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FRAGMENTATION OF BEING and the Path Beyond the Void by Kent D. Palmer
copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved. Not for Distribution.
The Western tradition that we have been delving into is part of the wider stream of the Indo-European tradition. The Indic stream in many ways is more sophisticated and deeper than anything developed in the West. We cannot complete the link between these two traditions within the compass of this book. But in order to study the relation to Emptiness as developed in Buddhism, we must at least touch upon the Indic branch. We will do this by considering the Isa Upanashad. This is to me the most significant of the Upanishads. They represent the next layer after the Vedas and are all different in their approach to intellectualizing about existence and Being. However, the fundamental idea that is propagated throughout is that the individual self can identify with the universal self that has Being. This universal self, like the individual self, is called atman. Atman, or the self, is exactly what Buddhism denies by positing emptiness. We will continue to understand the cosmic self of the Hindu tradition as the manifest embodiment of what we have previously called the Flaw in this series of essays. This chapter will amount to a commentary on the Isa Upanishad. The Isa Upanishad is one of the older upanishads.
OM. THAT IS full; this is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness.
This is the invocation. The interpretation of the "That" is the pure consciousness of the aspirant, and the "This" is the Hiranayagharba or the World Essence. When these two merge, there is only fullness or perfection. Here we have a statement of the basic idea that the world-womb/essence/seed is Holoidal. And it is possible to merge with the Hollodal from which everything manifests through emanation. Our basic position is that the Holoidal is only part of the field created by Primordial Being and is inherently defective because of the necessity of the ephemeron as its counterpart. Thus, the entire field is flawed in order to define the perfection of the holoidal. Thus, the Hindus, in striving at the overly perfect holoidal Atman or Brahman, implicitly assume the necessity of imperfection which they project on the world in order to make the project of perfecting it make sense. In the invocation, we can read a statement of Ontological Monism. It says that being is Full and Being is full. The fullness of being has been projected from the fullness of Being. When the fullness of Being merges with the fullness of being, then all that remains is fullness or perfection which is the holoidal.
All this -- Whatever exists in this changing universe -- should be covered by the Lord. Protect the Self by renunciation. Lust not after any man's wealth.
The Lord is the Brhaman -- cosmic consciousness or pure Being. Pure Being covers everything. This is the fundamental assumption of the Indo-Europeans. The Self of the individual is purified by merging into the Cosmic Self. This is done by giving up lusts after individual beings, and instead, clinging to pure Being.
If a man wishes to live a hundred years on this earth, he should live performing action. For you, who cherish such a desire and regard yourself as a man, there is no other way by which you can keep work from clinging to you.
Merging into cosmic consciousness is done though performing the actions demanded by the Vedas which means sacrifice. By purifying oneself by resonance with the underlying substrata of Being, one keeps one's wrong actions from clinging to one. Pure Being is a bath that washes away bad deeds, i.e. those that go against Rta. This is what leads to long life thought entering into cosmic harmony. Vanishing into ritual and proscribed actions is the way to purify one's self and avoid and right wrong actions. This is the path by which one attempts to continuously become One with Holoidal Being. It is the path that the Goddess set Parmenides upon away from non-Being and Illusion toward whole full Being.
Verily, those worlds of the asuras are enveloped in blind darkness; and thereto they all repair after death who are slayers of Atman.
The blind darkness, abode of Ashuras, is the nihilistic opposite of the Pure Atman or cosmic consciousness. Here we see that in the Battle between Asuras and Devas this Upanishad takes the side of the Devas. Asuras are creatures of light (angels) and Devas are the creatures of fire (jinn). Mithra and Varuna are Ashuras. Indra is the king of the Devas. We have already noted this battle between the older religion of the Ashuras and the newer religion of the Devas that was taking place in the Vedas. Here the Ashuras have definitely lost because the Angelic beings are identified with darkness -- an amazing reversal. It makes one think that perhaps the worshipers of the Devas are the ones in blind darkness. In fact, they are projecting blind darkness. Blind darkness is the nihilistic Closed Yin state that is opposite the Yang Splendor of Atman and Brahman. Ahura originally meant "lord" and was applied to humans as well as gods. However, it was more closely associated with Varuna/Mithra than Indra who was mostly known as a deva, and even king of the devas. Zoroaster rejects the druj who are the followers of Indra and calls the devas demons. Zoroaster uses the word "lord" in his name for the monotheistic God "Ahura Mazda" (Wise Lord) which eventually degenerated into the nihilistic opposite of Ahriman. It is interesting that the "friend" Ahriman of the Vedas became the lord of darkness in dualistic Zoroastrianism. He clearly must have stood in for Indra who was the established enemy of Zoroaster. In India it was the Ashuras that were demonized.
That non-dual Atman, though never stirring, is swifter than the mind. The devas1 cannot reach It, for It moves ever in front. Though standing still, It takes others who are running. Because of Atman, Vayu apportions the activities of all.
It moves and moves not; It is far and likewise near. It is inside all this and It is outside all this.
Here the basic paradoxical nature of the Atman is established. It is the unmoved mover as in Aristotle. It is the One the antimonies are posited about. Atman is established as the non-dual. But the non-duality arises from the foundation in Ontological Monism. All things are encompassed by the One True Reality. Therefore, the Atman raised above all the encompassed dualities.
The wise man beholds all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings; for that reason he does not hate anyone.
The Self contains all beings, and all beings manifest their basic substance on the universal Self. Because all beings are contained in the universal self, one cannot hate anything else because hating them is equivalent to hating an aspect of oneself. It is through identification with the universal self that one encompasses all things within oneself.
To the seer, all things have verily become the Self: what delusion, what sorrow, can there be for him who beholds that oneness?
Oneness of Being is the realization of the holoidal. It is reached through asceticism which shuts off the senses until the white light of consciousness itself which is the underlying substrata of all things that appear in consciousness appears. That underlying substrata is pure manifestation -- pure Being.
It is He who pervades all -- He who is bright and bodiless, without scar or sinews, pure and by evil unpeirced; who is the Seer, omniscient, transcendent and uncreated. He has duly allotted to the eternal World-Creators their respective duties.
The Seer *IS* the Atman, who *IS* the Brahma, who *IS* the Brahman. The self identifies with the Self of the World who is deified as a personalized deity who is realized to be the Absolute Being underlying all manifestation. Purity of Consciousness means rejecting impurity and pushing to the extreme of light which at the same time produced the extreme of darkness and nihilistic radical opposition. The Brahma is the He -- the Deity who is the Universal Self. He is the Seer who illumines the seer and orders the world with Cosmic Harmony (Rta). As Bramha becomes the Absolute Being, the foundation of everything, signified by adding the "n" to his name, then he manifests omniscience, transcendence, and is called here uncreated because He is posited to be eternal.
Into a blind darkness they enter who are devoted to ignorance; but into a greater darkness they who enter who engage in knowledge alone.
One thing, they say, is obtained from knowledge; another they say, from ignorance. Thus we have heard from the wise who have taught us this.
He who is aware that both knowledge and ignorance should be pursued together, overcomes death though ignorance and obtains immortality though knowledge.
Blind darkness is generated as the nihilistic opposite of the pure consciousness which leads to the white light experience of the substance of consciousness itself approached through austerities. By identifying with the ground of consciousness, one rises above both knowledge and ignorance which both appear within the field of consciousness. This is like Nietzsche's stand beyond Good and Evil except based on actual mystical experience of the white light of pure consciousness. This pursuit of knowledge and ignorance together also reminds us of Socrates' quest to discover why the Delphic oracle thought him so wise. He determined he was wise because he knew he did not know anything, whereas everyone else thought they knew something and were actually ignorant when they thought they had knowledge. Thus, knowledge and ignorance are bound together. This is like the later Buddhist formulation of desire and desirelessness verses indifference. Knowledge and ignorance are posited to stand against the experience of pure consciousness. From the perspective of pure consciousness, both knowledge and ignorance are limited. Attaining pure consciousness is a gnosis in the sense that it is knowledge that appears as a state, not as discursive only. That state makes both knowledge and ignorance pale in comparison and appear dark. Thus, the normal opposition is disrupted by the creation of a ground that is transcendent which is a special experience of the substance of consciousness itself. This will later be contrast with the non-experience of emptiness which is radically different from the experience of white light.
One uses ignorance and knowledge to obtain pure consciousness. One strives to become ignorant of own's knowledge and knowledgeable about one's ignorance. One leaves aside specific facts and concepts and dives into the ground in consciousness of all constructs. That ground allows one a knowledge derived from ignorance and an ignorance that is knowledgeable. One becomes immersed in Being as pure manifestation without any traces of the manifested. But this purity, which is an extreme, produces as its nihilistic opposite blind darkness and worse that here is associated with knowledge and ignorance as things within consciousness.
Into a blind darknes they who worship only the unmanifested prakriti; but into a greater darkness they enter who worship manifest Hiranyagarbha.
Prakrirti is nature. The Hiranyagarbha is the seed of Atman which in Buddhism will be transformed into the Tathagata Gharba. Hiranya means Golden. Hiranayagharba is the Golden Womb/Essence/Seed. It is mentioned in the RG Veda (1.115.1):
Book 10. Hymn CXXI2
His, through his might, his are these snow covered mountains, and men call sea and Rasa his possession:
By him the heavens are strong and the earth is steadfast, by him light's realm and sky-vault are supported:
One thing, they say, is obtained from the worship of the manifested; another, they say, from the worship of the unmanifested. Thus we have heard from the wise who have taught us this.
He who knows that both the unmanifested prakrti and the manifested Hiranyagarbha should be worshiped together, overcomes death by the worship of the Hiranyagharba and obtains immortality thought devotion to prakriti.
The door of the Truth is covered by a golden disc. Open it, O Nourisher! Remove it so that I who have been worshiping the Truth may behold It.
O Nourisher, lone Traveller of the sky! Controller! O Sun, Offspring of Prajapati! Gather Your rays; withdraw Your light. I would see, through Your grace, that form of Yours which is the fairest. I am indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there.
Now may my breath return to the all-pervading, immortal Prana! May this body be burnt to ashes! Om. O mind, remember, remember all that I have done.
O Fire, lead us by the good path for the enjoyment of the fruit of our action. You know, O god, all our deeds. Destroy our sin of deceit. We offer, by words, our salutations to you.
The one who worships the Atman as essence or coherent manifestation, or the one who worships nature unmanifest, are both in blind darkness or worse because the foundation of both of these is pure consciousness. Manifestation at its basis encompasses both the unmanifest and the manifest which can be characterized in terms of the integra and holon. Pure consciousness underlies and supports both of these as it did knowledge and ignorance.
One thing, they say, is obtained from the worship of the manifested; another, they say, from the worship of the unmanifested. Thus we have heard from the wise who have taught us this.
Both the manifest which corresponds to Process Being (Consciousness) and the unmanifest which corresponds to the Essence of Manifestation (Unconscious) are aspects of overall Manifestation (pure consciousness). Things arise from both Process Being and the Essence of Manifestation. But both of these are merely part of an overall Primal Process.
He who knows that both the unmanifested prakrti and the manifested Hiranyagarbha should be worshiped together, overcomes death by the worship of the Hiranyagharba and obtains immortality thought devotion to prakriti.
The Primal Process or Pure Consciousness is what must be worshiped. It is the ultimate ground of all manifestation, both conscious and unconscious. The conscious and the unconscious are merely aspects of the manifestation of this deeper consciousness which corresponds to the totality of fragmented Being. I have identified that with the Abyss of illusion. The assumption of the Hindus is that Being is not fragmented but is whole. But they can only project that wholeness by ignoring the ephemeron. If we take into account the ephemeron, we see that Being was always fragmented and the wholeness of the Holoid was only an illusion from the beginning. This is supported when we go back and look at the roots for the Verb "to be" and see it has always been fragmented and that it is an artificial production from the beginning.
The door of the Truth is covered by a golden disc. Open it, O Nourisher! Remove it so that I who have been worshiping the Truth may behold It.
The gold disc is the Sun that stands for the manifest and conscious. The pure consciousness stands behind the conscious. It is a door like the door Parmenides approached in the Heavens. What comes from behind that door is the concept of unified Being. Unified Being is hidden. This is because there are unmanifest aspects to manifestation. Manifestation is inherently defective. Because of that, the true unity of Being is hidden and must be approached by extreme ascetic practices that eventually are rejected by the Buddha. The Buddha eventually realizes that the Unity of Being is an illusion and formulates the non-concept of emptiness as an alternative goal that is the antidote to the pernicious illusion of Being. Plato reverses this illusion where he presents the Sun of the Good as eclipsed. Either way, it is assumed that the world is defective as it stands and it needs to be perfected. The Hindus perfect it by seeking the Holoidal perfect Being. The Buddhists find another direction to perfect it by indicating and striving for emptiness. Buddhism was a radical departure from the Hindu branch of the Indo-European tradition. A similar correction is needed to the European branch.
O Nourisher, lone Traveller of the sky! Controller! O Sun, Offspring of Prajapati! Gather Your rays; withdraw Your light. I would see, through Your grace, that form of Yours which is the fairest. I am indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there.
Both in the Rg Veda and here Atman/Brahma/Brahman is identified with Prajnapati, the God evolved from Purusa who is the one who is sacrificed. Purusa is sacrificed by the other, and Prajnapati sacrifices himself to himself -- a theme we see over and over in the Indo-European tradition (Odin and Christ).
Now may my breath return to the all-pervading, immortal Prana! May this body be burnt to ashes! Om. O mind, remember, remember all that I have done.
O Fire, lead us by the good path for the enjoyment of the fruit of our action. You know, O god, all our deeds. Destroy our sin of deceit. We offer, by words, our salutations to you.
At death the body as well as the spirit returns to the unified ground of Being. The last breath returns to the source of all breath. And at that point he cries "remember, remember all that I have done." Only the one who is purified requests this. All the ones who have not purified themselves but lived lives pervaded by the negativity of the ephemeron hope all will be forgotten. But as we have seen, this is something that may not occur. What if, as Anaximander says, we must pay recompense. Then what will we do when all the many debts that we as Indo-Europeans have created through our injustice fall due. The debt of the Third World to the First World countries is balanced in the next world by the debt of recompense for wrongs against the peoples of the world. We wish to forget those debts. The question is whether they will forget us. The one who has achieved knowledge of the Holoidal nature of Being knows that doing wrong to others is actually wronging one's self because everyone belongs to the Self. But everyone else operating in the realm of knowledge and ignorance or conscious and unconscious can hope that the wrongs repressed and rendered unconscious stay that way and are lost in oblivion and ignorance. The one who believes in the unity of Being knows this is impossible because knowledge and ignorance are intimately connected as are the conscious and the unconscious. What is not realized is that the very act of going to the extreme of purity creates the opposite of impurity. It is this that the Buddha understood very well. He used the nihilistic constructs of Hinduism to define this middle way. The ground is transformed into indifference, and knowledge is reduced to desirelessness while ignorance is reduced to desire.
This project of producing an experiential headland above the world where unified Being was attainable consumed the Hindu branch of the Indo-European tradition. They developed an inner technology called Yoga which rivals in sophistication our outward technology because its instrument is ourselves. It strove for an ultimate experience that achieved unity and totality. Buddhism, on the other hand, left this project at right angles and strove for identification with a non-conceptual emptiness that could not be experienced. That is why their ultimate is identified with meaning, not with experience. They strove after something even more illusive which could only be imagined in contrast to the goal of the Hindus which was a concrete experience of a unified ground that encompassed all of manifestation including its dark side. But this ground can be called, instead, indifference. The Buddha prior to his enlightenment achieved the state of infinite consciousness after that of infinite space. After that, he realized that it was identical with the state of "nothing whatsoever." He went beyond that by merging the states of Being with the realization of beings by entering the realm of "neither notions nor non-notions." Even this was not emptiness which saw Being and beings, bridging the gap of ontological difference, in one vision. Instead, he had to go beyond the Abyss where Mara rose up with armies to realize the difference between Being with beings and the endless Illusion that it produces. The difference between the four kinds of Being working together and the Abyss of endless illusion that is their mutual product is minimal emptiness. It is not just the relation of Being to beings, but is the functioning of Being to produce endless illusions in which beings are suspended as a dynamic that allows one to see emptiness. The Hindu vision of white light is static. The Buddha came back from white light experience and saw the world of beings suspended in the substance of consciousness. But when he saw the karmic movement of that substance and the endless illusions that we cling to in ignorance, then he realized emptiness as the difference between the motor producing the illusion and the illusion itself. It was non-conceptual because nothing in Being could name it even though everything in Being indicated it. It was non-experiential because the self did not exist to experience it, and the things the self-experienced did not exist to be experienced. The Hindu experiences of ultimate unity were static, not taking into account the dynamism of the world and the illusion production that sustains the world binding it together. When the Buddha recognized that that dynamism had an empty center to its vortex of dynamism and that all the things in existence constantly indicated that stillness in the midst of the storm, then suddenly the whole Indo-European worldview collapsed around him, and he realized that meaning, not concepts or experiences, were actually ultimate. Or we could say the perfume of actions -- tendencies that inform the storehouse consciousness that allow things to persist moment to moment. Or we could say the part whole relations of interpenetration in which the enveloped is the enveloper as appears in the tathagata gharba. Or we could say the distinctions between the myriad things in the dharmadatu. All these are really only aspects of the water of life that flows though existence from out of the Void. The Buddha recolonized the Void from within the Indo-European worldview and rent the veil of Being that obscures things and represses what emanates from the Void. The Buddha discovered in the most radical way possible the groundlessness of the ultimate ground of Indo-European Being. As he did so, he pushed beyond the Abyss of endless illusion into emptiness. He did this by stopping short. He planted himself at the center before the armies of Mara. He defeated them by not engaging them. By not being caught up in Illusion, the Buddha managed to locate emptiness as the difference between the whole of manifestation (neither notion nor non-notion) and the illusion it produces. The endless variety of gods produced by Hinduism shows their entanglement in the Abyss. These arise out of the pure cosmic consciousness which is the pure plenum of white light in which there are no forms and out of which all forms arise. Between the ocean of white light experience and the forms that arise in the sky that form as clouds and arise and return to the sea is the surface of the sea. That surface is empty, reflecting the sky and what lies beneath the surface. That surface is full of shadows from above and below. The surface has a special nature different from either the infinity of air above or the infinity of water below. At the surface there are no cloud forms and no currents. Regardless of how choppy the waves, the individual particles of the surface do not move except up and down. The surface is a pure difference, non-nihilistically drawn. It is a difference in kind between water and air. It is where meaning arises because it is to the surface all significances are referred. It is the ultimate whole against all other parts and wholes are compared. It is the interaction of the water with the air that gives an extra vitality to it -- transforming it into the water of life.
1The quick jinn.
2page 566, Volume 2 Hymns of the Rg Veda, Tr. R.T.H. Griffith
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