Bodhinatha summarizes his 8 part series of talks on Awareness and Omnipresence begun on 01/07/2021. First talk: Omnipresence and Sat-chid-ananda defined. Second talk: Awareness as found in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, classical yoga. Third talk: Awareness and the practice of Saiva Siddhanta; the four padas. Fourth talk: The jnana pada, transcendental source of awareness; attatva defined aka imkaif in Shum. Fifth talk: Shum perspectives on awareness: niif the first [of three] states of awareness plus niimf awareness flowing. Sixth talk: Shum, second state of awareness, iif. Also nalif: continuity between meditations. Seventh talk: Gurudeva's Merging with Siva descriptions of the subsuperconscious mind relating to iif. Eighth talk: Gurudeva's Merging with Siva descriptions of the superconscious mind relating to the third state of awareness iimf.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone.

This morning we're going to summarize our series on "Awareness and Omnipresence" and conclude it with a summary. Our first talk was "The Publisher's Desk: Claiming Your Omnipresence, " subtitled: "How to separate your awareness from what you are aware of and enjoy a part of your mind that is always peaceful and all-pervasive."

It has this nice opening paragraph:

[First talk]

"Omnipresence is defined as the state of being present everywhere at the same time. In a religious context, omnipresence is generally thought of as an attribute unique to God. God is present everywhere; whereas man is only present in the location of his physical body. Hindu thought differs from this perspective. Not only is God omnipresent, He has graciously shared that attribute with us. Omnipresence is found at the core of our soul. We can compare this to the Internet, which was created by the US Department of Defense for their use but was ultimately given to the world for everyone to freely use. I have coined a word for the omnipresent network that is accessed by experiencing the core of the soul. I call it the 'Innernet.'"

Then it goes through definition of Sat-chid-ananda, existence-consciousness-bliss. All pervasive consciousness.

Then it continues:

"In Hinduism, it is not enough to simply state that omnipresence resides at the core of our soul. This truth ultimately must be experienced by each of us."

Very good point. Well that's a kind of a fun introduction, you know, a bit of humor there, metaphysical humor. But it does tie the two together quite nicely in the subtitle: " Awareness and Omnipresence: How to separate your awareness from what you are aware of and enjoy a part of your mind that is always peaceful and all-pervasive."

[Second talk]

In the second talk we took a look at awareness in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and it started with the idea:

Our first concept is on yoga as a disunion. The general usage the Sanskrit word yoga means union and in Hindu philosophy, the union referred to is that of the individual self with the Supreme, also described as atman with Brahman and jiva with Siva. However, the process which the term 'yoga' refers to in the Yoga Sutras is one of separating rather than joining. Merriam-Webster's definition of yoga captures this subtlety (Which surprised me); Yoga (capitalized): a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation. Yoga as a philosophy has the name Yoga Darshana. Gurudeva referred to it as classical yoga.

"The idea of a disunion is, in fact, the first concept presented in the Classical Yoga teachings of the Yoga Sutras.(Starts out) 'Now, the exposition of yoga. Yoga is the restraint of mental activities. Then awareness abides in its essential nature. At other times awareness takes on the form of the mental activities.' (First four verses) "Awareness is the soul's ability to sense, see or know and to be conscious of this knowing." (That's our lexicon definition; very nice definition.) In the Yoga Sutras awareness is known as drashta, drik, cit and citshakti. The state referred to in verse three--'Then awareness abides in its essential nature'--is the result of awareness disuniting with the mental activities and remaining temporarily aware only of itself until thoughts again arise. This is the first way disunion takes place and, of course, is generally for an extremely short period.

"In Classical Yoga, a second way in which disunion takes place is in deep meditation which is the idea of a sustained experience of pure awareness. (Different forms of samadhi).

"The third way disunion takes place is at the time of moksha, liberation from rebirth. The last verse in the yoga sutras is on this--the ultimate disunion. 'The involution of the gunas, which are now devoid of purpose for the purusha, is what is called kaivalya or the establishment of the power of awareness in its essential nature."

Kind of needs the permanent establishment of the power of awareness in its essential nature. Power of awareness is citshakti, power of awareness.

[Third talk]

Then our third talk touched briefly on the idea of awareness and the practices of Saiva Siddhanta. So awareness comes up in the yoga pada and the jnana pada; so it starts here with yoga pada.

"There are a few different approaches to meditation in the yoga pada..."

In other words that's trying to say that in Saiva Siddhanta, you have the four padas: charya, kriya, yoga and jnana. Everybody agrees on charya and kriya but when you get into yoga and particularly when you get into jnana there's lots of different approaches. So this is Gurudeva's approach to yoga and to jnana. It's not everybody's approach.

"...Gurudeva's approach involves first understanding awareness as separate from consciousness. This is the same approach that is found in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Gurudeva states: 'Consciousness and awareness are the same when awareness is totally identified with and attached to that which it is aware of. To separate the two is the artful practice of yoga. (So again that's yoga as a disunion). Naturally, the Shum-Tyeif language is needed to accomplish this.

"A second perspective in Gurudeva's approach to meditation involves the concept of awareness aware only of itself which in the Shum-Tyeif language is named kaif. In the yoga pada, the goal is to practice sustaining the experience of awareness aware only of itself for longer and longer periods."

[Fourth talk.]

Then we get the jnana pada. So in the jnana pada the practice is taken one step further in realizing the transcendental source of awareness. In the terminology of the tattva system the transcendental source is called atattva. Other names for it are Parasiva and Nirguna Brahman. In the Shum-Tyeif language realizing atattva is called imkaif--the absence of awareness aware of itself.

Then there's a beautiful definition of atattva in our lexicon:

"Noncategory (meaning it's not a tattva); 'Beyond existence.' Atattva, the negation of tattva, is used to describe the indescribable Reality--the Absolute, Parasiva, the Self God--which transcends all 36 categories (tattvas) of manifestation. It is beyond time, form and space. And yet, in a mystery known only to the knower--the enlightened mystic--Parasakti-nada, the first tattva, ever comes out of Parasiva. If it were not for Parasiva, nothing could be. Parasiva does not exist to the outer dimensions of cosmic consciousness, but without it, the mind itself would not exist."

[Fifth talk]

Then in our fifth talk we got into the Shum-Tyeif concepts:

You will be interested to know that there is not just one word in the Shum language for awareness but rather there are many words that give precise descriptions to different perspectives on awareness. The first perspective Gurudeva describes is found in the Shum word niif. Its perspective of awareness has a four-fold definition. These four aspects of the definition of niif are helpful in grasping the full meaning:

[Niif]

1) Individual awareness or perception, which differs from vast consciousness; 2) the observation of individual awareness; 3) individual awareness distinguished from impersonal consciousness; and 4) the perception of being aware.

The related word is niimf which is niif when it is traveling. Just read the first part of that.

Niimf:

1) Awareness flowing through the mind, being singularly aware of one area and then another; 2) niimf constantly changes its name to the name of the area it becomes conscious in while traveling, and is only called niimf when it is the thread of consciousness traveling or in between one of the names of awareness and another.

So, Gurudeva calls these "States of Awareness." So we're defining three states of awareness. Niif is the first state of awareness.

[Sixth Talk] Then in our sixth talk we added a second state of awareness which was iif; 3) unless one is totally aware, one is not at all conscious of this happening; one may usually be only conscious of niimf in its flow, then in deep meditation of iif and its flow; 4] it is possible, however to be simultaneously aware of iif and niimf, each independent of the other and yet dependent upon each other.

And then Gurudeva brings in the word nalif.

1] Meditation, holding the vibration from one shumnuhm to another; 2) continuity between meditations; 3) after shumnuhm, or any type of meditation practice, pilgrimage or temple puja, a vibration fills one and remains with one long after; 4] this vibration, or current, or sidisi, is called niliif [nalif]. (Read that again) ...this vibration or current, or sidisi, is called nalif. 5) Nalif should be held from meditation to meditation or puja to puja.

So then Gurudeva ties the two concepts together.

"When a natye works on a mamsani or mambashum the nalif vibration is iif continuing within the areas and neighboring areas of the mamsani or mambashum, while niimf is totally aware in other areas. (So, both states of awareness are doing something different.) When the natye goes into the mamsani or mambashum, again niimf changes places with iif and a place of seeing deeper into related areas than did occur in the previous meditation. These iif became conscious of during nalif."

[Seventh talk]

Then in the seventh talk we just brought in the Merging with Siva ideas on the subsuperconscious mind and related that to the functioning of iif. So Gurudeva's description: "In the background the superconscious is working through the subconscious, which we call the subsuperconscious, and the light of understanding is there and you would say 'I always knew it.'"

So that's another way of describing the same process without using the state of awareness niif relating it to subsuperconsciousness.

[Eighth talk]

Then the eighth talk introduced the third state of awareness iimf.

1) Awareness traveling in the sixth dimension separate and apart from niimf or iif; 2) it has the function of traveling and focusing; 3) iimf is always experiencing, even when one is in other states of awareness; 4) the still small voice of intuition is an offshoot of iimf; 5) deep intuition is first from iimf, giving the false feeling that someone is talking to us or a message is being given to us by some outside source.

And that of course relates to Gurudeva's Merging with Siva teachings on superconsciousness. Iif is subsuperconsciousness and iimf is superconsciousness.

"How does one distinguish between intuition and usual thought-feeling processes? Desires come through feeling, warmth of emotion, as do thoughts, schemes, ways of manipulating the media forces for one's own personal benefit or that of a loved one. This is contrary to the power of intuition, which runs cold and is direct, like a bolt of lightning in the inner sky or the subtle rainbow of an etheric aura which bypasses the processes of current thinking, giving answers before the question and solving problems before they have accrued." [Merging with Siva]

Sounds pretty good. Well thank you very much for listening to our summary.