The link between Vyavaharika and Paramartika

[Chandran, Nanda (NBC)]

We've been discussing on the nature of the Self for more than two weeks
now and I've been coming up with incoherent arguments without a clear
understanding of what I'm not clear about!

Fifteen minutes outside on a beautiful day like today with a printout of
Rama's post, helped to clear my thoughtsand my doubts - to some extent.

Let me try to state clearly my understanding and my doubts :

Brahman is Eternal. Brahman is the Absolute. Hence Brahman is incapable
of change and action.

The standard theory is that 'I' get influenced by the mind and the
senses, which doesn't allow me to realize my true nature. So this 'I'
cannot be the Brahman, which is Eternal and Absolute and incapable of
being influenced.

The further theory is that this 'I' is a composite entity. It's made up
of the mind, the senses, the Ego and the Consciousness. OK, Meditation,
self-observation and logic does prove that the mind and the senses are
apart from the "I". That leaves the Ego and the Conciousness.

Ego is generally defined as the "I" in the doer. It has been my
practical experience that "I" am able to be in a state without the sense
of the doer. So is this the Consciousness? But why can't "I" who can
have a sense of doership change into a state without a sense of
doership? Inshort why can't the entity we define as the Ego itself
transform into a sense of non-doership? So how far is it justified in
trying to have two seperate entities - the Ego and the Conciousness.

And if the Conciousness is infact the Ego without a sense of doership,
it still cannot be Eternal and Absolute, as it's being influenced by the
mind, the senses and there by it's transformation as the Ego.

The Conciouness that we have is said to be the reflection of the Self.
But the Self is defined as being incapable of action - so how can it
cause a reflection?

As I stated in my mail earlier today, if indeed all that we experience
in the Vyavaharika level is Maya - then Maya is all encompassing. So
even the Conciousness is only in the realm of Maya. I'm unable to
understand how anything Eternal and Absolute can exist in me in the
realm of Maya? If it indeed does exist I cannot understand a connection
between it and "I".

It's stated that in the Paramartika level it's Non-Dual. There is only
an experience of being "One".

So how can the link be made to the Vyavaharika, where the everything is
an illusion and the Paramartika, where there's only Non-Duality?

The crux of my whole argument lies in the question as to how "I", who am
Eternal and Absolute, can exist in the realm of Maya?

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