Brahman

It is easy to know Brahman in meditation.  It is that surrounding presence that is consistent through all three states, beyond words or cognition.  It is that which is beyond even consciousness.  What is challenging is knowing and being united with that (which is always present) always; in grief, in anger, or in love.  Methods of non-attachment help free up the mind and body in order to let the knowledge of Brahman become illuminated, but they are not a means in themselves to know or to experience It.  It is impossible to control the mind and body and therefore impossible to ever not be desirous, or angry, or frustrated, or depressed.  What is possible though is through the conviction that everything is unreal, we become aware of Brahman in times of natural human behavior.  We therefore transcend common human emotion and become united with the infinite, just as we do every night in deep sleep.

There is another difficulty regarding Brahman.  The Vedas declare Brahman to be the Self (Atman).  It is easy to know Brahman that surrounds us in peaceful environments, but to think of It as this very self doesn’t seem reasonable.  For, this self who eats, drinks, desires, etc. is an illusion, just as this table is an illusion.  All of the table’s qualities such as hardness, color, or smell are superimposed on Reality.  All of my qualities like weight, will, vitality, or the color of my hair are what make up my identification of myself, and are illusions themselves.  So if the qualities of myself that make up the idea of self are just as much illusory qualities being superimposed on Brahman (Reality), as the qualities of this table being superimposed on the same Brahman, then I am no more myself then I am this table.  What we commonly think of as self is not at all the Atman of the Upanishads.  Yet once we discover all of this manifest world is an illusion being superimposed by nescience upon an infinite Reality, we discover our true nature is that Reality.