This is the third 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).

Chapter 3: The Accurate Description of the Reality

yadidaṃ sakalaṃ viśvaṃ nānārūpaṃ pratītamajñānāt |
tatsarvaṃ brahmaiva pratyastāśeṣabhāvanādoṣam ||

This entire universe, which appears to be
of diverse forms through ignorance,
is nothing else but One, absolutely free
from all the limitations of human thought.

Vivekachudamani 227

Yes, that description exists. It is as accurate as accurate comes. It is called advaita. Nonduality.

The roots of advaita are ancient. They go back to the 7th or 8th century BC. Sanskrit scholar Stephen Phillips says that the word advaita is for the first time used in one of the Upanishads - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad – in the line 4.3.32: „An ocean, a single seer without duality, becomes he whose world is Brahman.“ The phrase without duality is a translation of the word advaita.

The other translations used in historical references on advaita include a „view of non-difference,“ „denial of dual distinctions,“ „non-dualism,“ „one without the second,“ „oneness,“ etc.

It is strange to think that there is a school of thought saying that everything is one, no differences, no other things, just one that is, and others are not. It is quite contra-intuitive, isn't it? Because you see the differences, don't you? There are many things around you. There are many things inside you, too.

Well, advaita says that what you see, feel, and experience is an illusion, a myriad of mirror images of the nondual reality of oneness. How does one come to such a conclusion? Isn't it just a fancy idea - an impossible thought that goes against everything we know about the world and ourselves? Yet, here it is: all is one.

Funny, the very word is oxymoronic because it consists of more than one letter. By definition, just by reading that word – nonduality – your reality was divided not into two but many. Two n's and one o, d, u, a, l, i, t, and y. Many. How can you talk about oneness with more than one letter? Actually, you can't. Silence would be better. Silence is always the same, without content – a true representative of oneness.

Nevertheless, nonduality has a meaning your mind can grasp. Or it cannot, since it must function here in the world of many things. Maybe something inside you, something more substantial or straightforward than a mind, can do it. But, you don't know because you are stuck with the mind. That's all you have.

How to reconcile the apparent diversity of what we experience with the idea of oneness? Well, like any school of Indian thought, advaita as a subsystem of Vedanta, offers exciting ideas to ponder and even more exciting practices intended to bring an aspirant from the false perception of the reality to the perception of the true one.

But, in the spirit of human nature, even the idea of nonduality is spread in a diversified manner. There are many schools and subschools of advaita. Don't be surprised to find differences in the teachings of two traditional advaitins. There are a lot of academic fights in that field. That should not concern you nor influence your search for truth. Of course, confronted with two opposite opinions, you will ask which one is correct. And right here, right on that spot, true advaita has to offer something unique.

First, you will be instructed to find the correct answer. Nothing new here, you can say. That is a well-known phrase you can hear everywhere. Yes, but the idea of „finding the truth for yourself“ is usually interpreted as „whatever you chose, whatever you find suitable for you, that one is right.“ But, you see, this is not the advaita answer! The uniqueness of the nonduality approach is in understanding that there are no two answers! Only one is a true one. The other is an illusion. The third is an illusion. The millionth is an illusion.

If you come across two people with different opinions, the usual situation is that both are wrong, and both are right in their way. They have an opinion, each its own, suitable for them and those in a similar situation. You can be in such a position and find out that this particular opinion suits you, too. However, if you are in the field of real advaita, there is only one correct answer to any question. The other answers are just opinions.

If you come from a civilized world, an intellectual or academic environment, or even a world of tolerant spirituality, it is hard to swallow such a statement. It seems rigid, in contrast with human nature and everyday living. Yeah, true. But, remember, the idea that all is one is in even higher contrast with all that!

So, the first lesson from advaita is: the truth is one, not many. In the spirit of cooperation, tolerance, and acceptance of differences, you were taught the fallacy of „everyone has their own truth.“ If you go real advaita, you will have to unlearn that. Only one truth is; the other is an illusion. Don't misunderstand this for a recommendation of nontolerance. If you stay in the field of opinions, tolerance is a necessity. But if you want the truth, then... well, it is the one, not many.

Unfortunately, in real life, advaita schools are many. You may attribute this to different approaches and ways of expressing the same truth. But, if you do that, you are confirming the obvious: real-life advaita is not real advaita. Advaita is happening somewhere else, far away from the restriction of the tradition and institutionalized organizations. Advaita is an idea. If you take it as such, you may find it useful to study some of the teachings of traditional advaita schools. However, if you take them too literary, they will become a living opposite of their name.

I have no intention to give you a summary of the advaita forest out there, nor do I intend to make a comparative analysis of different approaches, commentaries, teachers, or scriptures. Instead, I will give you the essence of non-dual reality. I can do that because that is where I stand; that is where I came from after all ups and downs. Well, the last sentence is wrong, but it is impossible to avoid the „I“ in it. Fingers are writing this, and those fingers belong to a human body, and that human body listens to the impulses of the mind, so for all you know, there is a person behind these writings. Our language supports that notion, and because of that, yes, advaita is the place „where I came,“ although the „I“ is on thin ice regarding its survival in advaita space.

So, the first uniqueness of advaita is the one truth, not many. As I wrote, such an attitude is devastating to the relativism prevailing in the modern spiritual market. The answers, if they are correct, are not mine, or yours, or theirs; they are just the right answers. Otherwise, they are not true answers. If you know the true answers, that is knowledge (vidya). If you don't, that s ignorance (avidya).

Of course, vidya is not restricted to information. Actually, it has little to do with intellectual knowledge. It is related more to seeing the truth; it's a kind of inner wisdom. One of the founding fathers of advaita, an 8th-century sage Adi Shankara, referred to this type of knowledge as anubhava. Anubhava is often translated as „immediate intuition.“ But you could call it also that what is apparent, or that what is like it seems to be, or that what is rooted in truth.

Further, there is a widespread idea of bondage and liberation in advaita. The avidya (ignorance) binds you in concept-filled awareness. Beliefs, experiences, impressions, knowledge... all that function as circuits or trenches for your future thoughts, feelings, and decisions. The idea of karma immediately appears. Karma is created from ignorance, and ignorance is further prolonged by karma. You seem to be a prisoner in your own consciousness.

But there is hope! Liberation or moksha is possible. It can be achieved during the life of this body and this personality — no need for dying. Avidya or ignorance creates bondage. Thus, vidya or knowledge brings liberation.

The next common idea in all advaita schools is an illusion. They call it maya - that what is not. We don't see reality as it is. We experience a distorted image of it. Even more, due to avidya, we can project new layers of reality equally unreal as the distorted images we previously had. Maya keeps us in her world as willing prisoners. She does not force us into bondage; we do that to ourselves by not seeing the truth.

And finally, in every advaita school, there will be much talking about Atman and Brahman. Atman is what you are – your Self, your individual consciousness. Brahman is just consciousness, not yours, not anyone's. Since both are consciousness, the difference between one and another is moot. If you know Atman, you know Braman. So, the essential knowledge of all knowledge you can think of is the Self-knowledge. But, don't misunderstand Self- knowledge for knowledge of or about the Self. It's a different thing altogether. Self-knowledge or Atman-knowledge is the truth. The knowledge about the Self is a concept-filing knowledge leading you back into avidya or bondage.

All that can be confusing, I know, but there is a hidden lesson here, a practical one. You can find the truth inside you. It is in your own consciousness. To see it, you don't need anything outside you – just the parts of yourself, like thoughts, feelings, mind, or awareness. As you will see, the mind, abject as it is, contains in itself a high power capable of taking you beyond the shores of illusion.

All advaita practices aim to show you the difference between what is and what is not, between truth and an illusion. As John Grimes writes in his translation of „The Vivekacudamani of Sankaracarya Bhagavatpada“: „In Advaita Vedanta, it is crucial that one comprehends the distinction made between the absolute (paramartika) and the relative (vyavaharika) points of view.“

Although you could argue that there is no such thing as an „absolute point of view,“ it is clear that advaita aims to teach you how to distinguish between reality and nonreality using the discriminative power you already possess.

And that is the whole point. Advaita is here to teach you something, not to give you a description of reality. Many representatives of advaita will start their expositions with a bold statement of what reality is and how you will see it at the end. Even if you accept that game from plain curiosity, that will do you no good. Worst, it will harm your discriminative power. After hearing the description, you will be prone to think the same way; you will create more concepts and judge everything according to them.

So, if you want to use advaita to indoctrinate yourself with some strange ideas further, I will not stop you. But I have to warn you – descriptions are dangerous because you may believe them.

For example, you may take one of the most luminescent statements from advaita: all is one.

All is One.

What does it mean?

It means there is no other. There are not two things; there are not many things, just one. All you see are flickerings of your thoughts. Even worse, your thoughts are flickerings of nothing. You are nothing if you would like to admit it. Or, if you prefer grander ideas: you are everything; you are One. The first may lead you into depression, the latter into egoistic megalomania.

Or, you can shrug and go on with your business.

Shrug, and take another book with some more exciting ideas. Or another book with the same accurate description of reality. It doesn't matter, because whatever you do... well, the result will be the same: you will stay in a deep illusion.

So, if you want more nice descriptions of reality, go modern or traditional advaita.

Go and brighten your thoughts with shinier oneness.

It will do you no good. You will stay divided and separated.

Actually, not only that. There is a more imminent danger in learning about advaita: you will convince yourself that you are now a mile nearer the exit. You will think that you are moving, approaching, arriving... But none of that will be right. If anything, your roots in illusion will be thicker.

Descriptions are dangerous. They are seeds of the poisonous tree. You can eat them at your peril. If you do, they will grow into you, and almost in no time, it will be impossible to get rid of them. Be careful out there. Shut your ears, close your eyes, and walk away from the sweet offerings of descriptions.

You don't want a story. You don't want a moving picture, not even a perfect virtual reality. But, that is what you will get through the goal description. Your mind will play tricks with you – it always does. But this time, the traps will be more severe than ever. You will end up confident and bold... until the next calamity strikes you dead.

What you want, what you need is a real thing, something better than a description. You have to discern between reality and an illusion.

If you want that, you'll need a tool with which you'll have to cut your way out of the cocoon.

Yes, you'll need a sword.

***

Next Chapter: The Crown Jewel of Discrimination