Based on the third Alex O’Connor video, the interview with the Swami–and other sources TBA, and assistance from the venice.ai, and the Tantra book my sister got me …
‘Brahman’, (god, consciousness, Experience Existing: the vast, the limitless, the independent reality.
The world is an appearance (mithyā), a reality dependent on Brahman for its existence, like a dream depends on the dreamer.
The name for the non-obvious or non-evident Ultimate Reality/god/brahman is:
“That” (‘Tat’)
Or even just ‘Om’.
Or: ‘sat chit ananda”
1) What is Real? The question of Metaphysics. A: SAT (“being/existence” but carrying the sense of ‘what truly is, as opposed to what merely appears).
2) How do we know (anything)? The question of Epistemology A: CHIT (bare consciousness)
3) What is the point (of anything)? The question of Axiology (ethics) A: ANANDA (fulfillment; bliss)
These are not three different things, but the same thing.
This ultimate trinity is not something or someone else, but
… each of us. Tat Tvam Asi (That thou art); or:
Prajñānam Brahma (Consciousness is Brahman)
Aham Brahmāsmi (I am Brahman)
Ayam Ātmā Brahma (This Self is Brahman)
Simply realizing this is the Advaita Vedanta version of ‘enlightenment’.
Not realizing That is ignorance; Avidyā, misidentification — taking the not-Self (body/mind) as the Self (Ātman).
“That’s” all of it.
Everything else is more or less window dressing, even if parts of the dressing like a teacher, a text, or a practice, are often functionally necessary for realization, even if they’re not ontologically part of the ‘truth’ itself.
***
WINDOW DRESSING, in great flooding quantities, will follow. For a start:
The appearances/mithyā that compel (hypnotize?) me most include:
Anthropology pre and post Civilization
The Real Dawn of Everything pt.4: the origins and future of modern life I listened idly to the first 29:30 up until Engels, but that’s only the first half, and … idly. Fix.
Art
A Face in the Crowd, Kazan’s movie
A Face in the Crowd, TomPetty’s song
And David Lynch, Warren Zevon, Jack Kerouac, blah, blah, blah
AI …
Was Never About Helping You | Cory Doctorow
“What makes Doctorow’s perspective different is that his critique is not purely about the technology itself. It’s about the power dynamics that surround it … the most important thing about a gadget isn’t what it does–it’s who it does it FOR, and what it does it TO.”
And …
The whole “Experience Exists So Now What” thing from Kastrup’s meta/Physics to the 10000 flavors of ‘eastern’ wisdom
Which brings us back to Spira and the Swami and Advaita and …
the next show.