This is the thirteenth 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 Thirteen: The Cave of the Mind

buddhau guhāyāṃ sadasadvilakṣaṇaṃ
brahmāsti satyaṃ paramadvitīyam |
tadātmanā yo'tra vasedguhāyāṃ
punarna tasyāṅgaguhāpraveśaḥ ||

In the cave of the mind, there is the One that exists,
which is other than the real or the unreal.
For one who lives in this cave as that Self,
there is no further return to the mother’s womb.

Vivekachudamani 266

Imagine that there is nothing else, just consciousness. By being what it is, consciousness is aware of its existence. In the moment of awareness, it splits into two: the part that is aware and the part of which the first part is aware. Those are not different parts, mind you. There are no two halves of consciousness: just One, aware of its existence.

How? How is it aware, through which channel, by which faculty? There must be something in it that enables it to do what it just did – become conscious of itself. The third „part“? Oh, yes! There is a third element: the one through which the first „part“ is aware of the second.

But wait! There is no difference between „parts“. Actually, those are not „parts“at all – the consciousness is one but plays different roles. The second „part“ didn't become inert just because it became an object of the first „part“. Nor did the third „part“ become less conscious just because it took the role of a channel for the first „part“ when it became aware of the second.

„I can do it, too“, says the second „part“, and to prove its claim, it takes the role of the „subject“ from the first „part“, using it as a channel to become aware of itself, which is actualy the third „part“ of the same consciousness.

Recovering from the surprise of being an object for the first two „parts“, the third part now raises its head and says: „You are no better than me. I can be aware of any of you using the other as a channel.“ And to prove that it can do so, it turns the second „part“into an object and the first „part“into a channel. Then, before the other two noticed what happened, it changed their roles and used the second „part“ as a channel and the first as an object.

After that, the three return to silence, pondering what just happened to them. After a moment, excited and energized, they exclaim in unison: „This is fun!“

Actually, it is just the beginning of the fun. Because whatever those „parts“ do, they create new „parts“, new elements, equal to them. Each of those elements is entirely conscious and capable of taking on any role and becoming the subject, the object, or the process between them. The experience of the „part“ no. X becoming conscious of the „part“ no. Y is a creation of the „part“ no. Z, which is nothing less than consciousness itself. Then, when the „part“ no. Z becomes conscious of the „part“... well, let's say, no. 287, the experience thus created is the „part“ no. 18564, fully conscious, equal to the one consciousness that is. And so on, and so on...

Can you imagine the speed of consciousness multiplying itself within itself, becoming many and staying one? In literary no time, the process of awareness creates the inner structure of consciousness. Countless elements, countless roles, and functions, each interacting with each other, creating an incredible inner dynamism while staying fully conscious of the oneness of existence.

One of these elements, one of these points of consciousness, is the point you conveniently but erroneously call – yourself. Shankara and Vivekachudamani would call it – atman, the Self. Not exactly you, but what is behind you – maybe a soul would be a possible word to label that function. Anyway, the inner structure of consciousness enables innumerable vantage points from which consciousness looks around and observes all the fun activities created by itself becoming aware of its existence.

Without going into details (there are details!), each vantage point, atman, Self, or soul, whatever you want to call it, surrounds itself with tools for experiencing delicate finesses of creation. One of the tools is called buddhi. That word is sometimes translated as intellect, sometimes merely as mind. The first translation is better, although intellect may sound somewhat elitist. Buddhi (the faculty of discerning) is in pair with Citta (the faculty of „being aware“). Buddhi is a part of the mind because buddhi can not apply viveka (to discern) if there are no thoughts. The manomayakosha is the „cave of the mind“, and in it, there is also buddhi, capable of using viveka, and behind all that is a vantage point, atman (functional element of One consciousness), which is no different than Brahman (One consciousness as a whole).

Now, you may ask me how I know all of that? Is it something you must believe in? Well, at the beginning of the chapter, I asked you to „imagine that there is nothing else, just consciousness“. And if you imagined that, what follows is very logical and visible. The movement of consciousness within itself is self-evident. Some variations may occur, but more or less, that is what would happen if there is nothing else but consciousness. Since the undisputable archimedean point of viveka is the existence of consciousness, while the independent reality of everything else is questionable, the imagined scenario is a probable explanation of how our reality came into existence.

Let's imagine further.

***

Let's focus on one specific vantage point created by many divisions of consciousness. The consciousness looks from that point and tries to see what is happening around it. However, as before, the very fact of looking instantly changes the observed processes. The other „parts“ of consciousness (other than the vantage point that looks upon them) are assuming different roles and appearing as different „objects“. In the beginning, those objects are single - vantage point X looking at the vantage point Y, creating vantage point Z. However, there is no reason why vantage point E would not observe the whole creation process of Z, and that observation creates vantage point O, which in turn... and so on, and so on.

Some of these newly created vantage points can be quite complex, constructed from tens, or maybe tens million, of internal interactions. Despite that complexity, each one of those constructions is fully aware of its oneness. The network, or the matrix, thus created, is without flaw. It is incredibly creative, dynamic, and changeable, but still, in a way unmovable and unchangeable. If I were differently inclined, I would call this network divine. But, there is no need for such an attribute. There is nothing unnatural or unexplainable in the creation of the inner structure of reality – it is just a consequence of consciousness being aware of itself.

In one moment, though, something new happens. While the „divine“ interactions (the ones that do not lead to loss of the awareness about the wholeness of consciousness and thus do not create the illusion) are going on indefinitely, a single vantage point turns its attention to itself. Until that moment, the only self-referral process was the original one, when the consciousness observed itself and „splits“ its functions into three (subject, object, and the channel between them). Further processes are only conditionally self-referral - in the sense that they happen inside the consciousness. But, inside that frame, they are referral, meaning that one function of consciousness is referring to another, not to itself.

The second wave of self-referral processes starts when a specific vantage point turns its attention to itself. Theoretically, the same thing should happen as in the original splitting of one consciousness into three „parts“ or functions. However, the formation of a new „eternity“ inside the present one is just a repetition of already present interactions, a redundancy that is not fun anymore. Nevertheless, consciousness is conscious and, thus, unstoppable. It wants to continue creating new experiences (having fun). The only solution to the problem of repetition of the already created network of the inner structure is separating that particular vantage point from the wholeness of One consciousness. That specific vantage point must FORGET that it is a part of the whole. And it forgets.

And that is how YOU are born! That is how I-ness came into existence.

The original self-referral multiplication of consciousness is similar to what happens when you put a mirror in front of a mirror. You'll get endless reflections. But, if there is already a mirror inside the mirror, and you put it in front of another mirror with a mirror inside it, you'll get a ridiculously complicated picture that is impossible to follow. That's how original forgetting came about. It was caused by the second wave of self-referral processes inside the consciousness. Due to the nature of consciousness, that was inevitable. For the first time, the illusion of separation is created, and that illusion is the cradle of Maya; unborn, divine-rooted Maya - because she is a part of reality from its beginnings.

***

I wonder if you follow me? I hope you do because I know how complicated this can be if you are not very much into mental exercises. On the other hand, it will not hurt to have at least a little insight into the beginnings. But, you should know that time is one of those dubious ideas created by the mind in his later stages of forgetting. I hope you'll once become a real student of viveka and see for yourself why and how time is a part of Maya. I admit that the illusory nature of time can be proved in somewhat advanced stages of mind purification. Nevertheless, I can tell you that the „beginnings“ are happening right now; they are happening all the time.

Anyway, all that is just an introduction to the crucial part of this chapter. How does the newly separated vantage point, an individual I-ness who forgot it is essentially atman, adapt itself to a new situation?

Remember, please, we are in the field of ideas. There is nothing else to see, nothing else to experience, just ideas. So, when looking around at the vast interactions of the original network of consciousness and – that must be said – at the new interactions of other I-nesses, the I-ness see (or experience) nothing more than ideas.

At first, I-ness just notices what is happening. And a lot is happening. The „divine network“ from the background provides unchangeable scenery for the interaction of forgetful vantage points, who continue to play the role of lesser creators, transforming their environment by observing it and further interacting with the results of their observations. The actions are happening in sequences, sometimes orderly, sometimes unpredictable. Different events are forming structures and even clusters of structures. Some of those structures just flicker into existence and quickly disappear. But some of them repeat themselves in predictable patterns. Seemingly separated I-ness perceives the unchangeable scenery of the „divine network“ created by the first wave of self-referral processes as natural laws. Don't forget; those natural laws are just ideas, original ideas, which in comparison with additional flickering interactions, look abstract but omnipresent. All other events somehow follow the rules made by them. They can be incredibly creative and variegated, but still, the first network of ideas behind them can not be infringed.

With the onrush of new events in the consciousness environment, I-ness is forced to create the best possible tools to deal with experiences. We already know what those tools are: different bodies. To interact with gross events, there should be a „body of food. “ For the perception of finer structures, a „body of energy“. There should be something to tell the I-ness if the interaction is pleasant or not – the „body of bliss“. The circus around the I-ness is so vast, seemingly endless; there should be something to store all, or maybe at least some of the gathered information: a „body of knowledge“. And then, maybe at the very end - or not, it doesn't matter – something to understand all that: a „body of mind“. It is the consciousness we are talking about, right? If it would be something else, let's say plain matter, the understanding part should not be necessary. But for consciousness, that is crucial.

The I-ness tries different ways to organize itself. Some „bodies“ are more successful than others. Change, adaptation, and growth are inevitable. The sequence of events and constant changes firmly establish the dominion of time, although that idea will be clear to I-ness sometime later. For example, some of the more durable structures, the ones repeating themselves in longish cycles, are perceived as something more permanent than the bodies with which I-ness communicates with the environment. The change and disappearance of the bodies introduce the idea of death. The body of knowledge can not hold through such an experience, and the body of bliss reacts with the creation of fear.

Step by step, the consciousness creates within itself what we call our reality. The events and interactions inside the consciousness become the objects of our perception. The unchangeable network of fully conscious elements created in the first self-referral wave is still here, alive and active, but overshadowed by other interactions and hidden from view.

In the beginning, the I-ness that forgot its nature is overshadowed by ideas multiplying and crazily propagating themselves. But, after some time, the I-ness adjusts to all that noise and gradually starts to remember its true nature, which is consciousness. But, due to the vast universe of ideas surrounding it, remembrance is not an easy task. As time passes, the need for understanding becomes stronger, and the new surprising tool develops inside the manomayakosha, the body of the mind. Until then, manomayakosha was only a pool in which thoughts were swimming like a blind fish. But the need was unstoppable because, what are thoughts if not ideas, and what are ideas if not consciousness, and what is all that around the I-ness if not that same consciousness?

It was inevitable. The birth of the one and only tool that will bring back the lost memory of wholeness was just a matter of time. And it happened. That special tool is just a new mirror inside the mirror, but this one has the power to pierce through all the layers of illusion.

What is that tool? What was born in the deep cave of the mind?

It was language. The language was born, which changed the destiny of forgetful I-ness forever.

***

Next Chapter: Language can Save Us