Prologue

 

Like a star of immense magnitude appears infinitesimal in the distance, yet without losing its astonishing brightness, so too the incredible realization of the most simple and obvious truth takes shape in these few words, which pretend to be nothing but a pointer to that light. Although they might be unintelligible for those who are not ready yet, they are written down with the hope of helping orienting those who still wanders and those who attempt to guide others.

 

What is conveyed here is revealed by no other teacher than reality itself, which shines clearly and completely everywhere for everybody. Nonetheless, as light reveals a different shade of colour depending on the surface that it touches, so this realization receives a different flavour and appearance depending on the eyes that receive it. As a way of paying homage to those blessed lineages and masters who awakened to this realization before us, the following is phrased according to their way of seeing and symbolizing the truth.

 

This is a song of gratitude for each single split particle of reality and for the whole of them, sung by one of those particles and by the whole itself.

 

Now the mantra that expresses all at once the essence of this realization:

 

A still explosion of simple delight

Flashing forth from nowhere everywhere

In each atom, breath, in each shadow and light,

Humming in all tongues and none: I love you:

 

This mantra aims to point out the flavour of the experience that the following aphorisms try to express and orient the seeker towards. ‘A’ is an indeterminate article, because the Absolute that is pointed at is beyond determination. But the symbol ‘A’ represents also the fundamental sound of that same Absolute, which is present (even if unheard) in the spoken form of ‘A’ (as the Absolute itself is present, but unheard in its own determinate forms).

            The Absolute has a double nature. It is an absolute infinite stillness, peace, and open voidness, but also an immense eruption, an explosion of being and beauty. The stuff that is churned by this still explosion is nothing but the ultimate bliss of awareness or consciousness itself insofar as it experiences its own unconstrained nature. Since this experience is absolutely immediate, it is ‘simple’ and ineffable. The still explosion is both an explosion of this delight for experience (in the objective sense), but also the explosion of the delight of experience itself (in the subjective sense).

            It is flashing forth because it is spontaneous, sudden, irruent, even in its sweetness. It comes from nowhere and it is nowhere established, because it is not localized, but beyond all spatial locations, either concrete or metaphorical, because it is That in which all locations are subsumed and made possible. Hence, it reaches every possible place, every ‘where’.

            This expands at all possible levels of experience, from the constituents of apparently inanimate matter—or the most isolated, fragmented, and self-confined forms of existence (atoms), to all possible phenomena of life (breath), to include all possible forms of ignorance, bondage, and suffering (shadows), and their dissolution in all the shades of joy that reveal the truth (light).

            At all these different levels, the Absolute is present as a vibration (humming), which transcends articulated sounds and their expressions, and yet is immanently present and vivifying all of them from within. This vibration is the soul of all languages (tongues) even if (and because) it is irreducible to any of them. It unifies in its vibratory pattern all forms of fragmentation and egoity (from the most contracted and finite experiences of I-ness, to the transcendental universal Self) with the full spectrum of their Other (you). This unification is the essence of divine love. By vibrating with this love everywhere, the Absolute becomes everything for the sake of experiencing itself in all the possible forms of its own boundless love.

            The visarga ( : ) at the end of the mantra signifies that this expression of love is the point from which this whole realization is uttered (the source of the mantra itself), and hence its utterance comes back to itself in an endless loop of even deeper manifestation, forever renewed in its repetition.

            Now follow the aphorisms, which are like a seed that contains in itself the essential ingredients of this realization. The first explains the nature of the realization itself:

 

Realizing the unity of the five is the ultimate realization. | 1 |

 

‘Realizing’ means to experience directly, fully, and continuously. Experience here is all that matters. This experience has to be direct, in the sense that it is the immediate experience of the one engaged with experiencing. This excludes all worries about external signs or the conformity with any given standards or definitions of what has to be achieved. It also goes beyond the sheer familiarity with (and even absorption into) the ideas, jargon, formulas, and texts of any given tradition, master, or lineage. This experience has to be full, in the sense that it needs to encompass all levels and dimensions of experience, which include intellectual experience and mental understanding, but eventually goes vastly beyond and below, towards supramental and almost cellular forms of experience. This experience has also to be continuous, even if continuity might be established as the culmination of a process of progressive deepening, or at the end of a period in which the realization seems ebbing and flowing.

            The ultimate realization is that which does not admit any other possible realization beyond it, because it already encompasses, integrates, and subsumes within itself the whole domain of what could possibly be realized—and its opposite. In this sense, the ultimate realization is the highest or the deepest, but also the most natural and obvious, since it is always present everywhere and cannot be disturbed or shacked by anything, since everything everywhere is the flashing forth of that realization. Hence, it is also effortless, spontaneous, unconditioned.

            The ‘five’ are the five acts of Śiva—the Peaceful One, the symbolic embodiment of the Absolute—namely, upsurging, holding, consuming, covering, and revealing. They will be explained below in greater details. The ultimate realization consists in a shift of perception concerning these five acts, whereby instead of appearing as a more or less incomplete sequence, they appear as a unified vibration—a single continuous dance.

            Since the ultimate realization is the foundation and expression of reality itself, it cannot be achieved or realized by any method or practice, nor it can be explained by referring to something other than it. The only aspect that might need explanation is the reason why some particular individual expression of reality (who conceives itself as an individual self somehow cut off from the Absolute) seemingly does not realizes it yet. This apparent lack of realization that obscures the flashing forth of the truth is called ‘ignorance’ and its nature is explained in the next aphorism:

 

Insofar as the fourth has not yet reached its fulfilment there is ignorance. | 2 |

 

Through the act of upsurging, the Absolute expresses itself in a determinate form. Through the act of holding, it savours and immerses itself within that determinate form. Through the act of consuming, it wears off that form until it dissolves. Through the act of covering, it reabsorbs and digests the ashes of the determinate form within itself. Through the act of revealing, it sees itself has having taken that determinate form and returns to its boundless, indeterminate, formless nature.

            Insofar as the fourth act has not yet reached its fulfilment, any given determinate expression has not yet been fully absorbed and digested within the manifestation of the Absolute. This means that that form does not yet fully appear as the Absolute itself taking a determinate expression, but rather as its opposite, namely, as something separate, independent, substantial in its own right, which arises out of specific condition to a separate existence, perdures in that existence with pain and trouble for a while, and eventually perishes or is annihilated in its own being. Moreover, since there is not yet full absorption into the Absolute due to the unfulfillment of the act of covering, there cannot be any revelation of the Absolute itself in the unity of its immanent and transcendent expressions.

            In this sense, the act of covering has a double meaning. Insofar as it is still incomplete and not fulfilled yet, it is the basis for ignorance, for the appearance of reality as a fragmented and quaked wasteland, it is the basis for suffering, dread, and nescience, and for all the dualities that are bound to seem real when the light of what is real does not fully shine yet. However, insofar as this same act reaches its actual fulfilment, by its very nature it subverts, confutes, dissipates ignorance in all its forms by establishing precisely its opposite. The Lord, by its very nature, bounds itself to ignorance for a while in the process of setting itself fully free from it.

            The processual nature of the fourth act is a necessary and essential feature of it. If the fourth act was not processual, ignorance could not express itself, although it could be conceived (since ignorance is just the negation of the truth, and when the truth is conceivable, its negation is also conceivable). If the fourth was not processual, then, there would be no way for the Absolute to integrate and digest within itself not only its positive determinate expressions, but also all their shadows, through which ignorance can attempt to take hold on reality. But it is in the nature of the Absolute to integrate and digest within itself all possible conceivable expressions of reality and unreality, both positive and negative, and this is realized precisely through the processual nature of the fourth act, which thus could not be otherwise.

            Ignorance is thus a necessary, albeit transitory phase in the unfolding of the Absolute itself, and it is necessarily overcome at some point by this very unfolding. Since the whole process is carried out (or danced) by the Absolute itself, it is the Absolute who is ultimately always conscious of it—conscious also of the fulfilment of the covering and of the revealing of its own nature. But in some (if not all) of its determinate expressions, this process can also become internally and self-reflectively part of the determinate experience itself, as if the cosmic dance was reflected in a speck of the dust moved by the Lord’s feet. When this possibility in the determinate form for self-reflectively taking part in the Lord’s dance is present (and whether it is present depends entirely on the nature of the determinate form itself), then the still unfulfilled unfolding of the fourth act appears as a practice done by someone for the sake of realizing the Absolute. When the fourth act is then fulfilled, this same determinate form is the mirror that reflects the revelation of the Absolute back to itself, in an endless and endlessly deep loop of resonance and love. At that moment, practice itself appears as the last mask of ignorance.

            This makes it abundantly clear that nothing needs to be different from how it actually is. All forms of ignorance are necessary and they are already on the way to be resolved, reabsorbed, freed. No finite agent is doing anything but being moved in the cosmic whirl created by the Lord’s limbs. Whether the revelation of this unfolding will also include a self-reflective component depends entirely on the nature of the determinate form within which the Lord’s dance is unfolding. This self-reflective component does not make that form better or superior with respect to other forms, it just makes it relatively different. The idea of undertaking any practice for the sake of achieving any true realization, if taken narrowly and at face value, is itself a form of ignorance, which is resolved and reabsorbed by simply recognizing and understanding the true nature of ignorance, and fully digesting it within oneself.

            Having thus clarified what is that might prevent the ultimate realization to be fully established, the next aphorism clarifies in what the process of fulfilment of the fourth act consists:

 

The continuous experience of the unity of five at all levels dissolves ignorance. | 3 |

 

For each determinate experience, at whichever level it manifests, it is possible to experience it as the upsurge of the same universal force or vibration taking that determinate form or shape. This is the experience of the first act of the Lord.

It is possible, while that form is present, to fully immerse into it, savouring its unique flavour, holding it in the light of awareness, enjoying its features (may that be joyful, sorrowful, neutral, or in whatever other way). This is the experience of the second act of the Lord.

       It is possible to dive so deep into the immersion with the experience itself, to eventually realize that whatever is experienced is a content of experience, an act of experience, and it is in the very act of experience as such that lies the greatest and deepest joy and beauty. In this way, the actual determinate shape of the experience fades on the background, while the fact of experiencing as such comes to the foreground, hence the actual determinate experience is devoured, consumed, and relinquished. This is the experience of the third act of the Lord.

        As burned by the fire of awareness, all that remains are the warm ashes of what was a determinate thing and now is just the dark residue of a consumed meal. But instead of discarding that residue as something other, instead of letting it disappear and disperse, it is possible to cover it with the same glowing cloth of awareness, fully reabsorbing and digesting each and every of its particles, letting nothing to go to waste, since everything is made of the same divine stuff that wants to endlessly savour the whole of itself. This is the experience of the fourth act of the Lord.

       When this process of digestion is fulfilled and fully accomplished, then the focal point of experience shifts outside of the vantage point constructed earlier by the upsurging of the determinate form. But going outside it does not move to yet another determinate vantage point. It rather remains suspended nowhere, yet including every possible vantage point in its unspeakable vastness. Full revelation of the Absolute is thus possible. This is the experience of the fifth act of the Lord. When this is achieved, the unity of the five acts is achieved.

       The experience of the unity of the five acts can appear to be discontinuous because the fourth has been fulfilled at some level of experience, but not at others, and hence the whole of experience associated with a certain determinate form is still affected by ignorance. Hence, full continuity in the experience of the unity of the five can arise only when that same experience extends at all levels of experience equally, and equally deeply.

       Experience can be articulated in different levels that go from coarser forms to subtler forms. The criterion to discern what is coarse or subtle is simply how much unity that level of experience naturally expresses, or how much ignorance it usually entails. Or in other words, what makes something coarser or subtler is the expanse, size, magnitude that the process of covering takes place at that level in order to digest and absorb the determinate forms that express themselves there.

      The coarsest level of experience is represented by mental imagination, which includes representations, articulated thoughts, and conceptual constructions, which are all meant to analyse, separate, dissect and fragment the unity of reality.

     Next, there is the level of affectivity and energetic responses, through which a certain determinate form resonates and responds to the web in which it naturally exists.

     Next, there is the physical level of embodiment and bodily forms, in which the semblance of separate individuality is constantly submerged in the transindividual flow of existence.

     Next, there is the level of indefinite space, in which all distinctions and dualities that presupposes a general support or substratum (like internal vs. external, mine vs. other) are overcome. The dualities that presuppose a substratum are forms of determination that define themselves in relation to something else of the same kind, which is thus necessarily included in the same background. Like shapes cut off from the same stuff, these forms of determination rely on the duality between themselves and their opposite, while assuming that both come to the same source. Space is the expression of this source, and in its indefinite nature, it transcends completely all these dualities with a substratum.

     Next, there is the level of cosmic consciousness, in which all distinctions are seen without any further substratum, but rather as the different manifestation of the same reality, beyond or beneath which there is ‘nothing at all’. At this level, determinate forms all appear as the different expressions of the same consciousness, which sees itself from all possible vantage points at the same time, as a person lost in a labyrinth of mirrors. All is one, but this is a still diversified ‘all’ and its oneness is a still diversified ‘oneness’.

     Next, there is the level of indefinite consciousness, in which all distinctions are subsumed under the realization that whenever ‘I experience this’ what is actually occurring is that ‘I experience nothing but myself.’ This is the level of the transcendent universal Self, which is the pure, void, impersonal egoity of consciousness itself, transcending the very duality between subjective and objective sides of experience.

     Next, and last, there is the level of supreme emptiness, in which even the transcendent universal Self dissolves and the ‘nothing at all’ that was lying behind the veil of consciousness remains in its pristine ineffability.

     The unity of the five can (and will be) experienced eventually at each of these levels (if not at even more levels) in the same way, although with an increasing refining of subtlety and light. Since all these levels are simultaneously present in experience (they indeed constitute experience in its most concrete form), moving from one level to the other does not entail necessarily discarding one and replacing it with another. It is more like a wandered walking in a landscape, drawing nearer to a certain point and simultaneously moving away from another. In the same way, as one gets more tuned into a certain level, the others might fade more into the background, without having to disappear completely. The full experience of the unity of the five acts at any of these levels is the gate that leads to accessing the next level.

     Relatively more atypical is how the unity of the five acts unfolds at the ultimate level of supreme emptiness. Here, upsurging is nothing but the dropping off of the presence of the transcendent universal Self, which leaves a state of experience that is beyond the duality between personal and impersonal. As a result, there is an inconceivable vast expanse of nothing, infinite like space, but unlocalizable (unlike space), an infinite nowhere rather than an infinite everywhere. Holding is nothing but the savouring of the indescribable sense of absolute freedom, independency, playfulness, potentiality that pervades and silently resonates within that vastness. Consummation is the light of a transcendent light of Beauty that pervades nothing at all, that has no object at all, but appears in its most condensed, purest form as the very Beauty of being and consciousness themselves. Covering is the emergence within this Beauty of the resonance of the finite form that can self-reflectively resonate with it, seeing itself as an expression of that Beauty and at the same time as the mirror that amplifies for the Absolute its own self-reflection. Revealing is the dropping of the centre of experience outside of the determinate form without moving away from it, enabling simultaneously the experience of the Absolute in its still explosion flashlight forth everywhere from nowhere, fully enjoying itself in each and every expression of its delight—humming from within each and every form: I love you: