AN UPANIṢAD FOR TODAY
A talk given by Mr Donald Lambie at the School in Cape Town on 01 December 2024
The Upaniṣads are a collection of ancient teachings which hold the Advaita teaching. Advaita means ‘one without a second’ and the Upaniṣads, from many years ago, hold the essence of this teaching. One of the Upaniṣads, the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, expounds the word Om and what I am going to talk about is based on this. On first reading this Upaniṣad is rather esoteric. It is quite difficult to really see what it means and how it applies to us. But with a little thought and consideration, it turns out that it's actually most applicable to us. What is said about the Upaniṣads is that they contain wisdom which is timeless and which applies to all of mankind, eastern or western. So, we are going to consider if this is so, does this apply to us here in Cape Town on the 1st December 2024? Is it as timeless as that?
The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad expounds the word Om. There are many different ways of understanding this word. One way is to consider it like a seed. Just as all these human bodies, each one of us, originated as a seed, what is said is that the whole universe originates from a seed and the word Om is that original seed. It has become a popular, well-known symbol. But it is more than just a symbol. It is described as being the very essence of who and what we are. I will come back to this at the end to relate in more detail how the Upanishad refers to this essence. But to begin with, I would like to start with the three letters which combine to make the word Om, namely A, the U and M.
(Some time was spent sounding these letters and the word Om).
The Upaniṣad says that the sound ‘A’ describes or represents the outer world. It describes this physical creation that we look around and see, including the magnificent Table Mountain next to us which you can never tire of. The Upaniṣad says that the person who really understands this, who appreciates the Absolute in this way in its fullness and its purity, has two characteristics. This person pervades everything and attains everything. So what does the word ‘pervade’ mean here? If we take an example, let's say a gardener. The gardener has a garden and his or her attention pervades the garden. He or she knows every corner, every plant, every bit of grass, even every weed, knows the soil, knows everything about the garden and all that is contained in the garden. The attention goes everywhere, it pervades everything. Similarly with the owner of a business. His or her attention will go to every aspect of the business; sales, purchases, accounts, staff, everything. There isn't a corner of the business that the owner is not interested in. The head of a school, any kind of school, likewise, his or her attention goes to all aspects of the school. Sometimes it happens in organisations that the attention slips and there are dark corners which is where bad things tend to happen. Eventually the bad things come to light and there is a
problem. It's better if there aren't any dark corners.
So, in the sense that the attention naturally goes out and encompasses every part of a garden, a business or a school, in this way, the person who understands the Absolute in the form of the outer world, that person's attention goes out everywhere and pervades everything. It pervades and attains. The garden becomes part of the gardener. The business becomes part of the owner. The school becomes part of the head. The word ‘attains’ has the sense of ‘becoming part of’. For the philosopher, the attention can naturally go out and encompass any part of the outer world. It can pervade any part of the outer world, and in that sense, the outer world becomes part of us. Sometimes it happens that some new thing comes along or a new situation, and you have to give your attention to it. That might be easy, it might happen quickly and naturally. At other times it may be necessary to keep attending to it, to keep finding out about it. It may be complicated, but if you keep at it after a while the attention pervades, and the thing becomes part of you. You can naturally know how to respond to it, how to deal with it, how to fix it if something goes wrong. This is the idea. This is enjoying the outer world. The philosopher can enjoy the outer world in the sense of pervading and attaining it. It becomes part of us, not separate. One man I know loves fixing things, like cars. He once said “I just don't have the idea ‘I can't do it’”. There are other people who have the idea very strongly ‘I can't do it’. If a person doesn't have that idea, then the attention naturally goes out, it pervades. And the engine or whatever it is, it almost, as it were, becomes part of the person. He loves it, he loves doing it. This is the idea. Now these are very small examples but we can take this in a much greater way as well. All this is denoted by the sound ‘A’, the outer world.
'U’ denotes the inner world, the world of knowledge and ideas. The Upaniṣad says that in the person who understands this ‘the current of knowledge’ becomes strong. And such a person, who enjoys this universal inner world, becomes ‘equal with all’. So, let's consider this. First, the description that the current of knowledge becomes
strong. Let's take the example of a scientist who is actively involved in researching some aspect of science day in, day out. The current of scientific knowledge will become strong in such a person. I used to work as a barrister, a lawyer, and then there came a time when I stopped doing that. It is an interesting experience because practising something like law, doing it day in, day out, time is spent researching cases, reading cases, going to court and so on. It is just part of what you're doing. There is an immense amount of knowledge and information which is absorbed without thinking about it. It's just what happens. Then stepping out of that, after quite a short time, a year or two, looking back, it's as though there is a current of knowledge, which is increasingly distant from where you are. And now, 25 years later, if I had to go back into that, it would be an alien world. The current of knowledge has passed on. Now, philosophically or spiritually, in the person who is studying, hearing, practising and reflecting on the knowledge of the Self, the current of knowledge in such a person, the current of philosophic or spiritual knowledge, becomes strong. There is a man in the School who has devoted many years to the work of Plato. He has translated it, taught it and lived with it. If you talk to him, it's obvious the current of knowledge is strong. He can relate any aspect of the Platonic teaching easily and naturally, it's all in him. It's at his fingertips, we would say. There are other people in the School who have also spent many years translating the works of Marsilio Ficino. And again, with these people, the current of the knowledge of Ficino is strong. They practically know each letter and all that is contained in it. Another person might, let's say, love Shakespeare and become a Shakespearean scholar. The current of knowledge of Shakespeare in such a person becomes strong.
This is a lovely quality when you meet this. The examples are all in a way particular, like Plato, Ficino or Shakespeare. If the current of the true knowledge of the Self is strong, this is the best of all. It encompasses everything. This is what the Upaniṣad says; in the person who understands and enjoys the universe in this sense, the inner world, the current of knowledge is strong. The Upaniṣad says such a person becomes equal with all, which is slightly a surprising description. The great commentator Ādi Śaṅkara says that the person becomes equal with all because nobody envies him. What is noticeable about people in whom this current of knowledge is strong is that they tend to share it fully with everyone. In the examples that I have given relating to Plato and Ficino, these people are only too pleased to share the knowledge with anyone and everyone. Now it's true some people may be able to receive the knowledge more fully than others, but that's another matter. From the point of view of the individual, he or she will naturally want to share the knowledge with everyone. When somebody shares the knowledge, people like that person, they're friends with that person. They don't envy him or her. They don't have any such feelings of separation. There is a natural unity. This is the nature of the person who is at ease in this inner world of the universe. As philosophers, the knowledge of unity can become strong in us. It enables us to meet anyone and everyone equally. It's not the case that ‘I like this person, so I'll give my knowledge to him, but I don't like that person, so I won't give my knowledge to him’. It is given equally and we become equal in the sense that we see everyone as equal. This is the second aspect.
The third letter in the word Om is ‘M’. This denotes or represents the causal world. So, we have the outer world, the inner world, and the causal world. We can see the outer world and we can be familiar with the inner world but we can't see the causal world. It's like when we go to sleep at night and if we have a nice deep sleep, we don't see anything. What we do know is when we wake up is that we had a nice sleep. We say we had a really good sleep. And when people sleep well, they tend to be happy. When people don't sleep well, they tend to become anxious and unhappy. The experience of the causal world is accompanied by happiness. What the Upaniṣad says is that the person who is familiar with this world measures and absorbs everything. In a way, all of the measures are held in this causal world. It's called causal because of this. Take the Internet, the World Wide Web. How long have we had the World Wide Web? About thirty years? Thirty years ago, if somebody had been standing here and said the words World Wide Web to us, we would have thought what on earth are you talking about? Now it's a part of everyone's life. Thirty years ago, the knowledge of the World Wide Web was in the causal world, but it wasn't manifest. This is the nature of the causal world. It holds everything. It measures everything. It has the knowledge for everything. But it is unseen, unmanifest. When we go to sleep at night our personalities, our moods, our foibles, our inclinations, all of these things are unmanifest, they seem to retreat into this deep sleep. When we wake up, they all appear again, as if by magic. So, the causal world measures everything and absorbs everything. Somebody who's in charge of an organisation has to absorb everything. One person may be interested in one thing, and the head of the organisation absorbs that. Another person is interested in something else and the head absorbs that. Another person is unhappy about something and the head absorbs that. It is the nature of such a person that he or she absorbs everything, and in that sense brings everything to rest. Just as the ocean might absorb the waters from many different rivers.
As a philosopher we can have these attributes when we are still and at rest. We can absorb everything, we can measure and weigh everything without preference or partiality. A judge in a court of law hears the arguments from both sides, absorbs and weighs them. Then, we hope, the judge gives a measured judgment which resolves the difficulty or the dispute. When we are troubled or anxious about something we might go to someone who we regard as wise, and we say what's troubling us and it is as though that is absorbed by this person. And this wise person may or may not say something, or may or may not give some advice, but just the fact that it's been absorbed is helpful. There may just be a little bit of advice, a few words even, but that can also be extremely helpful. As philosophers we can absorb and weigh.
This is how the Upaniṣad describes the manifestations of the word Om; as the outer world, the inner world, and the causal world, all of which are recognisable or understandable to us. Our appreciation of these, and our ability to move freely in them increases as we proceed with the practice of philosophy. However, they all completely depend on the word Om. It is said that the inner world embraces or contains the outer world, the causal world contains both the inner world and the outer world and the word Om embraces and contains all three. The Upaniṣad says the word Om is indescribable, unthinkable, beyond the reach of the mind. However well-educated, erudite and eloquent a person may be, there is no ability to speak about this word Om. However, the Upaniṣad does give certain indications to help us. It says in this word Om the movements and the identifications and attachments to the outer world come to rest. The more we experience the true Self, the less our identifications and attachments with the world become. In Sanskrit it’s called ‘Prapañcopaśamam’. The Upanishad goes on to say ‘Śāntam’ which means peaceful. The person becomes peaceful. The next indication is the word ‘Śivam’, which means auspicious, propitious. Then there is the word ‘Advaitam’, non-dual, complete. So, although this word Om is beyond any description, the Upaniṣad is giving us some help to appreciate it. The world of attachment and identification comes to rest. It is peaceful, auspicious, and it is one without a second. This is said by the Upaniṣad to be our true Self. The self we're familiar with, which tends to be identified with and attached to all kinds of things and relationships, people, objects and activities - this is just a kind of shadow. The shadow world doesn't know peace. The shadow world is a world of multiplicity. The real person, unlike the shadow, is peaceful, auspicious and one. This is the description the Upaniṣad gives of our true Self.
The best way that we may experience this is, for us, in meditation. This is what has been given by the great teachers we are familiar with. Meditation takes us to the Self. Most of us here have been introduced to meditation in the School. Maybe some have not, and I hope in due course you will be, because as I say, meditation takes us to the experience of the true Self. We don't meditate on the word Om because it said that this is appropriate for the renunciate, not for the householder. However, the mantra that we use in meditation takes us to the same place, it takes us to the Self which is what the word Om is referring to.
The word Om is like a seed and the Upaniṣad is just one description of the nature of that seed. I've tried to relate a little of what the Upaniṣad says. The Upaniṣad is quite short, but it is full of significance. There was a great philosopher who wrote a long commentary on it. At first it can seem a bit daunting, but really it is both simple and practical. It is an Upaniṣad for us here today.