Addendum to "Can we build further on Advaita Concept?"

 Before I post my thoughts for the next week, I wish to add my meditations on the post last week on “Can we build further on Advaita concept?”.

I started the post by stating that “Advaita philosophy seems incomplete to me. The reason is that it deals ONLY with consciousness (pragnana)”. And towards the end I asked:  “Why not consider Brahman as composite?”.

Reflecting on these thoughts further, it seems to me that there is one level of awareness which relates to one’s life (jivan) and its relationship to oneself and to the outside world. This is called variously as “Self’, “Soul” or atman. This refers only to consciousness and awareness of available information. That is what I said last week, namely “Advaita philosophy seems incomplete to me. The reason is that it deals ONLY with consciousness (pragnana)”.

In meditation, particularly Buddhist meditation, we are asked to meditate on “Body in the Body”, “Feeling in the feelings”, “Mind in the mind” and “Objects of the mind in objects of the mind” to understand “things as they truly are” or “suchness of things”.  This obviously means reflecting on Body, Mind and Consciousness. All of them, including consciousness itself,  become objects of consciousness. If so, who is the Subject- the Primordial Subject?

In other words, the content of Consciousness at this level is a composite of Matter, Energy and Awareness. That is what I said last week when I asked: “Why not consider Brahman as composite?”. This is probably what is called Brahman.

We then are asked to reflect on the impermanence and inter-being of everything in the cosmos and, the “one-ness of things”.  This is the state beyond dualities and is called nirvana in Buddhism.

In Sanskrit, the knowable Universe or Cosmos us called “Mayaprapanca” (मायाप्रपञ्च), often translated to mean “Illusion made of Five elements”. One meaning of the word "maya" is illusion as in magic. One can interpret it to mean an illusory power behind the universe. But in Vedic Sanskrit, there are other meanings such as: "extraordinary power", "mystery" and "power of creation". Why not call the cosmos "mystery made of five elements?" 

 Why not call the unknowable Brahman as Mayaprathrayam (मायाप्रत्रयं)” (“Mystery made of Three elements”)?