Excerpt from Finding Oneness in Loving Awareness
By Thomas D. Stanks
By Thomas D. Stanks
Chapter III
Five Pillars from India
1. Paul Deussen: The Philosophy of the Upanishads
The first of these Indian treatises that I offer are the Upanishads. In recognizing the apparent duality of two domains, an Upanishad states, "I am That (tat tvam asi), you are That, all this is That." All the Upanishads move around two basic ideas, Brahman and Atman. Paul Deussen gives an excellent summary of these ancient writings in his book, THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS, p 39: "Brahman (is) the power which presents itself to us materialized in all things, which creates, sustains, preserves, and receives back into itself again all worlds; this eternal infinite divine power is identical with the atman, with that which, after stripping off everything external, we discover in ourselves as our real most essential being, our individual self, the soul." And so, God and I are one.
Interesting enough, Jesus puts upon our shoulders the task of transforming the two into one. In the Gospel of Thomas, "Jesus said to them, 'When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same so that the male not be male and the female female; and when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness, then you will enter the Kingdom'" (Andrew Harvey, SON OF MAN, p. 117-118). With poetic brevity, Rumi harbors the same idea, "Listen! Make a way for yourself inside yourself."
In the Upanishads, there are three propositions that go together. First, is a knowing entity or subject within us. It sees but is not seen, hears but is not heard, comprehends but is not comprehended, knows but is not known. In the Upanishads it is called the atman. Secondly, this knowing entity, or atman, is itself unknowable. You cannot see seeing. You cannot hear hearing. You cannot know knowing. How could you know the knower? Thirdly, this atman is the sole reality. In it, space and all that it contains is inwoven and interwoven. By it, or him, the entire universe is known. There is no second outside of him. "These three thoughts are the kernel of the Upanishad teaching, and with it became permanently the innermost kernel of the entire religious and philosophical belief of India." (See Paul Deussen, THE UPANISHADS, (p 399-400). What the Upanishads aver makes sense when I realize that, as I said earlier, I cannot know anything outside the domain of my own mind. The Upanishads are part of the Nondual tradition. If I accept their teachings, what Wilber says makes sense, as I will show later: there is a reciprocal interpenetration of all reality and the Spirit dwells in us and in all things.
Five Pillars from India
1. Paul Deussen: The Philosophy of the Upanishads
The first of these Indian treatises that I offer are the Upanishads. In recognizing the apparent duality of two domains, an Upanishad states, "I am That (tat tvam asi), you are That, all this is That." All the Upanishads move around two basic ideas, Brahman and Atman. Paul Deussen gives an excellent summary of these ancient writings in his book, THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS, p 39: "Brahman (is) the power which presents itself to us materialized in all things, which creates, sustains, preserves, and receives back into itself again all worlds; this eternal infinite divine power is identical with the atman, with that which, after stripping off everything external, we discover in ourselves as our real most essential being, our individual self, the soul." And so, God and I are one.
Interesting enough, Jesus puts upon our shoulders the task of transforming the two into one. In the Gospel of Thomas, "Jesus said to them, 'When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same so that the male not be male and the female female; and when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness, then you will enter the Kingdom'" (Andrew Harvey, SON OF MAN, p. 117-118). With poetic brevity, Rumi harbors the same idea, "Listen! Make a way for yourself inside yourself."
In the Upanishads, there are three propositions that go together. First, is a knowing entity or subject within us. It sees but is not seen, hears but is not heard, comprehends but is not comprehended, knows but is not known. In the Upanishads it is called the atman. Secondly, this knowing entity, or atman, is itself unknowable. You cannot see seeing. You cannot hear hearing. You cannot know knowing. How could you know the knower? Thirdly, this atman is the sole reality. In it, space and all that it contains is inwoven and interwoven. By it, or him, the entire universe is known. There is no second outside of him. "These three thoughts are the kernel of the Upanishad teaching, and with it became permanently the innermost kernel of the entire religious and philosophical belief of India." (See Paul Deussen, THE UPANISHADS, (p 399-400). What the Upanishads aver makes sense when I realize that, as I said earlier, I cannot know anything outside the domain of my own mind. The Upanishads are part of the Nondual tradition. If I accept their teachings, what Wilber says makes sense, as I will show later: there is a reciprocal interpenetration of all reality and the Spirit dwells in us and in all things.