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Neti-Neti (Not This, Not This) – As a Means of Knowing the Self

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Neti-neti, consciousness, Seeking the SelfThe goal of every meditation aspirant is to come to know the Self. Most people who are drawn to meditation believe there is something worthwhile in knowing the Self. Whether an infinite awareness, profound and eternal peace, or a life filled with blessings, meditation, for the seeker, has value, warranting hours (weeks, months, years) of practice. And in this quest for self-discovery, the seeker often overlooks what lies right beneath his consciousness. The paradox inherent in finding the Self is that you can never fully comprehend what you are with the human mind. You can only come to know yourself by acknowledging and understanding what you are not. This, the yogis call neti-neti.

Neti-neti means “not this, not this” in Sanskrit, the ancient language of the yogis. It is the process of negating what one is not, like the body or the mind, the thought or emotions, or anything else that is not permanent and eternal. This practice enables aspirants to gain a deeper understanding of the true nature of their consciousness. This practice is most aligned with Jnana yoga, the path of knowledge in Advaita Vedanta.

When first attempting internal quietude, the mind will invariably bring attention to physical sensations, internal feelings (emotions), and thoughts. It is the goal of the aspirant to recognize that these elements of material existence are not the Self but products of the Self in a progression from Self to consciousness to mind to brain to sensation to the physical world. In so doing, they will bring themselves closer to attuning to their true nature, which Advaita Vedanta terms as parabrahman or the Absolute.

The parabrahman refers to the ultimate, supreme, and transcendent reality, beyond all descriptions and conceptualizations. It is considered the source and ground of all existence, both immanent and transcendent, and is often described as formless and without attributes. It is for this reason that the yogis explain that one can never completely, in totality, know one’s absolute Self, not with the human mind or its conceptualizations. One can come to know the Self experientially, as the Self will provide its own expression for self-realization to the earnest seeker, when the seeker’s mind has ripened in preparation to receive it. Thus, the seeker needs only to seek and return oneself to the interface of Self and its product, which is the expression of self. Let me explain.

Neti-neti, consciousness, Seeking the SelfA tenet of Advaita Vedanta is that only the Absolute is real and eternal. Nothing transient can ever be real. Therefore, to assess the reality of a thing, one must only ask if it is eternal; if not, then it is not a part of the ultimate reality. As such, the physical realm with its material nature, which includes the human body, is both transient and unreal. Nothing in the physical world lasts forever. There is even a law known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says: All things must deteriorate. If the physical world is not real, then your body cannot be real either. For this reason, the yogis say that the physical world is an illusion, one created by your mind.

Now, this philosophy is not unique to Advaita Vedanta. Idealism as a Western philosophical tradition dates back to the ancient Greeks and was championed by such luminaries as Plato, Berkeley, Kant, and Hegel. Idealism emphasizes that reality is in some way dependent on the mind, whether individual or universal. Idealists often believe that ideas, concepts, or mental representations are more fundamental than material things. So, idealists and yogis foundationally agree that the physical world is not the ultimate reality.

However, Advaita Vedanta and Idealism may diverge in their notions of mind being the ultimate reality. Advaita Vedanta teaches that the body, representing the physical world, is a product of the mind. The mind, however, is not the ultimate reality either. It, too, is transient and impermanent. When a person develops amnesia, do they cease to be the same person? Hasn’t dementia shown many of us that even our closest loved ones can change cognitively as they age? That is because the mind is impermanent; it is not a part of the ultimate reality.

Some people believe that how we feel is what we really are. Feelings of love, community, kindness, respect, and honor are the essence of our true selves. But, alas, like the mental realm, emotions are transient and impermanent. How many of us have felt vehemently about one thing or another, only to see things differently later, and change how we feel? Nothing is easier to change than our perspective. So, transient emotions or feelings cannot be who we are. The mind and its emotions are a product of what we call consciousness.

Neti-neti, consciousness, Seeking the SelfConsciousness has many definitions. From the perspective of Advaita Vedanta, consciousness is the sense of “I am”. It is the primordial sense – the thought and feeling that we exist. It is what Descartes meant when he said, “I think, therefore I am.” The feeling that underlies all feelings is of existence. When we awaken in the morning, our very first thought is about the “I am”. It may be in reference to location or time, such as in “where am I?” or “in what time am I?” But the primary thought of each individual is about the “I am”. Consciousness is responsible for the mind – its thoughts, beliefs, memories, perceptions, and interpretations – and thus, the mind’s creation, the physical world. Consciousness is the witness, the entity that experiences the world. This might lead one to surmise that the true nature of the Self is the consciousness, and that would be closer to actuality. However, Advaita Vedanta states that individual consciousness is not the true Self either, as it, too, comes and goes with the physical mind and body. But for the purpose of mediation and seeking the Self, the consciousness, the “I am”, is as close as you need to get.

This is because the true Self, the transcendent, eternal, indescribable, unnamed, unformed, and unborn essence of the ultimate reality lies just beneath the consciousness. And as the physical world is a product of the mind, and the mind a product of consciousness, the consciousness itself is a product of the Absolute, or what the yogis call parabrahman. Only parabrahman can be the Self.

The parabrahman can never be known by the consciousness, because perception comes from consciousness itself. A thing cannot be both subject and object at the same time. Another way to envision this is to consider your eyes. Without a mirror or other reflection, can your eyes see themselves? How can consciousness be both the perceiver and the perceived? Consciousness witnesses the mind, the body, and the internal and external worlds. It can even observe itself. But who is witnessing the witness? It’s the parabrahman.

Neti-neti, consciousness, Seeking the SelfThe yogis teach that it is neither necessary nor possible to try to know parabrahman. All one must do is focus on the consciousness itself, the “I am”. In meditation, the goal is to come as close as possible to attuning to the Self. To do so, one must negate the perceptions of what they are not. That means negating the physical body and its sensations as yourself: the physical world is transient; cell turnover occurs within days, such that in a decade, you are essentially a completely different physical body. It also requires negating the mind as oneself: your thoughts are produced like gas in your colon; that is the function of the brain as an organ. They are not you. That includes negating your memories, your feelings, your beliefs, and your cultural nuances as yourself. These are all products of your consciousness.

Return to the “I am” repeatedly. Do it in meditation and do it when not. Bring your mind back to the primordial awareness – that which precedes all thought, feeling, sensation, and interpretation. By doing so, you ripen the mind for Self-realization. All you need to do is attune to the consciousness, the essence of your existence. The parabrahman will do the rest. Like a fish, you swim and continue to swim, regularly, daily, and eventually, parabrahman, just like a fisherman’s rod and hook will snag you and reel you in.

Neti-neti is a technique to bring you closer to knowing your true Self. You do it by negating what you are not. You need not struggle to understand yourself; just focus on the primordial awareness, the consciousness, the sense of “I am”. Do it regularly and insatiably, as if parched and desperate for a drink. All you need to do is focus on the “I am” and not get carried away by the distractions of what you are not. You needn’t stop your incoming thoughts; simply detach from them, and parabrahman will do the rest. Parabrahman wants you to know your Self. It has provided you with a reflection to see all elements of yourself, for the sole purpose of bringing you to the Source. Once there, consistently and quietly, it will reel you in. When a fish returns to fertile water, it is prime for the catching.

 

How to Find Bliss in the Awareness of Consciousness

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Consciousness - AwarenessIf a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? This long-standing philosophical question is the basis of many theories of ontology, the study of the essence of being. It basically points out the difficulty in determining whether things exist outside of their being perceived. In other words, without an observer, can there really be any phenomena at all?

The 18th century philosopher Bishop George Berkeley thought not: He believed material substance to be an illusion, and that all things existed only in the mind where they are perceived. No perception – no existence. He said:

“The objects of sense exist only when they are perceived; the trees therefore are in the garden… no longer than while there is somebody by to perceive them.” ~ Bishop George Berkeley

The twentieth century saw the advent of quantum physics, which seemed to corroborate Bishop Berkeley’s immaterialism. Quantum data showed evidence that things are not always as they seem. One major conundrum inherent in quantum theory was that particles did not occupy any definitive space, that is, not until a measurement was taken, at which time the particle would collapse to a specific point in space. This collapse occurred due to an interaction called an observation, whereby the measurement, or act of observing, interacted physically with the object being measured, affecting its properties through the interaction itself. Quantum physical observation, by some interpretations at least, appeared to confirm Berkeley’s philosophy: Truly nothing exists materially without it being perceived.

Even Albert Einstein was perplexed by the perception-necessitates-existence puzzle. His paradigm-changing theory of relativity sought to establish locality as the indisputable principle of reality. Locality means that an object is influenced directly only by its surroundings. In other words, an object cannot be influenced by something in another part of space without a wave or particle travelling through space between the two points to influence it. Locality, in a sense, describes a universe where things have their place relative to other things, regardless of who perceives them. Along with localization, Einstein became a strong advocate of the concept of realism, a belief that there exists “a real factual situation,” which is “independent of our observations.” To fellow physicist Abraham Pais, Einstein once remarked. “Do you really believe that the moon only exists if you look at it?”

Consciousness - AwarenessTo counter this conundrum, some have turned to an ancient philosophy which proposes that consciousness permeates the entire universe. Known as panpsychism, this viewpoint believes that all things possess consciousness, including inanimate objects such as rocks, clouds, and even man-made instruments like thermostats. This philosophy has iterations in Ancient Greek, Hindu, and Native American thought, among others. It is not too hard to imagine other life forms like lower animals (insects, for instance), plants, and even individual human cells having some form of consciousness. Native Americans expressed panpsychism as a profound reverence for nature, whereby they believed that all natural objects possessed sentience – that they were alive in a real sense. Panpsychism, then, offers a solution to Einstein’s disbelief of perception-necessitates-existence by providing an omnipresent consciousness to act as the observer necessary to maintain a continuous localized universe.

The Yogic philosophy, particularly Advaita Vedanta, teaches that the entire universe is cradled in consciousness. Aligned with the modern scientific concepts of entropy and emergence, the yogic philosophy explains that consciousness requires order (negentropy) and harmony (syntropy), such that consciousness can only be expressed through vehicles of varied complex systems (emergence). Some of these systems are simple and have simple levels of consciousness, while other are more complex, like the human mind, and have a more refined form of consciousness. In other words, consciousness exists on a spectrum according to the system that is transmitting it.

But Advaita Vedanta takes things a step further by pointing out that what underlies even consciousness is awareness. So, while consciousness is responsible for all things physical and mental, those things themselves merely float like waves in the ocean of awareness (which engulfs consciousness, and its constructs, completely). This is an important concept to understand, as some real distinctions separate consciousness from awareness. According to the Yogic philosophy (among others), these differences are what separate the illusions of reality from the truth of actuality. For instance, it is consciousness which is responsible for the ego, or the sense of “I”-ness. Our conception of separateness from all other things in the universe begins with our sense of individuation, or our identification of being a distinct entity. Awareness, on the other hand, knows no distinction or individuation, but only wholeness and syntropy. To be separate from the rest of existence is an illusion, while a cohesive oneness with all things is the truth of actuality.

Both the conscious and unconscious minds exist in awareness, as well. They are not separate entities, despite their very monikers delineating the mind’s isolation of one from the other, while focusing conscious awareness on only half the equation. Nonetheless, what the yogis call awareness, or the Absolute, is the totality of all that is; it is what they describe as beyond existence. Nisargadatta Maharaj said of awareness, “It is the changeless reality itself.”

Consciousness - AwarenessThe ultimate message from all this is that there’s no real separation between us and the rest of our experience. We are literally one with the people in our lives and everyone we encounter –what we might call a form of quantum entanglement. We are also one with the world in which we walk, such that everything we perceive as being “out there” is actually a reflection of what we have inside us. So the statement, “We don’t see the world as it is; we see it as we are,” is a truth we would be wise to acknowledge, like the idealists and various interpreters of quantum physics had before us, that nothing exists outside of our perception. And thus, every experience we have is in actuality a dynamic in which we are a player along with other people, things, and experiences of the world. This is in stark contrast to the perception of an “individual acting within the external world” in which things simply “happen to us,” an illusion of conscious reality. When we shift our perceptual understanding in this way, pain and suffering which we experience from the vacillations of isolation/togetherness, winning/losing, successes/failures, pleasures/pains, and people coming/going ease away. We come to a certain knowingness of the importance that every person, thing and experience plays in the unfolding of our magnificent lives.

Consciousness really is at the heart of our worldly experience. And the life we create is a function of our consciousness in complete alignment with our underlying awareness (conscious and unconscious together as a whole). Meditation, as a tool, gives us an outlet for which to go beyond consciousness, beyond the “I,” and beyond ego attachment. It allows us to bring the unconscious and conscious into complete wholeness, the inseparable state of awareness. You will never fully understand the body, mind, or consciousness until you go beyond them into awareness. Know the source of all experience, which is in yourself, and you will find no question left unanswered. This is what leads to bliss.

Body, Mind and Spirit: Who Creates Who

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Mind-Body ConsciousnessFrom where do your thoughts come? Have you ever considered it? What makes you see the color red; what makes you distinguish one shade of red from another, and how would you describe it to a person who doesn’t? What is responsible for your palate? If you have no taste for fish, does your friend who loves it taste something different, or do you taste the same thing but you just don’t like it? Why have people different political opinions – isn’t doing the right thing simply common sense? Or different musical tastes, clothing, what people find attractive in others, and so on? This is the realm of the mind-body problem, which seeks to answer whether we are purely physical beings, purely mental, some combination of the two, or something else entirely. This question has existed in some form dating back to ancient Vedic philosophy; the Buddha discussed it, as did Plato, Aristotle, Avicenna, and of course most famously, Rene Descartes.

Descartes believed that the mind and the body were separate things. The body being part of the material world is in the realm of physical matter. The mind, on the other hand, belongs to the non-physical mental realm – the realm of thoughts, beliefs, sensations, and the soul. Both body and mind, according to Descartes, were separate entities acting on one another. His philosophy today is called Dualism and it considers mind and body to be distinct yet closely joined. In other words, even though they are different fundamentally, mind and body do act on one another.

So what do you think – is there a real distinction between mind and body? Can you touch your ideas or beliefs? Can you change your body – your skin color, how much insulin you produce, how curly or straight your hair – the way you change your mind? And if mind and body are different, how do they act on one another. What is the mechanism of thought to action, like getting up to go to the bathroom? Where in the brain does it happen? And how can you and I share essentially the same machinery – same neurons, same neurotransmitters, same physiology – yet have totally different tastes, perceptions, and experiences? This is a problem for Dualism, in fact, it is known as the hard problem of consciousness.

The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory (Philosophy of Mind)

Mind-Body ConsciousnessDualism, like all things, has an opposition. Monism believes that there is only one primary substance, all else derives from it. Now before you think it’s as simple as that – Dualism, two substances; Monism, one primary substance – understand there are different views on which substance is primary. Physicalists (or materialists, remember these folk?) believe that the primary substance is physical – that is, everything can be reduced to physical matter. To the physicalist, brain and mind are one and the same. What we consider the workings of the mind are simply neurochemical processes of the brain, and although we do not know exactly which processes lead to subjective experience (the hard problem), or where to find them, a physicalist believes we will ultimately come to know them, and when we do, very likely we will find that consciousness is reducible to a physical process.

Another type of Monism is called Idealism, which believes that the primary substance is mental, and matter can only exist to the extent that it is perceived by the mind. Even time and space only exist in the mind, according to idealists. Idealism, derived from the Latin and Greek “idea,” is the belief that all things owe their existence to the mind, for without consciousness how could anything be perceived at all.

Neutral monism is yet another type of primary substance belief, which see both physical and mental as part of the same unique, distinct stuff. A sub-group of monism is Dialectic Monism, also known as Dualistic Monism, which states that reality is ultimately a unified whole, but expressed in dualities of complementary polarities, which, while opposed in the realm of experience and perception, actually exist together as inseparable pairs.

So how would these potential realities impact your life? What would they imply about the unfolding of your experience? What would be the implications for your health, your wealth, or your success or failure in any area of your life? We know the mind acts on the body and vice versa. We know that lack of sleep can severely diminish mental acuity, that healing is affected by our outlook, and that placebos work. We are told by accomplished people that “success” and “wealth” are nothing more than states of mind. So, clearly, Descartes was right that the mind and body are intimately tied – there is simply no denying their dual existence.

And from where do our thoughts come? Are they simply neurochemical processes? How are we such vastly different people, not in our machinery, but in our input-output, in our immaterial minds? Our wiring, or neural pathways, is certainly one piece of the puzzle, but what determines that? Why aren’t twins exactly the same? Can DNA account for the parts of us that we can barely understand in and of themselves, like consciousness for example? What about purely subjective thoughts like who we find attractive, or what ice cream flavor we like, or our political leanings? What about our values – that which drives our perceptions, behaviors and actions? Can all this be explained by neurology, biochemistry, and genetics?

It is, of course, possible that the infinite complexities of the mind are reducible to purely physical processes. It is also hard to refute the Idealist argument that nothing exists outside of consciousness, for perception is indeed somethingness (Descartes was right again). So it is possible, as well, for consciousness to be the primary substance, of which our thoughts would be principal, and so perhaps it would be more appropriate under these conditions to ask from where come our bodies.

Mind-Body ConsciousnessBut finally, it opens the possibility of mind and body to exist as polarities of emergent properties from a more primary substance. Many philosophies including Advaita Vedanta and Taoism are monist, with even the monotheistic religions having strong elements of monism. One cosmology I find interesting is that of the Neo-Platonist, Plotinus. In his metaphysics, all things in existence emanate from The One, the primary substance. As the self-caused creator of being, The One outwardly emanates the Nous (intelligence), which then outwardly emanates the Souls, the principle desire for external objects, which then outwardly emanate the Forms (matter).

The mind-body problem has engaged our greatest thinkers for millennia, and I do not foresee the debate being solved anytime soon. I have presented this article to you as an opening to ponder questions, which I believe, can help you live your best life. Believe it or not, these age-old questions underlie our most basic belief systems, and thus the way we perceive the world and ourselves. Seriously, think about the questions I have posed – think about them rigorously, and think about them lightly; toss the ideas around with your friends. I assure you the more you think on the subject, the more your mind will open to ideas which only you can have. Whether because of genetics or a cosmic emanater, you will see your mind stretch to new dimensions with these meditations.

What is The Nature of Reality

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atomThere are two primary ways to look at the world: the first is through the lens of materialism. Materialists believe that the universe is purely physical; a tangible reality that can be observed only through the physical senses or tools which are interpreted by the human intellect. A materialist would say that we can observe physical phenomena, measure them, create equations and models to represent these phenomena, and make predictions based on those equations and models. A materialist would argue that we can come to understand the entire universe, over time, by understanding the physical processes underlying it, in the same way we might understand the workings of a machine. If there is something we currently do not understand, it is simply because we do not yet understand the physics behind it. Many current theories fall under this category: The standard model of particle physics, dark energy, quantum gravity, and even consciousness itself.

Materialists are generally secularists in that they do not contemplate or even consider spiritual matters. To the materialist, the universe is made up of physical matter (particles and waves), which is the only substance we can actually measure, and thus it is the sole substance of reality. As such, physical substance is the only thing worth discussing or contemplating – all else is folly. Materialism could be summed up with the line, “Brownian motion, chance collisions and probability are what make up the nature of reality.”

Ancient GreeksMaterialism is the predominating world-view among governments, military, science, medicine, academics and media in the western world today. We see it in every aspect of life – relying on physical evidence by which to base decisions and protocol. It is neither right nor wrong: simply the way agencies set policy, conduct operations, set standards, and provide education. It has not always been this way; throughout history humans have oscillated between approaching the world from a materialist perspective (Ancient Greeks and Romans) to approaching it from a spiritualist one (Middle Ages Europe), and some have even attempted to balance the two (Enlightenment). Today, however, the major institutions of the western world are materialist in viewpoint.

Spiritualists, on the other hand, believe that a supernatural force exists which is beyond physical. While most spiritualists would agree that we are, on some level, experiencing a physical universe, there is something more, a metaphysical reality that goes beyond material substance. The substance in which a spiritualist believes may vary, as some may believe in a dual realm of material and spirit, while others believe there is a third, or primary, substance from which all other substances emerge.  Some even believe that the physical realm exists only in one’s mind; that the true nature of reality is in this primary substance. Some examples of spiritualist philosophies include Advaita Vedanta, Daoism, and monotheistic religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

lightSpiritualists believe that we can transcend the body-mind of the physical world and tap into that something else which exists. This can achieved through meditation and other esoteric practices, rituals and trances, and mind-altering medicinals. Whichever method is used to achieve transcendence, the goal is always to attune to the greater reality. Spiritualists believe that means of gaining knowledge are not limited to physical, or scientific, observation, but also to reason (Enlightenment) and revelation (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). In fact, many other methods are believed to be sources of knowledge, but most importantly, spiritualists do not place a boundary around the physical world and its phenomena.

Spiritualists do not have to subscribe to a particular religion, as some people are spiritual, yet maintain no religious practice. While the modern western world views the world primarily through materialism, most people walking the planet are spiritualists (84% according to the Pew Research Center).  The line which can sum up spiritualism is, “Personality – the subjective perception – is the solid foundation and unifying principle of our existence.”

Neither materialism nor spiritualism is right or wrong – in fact, it does not appear to be a provable matter. They are simply foundations by which one views the world. Many people never even think about their foundation of reality in detail. They simply accept their beliefs without question, sometimes not even knowing how they came upon those beliefs. But for people who have a solid understanding of their philosophical views with regard to the nature of reality, it is easier to understand the decisions they make in life. Other age-old philosophical questions, such as free will are easier to contemplate when one determines how one leans with regard to the substance of the universe. Is the world purely physical, with particles and waves simply bound by physical laws? Or is there something else, regardless of what one calls it, a metaphysical force, which underlies all reality, and which can be tapped into for knowledge, guidance, presence and hope? Think about these questions to learn more about yourself and add a deeper level of meaning to your reflections. Either way, to come to know yourself is the greatest endeavor regardless of how you view the nature of reality. But by solidifying your views, you will come to know yourself more profoundly: what makes you tick, why you make certain decisions, and even where you might be going. Most importantly, your views will underlie the meaning by which you will ultimately evaluate your life: an endeavor worth every bit of energy.

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