Identity between awareness and existence

[ken knight]

Thank you all for this discussion which I feel is very
important for the presentation of advaita into the
contemporary debate upon the nature of consciousness.
 K. Sadananda wrote in his excellent example of the
existence of 'chair':
  'Awareness is consciousness.'
People in the UK tend to equate these two words
because they use the word 'consciousness' as
'self-consciousness' or 'awareness of'. This is
because they cannot take the step to acknowledging a
single sub-stratum that is also all-pervading but
'non-sticky'.  Hence they try to define the
undefinable.
I have found the following very useful for myself, and
in discussion with others, when trying to distinguish
between consciousness and awareness and clear up the
implied duality:  In his commentary on
Vijnanabhairava, dharana 11, verse 34, Jaideva Singh
says: 'Siva and Sakti in other words stand for prakasa
and vimarsa ie. Light of Consciousness and Its
awareness.'
I have found this very useful in understanding at the
para level even if the vaikhari starts to confuse
matters.  Forgive me bringing  these terms into this
advaita group but they are helpful to me.
There are also a couple of beautiful images in
Madhava-Vidyaranya's Shankara Digvijaya. They come at
the introduction of Hastamalaka to the group around
Shankara:
'There was a temple in that village, in which was
installed Lord Siva and His Consort in combination,
who looked like an ornament of gold studded with gems,
or the sky with the disk of the moon.'
I find that a useful image in relation to the
discussion on the identity between awareness and
existence.
I hope that this may be of use to some,
Ken Knight


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/