“I am Brahman.”
First let’s begin with the description of a common worldview of an “unconscious” community:
- Growth is good; more is better
- Economic wealth is the truest sign of progress
- “The market” is the most reliable measure of value
- Individual selfishness serves the common good
- We live in a world of scarcity
- Humans are superior to other creatures
- The Earth is ours to exploit
- The world consists of “us” and “them”
- People are intrinsically bad
- Technology—or God—will save us [i]
In contrast, what is a “conscious” community? The essays in this book speak of a Paradigm-A worldview where Oneness, the Absolute, the Implicate Order, and the True Self shape a “conscious” community.
Vedanta is one of the earliest and the most profound of the ancient Hindu philosophies. It helps us understand consciousness and Truth from an Eastern perspective. “Study of the scriptures is fruitless as long as Brahman [Oneness] has not been experienced. And when Brahman has been experienced, it is useless to read the scriptures.”[ii]
Shankara states very simply that “I am Brahman.” In other words, I am One with all of Creation and I am Eternal Truth. He says that “Maya [P-B] is destroyed by direct experience of Brahman … I am Brahman is the only statement any of us can make.”[iii]
The Vedanta Society helps us go deeper into this Eastern concept. “Vedanta declares that our real nature [True Self] is divine: pure, perfect, eternally free. We do not have to become Brahman, we are Brahman. Our true Self, the Atman, is one with Brahman. But if our real nature is divine, why then are we so appallingly unaware of it? The answer to this question lies in the concept of maya, or ignorance. Maya is the veil [P-B] that covers our real nature and the real nature of the world around us [Oneness]. Maya is fundamentally inscrutable: we don’t know why it exists and we don’t know when it began. What we do know is that, like any form of ignorance, maya ceases to exist at the dawn of knowledge, the knowledge of our own divine nature.” [iv]
Insight # 50 comes to us from Advaita Vedanta, the Hindu philosophy and religion that teaches Oneness, the unity of the individual soul and the Creator. It is believed to have originated in the 8th or 7th century BCE.
“Mind assumes three states of consciousness—waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. I am the witness thereof, remaining aloof from all these states, for I am transcendental consciousness. The blissful Self am I, experienced by transcending the senses, the mind, the intellect and the ego. I am Brahman.” Bhagavata Purana VI.iv [v]
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Additional Reading:
- Consciousness I, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
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[i] “The 2008 Shift Report.” Shift: At the Frontier of Consciousness. Institute of Noetic Sciences: Petaluma, California, March-May 2008, p. 8.
[ii] Johnson, Clive [ed.], Vedanta. An Anthology of Hindu Scripture, Commentary, and Poetry. New York: Bantam, 1971, p. 134.
[iii] Shankara, Adi Sankaracharya (788-820 CE), translated by John Richards. The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. New York: New American Library, 1947, p. 14.
[iv] https://vedanta.org/what-is-vedanta/the-concept-of-maya/
[v] Johnson, Clive [ed.], Vedanta. An Anthology of Hindu Scripture, Commentary, and Poetry. New York: Bantam, 1971, p. 77.
