Speaking from Stillness is a fun series transcribing unscripted thoughts while on morning dog walks in my jungle valley. I walk in stillness, then allow whatever arises to get recorded and transcribed. I try to keep them short. The transcript is lightly edited for clarity.
An encounter with the Ribhu Gita this morning, courtesy of Wisdom of the Masters.
The Ribhu Gita is one of what many call the Nididhyasana texts, those which you find when you’re nearing or beyond the pale of Liberation, or they find you perhaps.
Ashtavakra Gita, Avadhuat Gita, and this, the Ribhu Gita. I’m sure there’s others.
This is a text that Ramana Maharshi would offer to people and say,
‘If you read this daily and concentrate on it, and understand it, you’ll have no choice but to achieve Liberation.’
The Ribhu does speak much of Shiva, which is interesting, because where Ramana Maharshi spent the vast majority of his life, and where his ashram is, is at Arunachala. He said he knew every foot of Arunachala as he would walk it every day…I guess much like I do with this valley… but he would walk it every day and Arunachala is considered the…it’s not personification, because it’s a mountain…the representation of the living Shiva in the world.
But as one of the great Advaita Vedanta texts, it simply and without concession points to the Truth of Shiva, which is the energy of Every-thing…which is also Atman, which is the manifestation of Every-thing…which is also Brahman.
The Brahman, which is the energetic-field of No-thing and its most pure state. Brahman is No-thing. It is non-duality as it’s not-two. And it’s not a field with boundaries. As it is Infinity itself…there is no finite in Existence.
And that is the Absolute Truth. The Absolute field is Every-thing. It is the pure Existence of Every-thing, of which anything and everything is made, and where anything and everything happens…there is No-thing that is not the field, that is not Brahman.
And for me...for this One…that means, No-thing is Every-thing.
This text, and all of the Advaita Vedanta texts, and most of the non-duality naming texts, does point to Absolute Truth as No-thing, the Brahman, and that what we see and what we feel and what we Experience is Illusion. The interaction of finite-things is Illusion.
So I sit here in this valley and the concept of separation between this body and these rocks and these dogs and these trees, the butterfly is just doing the mating dance…and whatever that big tube in the sky above me is doing, the sense of that separation…is Illusion.
Now it’s not…or it’s important that we don’t take Illusion as being a trick. We are not creatures trapped in a matrix.
We are Brahman. We are Atman. And the Illusion is ‘We think, we feel, we act as if we are separate’. So while Every-thing…
As the tube in the sky circles around, there are some of the community that warn of chem-trails…that would also be an Illusion!
But as objects, beings with finite-senses, we think that we have boundaries, we think that we are separate from all of the things around us, we think that we own our thoughts, they are ours, they are individual mine-mine-mine, we have identities…But that is Illusion.
Much like matter which is 90% or 98% empty that feels so solid to us, that is an Illusion as well.
So Illusion is not a trick, it is just not the complete Truth. It is all we can understand and see, just as if we’re watching an illusionist on a stage who disappears. From our perspective, from our vantage point, we don’t see the trapdoor, we don’t see the mirrors. From our perspective it is all we see…But that is an Illusion, or it’s not entirely Truth.
So the overriding baseline Truth is…Brahman.
Now what I loved about the Ribhu Gita…pieces that I listened to today…is that it did not leave you in the Void of ‘This is Absolute Truth, that there is No-thing’.
Instead, it said when you understand this (Truth), and you realize this,
When you sit in Nature, when you sit in The World,
You do not see No-Thing…you see Every-thing, and realize that…
I Am Every-thing.
If you want to support this creative series directly, you can donate using the link below. All proceeds go to feeding the two essential muses…dog food and cacao!
buymeacoffee.com/jay.macgillivray
I am a Pathfinder, and help guide Truth-seekers on their awakening path. If this resonates and you are interested in exploring more, my website link is below. Connecting for a free introductory conversation is a great way to start!
