Unfolding Love

Unfolding Love Consciousness through Advaita Vedanta

Perhaps the hallmark of my journey through the teachings of Vedanta is the realization that love is the fundamental principle of life. In love’s glorious domain it becomes increasingly apparent that Atman is Brahman. When surveying the vast beauty of creation I find myself confronted with manifestations of Brahmic love on all sides of an infinite perspective. Entering into communion with Brahman by loving all that exists in the present moment of experience is the final destination of life and the seat of the only true happiness. I have begun to learn that absolutely everything can be enjoyed through loving affection if I maintain a relaxed state of mind that opens a space for others to enter my field of awareness. Egoic love is empty simply because love of the ego leads inevitably towards darkness and nothingness. By opening oneself up to the beauty of the Other, we become a luminescent spectrum reflecting the totality of Brahman.

My turn inward eventually led towards a return outward. By coming to the clear conclusion that my self-image was largely a worthless illusion, I began to peel away the union of self that I created. I have identified myself as a student, son, male, 27-year-old, member of generation X, etc. ad infinitum. I find myself in the midst of countless relationships that are sustained in complex environments. The complexity of being is simply mind-boggling and depending upon how I chose to orient myself within the environment from the standpoint of the ego, my identity is likely to be found. Within the context of the awareness of the multidimensional structures unfolding before me on all sides, there comes a point when the ‘me’ can no longer be located specifically. Am I the DNA helix, the countless electrons spinning around all the atoms of my body, the wind that caresses my face on a walk home, my family, this computer, or a guy called ‘Doug’? During my meditations in focusing upon all these possibilities I found that the ‘me’ was quickly dissolving into the infinite abyss of Brahman. Pure consciousness, relaxed being, and love are amazingly at the center of my embodied Atman. However, I find that the more I am in tune with the Divine Center within, I am better equipped to contact and relate with the multitude of Divine Centers in the Other. When these centers truly connect love is realized in actual experience and God meets God.

My Divine Center is the Center of all Centers. Ideas relating to space and time become virtually nonsensical in this perspective. There is no longer a ‘me’ here and a ‘you’ over there to have a conversation with. Ironically, spatial locality appears to be a relative variable and not an absolute constant. I appear to be located somewhere in space (i.e. San Francisco, California, USA) and yet I wonder whether this ‘I’ is really located anywhere specifically. If Atman is Brahman then I am located absolutely in God and relatively in California. Furthermore, when I consider the nature of my thoughts, I am once again intrigued by all the ideas about location in space. In thought I can travel to when I was five years old riding a bicycle or project myself into the future of the majestic mountains of New Zealand. Am I where my body is? When dreaming I feel that I am in a totally different place of reference altogether. When I reflect upon the Vedanta notion that Atman is Brahman then I find the ‘I’ of ‘me’ to be located everywhere in space and time. There is no place where Brahman is absent and as a being endowed with God inside, the ‘I’ is potentially at all places and at all times simultaneously despite the filtering of my finite mind.

The omnipresence of Brahman is a notion and reality that has been of great significance to me over the past several years. Modern Western society places emphasis and value on consumables while nature has taken the blunt of our blows. Our luxury sedans, digital televisions, cellular phones, supersonic aircraft, and stucco homes capture our attention. God is envisioned as being the almighty consumer who has every luxury that life has to offer. Yet, within the philosophy of non-dualism subject and object are two sides of the same coin. When I begin to picture God’s omnipresence within the modern world, I am struck by the idea that God is in the concrete, steel, feces of all animals, radio waves encircling the globe, thin air, grain of sand, and of course even in the mustard seed. These ideas perplex me tremendously because it is blatantly obvious that my refrigerator is not omniscient. So, in what way can we say that Brahman is both subject and object?

Quickly we find ourselves in a paradox of supreme significance. If God is everywhere, what do we really mean? Does the speck of dust on the floor hold all the secrets of the universe? Modern thinkers in physics are beginning to agree with the mystic intuition that God is truly everywhere. Physicists like Shrodinger suggest that the entire space/time continuum is holographic where one piece of the cosmic puzzle can reconstruct the entire panoramic cosmos. Despite the fact that there are numerous levels of being within the totality of the universe, there is a sense in which God is actually present at every single point in space whether on the hide of the horse or within the mysterious black holes we read about in science. We must move into the realm of analogy and metaphor if we are going to have any hope of satisfying our intellects. Miraculously Brahman is like the sun whose rays extend in all directions throughout all times and places. Like the sun, Brahman can illuminate various forms and touches everything within sight. The light is complete at every point. Whether the light of the sun shines on the redwood in the park or the pencil in my hand is academic. The light shines everywhere. Brahman is like the light of the sun, complete at every point, but with no obstructions.

I have learned from the texts of the Upanishads that Brahman is love. Now we have two central ideas within clear focus. God is both everywhere and the nature of that presence is love. We are not too far from the postulate that love is everywhere. However, there seems to be a correlation between the finding of love within Atman and the discovery of love in Brahman. By penetrating the depths of self and the interior castle, love is illuminated. We must turn away from our constructed notions of self to find the God of love. My ego is not the source of love any more than my toe is the source of the sun’s rays. The turn inward is like the rose looking to the sun for a clue as to its existence. Our inner gaze reveals peace and love from an unknown source. If we see Brahman inside we begin to awake from our slumber in the veils of illusion or Maya. Upon awakening we find ourselves once again on this planet, but with a renewed sense of reality. When we look around at all the peoples, animals, plants, rocks, insects, and the multitude of life forms that inhabit our world, we begin to see that they are all manifestations of love from the poisonous rattlesnake, to the monarch butterfly.

From birth we have been conditioned to inherit categories of what is good and what is evil. Our parents tell us to stay away from bullies, creepy spiders, dark avenues, and a host of other ‘objects’ in the world that can potentially harm us. Our world is conditioned by our thoughts of what is good and evil and the nature of our orientation towards the external world is colored by these thoughts. A dualism of vast proportions is erected in the infant mind. Even pain, farting, blushing, and otherwise natural phenomena are condemned in the early lives of most children.[1] However the Upanishads proclaim “thou art that” in an attempt to abolish all forms of dualistic thought. Everything is accepted in a loving embrace.

As I integrate the insight of my meditations and the Upanishads into my daily life a wondrous transformation is activated. When I am conscious of the nature of Brahman, troubles melt away and an inrush of peace envelops my being. I can accept all of my crazy thoughts without feeling that I am losing my mind in the chaos of fantasies, daydreams, nightmares, and callous affections. These apparently disturbing or arousing states of mind pass quickly and do not need to be repressed. No matter how decadent my thoughts may become I do not need to fear them or hate myself for allowing such atrocities to enter my mind. Divine love embraces all levels of thought and action. When this love is realized in a conscious mind the divine love is reflected back upon itself. The more consciousness is able to realize Itself in Divine Eros, the greater the possibility of activating Divine Energy. This Divine Energy is the seat of the All. Within the creation there are various types of receptacles for the infusion of Divine Energy. Humans are particularly suited to reflect the rays of consciousness and possess the potential to realize Divine energies on higher frequencies than most creatures known to exist in the physical creation. When love is the center of conscious awareness and all other concerns within the modern world are subjugated to this center of focused attention, inner wholeness in communion with Brahman is possible. This conscious movement and form of life creates a relationship of union with what is the Ground of Love and All.

This Divine Love miraculously manifests Itself in a multiplicity that appears to lack bounds altogether and forms an inner matrix of diverse beauty. When we look at the raw beauty of life including colors, vegetation, animals, sunsets, music, thought, and all other aesthetically pleasing instances of Brahman, a sense of awe is likely to envelop our souls. This awe is even a form of love to God by God. Life as we know it is an eternal drama suspended in time and space forever. What is now forever will be. This Divine Love story is filled with such startling magnificence that there is no way our minds can catch a glimpse of how really deep all the beauty and love permeates Life. We are infinitely fortunate to be God’s witnesses and members of the Brahmic Ocean of Being.

While I miserably fail in totally realizing this vision in my daily life, there is a sense in which, however brief, I can think about this Divine love as the background of my activities. I can be the most foolish person in the entire world and this love will accept me. It is in the nature of godly love to love absolutely everything. Brahman is Atman. Brahman loves Atman. I am fortunate to have the chance in any respect to experience God’s peace, beauty, and love. This is truly a miracle that we are living. We are God and God is here in the Now. I can enjoy washing my hair, playing around on drums, reading poetry, watching the moon descend into fluffy clouds. There is no-One here but Brahman. Atman can only say, “Wow Brahman! What a show!” Words drift into silence, reverence is turned to joyous laughter, and love becomes all that matters no matter what is occurring. Divine Love is everywhere. There are confusingly different receptacles of consciousness, love and beauty, but they are One.

Lately, I have felt this love in the most ordinary of life’s activities. Whether I am sitting around doing nothing, anxious to get started on a new book, or washing the dishes, there is always something worth noticing if I can forget about all of the worries and concerns I may have about preserving the ego’s life. We all perceive life in different ways and this is part of the miracle of widespread contribution. Each of us has an ironic role to play. On one level we are Brahman, but as Atman we are distinct forms of Brahmic creation contributing our unique expressions of beauty and love that can never be fabricated in any other way. The levels of love we are currently experiencing in life are truly specific. We know what it is like to be a human with all kinds of rampant emotions towards our family, friends, lovers, pets, and the rest of the entire cosmos. Seeing a star in the night sky is a form of lovemaking that is unparalleled in any other universe, as any other person, or any other kind of particular being. If I simply imagine all the beauty and love available to consciousness Now I am blown away. Time gives us ease to unfold. Brahman is unfolding right before our eyes. As Atman, we are participants and co-creators in this unfolding of Divine Love and we will never be outside this Divine Play.

[1] See Alan Watts discussion on this topic.