#vivekachudamani

[magdalene-spirit]

Why the Witch?

Sometimes I have to admit & just say I can’t do this today, I can’t be there, I won’t be able to make it. Thank you, but no. Honestly it is because I don’t have the motivation, the Will or the energy. It’s just not in the cards for me right now.

———-

Salutations to Goddess

Spinner & weaver

Of the fabric of my life

I offer this moment’s fate

& place my destiny

in your wise old hands

———

In the Sanatana dharma— the way of freedom— this accumulation (sanchita) of favourable energy/circumstances, is referred to as merit that you obtain through service & right action by fulfilling your duty in the creation (dharma).

But this too, has been misconstrued & misused in patriarchy.

In verse 4 of the Vivekachudamani Shankara says—

The man who, having by some means obtained a human birth, with a male body and mastery of the Vedas to boot, is foolish enough not to exert himself for self-liberation… suggests that Shankara understood that the male form has privileges (under patriarchy?) that the female form is denied— but is he suggesting a female birth to be innately an inferior form according to merit, or only unfavourable under patriarchy?

Which is the topic of Bhagavad Gita ch 9:32:

For those who take refuge in Me, Ο Pārtha, though they be of sinful birth— women, vaiśyas, and śudras— even they attain the Supreme Goal.

Suggesting the female form a sinful form— echoing the judgement of Mary Magdalene as an ‘unreliable witness’ & Eve as a ‘temptress’.

Returning to Sanatana dharma (“the ancient law”)— dharma is often interpreted as (religious) duty but is misleading— “its meaning is more profound, defying concise English translation. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit root “dhri,” which means “to sustain.”

[A] related meaning is “that which is integral to something.”— ie, the dharma of fire [is] to be hot.

According to the notion of sanatana-dharma, the eternal and intrinsic inclination of the living entity (atman) is to perform seva (service). Sanatana-dharma, being transcendental, refers to universal and axiomatic laws that are beyond our temporary belief systems.” Sources ⬇️

Under patriarchy dharma (service, duty) can become expectations, demand, coercion, force, manipulation, entitlement, righteousness etc.

But dharma is another way of saying— to know your knowing— to know what the need of the moment is, to listen & to respond.

Sometimes dharma is thought of as fulfilling your purpose, however purpose is easily appropriated by the ego for its own ends.

Dharma can only be known by deepest listening to the true heart & rising insights that come as felt signatures & whispers. It cannot be proscribed from the outside.

It asks much of us to say— no I cannot meet this expectation. Everyone around us may want to convince you otherwise.

Importantly service is not subservience. To martyr & sacrifice your knowing, is self-betrayal.

Women have for long played the role of the pleaser, as a price for patriarchal provisioning. It is difficult to say that first No— especially to our self— no longer will I entertain these patriarchal games I play— turning my back on myself for approval to be seen as the good girl, the pleaser, the good wife or good student.

This is how we learn to trust our inner voice & how we become self-dependent (svatantra). We obey our true heart. Our devotion is to Silent knowing, not the institution, teacher or priest.

We may initially be perceived as a Jezebel rebel.

Gradually we will outgrow the need to be seen or perceived at all. I no longer need to be seen by a him, or the nod of patriarchal approval.

I have left the patriarchal cage lead by the Goddess & the witch. Now I look at the trees & the clouds, at the stones & the bones & I scry & divine, for my wisdom to arise.

Even if it means I must burn on the pyre with everyone throwing words like knives of disbelief in my direction.

It is the yet to be exorcised patriarchy in spiritual traditions that pushed me to the edges & the borders of spirituality where I met with witchery (western tantrism, you could say) as a hidden & solitary way into the heart of freedom.

Sources—

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Magdalene

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve

https://iskconeducationalservices.org/HoH/concepts/key-concepts/sanatana-dharma/

[stoicbreviary]

Vivekachudamani 16-34 

THE FOUR PERFECTIONS  He is ripe to seek the Self who is full of knowledge and wisdom, reason and discernment, and who bears the well-known marks.  He is ready to seek the Eternal who has Discernment and Dispassion; who has Restfulness and the other graces.  Four perfections are numbered by the wise. When they are present there is success, but in their absence is failure.  First is counted the Discernment between things lasting and unlasting. Next Dispassion, the indifference to self-indulgence here and in paradise. Then the Six Graces, beginning with Restfulness. Then the longing for Freedom.  A certainty like this—the Eternal is real, the fleeting world is unreal—this is that Discernment between things lasting and unlasting.  And this is Dispassion—a perpetual willingness to give up all sensual self-indulgence—everything lower than the Eternal, through a constant sense of their insufficiency.  Then the Six Graces: a steady intentness of the mind on its goal—this is Restfulness. And the steadying of the powers that act and perceive, each in its own sphere, turning them back from sensuality—this is Self-control.  Then the raising of the mind above external things—this is the true Withdrawal.  The enduring of all ills without petulance and without self-pity—this is the right Endurance.  An honest confidence in the teaching and the Teacher—this is that Faith by which the treasure is gained.  The intentness of the soul on the pure Eternal—this is right Meditation, but not the indulgence of fancy.  The wish to untie, by discernment of their true nature, all the bonds woven by unwisdom, the bonds of selfishness and sensuality; — this is the longing for Freedom.  Though at first imperfect, these qualities gradually growing through Dispassion, Restfulness, and the other graces and the Teacher's help will gain their due.  When Dispassion and longing for Freedom are strong, then Restfulness and the other graces will bear fruit.  But when these two—Dispassion and longing for Freedom—are lacking, then Restfulness and the other graces are a mere appearance, like water in the desert.  Chief among the causes of Freedom is devotion, the intentness of the soul on its own nature. Or devotion may be called intentness on the reality of the Self.  Let him who possesses these Perfections and who would learn the reality of the Self, approach the wise Teacher, the Higher Self, from whom comes the loosing of bonds; who is full of knowledge and perfect; who is not beaten by desire, who really knows the Eternal; who has found rest in the Eternal, at peace like a fuelless fire; who is full of selfless kindness, the friend of all that lives. Serving the Teacher with devotion and aspiration for the Eternal, and finding harmony with him, seek the needed knowledge of the Self. 

IMAGE: Raja Ravi Varma, Adi Shankara with Disciples (c. 1904) 

[nurtureoneslife]

He who knows the Atman is free from every kind of bondage.

He is full of glory.

He is the greatest of the great.

The things perceived by the senses cause him neither grief nor pleasure.

He is not attached to them.

Neither does he shun them.

Constantly delighting in the Atman he is always at play within himself.

He tastes the sweet, unending bliss of the Atman

and is satisfied…

The man of contemplation walks alone.

He lives desireless amidst the objects of desire.

The Atman is his eternal satisfaction.

He sees the Atman present in all things…

He acts, yet is not bound by his actions.

He reaps the fruit of past actions, yet is unaffected by them…

He dwells in the body, but he regards it as a thing apart from himself — like the cast-off skin of a snake...

The illumined soul lives eternally conscious of his oneness with Brahman.

He tastes continually the joy of the Atman, the one

without a second…

There is neither birth nor death,

neither bound nor aspiring soul,

neither liberated soul nor seeker after liberation— this is

the ultimate and absolute truth.

~ Adi Shankaracharya

✅ Vivekacudamani

[nisargadattadvaita]

A Wall of Clay Does Not Divide the Sky

Photo: Barney Goodman on Unsplash

We buy a ceramic vase to store objects and, without realizing it, assume that we have trapped space inside it. The gesture seems everyday, but it conceals an optical illusion of language: space never entered the piece. It was the clay that molded itself around a vastness that was already there, perfectly untouched, indifferent to the shapes of the mud.

When the vase falls and shatters into dozens of shards on the floor, no one organizes a rescue mission for the trapped air. No one imagines that the internal space has escaped to finally reunite with the air in the room. There is no trauma, no transition, no heroic liberation. Only the physical barrier collapsed, revealing what was always true: the division never existed outside the imagination of words.

The human mind operates through the exact same geometric error. We perceive ourselves as sealed containers. We believe that skin is the final frontier of an intimate substance called "I"—a private life that needs to be protected from the outside world. We spend a monumental amount of energy decorating the inside of this piece of clay—polishing memories, fixing traumas, accumulating virtues—with the firm conviction that we are the pottery, rather than the changeless space that sustains it.

The entire architecture of psychological suffering rests on this identification with the outline. If the vase cracks, we feel that our essence has been damaged. If another vase seems more elegant or spacious, we are overcome by a quiet envy. We forget that the air circulating inside a cracked mug and the air filling a cathedral are precisely the same presence.

In The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, Sri Shankaracharya turns to this classic image to dissolve the false idea of an isolated self seeking liberation like someone winning a prize:

"The air inside a jar is one with the air everywhere. In the same way, your Atman is one with Brahman. O wise man, rid yourself of all consciousness of separation and absorb yourself in silence." — Sri Shankaracharya

Advaita Vedanta uses the term upadhi to designate these limiting conditions that appear to fragment reality. The body is an upadhi, the mind is another, a life story is another. None of these elements are false in the sense of being non-existent; they possess the passing reality of molded clay. The mistake is not in the existence of the vase, but in attributing the qualities of clay to the air inside it. When the mind becomes agitated, we say that we are agitated. This is equivalent to claiming that air became rectangular because the box containing it is rectangular.

The ego's resistance to this realization is subtle and persistent. Instead of simply noticing the absence of boundaries, the mind turns the teaching into yet another project. It tries to expand its consciousness, strives to merge with the whole, or seeks a mystical experience of transcendence. However, the space inside a jar does not need to make any effort to merge with the space of the room. It already is that space. Any attempt to reach oneness reaffirms the false premise that a real separation exists today.

The Upanishads were already pointing to this truth by teaching that spiritual inquiry does not consist of creating something new, but of removing the accumulation of false premises. Liberation is not an expansion of the vase, but the cessation of the belief that clay limits what is inside and outside of it.

In daily practice, self-inquiry—the so-called vichara—does not require retreating into a cave or abandoning obligations. There is no need to break the pottery. Daily life goes on with its demands, commitments, and emotional fluctuations. The shift is strictly cognitive and immediate: upon feeling the tightness of anxiety or the pressure of a deadline, one observes the phenomenon without assuming that it belongs to the core of who you are.

The noise of the mind occurs on the surface of the clay. The inner space remains untouched, clear, and vast, exactly like the air in the surrounding environment.

It would suffice to realize that the structure we imagine imprisons us is made solely of the thought that insists on measuring it.

[stoicbreviary]

Vivekachudamani 148-154 

THE FREEING OF THE SELF The Self, wrapped up in the five vestures beginning with the vesture formed of food, which are brought into being by its own power, does not shine forth, as the water in the pond, covered by a veil of green scum. 

When the green scum is taken away, immediately the water shines forth pure, taking away thirst and heat, straightway becoming a source of great joy to man. 

When the five vestures have been stripped off, the Self shines forth pure, the one essence of eternal bliss, beheld within, supreme, self-luminous. 

Discernment is to be made between the Self and what is not Self by the wise man seeking freedom from bondage; through this he enters into joy, knowing the Self which is being, consciousness, bliss. 

As the reed from the tiger grass, so separating from the congeries of things visible the hidden Self within, which is detached, not involved in actions, and dissolving all in the Self, he who stands thus, has attained liberation. 

[stoicbreviary]

Vivekachudamani 136-153 

BONDAGE AND FREEDOM 

Then, holding firmly mind, with knowing soul at rest, know your self within yourself face to face saying, "This am I" The life-ocean, whose waves are birth and dying, is shoreless; cross over it, fulfilling the end of being, resting firm in the Eternal. 

Thinking things not self are "I"—this is bondage for a man; this, arising from unwisdom, is the cause of falling into the weariness of birth and dying; this is the cause that he feeds and anoints and guards this form, thinking it the Self; the unreal, real; wrapping himself in sensuous things as a silkworm in his own threads. 

The thought that what is not That is That grows up in the fool through darkness; because no discernment is there, it wells up, as the thought that a rope is a snake; thereupon a mighty multitude of fatuities fall on him who accepts this error, for he who grasps the unreal is bound; mark this, my companion. 

By the power of wakefulness, partless, external, secondless, the Self wells up with its endless lordship; but this enveloping power wraps it round, born of Darkness, as the dragon of eclipse envelops the rayed sun. 

When the real Self with its stainless light recedes, a man thinking "this body is I," calls it the Self; then by lust and hate and all the potencies of bondage, the great power of Force that they call extension greatly afflicts him. 

Torn by the gnawing of the toothed beast of great delusion; wandered from the Self, accepting every changing mood of mind as himself, through this potency, in the shoreless ocean of birth and death, full of the poison of sensuous things, sinking and rising, he wanders, mean-minded, despicable-minded. 

As a line of clouds, born of the sun's strong shining, expands before the sun and hides it from sight, so self-assertion, that has come into being through the Self, expands before the Self and hides it from sight. 

As when on an evil day the lord of day is swallowed up in thick, dark clouds, an ice-cold hurricane of wind, very terrible, afflicts the clouds in turns; so when the Self is enveloped in impenetrable Darkness, the keen power of extension drives with many afflictions the man whose soul is deluded. 

From those two powers a man's bondage comes; deluded by them he errs, thinking the body is the Self. 

Of the plant of birth and death, the seed is Darkness, the sprout is the thought that body is Self, the shoot is rage, the sap is deeds, the body is the stem, the life-breaths are the branches, the tops are the bodily powers, sensuous things are the flowers, sorrow is the fruit, born of varied deeds and manifold; and the Life is the bird that eats the fruit.

This bondage to what is not Self, rooted in unwisdom, innate, made manifest without beginning or end, gives life to the falling torrent of sorrow, of birth and death, of sickness and old age. 

Not by weapons nor arms, not by storm nor fire nor by a myriad deeds can this be cut off, without the sword of discernment and knowledge, very sharp and bright, through the grace of the guiding power. 

He who is single-minded, fixed on the word divine, his steadfast fulfillment of duty will make the knowing soul within him pure; to him whose knowing soul is pure, a knowing of the Self supreme shall come; and through this knowledge of the Self supreme he shall destroy this circle of birth and death and its root together. 

[stoicbreviary]

Vivekachudamani 108-135 

THE THREE POTENCIES 

The power of the supreme Master, that is called unmanifested, beginningless unwisdom whose very self is the three potencies, to be known through thought, by its workings—this is glamor, Mâyâ, whereby all this moving world is made to grow. 

Neither being nor non-being nor of the self of both of these; neither divided nor undivided nor of the self of both of these; neither formed nor formless nor of the self of both of these—very wonderful and ineffable is its form. 

To be destroyed by the awakening to the pure, secondless Eternal, as the serpent imagined in a rope, when the rope is seen; its potencies are called substance, force, and darkness; each of them known by their workings. The self of doing belongs to force, whose power is extension, whence the pre-existent activities issued; rage and all the changes of the mind that cause sorrow are ever its results. 

Desire, wrath, greed, vanity, malice, self-assertion, jealousy, envy, are the terrible works of Force, its activities in man; therefore this is the cause of bondage. 

Then enveloping is the power of Darkness, whereby a thing appears as something else; this is the cause of the circling birth and rebirth of the spirit, and the cause whereby extension is drawn forward. 

Though a man be full of knowledge, learned, skillful, very subtle-sighted, if Darkness has wrapped him round, he sees not, though he be full of manifold instruction; he calls good that which is raised by error, and leans upon its properties, unlucky man that he is; great and hard to end is the enveloping power of Darkness. 

Wrong thinking, contradictory thinking, fanciful thinking, confused thinking—these are its workings; this power of extension never leaves hold of one who has come into contact with it, but perpetually sends him this way and that. 

Unwisdom, sluggishness, inertness, sloth, infatuation, folly, and things like these are of the potency of Darkness. Under the yoke of these he knows nothing at all, but remains as though asleep or like a post. 

But the potency of substance is pure like water, and even though mixed with the other two, it builds for the true refuge; for it is a reflected spark of the Self, and lights up the inert like the sun. 

Of the potency of Substance when mixed the properties are self-respect, self-restraint, control, faith and love and the longing to be free, a godlike power and a turning back from the unreal. 

Of the potency of substance altogether pure the properties are grace, direct perception of the Self, and perfect peace; exulting gladness, a resting on the Self supreme, whereby he reaches the essence of real bliss. 

The unmanifest is characterized by these three potencies; it is the causal vesture of the Self; dreamless life is the mode where it lives freely, all the activities of the powers, and even of the knowing soul having sunk back into it. 

Every form of outward perceiving has come to rest, the knowing soul becomes latent in the Self from which it springs; the name of this is dreamless life, wherein he says "I know nothing at all of the noise of the moving world." 

The body, powers, life-breaths, mind, self-assertion, all changes, sensuous things, happiness, unhappiness, the ether and all the elements, the whole world up to the unmanifest—this is not Self. 

Glamor and every work of glamor from the world-soul to the body, know this as unreal, as not the Self, built up of the mirage of the desert.

But I shall declare to you the own being of the Self supreme, knowing which a man, freed from his bonds, reaches the lonely purity. 

There is a certain selfhood wherein the sense of "I" forever rests; who witnesses the three modes of being, who is other than the five veils; who is the only knower in waking, dreaming, dreamlessness; of all the activities of the knowing soul, whether good or bad—this is the "I"; 

Who of himself beholds all; whom none beholds; who kindles to consciousness the knowing soul and all the powers; whom none kindles to consciousness; by whom all this is filled; whom no other fills; who is the shining light within this all; after whose shining all else shines; 

By whose nearness only body and powers and mind and soul do their work each in his own field, as though sent by the Self; 

Because the own nature of this is eternal wakefulness, self-assertion, the body and all the powers, and happiness and unhappiness are beheld by it, just as an earthen pot is beheld. This inner Self, the ancient Spirit, is everlasting, partless, immediately experienced happiness; ever of one nature, pure waking knowledge, sent forth by whom Voice and the life-breaths move. 

Here, verily, in the substantial Self, in the bidden place of the soul, this steady shining begins to shine like the dawn; then the shining shines forth as the noonday sun, making all this world to shine by its inherent light; knower of all the changing moods of mind and inward powers; of all the acts done by body, powers, life-breaths; present in them as fire in iron, strives not nor changes at all. 

This is not born nor dies nor grows, nor does it fade or change forever; even when this form has melted away, it no more melts than the air in a jar. 

Alike stranger to forming and deforming; of its own being, pure wakefulness; both being and non-being is this, besides it there is nothing else; this shines unchanging, this Supreme Self gleams in waking, dream and dreamlessness as "I", present as the witness of the knowing soul. 

[stoicbreviary]

Vivekachudamani 72-107 

THE VESTURES 

Formed of the substances they call marrow, bone, fat, flesh, blood, skin, and over-skin; fitted with greater and lesser limbs, feet, breast, trunk, arms, back, head; this is called the physical vesture by the wise—the vesture whose authority, as "I" and "my" is declared to be a delusion.

Then these are the refined elements: the ethereal, the upper air, the flaming, water, and earth. 

These when mingled one with another become the physical elements, that are the causes of the physical vesture. The materials of them become the five sensuous things that are for the delight of the enjoyer—sounds and other things of sense.

They who, fooled in these sensuous things, are bound by the wide noose of lust, hard to break asunder—they come and go, downwards and upwards on high, led by the swift messenger, their works. 

Through the five sensuous things, five creatures find dissolution to the five elements, each one bound by his own character: the deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish, the bee; what then of man, who is snared by all the five? 

Sensuous things are keener to injure than the black snake's venom; poison slays only him who eats it, but these things slay only him who beholds them with his eyes. 

He who is free from the great snare, so hard to be rid of, of longing after sensuous things, he indeed builds for Freedom, and not another, even though knowing the six philosophies. 

Those who, only for a little while rid of lust, long to be free, and struggle to reach the shore of the world-ocean—the toothed beast of longing lust makes them sink halfway, seizing them by the throat, and swiftly carrying them away. 

By whom this toothed beast called sensuous things is slain by the sharp sword of true turning away from lust, he reaches the world-sea's shore without hindrance. He who, soul-destroyed, treads the rough path of sensuous things, death is his reward, like him who goes out on a luckless day. But he who goes onward, through the word of the good Teacher who is friendly to all beings, and himself well-controlled, he gains the fruit and the reward, and his reward is the Real. 

If the love of Freedom is yours, then put sensuous things far away from you, like poison. But love, as the food of the gods, serenity, pity, pardon, rectitude, peacefulness, and self-control; love them and honor them forever. 

He who every moment leaving undone what should be done—the freeing of himself from the bonds of beginningless unwisdom—devotes himself to the fattening of his body, that rightly exists for the good of the other powers, such a one thereby destroys himself. 

He who seeks to behold the Self, although living to fatten his body, is going to cross the river, holding to a toothed beast, while thinking it a tree. 

For this delusion for the body and its delights is a great death for him who longs for Freedom; the delusion by the overcoming of which he grows worthy of the dwelling-place of the free. 

Destroy this great death, this infatuation for the body, wives, and sons; conquering it, the pure ones reach the Pervader's supreme abode. 

This faulty form, built up of skin and flesh, of blood and sinews, fat and marrow and bones, gross and full of impure elements; 

Born of the fivefold physical elements through deeds done before, the physical place of enjoyment of the Self; its mode is waking life, whereby there arises experience of physical things. 

Subservient to physical objects through the outer powers, with its various joys—flower-chaplets, sandal, lovers—the Life makes itself like this through the power of the Self; therefore this form is pre-eminent in waking life. 

But know that this physical body, wherein the whole circling life of the Spirit adheres, is but as the dwelling of the lord of the dwelling. 

Birth and age and death are the fate of the physical and all the physical changes from childhood onward; of the physical body only are caste and grade with their many homes, and differences of worship and dishonor and great honor belong to it alone. 

The powers of knowing—hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste—for apprehending sensuous things; the powers of doing—voice, hands, feet, the powers that put forth and generate—to effect deeds. 

Then the inward activity: mind, soul, self-assertion, imagination, with their proper powers; mind, ever intending and doubting; soul, with its character of certainty as to things; self-assertion, that falsely attributes the notion of "I"; imagination, with its power of gathering itself together, and directing itself to its object. 

These also are the life-breaths: the forward-life, the downward-life, the distributing-life, the uniting-life; their activities and forms are different, as gold and water are different. 

The subtle vesture they call the eightfold inner being made up thus: voice and the other four, hearing and the other four, ether and the other four, the forward life and the other four, soul and the other inward activities, unwisdom, desire, and action. 

Hear now about this subtle vesture or form vesture, born of elements not five-folded; it is the place of gratification, the enjoyer of the fruits of deeds, the beginningless disguise of the Self, through lack of self-knowledge. 

Dream-life is the mode of its expansion, where it shines with reflected light, through the traces of its own impressions; for in dream-life the knowing soul shines of itself through the many and varied mind-pictures made during waking-life. 

Here the higher self shines of itself and rules, taking on the condition of doer, with pure thought as its disguise, an unaffected witness, nor is it stained by the actions, there done, as it is not attached to them, therefore it is not stained by actions, whatever they be, done by its disguise; let this form-vesture be the minister, doing the work of the conscious self, the real man, just as the tools do the carpenter's work; thus this self remains unattached. 

Blindness or slowness or skill come from the goodness or badness of the eye; deafness and dumbness are of the ear and not of the Knower, the Self. 

Up-breathing, down-breathing, yawning, sneezing, the forward moving of breath, and the outward moving—these are the doings of the life-breaths, say those who know these things; of the life-breaths, also, hunger and thirst are properties. 

The inner activity dwells and shines in sight and the other powers in the body, through the false attribution of selfhood, as cause. 

Self-assertion is to be known as the cause of this false attribution of selfhood, as doer and enjoyer; and through substance and the other two potencies, it reaches expansion in the three modes. 

When sensuous things have affinity with it, it is happy; when the contrary, unhappy. So happiness and unhappiness are properties of this, and not of the Self which is perpetual bliss. 

Sensuous things are dear for the sake of the self, and not for their own sake; and therefore the Self itself is dearest of all. 

Hence the Self itself is perpetual bliss—not for it are happiness and unhappiness; as in dreamless life, where are no sensuous things, the Self that is bliss—is enjoyed, so in waking-life it is enjoyed through the word, through intuition, teaching, and deduction.