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June.17.2020
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The Philosophy Of The Upanishads part II
You ar
e Pur
e Cons
ciousnes
s
I
n the Kena Upanis
had, we find a ver
y inter
esting ques
tion. We see, hear, s
peak
and t
hink – but what
power impels my mind to think, my tongue to s
pea
k, my
eye
s t
o s
ee and ears to hear? In other wor
ds, what
am I in the deepes
t, most
pr
of
ound dept
hs of my bei
ng? Like most deep questions
, it appears deceptively
si
mple.
Cons
i
der our bodies
.
The
y are made of matter. Yet, we have a firs
t-person
exper
i
ence in our bodies
. Ther
e is something like experiencing the r
ednes
s of a
r
os
e or ‘
being myself’.
In moder
n philos
ophy,
these are called
qual
i
a
.
Modern
neur
osci
ence is unable to acc
ount for t
he vivid living conscious exper
iences
whi
ch we have all the t
ime. This vivid fir
s
t
per
son exper
ience cannot be captured
b
y a m
aterialistic account like the firing of neurons. This is the so-called ‘hard
pr
obl
em’
of moder
n conscious
nes
s studies.
The Kena Upani
s
had begins with this ques
tion about c
onscious
nes
s – the inner
exper
i
ence of
thinking, hearing, seeing, speaking. What
is that shi
ning within me
whi
ch enables all t
hese c
onscious exper
iences
and functions?
The Gur
u’
s answer is extraor
dinar
y and profound (and, at firs
t, rather
eni
gmat
ic). ‘It
is the Ear of
the ear, Mind of the mind, Eye of the eye…’! Let us
t
r
y to unders
tand this.
The answer, simply put, is pure consc
iousness –
Chi
t
.
The
moment
we us
e a ter
m like cons
ciousnes
s, we have to be very careful because the
i
mmediate t
emptat
ion is to unders
tand it in the sense of thoughts and feelings
.
Thi
s is how c
ons
ciousness is usually unders
tood by modern psychology. But
when t
he Upanis
hads s
peak of pure cons
ciousnes
s we must carefully distinguish
i
t
fr
om the or
dinary under
standing of consciousness. Science s
ays consciousness
i
s a pr
oduct of the body (the br
ain to be specific). But
the Upanis
hads hol
d that
Chi
t
i
s not
a pr
oduct
of the body or eve
n the mind. Our bodies are made of
mat
ter
and our minds too ar
e made of
matter, albeit of a subt
le kind, while
Chi
t
is
r
adi
cally different
f
r
om mat
ter
.
Chi
t
per
vades
and illumines the mind and body
enabl
ing all
functions – t
hinking, seeing,
hearing, feeling, speaking and s
o on.
Chi
t
i
s ‘
known’ only thr
ough its manifes
tat
ions in the various functions of
the
mi
nd, or
gans and body. Without
the body and mind, as in dee
p sleep,
Chi
t
cannot be known or exper
i
enced – yet, I
t
continues to exis
t.
Now we ar
e i
n a position to under
s
tand the Gur
u’s enigmatic reply:
‘Since It is
t
he Ear of
t
he ear
, the Mind of the mind, the Speech of speech, the Life of life, and
t
he Eye of
eye,
therefore (
realizing It) the
jnanis (yoga of knowledge)
transcend the wor
ld and become
i
mmor
tal.’ Since
Chi
t
enabl
es each or
gan to perfor
m its specific function, it
is
appr
opr
i
at
e to call It the ess
ence of the organ viz,
Ear of
the ear, Mind of the
mi
nd etc
.
Chi
t
i
s what
you really are – pure cons
ciousnes
s
. It is unchanging and undying
and i
f
you r
eal
ize yourself
as
Chi
t
,
you become immortal
(r
ather, you r
ealize that
you ar
e i
mmor
tal and always
were).
Chi
t
i
dentified with body and mind appea
r
s
t
o be mor
tal. Not
e t
hat
t
he bodies ar
e mortal – equally for the
jnani
and
ajnani
.
Ramakri
s
hna, Chr
is
t and Buddha – all had physical bodies and those bodies are
gone,
jus
t
as our bodies will per
ish one day. But
as
Chi
t
we ar
e i
mmortal. This is
t
o be r
eal
ized and this is the Upanishadic ideal
of
mo
ks
ha
or
f
r
eedom.
Your t
r
ue Self
Chi
t
,
is not
an experience, yet
all experiences shine i
n
Chi
t
.
Chi
t
is
t
he consc
i
ousness illumining every thought, every experience. To the jnani,
Chi
t
i
s exper
ienced in each exper
ience.
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The Philosophy of the Upanishads part III
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The Philosophy of the Upanishads
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