Participant 1: When God manifests, he manifests through…,
David: she
P1: she manifests through physics and chemistry and the world of form.
David: Really? Tell us more.
Participant 2: Can I say something from the Upanishads?
David: I’m ready. Let me brace.
P2: In the Mundaka Upanishad they say that….
David: Can you say it in Sanskrit for us?
P2: Yes, “Yat tad adreśyam, agrāhyam, agotram, avarṇam, acak ṣuḥ-śrotraṁ tad apāṇi-padām, nityam vibhum sarva-gataṁ susūkṣmaṁ tad avyayam yad bhūta-yonim paripaśyanti dhīrāḥ.”
So, basically what this is, “Yat tad adreśyam,” it’s invisible. “Agrāhyam,” its ungraspable. “Agotram,” it has no lineage. “Avarṇam,” it has no color. “Acak ṣuḥ-śrotraṁ,” it doesn’t have eyes nor ears. “Tad apāṇi-padām,” it has no hands or legs. “Nityam vibhum sarva-gataṁ,” it’s always there. “Susūkṣmaṁ,” it’s very subtle. “Tad avyayam,” it’s imperishable. Those who’ve experienced it say.
David: (turning to P1) Does that answer your question?
P1: If you say so.
David: Again they’re referring in this passage from the Upanishads to the Purusha, the Purusha Toma, unmanifest because it has no arms and no legs. But if you see the iconography of Kali, she has lots of arms signifying the all embracing nature of the Shakti to draw all of that into the Purusha, to pull it back in or to cause it to rise out of the Purusha, which means form is also that. Form is form, but form is also that. But while form is personal, it’s what it is. What she’s referring to (David gestures towards P2) is the sap in a tree. You can’t see it. All you see are the leaves, the branches, the trunk, the bark, the colors. You see all that. It’s there to be seen, but you don’t see the sap. But that tree is nothing but sap. So, the form is the vision of the sap. The form is nothing but the sap. There’s nothing but Brahman.
P1: Well, you could also say that my body is nothing but atoms.
David: No, that’s materialism.
P1: I understand. I’m making an analogy here. But we see you and we see your individuality, and we’re attracted to you for your individuality and your individual radiance.
David: No, the radiance is non individual. There’s no radiance in the individual, none. It’s like those hand puppets they use in Indonesia. They have those shows.
P1: Shadow puppets.
David: You take the thing off, there’s nothing, just the hand. This is just puppetized. Like you said, you’re speaking English. There’s nothing new in anything here. The flesh is borrowed. The cells of the flesh are borrowed from nature. It’s all on loan, right?
Participant 3: Meaning it doesn’t impinge the Universal, or the Purusha is not prevented by the individual.
David: The Purusha is all that.
P3: It comes through.
David: It is that, right to the surface, even bodily. So, in some sense, even though your body dies, it’s also immortal. It’s like an imprint your body makes on the akashic level that makes it immortal too. It always exists there. That’s why you can remember all your previous births. Don’t try to remember them. If you’re meant to, you’ll remember them, cause it’s all stored in there, chit, in chit storehouse of Consciousness.
(David addresses a participant moving something on the floor.) Just leave it. It’s getting enlightened. Leave it there.)
P2: Can you see it in any form?
David: I can’t see it, I can’t touch it, I can’t know it. And yet, everything is that. It’s like the tree. You say, “David, can you see the sap? Can you see it?” Well, let me see. I’m trying. I’m trying. Well, it is the sap! There’s nothing to see. You understand? We have to get out this idea, even if the scriptures say it, that reality’s in back of things. That’s only a linear translation of a dilemma that we then just accept wholesale. We don’t question it. Someone says, “Oh, can you see God in back of things?” You’d have to deconstruct the question. You can’t answer that question. No, really, just think of this beautiful metaphor that has come up now about the tree. You say, “David, you’re God. Can you see the sap, because I can’t. There must be something special about you.” Let me look. It is…, the whole thing is sap! There’s nothing to think about. So, it’s on that level that you get Unity.
Right after the rains, remember the big typhoon we had just a week or two ago, Orley and I went for our first post rain storm hike and it was really something. When we were walking, I turned a corner and the bay leaves were beginning to exude that powerful fragrance and everything was miraculously green. I turned a corner and everything began to become the Self. Do you understand what I mean by that?
Participant 4: No.
David: Everything began to dissolve into the unmanifest source of Consciousness and only that as me remained. After I turned that corner I could feel it beginning to come, and it swallowed everything. I could still see the details of trees. It’s like if you were submerged in water and you were unconscious that you were under water, then all of a sudden you became aware that you were completely under water, that would be analogous to seeing the Self viscerally in that way. So, I turned the corner and there was that, and then I noticed it and I said, “Oh, I don’t want to go there,” so I just kept walking. Like I say, I run away from my realizations. Yes, I got a glimpse, that’s it, keep walking, hurry up.
Participant 5: We try to sustain that.
David: That’s because you think you’re not it. It was great. I kind of wondered where that went and then I get that indication, “Oh I’m still here, don’t worry about that.”
I used to get that a lot. I got it in a supermarket once in Santa Fe and I was with someone and I said, “Oh God, I have to sit on the floor. I can’t take this,” as the whole universe was beginning to come in its invisible aspects taking everything. It was taking me down with it. I couldn’t even walk. So, finally the thing went away. Then we were hanging laundry out and it came back again, this gigantic emersion, my own Self as everything but as Consciousness. So, since then it’s been quiet. It’s like a wild tiger to me. I’d rather just keep it out. What’s the point of it? I can’t learn anymore, nothing that’s going to change me. My personality isn’t going to get better because of it. I’m not going to become a better person. So, it’s just so much truth? Spare me. I don’t need it.
Yeah, (David acknowledges a participant wanting to speak) thank you for rescuing me from having to keep talking.
