like basic geometric shapes. The trick to success is to gain extra lives on the way up, because Pogo will unavoidably fall to the sea at times as the Troops of Entropy are raging in full spirits. The better Pogo can understand the nefarious moves and strategies of General Confusion, the smoother his conquest of the towers of confusion and entropy will become. Thumbs up for Pogo — he's my childhood hero!

Five Inner Merits for Better Communication

Yahoo Shine published a fresh and "real simple" psychology piece by Amanda Armstrong under the heading 5 Ways to Win People Over, or how to deal with situations where you don't seem to link with others, and need to create a sense of synergetic connection to improve communication and cooperation. It's simple if you can take a moment to reflect on it and put it into practice — and it gets awfully complicated if you don't or won't!

Alexander the Great is famous for cutting the endless Gordian Knot.
Before using a sword to get heard, please consider the following options.

Armstrong's interviews with professional "influencers" resulted in five simple considerations on how to deal and not deal with people. When things just don't seem to click, keep the following in mind:

1. Puncture your own ego — or cut a bit of slack and be less serious about yourself and your pride,
2. Don’t be needy — or don't recruit people to ride your hectic roller-coaster only to scare them away,
3. Tell someone (nicely) what he/she has to lose — or present the reasons behind a prospect instead of building up mirages,
4. Throw a curveball in conversation — or first find common ground and then build toward the actual issues at hand, and
5. Reiterate the other person’s argument — or think of yourself in his/her shoes, and show that you actually understand their position.

Be sure to read the source article for more on the why and how of these five simple adjustments to your approach. Let's have a look at the background and ponder the inner mechanics behind, if only to escape from the often unavoidable reality of people manipulating and abusing others under unsavory pretenses. If you communicate, you have an ethical responsibility even with the best of tricks in your arsenal.

These five simple approaches to help win people over hold a strong inner merit — which is why they work to begin with, because actual positive inner prospects become shared. Your success in communication is a reflection of your own inner state. Always remember and never forget — inner peace and a sense of connection and security are attractive prospects for one and all.

The positive prospects in the above list arise from (1) absence of obsessive ego, (2) absence of greed and thoughtlessness, (3) helpful attitude of goodwill, (4) perception of unifying perspectives, and (5) a "do-unto-others" mentality with the perspective shift — and they help both you and others around you.

On the other hand, when you (1) push your ego without giving in, (2) rock on "I want it all and I want it now", (3) prefer mirages over helpful realism, (4) doggedly push on and refuse to listen and pay attention, or (5) fail to see and relate to others' perspectives — it's all downhill from there onwards.

Even while it all sounds simple, the fact is that we're all too often so lost and conditioned in our small worlds that even the simplest of considerations seem like an ocean away. As patterns and systems of advancing narrow selfish and partisan agendas escalate and collide, they give rise to degeneration, corruption and violence, ensuring a healthy dose of mayhem and pandemonium for everyone, despite possible best intentions in absence of virtue and wisdom.

Prophets emerge and diverse systems of faith and ethics are created in forming a common playground, to prevent the emerging chaos and the evils of ill will, poor spirit, and general disarray. Over time, these establishments forget their essential wisdom and virtue, degenerating and ultimately only further advancing the same dynamics they once sought to prevent. The exact same patterns are at play with nations that initially form to serve the interests of the people, and then proceed to leech and feed on the citizens as the inequalities escalate.

Wouldn't it be sweet if everyone could read and understand a simple bullet-point list, like the ones seen in this blurb? They could just grasp the basic points on spirituality and wisdom, be happy and be done with it, and move onward to living positive lives — instead of battling their own shadows until the bitter end of their days.

Embodiment of wisdom and virtue is what I consider true and beneficial transhumanism — not the prospect of plugging a hard drive into one's head, only to contain even more information...

Metric Soul and Divided Minds & Divinities

"A one-hundredth part of a hair's tip, and again split into hundred,
this fragment is the living self or soul, also conceived of as endless."
(Svetasvatara Upanisad, 5.9)

The following text is drawn and expanded from my reply to a friend's query on the Upanisadic descriptions of the soul being the size of a ten-thousandth of the tip of the hair, and at the same time pervade the body; in general, the diverse depictions of the soul to be of a particular measure can come across as confusing. The second half of the post discusses the greater "divided spirit" issue of God and soul.

Oxymoron of Metric Soul

The soul, if we choose to believe in one that is, being an immaterial spirit-substance, cannot have a scale of comparison with matter. It is no more the size of a proton than it is the size of a hamburger or a Polish truck-driver. It is neither proportionate nor disproportionate to the object it appears to animate, for it has no proportion in common with inanimate matter.

Of course one might compare the soul to a lamp and the pervading of the body to its rays in a room, and that's a rather appropriate analogy as long as we forget about our attempts to pin it out on the metric scale. Both the lamp and the rays are finite objects, as are the individual jiva-soul and his field of awareness; hence the metaphor works in this application.

Technically speaking, the soul pervades and animates the body through the conscious mental functions (citta) filtered through the medium of ahankara conjointly with Antaryamin, the Inner Regulator or the so-called "super-soul" (paramatman). The antaryamin is variously identified as Ishvara (Supreme God) or Atman (Supreme Self) in differing schools of thought.

Atisayokti - Literary Exaggeration

Everything in the scriptures is a mixture of literal and metaphorical. There is svabhavokti or statement (ukti) reflecting or object's own (sva) nature (bhava), and there is atisayokti or excessive (atisaya) statement. All the four standard atisayoktis in the alankara-shastra (e.g. Alankara-kaustubha: 8.23), or the classical Indian corpus of books on  literary composition and criticism, feature departures from the literal or face-value meaning.

The third excessive metaphorical statement, where the impossible is being stated, is the one we are primarily after at the moment, for the soul has no material scale. Therefore, the statement of comparison is an impossibility. The two first atisayoktis are comparisons to other objects (and I suppose taking this as a hyperbolic diminutive would be every bit as valid), the other overt and the other covert, and the fourth features effect as simultaneous with or preceding the cause.

If we were to indeed indeed pursue this literally, as fundamentalists frequently do, we would have to first ask whether this proverbial hair is Afro-American, French or Vedic Indian — perhaps the sage in question split his own hair tip into 10,000 pieces and compared it to his soul, discovering it was an exact match under his microscope? Did he split it with a Vedic hair-splitter? Perhaps everyone's soul is 10,000 tip of their own hair? This again is problematic for men with thinning hair or baldness; their souls must be approaching limbo...

God and Souls - Divided Minds

A related field of paradox is in the supposed division that exists between the Jiva-Atman and the all-pervasive Brahman or ultimate God. From where I look at things, Advaita-vedanta is quite right in insisting that the atman (which is equated in the realization-stage with the brahman although brahman and brahman alone was the atman was all along) cannot be factually divided into individual soul-units, and that the individuality in question is only a temporary illusion rooted in Avidya or primal ignorance. This is naturally solved with the acquisition of Jnana or knowledge proper.

Let us assume the presence of an individual "soul fragment", a separate conscious unit. Fragments by definition cannot have the same quality as an unbreakable whole, for they differ in the quality of being fragmentable. Again, if the great whole can be divided into fragments, a second is thereby posited next to the non-dual, leading to a number of questions on the unique nature of the supposed one and the greatest non-dual spirit proclaimed across the Upanishads.

The Theory of Simultaneous Difference-Nondifference

Gaudiya Vaishnavism proposes an inconceivable symbiotic difference-cum-non-difference solution to the issue under the heading of acintya-bheda-abheda. Aristoteles would insist things either are or are not, for they cannot be both. A follower of Jiva Goswami's would then employ the acintya-shakti defence: You need to believe that God has the power to not make sense to make headway with the dilemma.

All too often, the inconceivability card is a handy answer to each and every equation that doesn't exactly add up because a transcendent object is beyond logical derivation and accessible perception. This leaves me wondering whether this God does not become irrelevant altogether, stretching entirely out of our objective human grasp and contact as he does.

Of course we also have the standard explanation with the shakti-vada and the nonduality between the energy (shakti) and the energetic (shaktiman), the former of which would include all of us and the inanimate world. Not the least of the problems is the fact that shakti-vada has nothing to do with Vedanta and everything to do with the tantric tradition.

Setting aside doctrinal purism and strict Vedanta interpretation for a moment, the tradition of Kashmiri Saivism which is the root of the shakti theory also features an extensive existential grid, in many ways unique, and in many others parallel to the Vedic Sankhya and its model of causal derivation.

All of that notwithstanding, the problem of evidently divided consciousness between us and God remains. I for one do not possess all the knowledge of God, indicating we are clearly separate units of consciousness. There is little practicality to the proposal of the every-day experience of me being one with a personal and actively omniscient God.

Like Sun and Sunshine?

Omniscience indicates a flawless and all-pervading entity or state of being. This one, all-knowing and all-encompassing God is all that is. Shakti cannot be classified as a second separate unit, even as dependent and subordinate, for this would be introducing dualism, the existence of a second beside God; assuming the non-duality of God and creation, one would expect us souls to share of the same pristine strata of undivided and omniscient existence.

The simile of the sun and the sunshine should be understood for what it is: a simile. A simile does not constitute proof in and of itself, it is a manner of illustrating a more abstract principle. The problems we run into applying this to the case at hand are manifold.

The most obvious of all is the fact sun and sunshine do not feature a known conscious property, whether unified or divided; both are mechanical, passive factors incapable of decision-making, unlike soul and god. Independent decision-making and limited or unlimited fields of awareness, in turn, are the very factors begging the question to begin with.

If a simile is employed in illustrating simultaneously one and different consciousness(es), and especially in the capacity of proof, it should be a comparison of strict equals.

A Monistic Angle

There is a very vivid and distinct duality here, indicating we need to either admit to the non-reality of duality and divided consciousness, labeling them as a mere illusion (and moreover an illusion occuring in Brahman with no existence to its occurence), or do away with an undivided and omniscient, yet eeriely antropomorphic God.

Advaita-siddhanta considers Isvara (personal god) to be the most you can see of the nondual absolute through the veil of maya; as ajnana or individual ignorance is dispelled, the ignorance concerning duality is dispelled, and the one atman alone remains aglow. The doctrine of atman then becomes a de-facto doctrine of anatman, for there was no everlasting individual soul to begin with.

Neither duality nor nonduality are entirely satisfactory for a philosophical answer. I don't have an exact answer for the way all stuff works, though I do have some cool ideas I need to explore a bit further. The citta-matram doctrine of the Yogacara-school of Buddhism, the theory of an unified mind-field and repository consciousness or alaya-vijnana, comes across as rather fascinating to me, and also correlates with some of my experiences.

Summa Summarum

My preferred approach to the question, independent of any scriptures, is to conceive of a single mental field in which both the Ishvara and the jivas are fluctuation in greater or smaller degrees. The only factual omniscient potential is in the universal mind-field, an uninvolved, egoless all-containing entirety, where no catalyst (ahankara) for individuality exists; hence seeing without a seer is actualized. The concept appears to make seamless sense to me, independent of conformance to any ancient or contemporary theories.

In the end, fiddling with lofty philosophical formulations amounts to little more than an entertaining mind-game fulfilling our intellectual urges. Otherwise, assumptions of mastery of a theory may help one to comfort himself and bring order into the surrounding chaos, or to command and conquer existence through comprehension.

Nirvana and God remain lurking in the fabric of the harmony, peace, clarity and joy of an independent nature we discover within ourselves through personal experience, introspection and natural immersion. Even if we all have our respective philosophies and mythologies with diverging particulars, it really doesn't matter a damn thing as long as you arrive at the conclusive non-dual One-Zero paradox at the end.


Related satire from Dissociated Press: Hare Krishna Swami Loses Soul - Downtown Helsinki (DP)

Dichotomy of Light and Darkness

Winter solstice, past by a mere moment now, marks the transition from darkness to light, from death to new life. Yet one more cycle in the grand order of nature has rolled its course and revolves anew, the time of renewal is at hand. While the Indians were also very aware of the peaks and transitions in the universal cycles, especially so in the ancient Vedic times, it was in the North where the extremes stated their presence.

Many of you may have been following Uma's series on the old pagan celebration of Yule, the rebirth of Mother Nature, later remodeled into a grand Christian celebration with an eerie abundance of pagan symbols and practices. While the celebration of these transitions of universal reach indeed has its place in the mesocosmic sphere, a natural turn in the human fabric of old, it is not those I write of today. I'm about to dig deeper into the superficiality of the good-evil duality often imposed on worlds of light and darkness.

The Ancient Aryan Divide

The division into good and evil is regrettably not as clear-cut as God versus Lucifer or Christ versus Antichrist, a lesson well learned from the ancient Indian evolution of religion. Vasistha was among the leading Vedic seers, while for the Zoroastrians he was among the villains. While asuras were the bad guys for the Vedic seers, Ahura-Mazda (or Asura-Maya in Sanskrit, a close relative of the Avestan language of the Parsis) was the lead monotheistic deity of the Zend-Avesta scripture.

These two polar religions came to plant the seeds of two very different religious traditions. Zoroaster was a grand-ancestor for the doctrines of a dual god and anti-god, the expectance of a messiah and a linear approach to the cosmic order. The Abrahamic tradition, or Judaism, Christianity and Islam, evolved in a mixture of Zoroastrian ideals and the ongoing evolutions in Egyptian and Middle-Eastern native polytheistic systems.

A whole different branch and orientation of religion, the greater part of which goes under the loose label of Hinduism in the contemporary world, evolved from the root of the ancestry of Vedic seers. Hinduism as we know it is a loose amalgamation of distinct traditions that evolved under shared cultural premises, a most heterogeneous compilation held together with unitarian texts such as the Bhagavad-gita.

The fact that the two religious divides forming the vast majority of the Earth's population is on a deep level divided almost as deep and fundamentally as the grand cosmic order of the ancient cultures is every bit as exciting as it is scaring. It is then little wonder that the Abrahamic dualist heritage has always sought to reform all known cultures and peoples into the faith of the one true savior, one supreme deity and one word of god, or a succession of subsequent revelations in the case of later traditions.

The Indic tradition, on the other hand, unsubscribed from an ontology that assigned them among the evil, in both its root movements. While the direct descendant of the brahmana-tradition, the heritage of the Vedic seers, maintained a sense of duality evident in the legends of the Puranas, it was against a canvas of higher, nondual ideas evolving from the old Upanishads, tense and often asystematic philosophical discourses that sought the deepest essence of the Vedic sacrifical religion. The Sramana tradition, to which the Buddhists and the Jains are the only surviving heirs, sought to eliminate the realm of duality altogether, and in doing that went so far as to do away with the supreme deity himself.

The roots of the ancient good-evil divide appear to lie in an ancient conflict tearing apart a single cultural heritage, a world where the devas and the asuras dwelled together. Mitra and Varuna, a dual deity of whom the latter is well known as an oceanic deity in the Puranic lore, are in fact among the asuras of the Rig-vedic tradition — asuras receiving oblations just as the devas did. The details of the evolution effectively reduce the concept of an absolute, primordial divide into a partition much more complicated and human, into the internal disagreements of an ancient sacrificial, fire-worshiping culture.

Powers of Light and Darkness

Neither light nor darkness possess inherent ethical value; they are neutral potentials reposed in their own nature. As darkness clouds, creates mystery and brings towards unity, light unveils, explains and exposes a vast arena of plurality prior to growing so bright as to grow all-engulfing, thereby becoming essentially one with darkness again, a field of a single, undivided nature containing all of reality in its ever-vibrant lap. (Udesidning: An ancient Nordic way of integration in darkness.)

Nothing is good or evil of its own nature; all depends on the application, and moreover the applier. Magic is neither good nor evil owing to its technical procedure of conjuration, whether born of light or darkness, white or black. The divider of good and evil is in the human choice between benevolence and malevolence, between sacrificing and feeding the egotic drive consuming its objects to grow stronger.

A transcender of duality wields light and darkness with equal might, regardless of his preference, a preference that in its fundamental essence is only a latent sensation of the past, a game or an amusement of sorts, unbinding to the player who has ascended from a participancy to entertained spectatorship. Having seen the pinnacles of light and darkness under the ancient egotic drive, one evolves into a seer of non-duality, experiencing the inherent voidness of reality as we know it.

With the diffusion of apparent essence and substance into ethereal streams, one transcends stereotypic moral assessments and dwells in a lasting perception of inherent and foundational unity, even while an adept conventionalist as needed in the common world. The art of life has now been mastered.

The Old Pagan Approach

While the philosophical sophistication of Indic traditions is often lacking in ancient native religions, they do an amicable job in the practical transcendence of duality in living in a seamless harmony with nature and gods in their own world of mythos. In fact, many ancient native traditions supersede the seclusion-seeking Indic mystics in their ability to interact with plurality in a state of active integration, perhaps with a flavor of the smooth and flowing natural Tao of the Chinese — a quality I've always been in tremendous awe of!

The action-in-knowledge tradition also found its exponents among the Buddhists with the gradual evolution of Buddhism first into Mahayana, and onwards into an admixture with the tantric tradition especially prominent in Tibet. In the Tibetan model, Hinayana and Mahayana, or the lesser and the greater vehicles, are stepping stones into the highest dimension of vajra-sattva, the lightning-strata, where one becomes a wielder of cosmic powers, conquering and subjugating the energetic release produced in the meeting of the fundamental dualities of nature, the energetic bases of archetypal male and female energy, personified as the man and the woman of the human world.

Transcending and mastering the fundamental fabric of existence, the conscious being evolves into a god-like state of integration with the flow of the cosmos, unveiling the infinite peace and inner ecstasy ever-present in the ultimate non-dual god-experience. Consciousness employs a third strata beyond light and darkness, the infinite halls of existence itself. Night turns into a day and day yet again into a night. Winter falls over the fertile summer fields, spring awakens Mother Nature to life anew. Light and darkness rise and fall time and again of their own accord; the wheel of existence revolves forevermore.

Infrequentia Commedia

Art is a bizarre way of exploring your subconscious mind. The other day, my notepad started filling up with curious sketches, one stranger than the other, tying together into a small tale. Tale of a journey to the farther shore of emptiness.


Increasing perception of emptiness can come across as a very disorienting experience. It's as if one were born into a strange new world, a world where nothing is quite the same it used to be.


It's as if a strange brew of entheogenic herbs had been prepared in the lady viper's cauldron. The world comes across as radically different, a transfiguration of mind and matter unfolds before our very eyes.


Re-examining the validity of existential premises including the very reality of ego itself, the conglomerating agent of human experience, can lead to a period of confused identity.


The ego, once so glamorous and proud, disintegrates and resolves itself, leaving the unlabeled interdependent phenomena reposing in their own essential nature. Ah, ego, that facade, the pestilence of worlds!


This new reality of emptiness-cum-fullness blows socks off the feet of even profound philosophers and mighty meditators. The expansion of consciousness stretches beyond one's wildest imaginations.


Equipped with vivid experience of reality au naturel and the co-arising wisdom, one descends towards the highest heavens of nirvana. It really is a journey nowhere, a journey that must stop before it starts to reach its objective.


But the journey is odd indeed. It's as if the very fabric of the universe were poked full of holes, revealing dimensions where the laws of conditioned existence no longer apply.


Unweaving the dense and intricate web of karma is a mission impossible by mending individual karmas. One must destroy the efficient root principles to accomplish summary karmic resolution.


Going too high and too fast can lead into delirious states. Yet madness can be profoundly true and impactful, heard from a true baul from the land of shunyata. Crazy wisdom they call it, unconvential twists in a world of conventions.


Inability to cope with the disorientation and the necessary holistic renewal of the psyche can easily lead to neurosis. We're playing with fire, ladies and gentlemen. This is not a drill.


Nature seeks to resolve itself. Step off the grid, let the universe flow its way. Orient yourself to the dharma matrix. The distracting ego dissipated, harmony prevails in a world of chaos.

On Emptiness and Relish

The very concept of emptiness (shunyata in Sanskrit) is often seen as antithetical to emotions, enjoyments, and the richness of the flavors of life. This understanding proceeds from a deficient concept of shunyata, from an insufficient grasp of Buddhist fundamentals, and from a lack of skill to integrate apparent conflicts into a single mental framework.

In fact, it is only with the attainment of shunyata and its constituent tranquil space that any real flavor and texture in life can be fully experienced. Shunyata is the very platform on which as-is existence is experienced, in its natural flavor and free of projections. Here are some beneficial angles and applications on reaching emptiness.

 A blank sheet of paper is ideal for new artwork. Have that neutral sheet in your mind.
You can remember this image and return it to your mind when you need clarity and space.

The Quiescent Platform of Experience

The old Indian authors developing the theory of rasa, or the dynamics of emotion and aesthetic flavor in drama (natya-shastra), insisted that this rasa, literally "juice" or "essence" representing the rich flavor of emotion in exchanges and relationships, can only be experienced as-is on the tranquil platform of sattva, a serene, crisp and tender plane of existence.

In other words the involved actor, or a person in real life if we extend the application of the theory beyond dramatics, is not the proper experiencer of rasa. The flavor or rasa of the drama is appreciated in full only through vicarious experience, an experience where the emotions are seen in their own nature on a neutral mind-platform.

It was Abhinava Gupta (ca. 950-1020 CE) of Kashmiri fame, one of the most significant dramatic theorists in the history of classical Sanskrit literature, who developed the concept of shanta-rasa or "the flavor of peace", and aptly observed:

''All emotions, when their respective conditions or excitants arise, proceed from shanta; and when the conditions are withdrawn, they again merge or repose in shanta.''

Shanta, literally "peacefulness", is a quiescent, tranquil and detached state of mind. It is a state where the mind is wholly undistracted by the urges that accompany us in our daily lives, a state where the happiness of serenity predominates over all common – and even vulgar – flavors of human experience. You can think of shanta as the happy background-radiation of all existence.

Some theoreticians of drama have built a metaphoric bridge between the traditions of Natya and Vedanta, stating that the simultaneous experience of aloofness and the fullness of emotional thrill was equivalent to the experience of the bliss of moksha or liberation the jnanis (wisdom cultivators) savor. A cultivated individual with the ability to understand and relish the fullness of the nature of emotion and exchange is called a rasika, or a connoisseur of emotional flavors.


Shunyata: The Ultimate Platform

In classical Buddhist thought, shunyata or emptiness does not refer to a state of a final void and emptiness as an objective entity or domain. Rather, shunyata is a characteristic defining existence (often called samsara, as in "the world we live in"), and as such is inherently tied with it. Samsara and nirvana sojourn hand in hand.

The perpetual flux of mind and matter animating the universe is in and of itself empty of purpose, being fundamentally transitory. The natural plainness and peace of shunyata is compromised by the individual personal ego projecting and superimposing its value assessments on phenomena. As the personal ego resolves, shunyata or the beautiful natural plainness of reality shines forth.

The factors preventing us from experiencing the fullness of life, the countless distractions and disturbances, all spring forth from the active personal ego. With the pollutant introduced as a central element of our experience, indeed at times with deluded vigor and immense craving, our experience of the world is reduced to a neurotic reflection of its richness, and life in general becomes less agreeable in its nature.


Samsara and Nirvana

With the distracting and neurotic ego resolved with wisdom arising from meticulous introspection and contemplation, nirvana or the wholesome quietening of existence is experienced. It is as if the orchestra had just played its final note, leaving the crisp, attentive atmosphere of the concert hall in a state of profound, active stillness. The orchestra is still present, as is the concert hall. And so is samsara.

As to whether there truly is parinirvana (final post-death emancipation), or what exactly an egoless, disembodied and undivided reality is, is not of much concern for us. Our lives are lived here and now, and for us the world of samsara is a vivid reality that cannot be wished away, one that is only temporarily shunned by even the best meditators, only to return once again owing to the inevitable tie between the world and the constituents of our psyche.

The options at our disposal are then two-fold. We can choose to lead a life of extreme outer detachment, the ascetic's way, seeking to escape the surrounding reality into an emulated and underdeveloped parinirvana-state time and again. And on the other hand, we can choose to lead a life of integration and reconciliation with the world, being in it but not of it. And it is this latter option that I consider wholesome, an option offering the best of both worlds.

In observing the transitory nature of the world, in observing the ego-less nature of reality, and in observing the inevitable rise and fall of joys and sorrows, one grows immune to the ego-grown poisons of greed, hatred and delusional states. One observes the plain yet rich beauty of both mind and matter, fully involved yet wholly uninvolved, deploying but a functional ego (contra the personal ego) to accomplish his natural tasks.


The Texture of Life

I would quote from Chögyam Trungpa (1939-1987), a perceptive author who has had a substantial influence on my outlook on life. It is especially the psychological dimensions of his writing that I find to be of profound value. Quoting from "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism":

"So the real experience, beyond the dream world, is the beauty and color and excitement of the real experience of now in everyday life. When we face things as they are, we give up the hope of something better. . . . Depression and ignorance, the emotions, whatever we experience, are all real and contain tremendous truth. If we really want to learn and see the experience of truth, we have to be where we are." (p. 60)

"We have to be brave enough to actually encounter our emotions, work with them in a real sense, feel their texture, the real quality of emotions as they are. We would discover that emotion actually does not exist as it appears, but it contains much wisdom and open space. The problem is that we never experience emotions properly." (p. 236)

If only we can bring ourselves to a still for a moment, letting the present speak for itself without painting it all and around with our coloring perceptions, the beauty of the constantly renewed presence of the ongoing moment becomes as vivid, charming, eloquent and unique as anything could ever be. There is wonder in every nuance, there is flavor in its every fiber. With the silencing of the ego, lady reality emerges from the shadows for her pristine dance.


Nothing Really Matters...

When all things become equally beautiful, when the mind finally halts the wheel of positive and negative associations and evaluations, all directions of life's flow gain equal fascination. Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me...

Nothing really matters,
Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters,
nothing really matters to me...

The later life of Trungpa Rinpoche is a rather fascinating tale. This 11th reincarnation in the line of Trungpa tulkus, who moved to England for his studies at Oxford, eventually disrobed and acted as a lay-teacher, establishing numerous institutions and centers across the world. He also became an alcoholic, and was known for his harem of girlfriends. By any ordinary standard of assessment, he touched the bottom pretty hard — even if he never left his teacher's shoes.

His history reminds me of Nisargadatta Maharaj, one of the brightest lights of Advaita-vedanta in the 20th century. Despite his vast popularity and its potentials, he chose to live his later years in the suburbs of Mumbai, working at his bidi shop nearby and teaching in his home at his spare time. His choice of profession wasn't without its toll — he eventually died of cancer.

Each of us has an infinite stock of karma, a stock of action seeking to resolve itself in its unique way. Bondage lasts as long as one tries to modify or unweave the web of actions through his vigilant endeavors; in that, the chain of karma is only extended further. With the stilling of the ego and the subsequent dissociation from the reactions affecting our bodies and minds, one becomes an unopinionated observer of the nature's drama. Its course doesn't really matter any more.

There is no longer any impetus for protecting a fragile ego-facade, there is no dependence on anyone or anything — what to speak of subservience to others' opinions. Pain and pleasure become equally interesting and disinteresting. Life and death become irrelevant and insignificant inevitabilities. There is a realization of full independence. And independence means I am free to let everything glide down the sewer and laugh at it, watching the drama unfold. And in that independence, liberation shines in its own nature, calling for no effort for its sustenance.

To touch the full spectrum of life, 
One must cross the gates of nirvana 
That are nowhere to be seen or found.

Transcending Guilt

The issue of being guilt-ridden is one of the heaviest and gloomiest facets of spirituality on many paths. In the theistic paths it takes the form of an external projection of conscience into a god-entity that oversees and forms ethical evaluations of our activities based on a given traditional standard. In non-theistic paths there is no "fear of god" per se, but in an ego-serving pursuit of spiritual materialism the spiritual ego is enthroned as the deity in slavery to which our puny lives are led.

There is however good and evil beyond the psychological distortions caused by either of the above two views, a sense of objectivity. There are wholesome and unwholesome activities, activities conducive to our and others' peace, welfare and happiness, and activities counterproductive to the same aim. Yet in this, there is no inherent psychological guilt distortion — you are your own master, and in the end only you alone are responsible for your activities. Not only that, but really it is only you yourself that you need to face with your decisions — your puny life really doesn't mean anything to anyone else in the end. And in the end of ends, it won't matter even to you...

Growing to this awakening, initially shocking and explored with a great sense of dare, was a great sense of relief for me. Literally, it was as if I had breathed fresh air again after living for a decade in a stagnated, dark basement. There was no longer any "employer" or "master" — there was just the free I, there to act as I will, in knowledge that I bear the good and bad results of my activities myself alone.

I alone am responsible, and I have a free choice. If I choose to engage in unwholesome activities, I will experience suffering in the future, while wholesome acts will lead to happiness. I can, however, choose to act in unwholesome ways if I am willing to bear the burden. I am free to do wrong, if just for the sheer experience, knowing the harmful effects of the activity on the body and the mind, both conscious and subconscious, something to confront with responsibility and integrity, seeing the causal bondage inherent in all activity.

The absence of an ultimate, lasting overseer gives you a great deal of fresh airy space to live in. It's just about you and your destiny. Period. And in the end, when the ephemeral and transitory nature of the ego-entity is understood, there is even no self before whom we would suffer from a sense of guilt. There is only the ever-present here and now, the focal point of experience. At this point, acts tend to automatically be geared towards the wholesome, being that they are in harmony with the natural flow of the universe, the imposing and friction-generating ego-agent having been dissolved.

Of course it's good to always retain a healthy inner imperative and a sense of integrity in our lives. In the interim, in reaching higher levels of enlightened existence, we should be — for our own sake — cultivating wholesome activities that lead to the purification of the mind, to freedom from greed, aversion and the myriads of delusions that condition us. But if you slip around or fall, there's no metaphysical entity with the powers or the right to issue judgment. There are just the mechanics of nature. And that's all there is.

And experiencing this open, spacious quality of nature sans ego is the heart of all spirituality. The deities and the rest are just so many cherries on the cake, present but without any real impact on the nutritional value of the food. It's deeply psychological in the end. Implode and introspect, get back to the basic elements of your psyche and your existence.

Wallowing in self-pity and feelings of guilt, we invoke a gloomy, darkening sky above our heads. There is little benefit in this in terms of empowering you with the mental factors necessary for progressive spirituality. Let go of the dark skies, let go of the gloom pervading your being. Expose yourself to the sunshine, to the wide blue skies. Fly and fly, higher and higher, glide across the majestic sky. Be you that eagle.

The Spacious Quality of Emptiness

People may wonder what drives a man to engage in diverse charitable, environmental and humanitarian activities, in hands on activism to help heal the world, after a decade of meditation and commitment to other-worldly attainments.

Some would see that as a falling of grace of sorts, believe it or not! Let me quote an old favorite author, Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, biting into one of his favorite themes. That is, bashing the Mayavadis (Advaita-vadis, monists, the Shankara tradition):

"The Mayavadi philosophers, therefore, adhering to the slogan brahma satyam jagan mithya ("spirit is true, world is false"), want to refrain from false, materialistic activities. They want to stop all activities and merge in the Supreme Brahman. According to the Vaisnava philosophy, however, if one simply ceases from materialistic activity one cannot remain inactive for very long, and therefore everyone should engage himself in spiritual activities, which will solve the problem of suffering in this material world.

"It is said, therefore, that although the Mayavadi philosophers strive to refrain from materialistic activities and merge in Brahman, and although they may actually merge in the Brahman existence, for want of activity they fall down again into materialistic activity. Thus the so-called renouncer, unable to remain in meditation upon Brahman, returns to materialistic activities by opening hospitals and schools and so on." — Srimad Bhagavatam 7.13.27, commentary

There is, however, an alternative interpretation to this pattern of action. Perhaps some of the meditators weren't pulled back towards the world merely owing to an insufficient capacity for prolonged contemplative life, or over a profound and insuppressable ontological pull for action. Perhaps they in fact emerged from their cocoon of solitude after attaining profound realization on the nature of existence, on the substance present and discoverable in the world, just as a worm emerges from its cocoon to glide across the skies as a beautiful butterfly.

The fact is that emptiness is spacious. Where the stuffy ego-complex has resolved and no longer imposes itself, when the flow of nature is perceived without attachments and aversions, a sense of emptiness finds its natural self-expression. In that emptiness, there is infinite room for giving and sharing. In that emptiness, in absence of a possessive ego, unconditional giving and self-sacrifice are a natural consequence.

Where there is ego, there is competition. Where there is competition, there is no compassion. Competition, by its very definition, is all about a particular ego-entity emerging victorious in meeting his objectives and gaining fame appropriate to the achievement, whether as a benevolent or a heinous character. It is, in other words, ultimately self-serving.

"But if everything is empty of permanence", one might ask — and it's a very valid reservation! — "what difference does compassion make?". It wouldn't really make that much difference to you, given that you are into a life of desirelessness and natural liberation. There are, however, countless conflicted ego-formations, the populace of the world, who could use some ego dissolution to make the world just a tad bit more harmonious and beautiful.

The Vedanta-sutra cuts to the heart of the assimilated individual's modus operandi: lokavat tu lila-kaivalyam: "The apparent world is indeed but sole play.". With liberation, all necessities have ceased and all duties have been fulfilled. And when the work is done, one is free to act in any given manner without enmeshment in the infinite net of action and reaction.

Look at Krishna. A mukta-purusha of first water, a controversial character for many, and difficult to reconcile even for profound philosophers. Combined in a single being, we find the polar opposites of a playboy engaging in extensive amorous dalliances with other men's wives at the heart of the night in the forest groves of Vrindavan, and at the other end the sober philosopher, famous for his Bhagavad-gita.

When asked by king Parikshit, Sukadeva explained that Krishna's amorous adventures are exactly as those of a child playing with its reflections in the mirror. A classical Vaishnava interpretation following Sri Chaitanya's line of thought employs the tantric theory of shaktis in explaining the relationship between Krishna and the girls. This is, however, an explanation very much tied with specific theological formulations.

Let's assume Krishna was not an all-powerful primeval deity, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead to use a term coined by Bhaktivedanta. Suppose he was once upon a time just like one of us, but made his way across the eons, transforming into something extraordinary. Would we not have the same prospects, each one of us, then? If you looked at the matter from a Tantric Buddhist perspective, in fact this is exactly the case. Padmasambhava, for one, the great grandfather of Tibetan Buddhism, was an ardent tantric practitioner with numerous consorts, yet considered by many to be practically a second Buddha.

Tantric sadhana, the union of the polarity of the cosmos, is however aptly acted out only at levels of consciousness where an understanding of shunyata has evolved to a very substantial degree. Many long-time monks and practitioners consciously choose to leave consort practice to the later years of their lives, knowing the immense challenges it presents in containing one's mindfulness and retaining a sound platform of aloofness.

Then, having reached the grand stage of emptiness, it is quite natural for a person of profound spiritual background to engage in benevolent activities, in acts of goodwill that unfold on the egoless platform. It naturally follows. We need to be doing good things, us worldlings. And for the holy, doing good things no longer rises out of obligation — it rises spontaneously.

Ultimately nothing makes any difference. In the meantime, there is some time separating us from the maturation and resolution of our karmic track. Riding the waves into wherever the universe leads us, we engage in acts that are wholesome and beautiful, we learn the sublime art of life. In that there is supreme peace, supreme happiness, and supreme enjoyment as well.

Ego Asserting

Posted 11th of June, 2008 @ Vraja Journal.

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Ego, the ever-vigilant and constantly self-asserting pseudo-self, forms the heart of our troubled existence. Today being the 28th anniversary of my present incarnation in a long series of egotic absorptions, I can think of no subject more suitable to touch on than that of the ego.

We've all been subjected to sermons detailing how we aren't this body. Some may be familiar with the Vedantic theory of five koshas, or layers, that form the conditioned entity. Others may be more familiar with the Buddhist theory of five skandhas, or aggregates, that similarly make up the conditioned being.

That's all fine as a theory. Yet where the ego has self-enthroned itself, the mental faculties function in an inherently self-serving manner. There is little real solace to be found in the theoretical mastery of the ego-theory — even the subtlest contemplations are transmutated into ego-fuel with wondrous ease.

We are best familiar with the flavor of ego that sustains us in the identity of a master of sensual and mental enjoyments, the gross ego-stereotype that is first highlighted as the non-self in many spiritual traditions. However, while there is an ego at the heart of the enjoyer, there is also an ego of the escaper.

While the ego of the escaper, the noble spiritualist, is of a finer grade than that of the materialist, it is not beyond being able to generate formidable levels of existential delusion. Assuming one is firm in conscious cultivation, the spiritually progressive ego will eventually resolve itself with the rise of penetrating wisdom. In the interim, it is fundamentally venomous, just as its dark counterpart is.

There are countless angles from which to explore the spiritual ego problem. While I cannot lay claim to having mastered the problem, I have over a decade of ego-driven spirituality under my belt, and with it a fair sense of its foul taste — even if the depth of it all has began dawning on me only quite recently.

At the heart of reality, there is no permanent self to be found. The co-arising and interdependent flow of mind-matter generates a sense of an individual self that lies at the root of the drama, a dreamy focal point of action, a shabby ego-entity that perpetually seeks to reinforce its own sense of reality, protecting the viscosity of the conglomerate entity from the tear of the constantly rising and falling phenomena it consists of.

For one reason or another, it wasn't your lot to become a successful world-enjoyer. Leave the lime-lights, the arena of gross materialism. Become a spiritual hero, a transcendent conqueror, an ego-entity conceiving of itself as a creature of light and goodness. Pride yourself in your integrity, in your benevolence, in your quest, in your nobility of purpose. You are real, your spirituality is real, and the world you inhabit is real. Build that prison of light, bind yourself with goodness.

Aho, he becomes the compassionate helper of fellow seekers. Aho, he becomes the tireless servant of the teacher. Aho, he becomes a knower of the rites and the scripture. Aho, he becomes a symbol of spirituality. Aho, he becomes a world-teacher, he becomes a savior, and he becomes an avatar. Aho, he becomes an emphasized one that is contrasted with others, and so the cage of light grows firmer.

The whole concept of striving for an attainment is a facade. There is no light, nor is there darkness. There is no substance in bondage, nor in liberation. Dualities born of the mind will vanish with the mind. With the disappearance of the eye, light and darkness evaporate. With the disappearance of the ego-conception, labels of spirit and matter fade.

There is only plain reality, and plain reality doesn't seek to assert itself, nor does it invite you to project over it a hundred dreams, to feel of it in a thousand ways, or to conceptualize it into millions of carefully crafted divisions. The interdependent and self-contained flow of aggregates just flows. It seeks no second to assert its flowing.

But alas, the ego is busy in its attempts to manipulate the flow in a manner serving its hallucinations. What comes of its own accord is perfect and natural — but not for the ego, for the ego feeds on contrasts. Attachments and aversions, pleasures and pains, the momentum of arising dualities and the subsequent involved emotion-conceptualization exchange contribute to the sense of reality the ego seeks to establish and guard.

Desirelessness and disinvolvement from anything not presenting itself of its own accord is the venom of venoms for the ego, provided one is skillful enough to not let the ego seize these qualities as medals of spiritual valor on the chest of its proud uniform, turning them into a show of spirituality and again embarking on a delusory trip of delving on contrasts.

Wisdom in its very core is nothing but the absence of delusions. There is no active wisdom as such in the ultimate, no wisdom-concept-processor to keep itself busy generating a profound interplay of wiseness. Wisdom is nothing but plain perception of nature, non-involved experience of the suchness of existence.

In eliminating the spiritual ego, fatalism and nihilism are two very real enemies raising their ugly heads. Fatalism and nihilism are conquered by profound mindfulness growing from repeated trials, trials meeting both success and failure. Fortunately, there is ultimately no-one of any impact to register our progress — the path is ours alone to walk, and we have all the time in the world to do it.

Facing the facts can be a disorienting experience, but it is also a fountain of supreme peace. The absurdity of the resilient ego-projection we are enmeshed in is in fact a matter of great humor. I often find myself laughing at myself, the many attempted personae, and the extensions of the process in the form of countless emanations and excrements, this very writing before your eyes one among many such curiosities.