Neti Neti

THE idea that things can cease to exist and still be, is a fundamental one in Eastern psychology. Under this apparent contradiction in terms, there rests a fact of Nature to realize is the important thing.

A familiar instance of a similar paradox is afforded by chemical combination. The question whether Hydrogen and Oxygen cease to exist, when they combine to form water, is still a moot one.

Some [argue] that since they are found again when the water is decomposed, they must be there all the while—others contending that as they actually turn into something totally different, they must cease to exist as themselves for the time being.

“Neither side is able to form the faintest conception of the real condition of a thing, which has become something else and yet has not ceased to be itself.”

Existence as water may be said to be, for Oxygen and Hydrogen, a state of Non-being which is ‘more real being’ than their existence as gases. And it may faintly symbolize the condition of the Universe when it goes to sleep, or ceases to be — to awaken or reappear again, when the dawn of the new [Universe] recalls it to what we call existence.

Transcendental Reality

The above sentences could have been written by any one of today’s numerous visionaries or thought leaders. Instead, they are the words of Theosophical Pioneer Mme. Helena Blavatsky, excerpted from her magnum opus The Secret Doctrine — a quintessential blend of Eastern and Western wisdom traditions.

The idea non-duality and non-locality is not new, and is found in The Bhagavad-Gita, Dhammapada, Upanishads, and Lao Tze’s Tao Te Ching. Lao Tze begins his teaching pointing directly to this transcendental paradox:

“THE Tao which can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao — the name which can be uttered is not its eternal name. Without a name, it is the Beginning of Heaven and Earth — with a name, it is the Mother of all things. Only one who is eternally free from earthly passions can apprehend its spiritual essence — he who is ever clogged by passions can see no more than its outer form. These two things, the spiritual and the material, though we call them by different names, in their origin are one and the same. This sameness is a mystery — the mystery of mysteries. It is the gate of all spirituality.”

Bhagavad Gītā, “Song of God”

The Bhagavad Gītā (Sanskrit भगवद् गीता) is one of the most important Hindu scriptures. It is revered as a sacred scripture of Hinduism, and an important world philosophical classic.

The Bhagavad Gītā comprising 700 verses, is a part of the Mahabharata. In Chapter 10, Krishna, alternating between God and Guru, addresses Arjuna his favorite disciple, with the Taoist conundrum:

“I am the Ego which is seated in the hearts of all beings — I am the beginning, the middle, and the end of all existing things. I established this whole universe with a single portion of myself, and remain separate.”

In this now familiar quantum paradox, the spiritual and material are depicted as simultaneously united and contrasted. This correlate of “Neti Neti” may be analogized as the spirit-body. The human body, for example, is inhabited by 500 species of cells totaling on average 70 trillion. The microbial communities of the body (bacteria) outnumber cells by 10-1.

Yet we would never conflate the Thinker or Ego with these 800 trillion living organisms, or any or all of its body parts individually or collectively. Though we seem to remain separate from our creation, like Krishna, without these living parts we could not exist as we do. “Neti Neti,” we are neither and both at the same time.

Nonsectarian Spirituality

In keeping with the ancient wisdom traditions, Blavatsky’s writings were delivered to the world with no patent of “authorship” attached. She referred to herself only as the “writer.” She desired to establish no new religion, no exclusive cult or sect. Her aim was to prove the common source of all spiritual teachings.

Her aim was to elevate the human condition, and relieve it of the burdens of idolatry and sectarianism.

Blavatsky presented the ancient universal teachings saying, after Montaigne, “I have brought nothing of my own but the string that ties them” — cut the string up, if you will, but you cannot destroy truth. (The Secret Doctrine 1:xlvi)

Traditional Sufi Teaching

The story of the seeker of truth, is often portrayed as the lover seeking access to the beloved.

The Lover knocks at the door of The Beloved.
‘Who is it?’, asked a voice from inside.
‘It is me, please let me in’, said the Lover.
‘No, there is only room for one in here, go away’,
replied the voice from inside.
Again there was knocking on the door,
‘Who is it?’, asked the voice from inside once again.
‘It is You’, said the Lover.
This time the door opened and the Lover could enter.

The One Rule of Seekership

“None can feel the difference between himself and his fellow-students, such as ‘I am the wisest,’ ‘I am more holy and pleasing to the teacher, or in my community, than my brother,’ etc.,” wrote Elena Blavatsky, and to be a true disciple:-

“His thoughts must be predominantly fixed upon his heart, chasing therefrom every hostile thought to any living being. The heart must be full of the feeling of its non-separateness from the rest of beings as from all in Nature — otherwise no success can follow.”

A Chinese Tradition

In traditional China, it was actually an insult to say “thank you” to loved ones because in doing so, it creates separation, says co-editor Kara LeBeau, who years ago lived in Taiwan.

“When I thanked a friend of mine in Taiwan for doing me a favor,” she writes, “She looked at me, visibly hurt, and said, ‘I thought we were friends!’” Another American friend of Kara’s who lived in Taiwan at the same time she was there, will get angry and say “shut up” whenever Kara thanked him.

So, too, couples never said “I love you” to each other. Doing so splits their unity. Besides, their love for each other should be evident in everything they do for each other.

Compound Spirituality

To our talpatic, or mole-like, comprehension the human spirit is then lost in the One Spirit, as the drop of water thrown into the sea can no longer be traced out and recovered. But de facto it is not so.

Everyone “must preserve their divine (not human) individualities, and

“… however long the rest period between worlds or births. When the rest is over, “the same individual [spirit] resumes its majestic path of evolution, though on a higher, hundredfold perfected and more pure chain of earths than before — and brings with it all the essence of compound spiritualities from its previous countless rebirths.”

Evolution has a spiral motion and is dual, according to Blavatsky — “the path of spirituality turns, corkscrew-like, within and around physical, semi-physical, and supra-physical evolution.

[H. P. Blavatsky, Article: Isis Unveiled and the Vishishtadwaita]

The Upanishads: Neti Neti

The expression, neti–neti, literally means “neither this, nor that.” The first is the rejection of a separate self or ego. It is a rejection of fragmentation or split from universal spirit. It means in the wholistic multidimensional context that we are not just separate egos. We can not ever be defined as being separate from spirit without introducing a delusion. Thus “neti neti” as a statement means that we are not anything separate, as in the dualistic framework of a separate “I” or “Is.”

So just as the first neti can say no to a separate observer (ego) free from subject-object duality, the second neti can say I am not just the whole, but also the parts of the whole —I am both at the same time.

What is Consciousness?

“What consciousness is can never be defined psychologically.
We can analyse and classify its work and effects.”
-H. P. Blavatsky

Peter Russell: Why is There Mind?

Anatta

One may say that it is an affirmation of the Buddhist idea of anatta or anatman, the unreality of a separate self or ego. That the ego is “maya,” a necessary illusion produced by ignorance of central unity which bind us all — yet a realizable Reality.

Thus neti neti is best understood as an affirmation that we are not the body — that the body is part of a vaster interconnected web of life — both of form and formless. “Neti neti” can be said to be a deep statement of non-duality, neither one or the other, but rather both. Neither form nor void but both form and void. Both body and separate from body simultaneously.

Dharmaputra and His Dog

(Adapted from Your Life is Your Message, by Eknath Easwaran)

There is a story from the Indian tradition: There once lived a king called Dharmaputra, who was the soul of virtue and compassion. When the time came for him to shed his body, he ascended to heaven accompanied by a dog. When he reached heaven’s gate, the Indian equivalent of St. Peter looked up his name.

“Let’s see . . . Dharmaputra. Yes, we have orders to let you in. But we don’t have any listing for a dog.”

“Won’t you please look again?” asked Dharmaputra.

So St. Peter looked up all the rules and said, “I’m sorry, but there is no provision here for dogs.”

Dharmaputra did not hesitate. “That dog loves me,” he said. “Wherever I go, he goes too, so I have got to take him with me.”

“Rules are rules,” St. Peter said finally. “Either you come in alone, or you go back.”

Dharmaputra didn’t budge. He said simply, “No dog, no me.”

Then a miracle took place. Suddenly, instead of a dog, it was the God Krishna, the Lord of Love, standing at Dharmaputra’s side. St. Peter opened the gates.

Little stories like this can remind us to always be compassionate towards our fellow creatures, recognizing that the same Self lives in them as in us.

Eknath Easwaran

(Click to play)

The Basic Truth of Being

In The Secret Doctrine, Elena Blavatsky intuited a term for “neti neti” she referred to as “Be-ness.” It is an “Infinite and Eternal Cause,” she wrote, which “is the rootless root of  ‘all that was, is, or ever shall be.’”

It is of course devoid of all attributes and is essentially without any relation to manifested, finite Being. It is “Be-ness” rather than Being (in Sanskrit, Sat), and is beyond all thought or speculation.

This “Be-ness” is symbolized in the Secret Doctrine under two aspects. On the one hand, absolute abstract Space, representing bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any conception, or conceive of by itself.

On the other, absolute Abstract Motion representing Unconditioned Consciousness. … This latter aspect of the one Reality, is also symbolized by the term “The Great Breath,” a symbol sufficiently graphic to need no further elucidation.

Thus, then, the first fundamental axiom of the Secret Doctrine is this metaphysical ONE ABSOLUTE — BE-NESS

Dolphins and Humans

The Grand Enigma

The enigmatic comment made by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine,  “the Universe is real enough to the conscious beings in it, which are as unreal as it is itself,” begs a question.

If both universe and all it manifestations, including us, are illusions, then:

“What is reality—really?”

In Eastern psychology “the Universe is called, with everything in it, Maya [illusion.]” We never know “things in themselves.” This is also the persistent mystery of consciousness. We cannot define consciousness, but the fact that we are conscious is the one thing we cannot either escape or deny.

Causation is a ladder. Everything and every action has its cause, and that cause, in turn, has a cause — up to the “causeless cause” — that condition of Being which is often called “The Absolute.” It is the Dreamless Sleep of the whole universe.

That One Be-ness is  called “the summum bonum,” and in Sanskrit is called ” Paranirvana.”

Individual and Universal Consciousness

Blavatsky continues, still using Sanskrit terms:  “Besides being the final state it is that condition of subjectivity which has no relation to anything but the one absolute truth (Para-marthasatya) on its plane. It is that state which leads one to appreciate correctly the full meaning of Non-Being, which, as explained, is absolute Being.

Sooner or later, all that now seemingly exists, will be in reality and actually in the state of Paranishpanna [absoluteness]. But there is a great difference between conscious and unconscious “being.” The condition of Paranishpanna, without Paramartha, the Self-analysing consciousness (Svasamvedana), is no bliss, but simply extinction (for Seven Eternities).

“Thus, an iron ball placed under the scorching rays of the sun will get heated through, but will not feel or appreciate the warmth, while a man will. It is only ‘with a mind clear and undarkened by personality, and an assimilation of the merit of manifold existences devoted to being in its collectivity (the whole living and sentient Universe),’ that one gets rid of personal existence, merging into, becoming one with, the Absolute, and continuing in full possession of Paramartha [self-analyzing consciousness]. (SD 1:54)

The Omnipresent Proteus

by Elena Blavatsky

(Excerpt from “The New Cycle”)

“In the final analysis, the greatest of materialists, as well as the most transcendental of philosophers, admits the omnipresence of an impalpable Proteus, omnipotent in its ubiquity throughout all kingdoms of nature, including man — a Proteus indivisible in its essence, without form.

“And yet manifesting itself in all forms, which is here, there, everywhere and nowhere, which is the All and the Nothing, which is all things and always One, Universal Essence which binds, limits and contains everything, and which everything contains.

“What theologian can go beyond that? … not only humanity—even though consisting of thousands of races—but all that lives … is made up of the same essence and substance, is animated by the same spirit. Therefore, there is solidarity throughout nature, on the physical as well as on the moral plane.”

“Consciousness is Everywhere”

Other Posts:

Peeling The Onion

Conscious Without a Brain

Dueling Egos, Pt. 1

Dueling Egos, Pt. 2