Overcoming the Indoctrination into Nihilism
Summary: As one goes ever deeper into one’s inner being, past the ego and its shadow, the paradigm of reality shifts repeatedly as the perception is purified and accurate discernment of the Real comes more into focus. The enigmas presented by the false beliefs we were taught and then, more deeply, by the pairs of opposites that keep the mind split and in internal conflict and confusion, are gradually overcome. The outer becomes recognized as the inner. The Other is reclaimed as the Self. Unity is perceived pervading the multiplicity. The ultimate mystery is at last revealed. Freedom is regained.
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Most people today are atheist materialists. And given the state of the world today, that pretty much means being a nihilist. And that’s the ego’s fallback position, because being atheistic, there is no source of meaning. Everything is random chance, mutation. Right? The Darwinist approach. And that applies in physics and in all of the so-called “hard sciences”. So that point of view offers no hope and considers even the ideas we are speaking of as being impossible, or fantasies, although people in that state have never actually explored their inner consciousness.
The second would be those who fall into the category of believing what they call the Srishti Drishti Vada perspective. And Srishti means “world”. And Drishti means “your vision or projections onto the world”. And so this Srishti Drishti means you believe that the world exists first, and then you see what is actually there. OK? So that you are not actually projecting, except that you may have a paradigm or a frame of reference that doesn’t enable you to see all that is there or to see some of it in ways which may block certain understandings. But basically, you’re seeing the real world, and it’s a world outside of you that existed before you were born. OK?
That’s the place I would say most beginning yogis stay in for a long time because it’s so-called “common sense”. And until you can get out of that and develop your uncommon sense, and give yourself permission to think outside of the box, you won’t be able to get to the higher perspectives.
And the third one that develops is called the Drishti Srishti Vada. Vada means a doctrine, or a point of view or perspective. So, this one is the opposite. The world is what you are projecting it to be. In other words, it’s a dream field, and it’s a field in which you will see only what you project. And your projections actually precede there being anything there. It’s the projections that function as a causal agency to produce the hallucinatory effect of a being in a world. So that’s the third one. But it recognizes that, or at least in some cases, you can recognize that every individual has their own projections and they’re different. So in a way, each of us lives in a different world. Each ego is a bubble with its own projection of a world. But as soon as you accept that there are egos in the world, you’re also saying that there is a world in which egos arise. And so it becomes an inconsistency.
And then the way that’s often resolved is through the next approach, which is often referred to as Eka Jiva Vada. I would rather call it EkaJivatmaVada. And I’ll say why that is. Jiva means “ego”. And what Eka Jiva Vada is, is a belief in what in Western terms is called “solipsism”. In other words, “If this is my dream, then in a dream only the dreamer is real. Everyone else is just a character. And when I wake up, they don’t really exist. There are no other egos except what I’m dreaming. So it really is all my projection.” But there is still a “me” and a “my”. There is someone projecting it. So you still have the problem of the ego being the basis. And on what basis are you projecting all of that, if not from the fact that you have also received projections? Right?
So that’s the Eka Jiva Vada. But if we shift it a little bit and make it the Eka Jivatma Vada, then you can understand reality as a kind of intersubjective solipsism. OK? So, in other words I can recognize that everyone is in their own dream, but there is still one Dreamer. So, imagine that there’s a multiplex theater and you have a bunch of screening rooms in a circular form around a central hub. And that central hub has a multi-projector that projects a different film into each screening room. But there’s one light that is behind every film. So the one light projects all of these different movies. And you may be in one particular screening room, or in one particular film, but it’s the same light that is creating your world. And that light is carrying the information that is ultimately determining the nature of the films that you are watching and that you are watching because you are also dreamed by that Supreme Light, Awareness, Intelligence, that is dreaming all of it.
So, if we combine that understanding with the Ajata Vada, then we can begin to have a more clear and complete view.
The problem with the Advaita Vedanta view of Ajata is that it leaves one in a quandary as to if no world ever got created and there is only Shiva or Brahman, then what is all of this world of suffering about? How did Maya get here? Was it Brahman who decided to create this? And then you have all of those questions of theodicy, like, “How can God create a world of suffering if God is good and all of that?” And then you have a difficulty if you’re a theist and still believing in a Supreme Power that is not your Self.
So you have to realize that you are the One Light, but you have an ego that is projecting a particular story upon that, superimposing upon the emanation of God consciousness, which, if your film, your projections didn’t interfere, would produce a world of beauty, let’s say. Or a world that was clearly the Divine Mind of the Godself. And not a world existing any separate way from God—and God being your Self, not an other. So this is why I have created that phrase, Ajata Deva Lila, the Theodrama, because the Ajata itself leaves out meaning as an aspect of reality.
But that then denies, “Why do we have con-sciousness?” Right? The ability to discern meaning and to create meaning and to discover the symbolic values and the wisdom that is embedded in the events of our lives from which we are able to grow if we take them in properly. So we are being raised from an egoic level to be able to appreciate the infinite beauty, majesty, brilliance of God-consciousness. And therefore, to be motivated to want to realize that level of intelligence and artistic genius in our own consciousness and not feel alienated from it.
So it is, I think, important to be able to unify these different concepts.
However, it’s also, I think, a very important exercise for you to recognize that in this concept of intersubjective solipsism, solipsism is still there at the ego level. OK? It’s not entirely there at the soul level, because the soul has access to that Supreme Being that sees the Self in all and doesn’t deny the manifestation of all the various modalities and archetypal forms and images in which God can manifest or express that beauty and intelligence. But if you’re at the ego level, if you still believe you are a person in a world and you see the world in a particular way, I think it’s very important psychologically for you to recognize that you are in a solipsistic condition in the sense that all you are seeing is your own projections.
You are not seeing reality as it is, because reality as it is isn’t a world of a lot of people. Some of whom you like and some of whom you may dislike, and some you may think are intelligent and others stupid, and some you may think are pretty and others ugly. Some you may think are—whatever. You have judgments. And you do not see beings that are manifestations of that divine energy as they really are. And all you are seeing is your projections. And because you are in a mechanism, an operating system that has repeating algorithms that are preconceptions, you will repeat the same sorts of situations and feelings and karmic glitches in one form or another, over and over again. Because it’s these habitual patterns of projection that are causing them, not other people who usually get the blame for why things didn’t work out, rather than taking responsibility for the fact that it’s your dream.