This is the introduction and the first chapter of the book „Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru. “

The whole book will be tokenized as NFTs on Mirror and, as such, published in 20 articles (20 chapters of the book: The Illusion; India, oh India!; The Accurate description of the Reality; The Crown Jewel; Dead Guru; Living student; Who you?; Leaving the room; The Weakness of the Mind; The Archimedean Point; Three Powers of Maya; Viveka - the Sword of Truth; The Cave of the Mind; Language Can Save Us; Searching for Lakshana; Nine Golden Rules of Viveka; Purification Exercises; What to do with all this?; Dealing with Fear; Ekam Evadvityam: Living without a Center).

What is Viveka?

An evil demon of utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies to deceive me. I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colors, shapes, sounds, and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams he has devised to ensnare my judgment. I shall consider myself as not having hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as falsely believing that I have all these things.

René Descartes
Meditations on First Philosophy

Viveka is a legend, a hidden tool. It is the sharpest scalpel for the most delicate operation of separating an illusion from the true reality. The awkward thing is that each one of us should perform that operation by ourselves. The secret of how to do that is not something you have to learn – it's something you'll have to discover. Viveka, a precious jewel capable of delivering you the truth about everything, is not a stranger to your mind. It is a part of it.

Think about it: what if the world you perceive around you is an illusion, a kind of a dream? Something virtual, be it technological, spiritual, or made from some other unknown stuff, but still – not truly real?

And what if someone offers you a means or a tool to pierce through the veils of illusion and see reality as it is? Would you be interested? Would you accept it?

Viveka is such a tool. It is not like a „red pill“ from a popular movie but more like a sword or a scalpel of truth. It's not enough to swallow the information; you must grab it and use it. You have to develop a discerning quality of the mind and apply it to everything you experience. But beware! The battle you'll fight armed with the sword of truth may endanger your dearest illusions.

Vivekachudamani is an ancient text written by Indian sage Adi Shankara. However, different cultures, a gap in time, dubious authorship, and many commentaries; all contribute to difficulties in understanding. This book is not a complete interpretation of Vivekachudamani. Instead, the ancient text served as a starting point in explaining the living experience of deconstructing the illusion. This book speaks about the modern revival of the lost skill of viveka, the crown jewel of discrimination and the most potent weapon for correcting the mistakes of the mind and fighting the legendary Maya, the Lady of the Illusion.

Chapter 1: The Illusion

svapne'rthaśūnye sṛjati svaśaktyā
bhoktrādiviśvaṃ mana eva sarvam |
tathaiva jāgratyapi no viśeṣaḥ
tatsarvametanmanaso vijṛmbhaṇam ||

In dreams, without contact with the external world,
the mind, by its own power, creates a subject and all objects of experience.
Similarly, there is no difference in waking state.
All is just a projection of the mind.

Vivekachudamani 170

What if?

What if the world you perceive around you is an illusion, a kind of a dream? Something virtual, be it technological, spiritual, or made from some other unknown stuff, but still – not truly real?

It seems to me that I was born with that question in mind. That cannot be, of course, because at the time of my birth, I could not form any thought, let alone pursue an existential dilemma of illusion versus reality. But, as soon as I started to think, as far as I can remember, my mind began to produce strange thoughts starting with the „what if“ phrase. At first, it went unnoticed or was misinterpreted by adults as a powerful imagination or childish curiosity. But then, after a decade or so, I joined their adult club. Everyone expected me to give up that silliness and turn my attention to something useful, like making money, making children, or both.

I tried both, and since I wasn't particularly smart, I wasn't particularly successful. Nevertheless, I did satisfy the immediate need of other people to see me doing the same thing they were doing all along — the same thing their parents, neighbors, strangers, friends, and enemies were doing from time immemorial.

Alas, that was just a mask, an illusionary attitude to combat a pressure imposed onto me, with an intention to keep me inside a collectively accepted illusion. In other words, a mess.

Instead of giving up the questions, I gave up pretending that all is well. It is not. It will never be, as long as the question „what if“keeps on occupying my thoughts. I had to find an answer.

Is it all an illusion? Everything I see, hear, touch, and feel, is it? The people – just dreamy characters? The mountains, oceans, and stars – just a scenography for a drama imagined and produced in some other reality? And that other reality – an actual reality – is it unattainable to me, or is there a chance to pierce through the veils of deception and maybe, only maybe, step outside of that grand spectacle and find myself living in the truth instead of in an illusion?

It took me some time to find answers to these questions. More than thirty years, to be precise, plus a decade to make peace with the outcome.

Can I tell you the answer? Yes, but you will probably not hear it. Even if you hear it, you will not be able to accept it. Even if you accept it, you will find no absolution from „what if.“ You will continue to ask yourself, what if that guy got it wrong?

So, the answer must be yours. You have to find it, taste it and, afterward, live it.

The book you are holding in your hands... Well, it is an exercise in walking on the wire. I hope you will find it amusing, maybe even inspiring. But, it is not meant to be a cookbook for a wannabe renegade from the troubled life you may experience. Quite a contrary, its content may add to your troubles, to your feeling of incapacity to live in a world of false values, inflated egos and predator-like mentalities of ruthless occupants of the upper floors in the pyramid.

My message will not make you better, happier, or more successful. It will not add years to your life, and it will not make you healthier.

Well, it seems that I just gave up all of my marketing leverage, didn't I? No matter. I am not counting on self-help fanatics. I am relying on those who are tired of helping themselves and are ready to go beyond that. In the name of the truth, of course.

Crazy idea, isn't it?

Now, if you are still with me, we can go back to the „living in the illusion“ thing. We live in our reality, for sure, but how can we know if our reality is a true one?

***

Imagine that you are stuck in a perfect VR; a world made up according to someone's dream or a nightmare doesn't matter. That someone might be your neighbor, a cosmic tyrant, a secret cabala, or the devil himself. As a matter of fact, that someone might be you; a previous you, capable of writing a perfect code for perfect virtual reality.

Perfection relates to the consistency of your world. There are no flaws in the rules and laws governing your reality. The causes and the effects are learnable; you may observe them clearly and find out the how of your reality. You may not be aware of why, though. Inside your world, there are no clues as to why the laws are such and not different. You may imagine the existence of the creator of the laws, but you don't see them. Maybe no one created this. Perhaps the creation was accidental. Maybe there is no creation at all, and you are just dreaming.

However may it be, you are stuck here, in your world. The idea that this is not the real world and you are living in a kind of dream is a strange one. You can not say that it is an illusion; after all, it is your reality. Nobody can deny that you feel all the particularities of experiences inside it. You are thinking and feeling; you see things and other people; you laugh, and you cry.

If you are smart and practical, you will dismiss all ramblings around the question of true reality. You will accept yours and try to be as skillful and successful in it, according to standards you consider relevant.

If you are not smart but still practical, you will do the same, but without the rewards of success.

And finally, if you are smart, but not very practical... Well, then you will ask yourself all kinds of crazy questions trying to figure out what is going on. And that, by itself, is a kinky sign that you are not very smart, after all.

But the smartness is not the objective of these writings; the truth is. And the truth will prevail in the end. As a conscious being, practical or not, smart or dumb, you will not settle for an illusion for long. If you accept an illusion for an extended period, the truth will haunt you. It will not let you at peace. The question mark over your head will become more and more prominent, and you will again start to wonder: what if?

You may dismiss that question a million times, but not forever. There will come a day when you will not be able to ignore it anymore — a perilous, dangerous day when you will leave everything aside and decide to deal with an annoying mental fly harassing and troubling your mind for so long. Unfortunately, the question of an illusion is not an actual fly; you cannot kill it so quickly. You will have to dig deeply into your mind to find the root of your trouble.

If you let yourself go down that rabbit hole, it will cost you almost everything you have. Actually, you don't know how much it will cost you because you don't know how much of your life is an illusion. So, you have to be prepared to pay for an answer with everything. If you have any hesitation, any second thought, better stay away from pursuing the silver lining of truthfulness.

One of the first impulses a troubled mind can have is obvious: find help; find someone who knows the answer and learn from them. Well, that can work if you want to repair your toilet sink, engage in online trading, or grow violets in your garden. Heck, it may very well give some results if you want to learn a meditation technique and silence your thoughts, at least for a moment. But, it will not work if you're going to see through the innermost fabrics of reality. For that, you'll need a sharp and precise tool, right on the spot where the illusion sprouts. And it sprouts right here, in your consciousness, in your own mind.

To resolve the problem of an illusion, you will have to separate it from the truth. To recognize what is not, you will have to see what is. That skill is called the power of discrimination. You have seen the title of this book, so let's call this power by its ancient name, courteous and short – viveka.

And, while we are at the title, you won't get help from any Guru. There is no one outside you able to help you with this. The answer has to come from within. You will have to discover, by your own means, what has been found before. I'll return to that, but let me shortly explain why you have to do it alone.

If you would be dealing with an illusion outside you, let's say a nicely done magician's trick, then it would be possible for someone enlightens you by explaining to you how the deception is done. You are safely inside, and the deception is outside. You perceive it, but it does not involve you in any significant way. Of course, if you believe the deception, you may be led to do not so bright things in your life and could be righteously called a naivete.

But what if you are inside the illusion, as the case would be with sophisticated virtual reality? What if the illusion is the very material of your existence? You are not aware of any other reality, and anything that gets to you is from it, not from the other side.

It would be tough to break through, wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, we are just in such a difficult situation. Everything we perceive is made from the same stuff. Everything with what we perceive is made from the same material: our body, our senses, the things that surround us, everything. We can not rely even on thoughts because we cannot be sure where they are coming from. Conditioned as they are, emotions are even less reliable.

The „What if“ question will lead you to the conclusion that we don't see the reality as it is. There are other signs of such a daring insight, from apparent delusions people are pursuing to the fine but very powerful results of indoctrination, brainwashing practices, or marketing skills. The probability of being in an unfortunate state of illusion is so high that, to ignore that fact, you must be very preoccupied with the consequences of living it. But it seems, somehow, that you decided not to ignore it. You want to know the actual reality, and your first move might be to ask someone who knows, or to be precise, someone you think knows.

It is the wrong move. There is no Guru out there. Even if there is someone who truly knows (although you can not be sure about that, as long as you yourself don't know), any attempt from them to describe the actual reality to you would be futile. Even if presented with the most exquisite words and great wisdom, the sad fact is that you won't be able to grasp it, no matter how accurate that description might be.

Instead, your mind will project a new illusion; it will be a hope, a belief, a faith in something you don't actually know. Something you will hear (not all, just something filtered through... well, through everything you are) will be transformed into an acceptable image of what you think reality might be.

And here you go again; in practically no time, you would be sent back to the very beginning of the search.

Bear with me, please. I am trying to present very complex ideas in a somehow simplified form. I will return to them, including the guruless path I am pointing at. It is not without the paradox, though. Any spoken or written word about the possible exit is a temptation for a searching mind. It is with the full awareness that I engage in this endeavor. It is, as written, a walk on the wire. I can only hope that you will enjoy it as much as I do.

So, most probably, you are living in an illusion of reality, not in the actual reality itself. The questions are as follows:

Can you hope for an exit?

Has anyone ever left the realm of the illusion?

Did they mark the path so others could follow it?

Or, even better, can you learn directly from such a renegade?

Is there literature, a method, or a place you can go to find the exit?

Well, yes, yes, yes. And, no, no, no, and no.

Or, maybe a cautious half yes instead of some of the nos.

***

Next Chapter: India, oh India!