I read in the Avadhut Gita it says "Why do you call Atman personal and impersonal. Since you are neither bound nor free?" - (1.46) I also says "Some there are that prize non-dualism, others hold to dualism. They know not the Truth, which is above both" - (1.34) It goes on to say "Neither formless nor with form, described by the Vedas as "Not this, not this," free from separation and unity, the true Self reigns supreme" - (1.50) So my question is what is the atman? It is neither personal nor impersonal, not formless nor with form, not non-dual nor dual, not in separation nor in unity...so what is it? How can our material intellect comprehend it? How can it be described?
Atman, Brahman, Samadhi is physics' Unified Field that is nothing but the Reality of dreamless-sleep. Other than this Reality everything else is Reality's nothing called thoughts, fiction. This Reality of Atman, Samadhi sort of manifests itself to the (collection of thoughts called) mind as Kundalini. Christians call this Kundalini their Holy Spirit. Doctors call it every mental disease in their books. It was this Kundalini that pickled Siddhartha’s mind to give us Buddha. It was this same Kundalini/Holy Spirit that made Krishna, Christ, Mohammad and Ramana glow/BE the UNIVERSAL Love/JOY that they were/are.. Other than this UNIVERSAL Love/BLISS all is just thoughts, the mind and its life and death. I AM and YOU ARE and ALL IS this dreamless-sleep, Samadhi, Atman, that is an unfathomable OCEAN of BLISS in which the universe is just an imaginary drop.
Wait...so you're saying atman is dreamless sleep? Indians talk about 3 states, wakefulness, sleep, and dreamless sleep....but what about the 4th factor, the 4th state called Turiya...wouldn't that more closely describe atman? Also...does this really answer the question of what atman is? Can it really be described?
Atman is personal as it represent the sense of ‘being’ that it creates in a person and it becomes impersonal as it relates to the rest of the universe (everything excluding atman). ‘Neither formless nor with form’ – stands to show the need of a body for (the divine to act in its own individual sense) atman and the ‘formless’ say that having a (human) body is not enough for the sense (atman) to achieve its final objective. There is a simple exercise that might help to understand the logic of atman – point your forefinger at yourself and think about logic of that posture. Who is pointing at whom and who gets the answer? Explanation: Assume except your palm everything else is one entity and the palm as another entity. Atman is represented by your palm – which gets the direction from the rest of the mind blah blah blah but is a separate entity when it is pointing at you. At the same time as your palm is also part of the ‘whole you’ (paramatma) it is not dual but serves the purpose of duality (not in real existence but logic). Turiya is the state of atman (palm here) where it served the purpose (finished pointing at you) or met its objective and is enjoying the results of successful completion of task (Yogi’s in this state is Swechenda means ‘one who does as he please’) but try to revert back to its normal self (stop pointing) with the logic of its independent reason/action/result etc. There is many more stages beyod Turiya, starting with thuryatheetha (spelling?). Does this answer the questions ?
I AM and YOU ARE and ALL is the Reality called ATMAN -- how can you understand what you are? understanding is the mind -- the mind is everything that this Reality, Atman, is NOT. Find out the everything you are not, throw it all out the window, and what is left is WHAT YOU ARE -- this timeless ATMAN. To get to the basics of the subject you have to explore the subject of non-duality. Advaita. What gave us Advaita is the study of thoughts, the "Supreme Science."
Thanks this answers a lot Hmmm...it seems as if you are getting caught up in advaita philosophy, but the truth is above both duality and non-duality....so how am I to gain complete knowledge by studying one philosophy?
