A Fresh Look at Knowledge

The Indian wisdom traditions, particularly Yoga and Vedanta, explain that avidyā is the ultimate error, the root of all mistakes. The word itself translates as: absence of The Knowledge.

Excuse me… “The Knowledge”?

The Knowledge is simply: I am the unified field from which all emerges. Things I know as objects (planets, people, animals, atoms) are emergent properties of the whole undifferentiated field called brahman, and I am That, aham brahmasmi.

No things are separate from The Absolute. Things arising in brahman only seem separate when perceived from conditional points of view[1]. Avidyā is boundary-creation, the containment of consciousness required to have any kind of perspective or opinion.

Misplacing vidya has its charm, actually. The assumption that your human form is a separate object does enable “individual experience”. By means of avidyā, we can enjoy both sense pleasure and deprivation. With such limitation placed on awareness, we can have conversations with people who genuinely seem to be different to us, we can enjoy the stimulation and irritation they cause.

So we strategically “ignore” large parts of reality in order to have a human life. Only when indulgence in avidyā becomes routine do we run into trouble, and this trouble is called ahaṁkāra. This signifies the state where we have played the game of pretending that we are separate from the whole for so long that it has become a strong habit, where the false identity has become the only accessible identity.

What is the antidote? Simply this statement, uttered until it is no longer forgotten: I am the unified field upon which all appears. Everything occurs within me: planets, stars, water, soil, people, grubs, books, memories, machines, instruments, and so many mammalian brains.[2]

I am The Reality, The Imagination, I am The Field that contains all. 

There is a widespread superstition that an outside world exists. But anything you think of as external is actually internal. You cannot prove the existence of “outside”. You cannot see, touch, or name anything that is not in your mind. You can tell stories of memories and places, and yet they are all inside you.

Gaza and Atlantis and Carpathia are literally within you. Remember the Buddha statues in Afghanistan that the Taliban blew up? They are within you; in both their original and their exploded state, and so are the TV stations that reported it. Caesar and Christ are within you too, as are the delicate orchids and psychoactive mushrooms of the Himalaya.

Okayyyy. So who’s running this show, is it me or you? I’m quite sure I exist. You are in my mind, and yet you say I am in your mind! How interesting. Maybe we should have a fight. Spoiler: There is one Mind, experiencing itself from the point of view of many individual-seeming humans and other beings.

With ahaṁkāra, we spend our days entrenched in ignorance of the vast forest of consciousness, bṛhat.

Life lived with and from The Knowledge is different. Animus fades when you know others as reflections of your own values in combinations just slightly askew to your predominant human identity.[3] This interaction of traits is called the play of the guṇa-s.

Everything is Vibration

Patterns of behaviour are easy to spot if you stay awake, stay alive, for long enough. In the grand scheme of physical existence, actions and behaviours fall into just a few categories:

1. Attraction, known as tamas
2. Repulsion, called rajas.

That’s about it. No matter how you slice it – psychologically, physically, artistically, historically, biologically – they apply in all areas of life and world as we know it.[4]

Alright, there’s a third thing: harmonious blending of those two, called sattva, where in any moment or place there is an orderly and sustaining combination of attraction and repulsion.

Sometimes sattva is associated with words like peace, but it’s a little tricky. One event can be interpreted as positive or negative or neutral depending on the position of the observer.[5] Indeed, a well-balanced war could be called sattvic! The human digestive process, for example, with a balance of catabolism and anabolism creating luminosity.

Okay there is a fourth thing, previously discussed, called brahman. It is the eternal field that always has more space available for more experience, more combinations of rajas and tamas. No matter what happens, we seem to never run out of capacity for experience. Persons may forget things or become tired, but nothing is ever deleted and everything can be revisited. There is always space, you have always been alive, and you never run out of time.

Everything emerges from The Field, and everything does so as a blend of the guṇa-s. Physical existence is an insistent and exaggerated point of view. Long before things solidify as physical, they exist as conceptual and fluid combinations of movements and interactions. When we talk about sculpting the world around us, it is most effective to be involved at that precursive and causal level, rather than handling symptoms or rearranging already-manifested objects.

The Purpose of Life

The purpose of human life is to have satisfying and uplifting experiences along the path from avidyā to vidya, just in case you are wondering. We learn to exemplify The Knowledge, to act as the unified field, in a manner joyous and reverent.

Notice how the bulk of historical works of humanity (poetry, theology, academia, all ages of science) run along these lines. The Druids and the Rosicrucians and Indus Valley civilisation and the Australian First Nations people create them. So too the Egyptians and Israelites. They are inside us. They indicate a universal urge to promulgate, or at least practice, the navigation of “darkness to light”. They are clues from our Self to our selves, you might say.

We are playing in this life, indulging the illusion of separation. If you are ready for more expansion and clarity, a fabulous strategy is to embrace the great texts. Stretching to the perspective described in the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita is most profitable.

I am the infinitely large field upon which all things appear and disappear. I navigate the expanse while living as a human body by studiously acting from my true identity.

All things are here to serve us. The Bible and Bhagavad Gita are not historical records, they are real-time present-tense documents that explain and guide the dynamics occurring within. I am brahman. My physical body emerges from my consciousness. Within me is Einstein, Netanyahu, Christ, Krishna, Arjuna, and Timothee Chalamet.

With vidya, I can momentarily identify as anyone. I can be young or old, I can emphasise majesty or travesty. Without The Knowledge, I am liable to wobble, unsure of who I am, feeling small and unsure, competitive and judgemental, inclined to dominate, defend, or to simply lay down and absorb social conditioning.

It behoves us to employ the texts to hone in on the most satisfying and uplifting experiences on the way to freedom from specific viewpoints and “established facts”. There is only mind. To navigate it, assiduously select thoughts and feelings that are new and interesting – wild innovations or fine details – as long as they be sincerely electric.

That’s your only job. You must train yourself to go after the things you want without delay. Expect every single desire to come, do what it takes to be the ready receiver, and then move easily to the next thing. Be thrilled about life unfolding and grateful for the flow of desires.

You have likely already been trained to do the opposite. When a desire comes, you may question it, your abilities, your motives, your worthiness, and their compatibility with society. But it is all yours. Society is within and will morph around your confident expectation.

I am aware of all things, positive and negative, preferred and unpreferred. I am aware of those options and my freedom to choose.

You will experience everything you desire, but I must tell you: It is quite possible to not enjoy them when they come. Pervasive is the potential for boredom, anger, frustration, bitterness, despondency to ooze into experience.[5] This is what “positive thinking” seeks to remedy – the best state of appreciation and eagerness must be nurtured and amplified in each moment. If we are lazy, scrolling or gossiping, worrying about the same old things, then we invite a slow and mixed experience of life. If we are deliberate in our selection from the range of options, then we are living well – expanding from avidyā to vidya.

This is the context from which we consider the word “mindfulness”. Mindfulness means “regulated attention”, and it beckons the discipline to include our full scope of will and power. High level mindfulness is to habitually turn attention away from the past and toward the ever-increasing future.

[1] “Brahman indeed was this in the beginning. It knew itself only as: I am Brahman. Therefore, it became all. Whoever among the gods had this knowing, also became That. It is the same with the seers, the same with men. The seer Vamadeva, having realized this self as That, came to know: “I was Manu and the sun”. And to this day, whoever in a like manner knows the self as “I am Brahman”, becomes all this universe. Even the gods cannot prevent his becoming this, for he has become their Self. If a man worships another deity, thinking: “He is one and I am another”, he does not know. He is like an animal to the gods. As many animals serve a man, so does each man serve the gods. Even if one animal is taken away, it causes anguish to the owner; how much more so when many are taken away! Therefore, it is not pleasing to the gods that men should know this.“ Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10

[2] Sri Ramakrishna said ‘Brahman is the only thing, and it is never ucchi aṣṭ, never caused by the human mouth’. The Upanishads declare that al this is Brahman and there is no multiplicity here – sarva khalvida brahmaṁ, Chhandogya Upanishad, 3.14.1; neha nānāsti kiρcana, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.4.19

[3] Our attachment, hatred, fear, dreams, and such other reactions with regard to external people and objects are kārya ajñāna, also known as jīva siṛṣṭi, discussed in Vidyaranya’s Panchadashi.

[3] “Tamas, the lowest force, is that of attraction; a little higher is Rajas, that of repulsion; and the highest is the balance of these two, Sattva; so that when these two forces, attraction and repulsion, are held in perfect control by the Sattva there is no creation, no movement in the world.“ Swami Vivekananda

[4] The Observer moves across and encompasses viewpoints. All paths exist, all possible versions of restriction and freedom exist. The Observer may appear at any point, in any shape or size or time.

[5] “The deep roots of Ahankara should be burnt by the fire of knowledge (jnanagni). Then you will quite easily get the wealth of Moksha. All tribulations, sorrows, miseries and afflictions will terminate now.” Swami Sivananda