We are not getting much help from emptybill, or anyone else on the list, for a definition of the Sanskrit term "maya" and what it meant for the Shankara tradition of Advaita Vedanta, so it looks like it's up to me to post the explanations. Maya is in fact, indescribable, a superimposition on Brahman, the real. I'm pretty sure SBS didn't read Vivekananda's books or writings so let's start with SBS on maya.
According to SBS, maya is a fact in that it is the appearance of phenomena. Since Brahman is the only truth, maya is true but not the real truth, the difference being that the truth is the truth forever while what is true is only true for now. "Brahman is Light - it needs no other illumination to reveal it." On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 10:06 AM, Share Long <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Richard, this brings to mind one of my favorite passages from Maharishi's > SBAL: > ...identification is not bondage. What is bondage is inability to maintain > Being along with identification while indulging in experience and activity. > pg 238 > > > > On Monday, January 20, 2014 9:50 AM, Richard Williams < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Share: > > This brings to my mind Maharishi's teaching that knowledge is > > different in different states of consciousness... > > > Things and events - phenomena - are not real, yet not unreal either. They > are like an illusion in that they are not exactly as they appear to be, yet > they are real in the sense that they are presented to us as illusion. So, > it would not be correct to say that phenomena are unreal; they are simply > dream-like because phenomena can't be known or experienced without an > intermediary something - we call it 'consciousness'. We do not experience > phenomenon directly, but through the lens of the senses, which change the > objects of perception. > > Dreams are real because they are dreams. Something that is unreal is > something that never existed, a figment of the imagination for example. But > quite often people see with double vision simply because they have a mote > in their eye, or they see the horns of a hare when in reality, there are no > horns on a rabbit. > > "Duality is only an appearance; non-duality is the real truth. The object > exists as an object for the knowing subject; but it does not exist outside > of consciousness because the distinction of subject and object is within > consciousness" (GK IV 25-27). > > Work cited: > > 'Dispelling Illusion' > Gaudapada's Alatasanti > by Douglas A. Fox > State University of New York Press, 1993 > > Read more: > > 'Gaudapada' > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudapada > > > On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 6:49 AM, Share Long <[email protected]> wrote: > > > emptybill, thanks for your clarity here. This brings to my mind > Maharishi's teaching that knowledge is different in different states of > consciousness. Purusha Prakriti realization seems to be a GC experience to > me whereas the experience of moksha as one's basic nature seems more like > Unity. > > A friend is on a retreat where they are discussing three stages of > Brahman: basic, refined and Wholeness or holiness. Mind boggling to me! > > > > On Sunday, January 19, 2014 4:35 PM, "[email protected]" < > [email protected]> wrote: > > A popular view of Advaita Vedanta (sometimes an accusation) is that it > is Maya-vada ... the doctrine that everything is mere Maya. > > This is a classical misrepresentation that began with Ramanuja (11th > Century head of the Sri Vaishnava-s) and continues down to today. Probably > one reason for the misunderstanding is that different teachers presented > alternate explanations of the Brahma Sutras. In essence, they held contrary > preconceptions. Another reason is that discussions about the nature of Maya > became continuous in debates between Advaita scholars. This led to the > belief that “Maya talk” was the core of Advaita. The reality is that > Advaita is more accurately call Brahma-vada, the teaching about Brahman. It > uses the principal Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita as a > threefold authoritative Vedic source. > > However, leading up to the 14th Century, the Yoga Sutras became an > alternate source for understanding the *path* to realize Brahman. By the > middle of the 14th-15th Century, this view so infiltrated Advaita Vedanta > that the works of Shankaracharya Swami Vidyâranya (who wrote Pañchadâši and > Jivanmuktiviveka) presumed that students of Advaita followed a yogic path > to realize Brahman. > > The modern proponent of this view was Swami Vivekananda. MMY just > continued that mode – which included the division of the Bhagavad Gita into > three topical sections, a theme also found in Sri Aurobindo Ghose. Scholars > now call this interpretation “Yogic Advaita” - an interpretation that is > more about yoga and less about Advaita Vedanta. > > Perhaps more perplexing for those studying Advaita, the concept of > “enlightenment” (so over-popularized) was borrowed from the Buddhists – and > is neither Yogic nor Vedantic. The Yoga Sutras, in fact, do not even > propose yoga as a goal but rather discuss the necessity for “vi-yoga” … > separating, dis-uniting, dis-joining. Thus the question … “separating > *what* from *what*”? In this case, separating the apparent con-fusion > (fusing together) between awareness (purusha) and the field of experience > (i.e. body, senses, mind). > > Contrary to this Yogic assumption of two orders of reality (purusha and > prakriti), Shankara’s Vedanta teaches the inherent unity of Reality > (Brahman). Rather than chitta-vritti-nirodha, nirvikalpa-samâdhi or > Buddhist dhyana-samâpatti, Advaita points to the direct ascertainment of > one’s own true nature. The purpose of such recognition is seeing directly > that moksha (freedom) is *already* the inherent nature of human beings. > It also recognizes that moksha is freedom from *any* experience, while > realizing that like waves moving across the ocean, experience is itself > nothing but Brahman. > > > > > > >
