Transpersonal Philosophy

  All those who begin to walk along the so-called spiritual paths hear to talk about the concept of “enlightenment” from very early on. It is identified both with a particular psychological state of a person and with a process that that person carries out with greater or lesser efforts. Psychological states are states of our Tripartite Soul, not states of “I Am.” The “I Am” is always what it is, it does not become anything in particular although nothing is without the “I Am”. What does enlightenment consist of?” Allow me to clarify another more fundamental question: “Who is enlightened?” The answer is simple: the ego is illuminated. Let's clarify this. If enlightenment is a process or a state of our Soul, when we create an intellectual image of that state, we are creating a narrative of that particular state, and we will give one description or another, but using conceptual representations, which are always the result of an egoic action of centroversion of the organis

  Todos los que comienzan a caminar por las llamadas sendas espirituales escuchan desde muy pronto el concepto de “iluminación”. Se identifica tanto con un estado psicológico de una persona como con un proceso que esa persona lleva a cabo con mayores o menores esfuerzos. Los estados psicológicos son estados de nuestra Alma Tripartita, no estados del “Yo Soy”. El “Yo Soy” es siempre lo que es, no llega a ser nada en particular aunque nada es sin “Yo Soy”. ¿En qué consiste la iluminación?”, permitidme que aclare otra pregunta más fundamental: “¿quién se ilumina?”. La respuesta es sencilla: se ilumina el ego. Aclaremos esto. Si la iluminación es un proceso o un estado de nuestra Alma, cuando creamos una imagen intelectiva de ese estado, estamos creando una narrativa de ese estado, y daremos una descripción u otra, pero usando representaciones conceptuales, que son siempre el resultado de una acción de centroversión egoica del organismo. Tu Alma se ilumina, pero el “Yo S

  Terminology   Veda = Knowledge First Veda: Rigveda, written around 1800-1500 BC. Probably composed and transmitted orally over a couple of millennia before  Advaita = Non-Dual Advaita Vedanta = non-dual tradition that begins with the Rigveda and continues with the Upanishads, reaching the present day. Question from Luis : Oscar, I have read somewhere that the Vedas are dualistic, and Vedanta is non-dualistic, is this true? In the Vedas desire seems intrinsic, they ask for this and that, and this separation of the desired object can be considered dualism. But perhaps it is a wrong interpretation of the Vedas, with which Aurobindo may not agree. Oscar's Answer : Rigveda is dual. There is the world of Swar or Solar world, where the gods live and those who manage to access there by traveling a path and with effort, and on the other hand this lower world. In the Rigveda, Brahman designates a type of priest, out of a total of seven categories: Hotar, Potar, Neṣṭar, Agnī

  Terminología   Veda = Conocimiento Primer Veda : Rigveda, escrito hacia 1800-1500 antes de nuestra era. Probablemente compuesto y transmitido oralmente a lo largo de un par de milenios antes.   Advaita = No Dual Advaita Vedanta = tradición no-dual que empieza con el Rigveda y se continúa con Upanishads llegando hasta nuestros días. Pregunta de Luis : Oscar, he leído en algún sitio que los Vedas son dualistas, y el Vedanta no dualista ¿es ésto verdad?  en los Vedas el deseo parece intrínseco, piden ésto y aquello, y esa separación del objeto deseado puede ser considerada dualismo. Pero alomejor es una interpretación incorrecta de los Vedas, en la que quizá Aurobindo no esté de acuerdo Respuesta de Oscar : Rigveda es dual. Está el mundo de Swar o mundo Solar, donde viven los dioses y aquellos que consiguen acceder hasta allí recorriendo un camino y con esfuerzo, y por otro lado este mundo inferior. En el Rigveda, Brahmán designa un tipo de sacerdote, de un total de siete

  The transpersonality of the Soul makes the understanding of what we call "personal identity", the egoic mask narrative, impossible without the understanding of the group identity to which we belong. That is why it is important to know mythopoetics, the symbolic construction of identity of our culture. Myths are transpersonal in social terms (we could say: transocial) , and that is what the concept of "Mythologem", coined by Karl Kerenyi, illustrates. The term designates the common elements in myths belonging to different traditions, like the tales of the Sacred Child, the descent of the hero to the underworld, the marriage of the King-God to the Earth Goddess, and so on. [for more on this see my little essay on mythologems: https://construccionsimbolicaidentidadhumana.blogspot.com/2013/09/what-is-mythologem.html]  The transpersonality of the masks of gods and their actions has produced all kinds of confusion. The superimposition of one myth on anoth

 

  The bard is blind for having seen the Goddess of Beauty bathe naked. Many are the names of Tiresias. The Argentine bard Jorge Luis Borges had a vision in light of his intimate blindness. Legend has it that when the battle of Contarf ended, that feast of crows in which the Norwegians were defeated, the Great King of Ireland quickly called his court poet, repeating what the kings of Mycenae once did. He asked him to compose a song of victory and greatness, as if both things went together, as if war could make someone great. He gave him a year to compose it and some gold, some say a rare ring on which was inscribed the name of an old dragon. When the year completed its journey, the poet presented an extensive panegyric full of great literary figures, a dazzling manifesto in which the sword was called “oar of battle” and “helm of justice.” He recited it with the confidence of someone who masters his craft, without looking at the manuscript and with a hypnotic r

Emily : The truth cannot be known within the system I am in. And all my questions that arise are partly reflections of the soul, but formulated within our dual language, which makes them incomplete. So what do you do with all the questions that arise? Are they like masks? Inescapable and full of purpose but by nature, incomplete? Is it then about being aware of asking and searching as part of my soul's actions but not clinging to the answers or questions? Oscar : Your last question contains a possible answer to the questions that precede it. Let the spontaneity with which questions arise be the spontaneity with which they fade away. Questions appear in specific contexts, in systems, that is, in sets made up of objects and relationships between objects, as you have heard me say on some occasions. Questions may make sense or not make sense, but their sense or lack thereof is always in relation to the system in which they arise. Thus, a question about the electron has

Emily : La verdad no se puede conocer dentro del sistema en el que estoy. Y todas mis preguntas que surgen son en parte reflejos del alma, pero formuladas dentro de nuestro lenguaje dual, que las hace incompletas. Entonces, ¿qué se hace con todas las preguntas que surgen? ¿Son como máscaras? ¿Ineludibles y llenas de propósito pero por naturaleza, incompleto? ¿Se trata entonces de ser consciente del preguntar y buscar como parte de las acciones de mi alma pero no aferrarme a las respuestas o preguntas? Oscar : Tú ultima pregunta contiene una posible respuesta a las preguntas que la preceden. Deja que la espontaneidad con la que surgen las preguntas sea la espontaneidad con la que se desvanecen. Las preguntas aparecen en contextos específicos, en sistemas, es decir, en conjuntos formados por objetos y relaciones entre objetos, como me has escuchado decir en algunas ocasiones. Las preguntas pueden tener sentido o no tener sentido, pero su sentido o la falta de él es siempre

  Pregunta de Emily : Preguntar "¿Quién soy yo?" es comenzar con la premisa errónea de un "yo" y luego un "soy" como escribes en tu libro. Entonces, si pregunto "¿Qué es verdad?" ¿Parto de la misma premisa errónea de un "Qué" que es una formación hecha por el "yo" y la "verdad" es...? Respuesta de Óscar: Las preguntas son reflejos de las Almas Volitiva y Emocional sobre el Alma Intelectiva. Pueden estar bien formuladas o mal formuladas desde un punto de vista sintáctico y semántico, pero no son ni verdaderas ni falsas. No pertenecen plenamente al ámbito de la dualidad, aunque limitan la Realidad, y en este sentido son expresiones mentales ilusorias e incompletas. Cuando pregunto “¿Quién soy yo?”, la pregunta no tiene nada de personal. Es el Humano quien pregunta, es decir es el Ser Humano expresando un distanciamiento con respecto a sus máscaras. Las máscaras tienen una respuesta siempre para esa pre

Emily : To ask "Who Am I?" is to start with faulty premise of an "I" and then an "Am" as you write in your book. So then, if I ask "What is true?" do I start from a the same faulty premise of a "What" which is a formation made by the "I" and "truth" is...?   Oscar :  Questions are reflections of the Volitional and Emotional Souls upon the Intellective Soul. They may be well or poorly formulated from a syntactic and semantic point of view, but they are neither true nor false. They do not fully belong to the realm of duality, although they limit Reality, and in this sense they are illusory and incomplete mental expressions. When I ask “Who am I?”, there is nothing personal about the question. It is the Human who asks, that is, it is the Human Being expressing a distancing with respect to his/her masks. The masks always have an answer to that question: "I am Oscar, I am the son of these parents, the fa

  I do not teach only the doctrine of no birth (ajâta), I approve of all schools. The same truth must be expressed in different ways adapted to the different capacity of the listener. The path of ajâta says: "There is only one reality. There is no birth or death, there is no beginning or end, there is no sâdhaka (one who practices a spiritual path) nor mumuksha (one who seeks truth), nor mukta (liberated one), neither slavery nor liberation. The only thing that exists is the One." Some find it very difficult to understand this truth and ask: how can we ignore this solid and consistent world that we see around us? They are instructed to focus on the state of dreaming and are told: "Everything you see depends on the one who sees it. Regardless of the one who sees it, nothing is seen." This is the path called drishti-srishtri, or path of perception and creation. In this path it is said that one first mentally creates the world and then sees what his own

  Yo no enseño solamente la doctrina del no nacimiento (ajâta), apruebo todas las escuelas. La misma verdad debe ser expresada de modos diferentes adaptados a la distinta capacidad del oyente. La vía del ajâta dice: "sólo existe una realidad. No hay nacimiento ni muerte, no hay comienzo ni fin, no hay sâdhaka (el que practica una vía espiritual) ni mumuksha (el que busca la verdad), ni mukta (liberado), ni esclavitud ni liberación. Lo único que existe es el Uno." Algunos ven muy difícil comprender esta verdad y preguntan: ¿cómo podemos ignorar este mundo sólido y consistente que vemos a nuestro alrededor? A estos se les indica que se fijen en el estado del sueño y se les dice: "todo lo que ves depende del que lo ve. Con independencia del que lo ve no hay nada visto." Esta es la vía llamada drishti-srishtri, o vía de la percepción y la creación.. En ella se dice que uno primero crea mentalmente el mundo y luego ve lo que su propia mente ha creado. Al que

  There is a spontaneous way for understanding the flow of our life experience, a pathless path that comes natural and need no effort. The Taoist call it Wu Wei, doing without doing, or a non-forcing action in relation to our interactive experience with the Universe. Wu Wei starts from an ontological stand but it turns quickly into practical action. (…) The sage manages affairs without action And spreads doctrines without words ( The Natural Way of Lao Tzu. #2. ) Wu Wei is not easily grasped. In fact, it is a source of continuous confusion and misinterpretation. Its difficulty resides in its simplicity. We usually think that something is difficult to grasp due to the intricacy of its conceptual frame, but we believe that applying effort and time we will eventually understand it. However, it is much more difficult to grasp simple processes or basic simple concepts, and extraordinary difficult to grasp something that would never be understood applying think

    Four Principles of Zen A special transmission outside the scriptures. No dependence on words or letters. Direct pointing to the soul of man. Seeing into one's nature and the attainment of Buddhahood.

Koans are not resolved with dual thinking. In fact, koans are neither resolved nor unresolved. Just like a flower is not a matter of resolving or unresolving. Simplicity of mind cannot be achieved by trying. When we follow a spiritual path, any conceptual explanation bothers us, we want to escape from it. This desire to escape from concepts is still a conceptual trap.  We can read Kant as a gigantic German koan. Here I include a Zen koan full of fresh air. Zen Master Unmon said: “The world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your robes at the sound of a bell?”

I am pleased to include here the opening excerpt from Ramana Maharshi's Nan Yar (Who Am I?) . Ramana, along with Nisargadatta and Aurobindo, are the greatest representatives of Advaita Vedanta in the 20th century.     Who Am I? (Nan Yar?) As all living beings desire to be happy always, without misery, as in the case of everyone there is observed supreme love for one’s self, and as happiness alone is the cause for love, in order to gain that happiness which is one’s nature and which is experienced in the state of deep sleep where there is no mind, one should know one’s self. For that, the path of knowledge, the inquiry of the form “Who am I?”, is the principal means. 1. Who am I ? The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus), I am not; the five cognitive sense organs, viz. the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, which apprehend their respective objects, viz. sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour, I am not; the five cognitive sense- o

  Vivekachundamani La Joya Suprema del Discernimiento. Sri Shankara. Introducción de Sri Ramana Maharshi Todo ser en el mundo ansía ser feliz siempre y estar libre del tinte del sufrimiento, y desea liberarse de los males corporales, que no son su verdadera naturaleza. Es más, cada uno alberga el mayor amor por sí mismo, y este amor no es posible en ausencia de felicidad. En el sueño profundo aunque privado de todo, uno tiene la experiencia de ser feliz. Incluso, debido a la ignorancia de la naturaleza real del propio Atman de uno, que es la felicidad misma, la gente se queda empantanada en el vasto océano de la existencia material, abandonando el camino adecuado que conduce a la felicidad, y actúa bajo la creencia errónea que el camino a la felicidad consiste en la obtención de los placeres de este y del otro mundo. Desgraciadamente, sin embargo, no hay una felicidad así que no tenga el tinte del sufrimiento. Es precisamente con el propósito de señalar el