What Is Ultimate Reality? | Michael James

0:09 Michael, according to Advaita Vedanta

0:12 in general and Sri Ramana's specific orientation,

0:17 what can we say is fundamental reality, the ultimate reality of existence?

0:23 Right.

0:26 Um According to Vedanta Well,

0:29 according to particularly according to Advaita Vedanta,

0:32 but also according to Vedanta more generally Um real means what actually exists.

0:40 Uh unreal means uh what what doesn't actually exist even if it seems to exist.

0:50 [sighs]

0:50 So, to understand what is real, we need to understand what actually exists.

0:55 There is a very important um principle in Vedanta philosophy.

1:02 It is um most famously um or uh uh in uh expressed by Krishna in chapter 2,

1:14 verse 16 of the Bhagavad Gita.

1:16 What he says there is uh there is no existence of the non-existent

1:25 and there is no non-existent non-existence of the what of what exists.

1:32 What that implies is that what exists must always exist.

1:37 What doesn't always exist doesn't actually exist.

1:41 As Bhagwan Ramana expressed it whatever seems to exist at one time

1:48 but not at another time doesn't actually exist even when it seems to exist.

1:53 Mhm.

1:54 Mhm.

1:55 The the the reasoning behind this is something that comes

2:02 into existence and ceases to exist is not intrinsically existent.

2:09 Something that is not intrinsically existent must

2:12 derive or borrow its existence from something else.

2:17 Often an analogy is used to illustrate this.

2:20 Um for example um some take some hot food a hot bowl of rice.

2:30 Rice is not uh intrinsically hot.

2:35 So, how did that rice become hot?

2:38 It gained its heat from boiling water.

2:41 Mhm.

2:41 Water is not intrinsically hot, so how did it become hot?

2:45 It gained its heat from a hot from a hot pan.

2:49 And the pan is not intrinsically hot, so where did it get its heat from?

2:52 It got derived it from a fire.

2:54 Fire is intrinsically hot.

2:56 So there we're talking about a property heat.

3:01 Existence is not a property.

3:03 But in this respect it's analogous to a property.

3:07 The reason existence is not a property is too fundamental.

3:12 Something must exist in order to have properties.

3:14 So, property existence is something more fundamental than any property.

3:19 So if something comes into existence

3:23 and ceases to exist is not intrinsically existent.

3:27 So, it must derive its existence from something else.

3:32 It's easy to understand deriving heat

3:35 from a property like heat from something else.

3:38 But how can something derive its existence from something else?

3:43 Again, there's a suitable analogy here.

3:48 Gold ornaments derive their existence from gold.

3:54 This is a general principle.

3:56 Forms derive their existence from the substance of which they're made.

4:02 So, the forms don't have any independent existence.

4:05 They're ornaments don't don't exist independent

4:09 of the gold of which they're made, the gold which is their substance.

4:13 So, they derive their existence from the gold.

4:17 The same gold that today is a bangle may tomorrow be melted

4:22 and made into a five rings or something or a necklace or something.

4:28 So, uh According to Advaita philosophy, forms are impermanent.

4:35 Substance is permanent.

4:38 But obviously gold is not a it's not an ultimate substance.

4:43 Because if you dig down deep into gold,

4:45 it's made of of molecules and those molecules are made of atoms

4:50 and so they uh what is the ultimate substance of all things?

4:57 A According to a Vedanta, the ultimate substance is being itself.

5:05 That is all things ultimately derive their being from pure being.

5:12 How do they derive their being from pure being?

5:16 [snorts] According to Advaita particularly as expressed as clarified by Bhagwan

5:22 Ramana all phenomena seem to exist in the view of ego.

5:31 So, they derive their seeming existence

5:34 from the seeming existence of our self as ego.

5:38 But ego also is something that appears and disappears.

5:41 It appears in waking and dream, it disappears in sleep.

5:45 So, ego is not intrinsically existent.

5:47 It doesn't actually exist even though it seems to exist.

5:52 [snorts] So, from where does ego derive its existence?

5:55 Ego derives its seeming existence from the real existence,

6:00 the pure being that we actually are.

6:03 So, ultimately what exists what is real is pure being.

6:08 Okay, let's let's start this.

6:10 We have pure being.

6:11 We have the substances that exist.

6:14 Um but then we have to have the ego in which the substances appear.

6:20 Um but if there are no egos um prior to any

6:25 consciousness or any conscious beings those substances were still there.

6:30 So, they those substances are are a derivative or come from the pure being.

6:35 You you don't have to have the intermedia

6:37 of the ego to make the substances real.

6:39 Okay.

6:40 Well well, okay, then you need to take a different line of argument then.

6:45 Um According to Advaita, the only real substance is pure being.

6:52 Okay.

6:53 Substances like gold Yeah, you I use gold as an analogy,

6:57 but it's obviously not a substance.

6:58 You can you can break down gold into you

7:02 could destroy all the atoms and it becomes something else.

7:05 So, it's not an ultimate substance.

7:07 So, what is the ultimate substance?

7:13 This is a line of argument I've not actually come across in any Advaita text,

7:17 but this is what seems to me to be Yeah,

7:22 I I might I might I might prefer your philosophy to Advaita, so please Okay.

7:27 No, but this is imperfect this this is an argument for the Advaita philosophy.

7:34 So um uh All finite things are defined by their limitations.

7:46 If we if we want to know what is the ultimate

7:49 substance of all things we need to remove the limitations.

7:56 The limitations of a form what what's distinguishes you from me,

8:01 what distinguishes a book from a chair.

8:04 Um so the uh we we we we we need

8:10 to conceptually remove all limitations to find the ultimate substance.

8:17 If all limitations are removed, what remains?

8:22 The infinite.

8:23 The uh that that is that which is unlimited.

8:26 So, the ultimate substance must be unlimited.

8:33 Because any any intermediate substance is is in some sense finite.

8:42 So, it has limitations.

8:44 It it must have something un you

8:47 can't have limitations without something that is limited.

8:52 So, what is it that uh what is it that in what do those limitations inhere?

8:59 Or I don't know if that's the correct way of saying it.

9:02 There must be something that is limited.

9:05 So, in order to find out what is limited

9:08 you need to isolate it from its from the limitations.

9:12 In other words, you need to remove the limitations and dig down deeper.

9:17 What is it that is uh beyond what is it that underlies?

9:22 Substance is a nice word because it stands for what stands under.

9:26 So, what is it that stands under or underlies the limitations?

9:31 What is it that is limited?

9:33 If you remove all limitations, you come to the unlimited, the infinite.

9:39 So, the ultimate substance must be infinite.

9:44 Since can we say about what can we say

9:46 about this infinite substance, this uh pure being?

9:49 Uh and how does uh awareness or consciousness relate to that?

9:53 Or I know happiness is a is an important characteristic or love.

9:58 Are Are these blended together?

10:00 Is consciousness and awareness a derivative of being or are

10:05 they co- coexistent and co-terminous in some ultimate sense?

10:10 They are actually one of the same because if if

10:15 consciousness was something other than pure being it wouldn't be.

10:21 So it consciousness and be pure consciousness

10:26 and pure being are one of the same thing.

10:29 Are Are Are they just different words for the

10:34 Being aware of it.

10:36 Sorry.

10:37 Are Are these just different sub Are these just

10:39 different words for the same thing or are they

10:43 two different things that are that are in some

10:47 sense in an underlying sense from the same thing?

10:52 No, they are the same they are the same thing.

10:55 And they're just two different words to describe exactly the same thing.

10:59 Yes.

11:00 We can say they're two different features of the same thing.

11:04 Two different features of the same

11:06 But But But they're not They're more than features.

11:08 They are the thing itself because the thing itself is pure being,

11:11 it is pure consciousness.

11:13 Okay.

11:13 What What What What else is it pure?

11:16 It's pure happiness.

11:19 Pure happiness.

11:20 All right.

11:21 Anything else or just three?

11:22 Pure love.

11:24 Pure love four.

11:25 So four is a magic Four is a magic number.

11:27 That Now these are We We can say other

11:29 things but that These are essential to its nature.

11:34 Okay.

11:34 And these are in a sense human terms

11:36 that we're using to describe aspects of the same thing.

11:40 Yeah.

11:40 Yeah.

11:40 Yeah.

11:40 Yeah.

11:41 Yeah.

11:42 Okay and Why?

11:44 But they all have the same level of fundamentality.

11:48 Yeah.

11:48 Yeah.

11:48 Yeah.

11:49 They're all one of the same thing.

11:52 Okay.

11:52 Um And to ask why are those characteristics as they are and you know,

12:00 I assume that's some kind of brute fact.

12:03 it is a brute fact but we can say we can say something about it.

12:06 That is um consciousness cannot be something other

12:11 than being because if consciousness were other than being,

12:14 it would be a non-existent consciousness so which would be meaningless.

12:19 So the very nature of being it knows itself just by being itself.

12:26 So it it is it um What actually exists is pure consciousness.

12:34 And then um What we call misery or dissatisfaction,

12:44 these are features of the mind.

12:47 In In waking and dream, we experience a a mixture of pleasure and pain,

12:53 happiness and unhappiness uh satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

12:57 These are all the nature of the mind.

13:00 In sleep when we are free of the mind,

13:03 we are free of all pain, all misery, all dissatisfaction.

13:10 If If we are suffering greatly,

13:13 there's nothing more attractive than sleep because

13:15 sleep we are free of all troubles.

13:17 So the very nature of being is infinite happiness.

13:25 Infinite being is infinite happiness.

13:28 And it because the infinite being is awareness it is a it

13:35 is the nature of being to love itself because it is happiness.

13:41 And um as Bhagwan said, happiness is the cause of love.

13:45 We love whatever makes us happy.

13:48 So since it is happiness, it loves itself.

13:54 And because there's nothing other than it from our perspective,

14:00 it loves everything as itself.

14:03 So when they say God is love uh God loves us as himself.

14:10 He doesn't see us as other than himself.

14:13 Because he Since he is infinite, there can't be anything other than himself.

14:17 So he loves us be- because he sees because he in his view

14:24 we are nothing other than himself and he has infinite love for himself.

14:29 So God's love is all-embracing.

14:32 How does this articulate with the philosophy of axiology which says

14:37 that the good or value or love is is fundamental reality?

14:43 It is fundamental because that that pure love is itself pure being.

14:51 It's the very nature of being to to know itself,

14:56 to love itself, and to be happy in itself.

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