Ripples Book Summary
Note: This summary is made up of my notes, thoughts and highlights of important passages while reading the book. I keep updating the summary when I revisit it, and occasionally may edit it to reduce summary length. Don’t be surprised if it has changed between visits. The author’s words are in normal font, while my interpretations are in italics.
Unicity and the Duality of Noumenon and Phenomena
Noumenon and phenomena, potential energy and activized energy, thought and action are essentially one in Unicity and are only known in phenomenality.
The ocean remains the same whether or not there are waves on the surface.
Energy when it wants to see itself in action activates its potentiality into the actuality of phenomenal life, but essentially they are not two. It remains only energy whether potential or activated.
Unmanifest noumenon in a burst of love energy becomes the phenomenal manifestation – life and living as we know it – but essentially there exists only Unicity.
Even to say that noumenon and phenomena, Nirvana and samsara, are one would be to acknowledge their duality. The truth is that they are both merely two aspects of the basic Unicity expressed in duality in order that this basic Unicity might be understood.
The miracle of the maya is that the One unmanifest appears as the multifaceted phenomena and yet the original Unicity remains unbroken.
Consciousness not aware of itself suddenly becomes aware of itself, and in that instant the entire universe with its infinite variety is born.
Noumenon and phenomena – unmanifest and manifest – are in essence One, which has divided itself in a mirage in order to enjoy this duality as life and living.
Homage to the Guru – The Guru-Disciple Relationship
It is the same absolute Principle, the formless attributeless Principle (which takes the shape of the manifested universe), that transforms itself into the Guru.
It does so out of infinite compassion to end the misery of the seeker who is seeking freedom from the bondage that has been created out of his own ignorance through identification with the body.
It is through the Guru that a mirror is provided in which the seeker can see his true beingness.
It is only until he meets his Guru that the seeker continues to see the world as something different from himself.
Having turned the disciple into his own likeness, the Guru no longer considers himself the Guru as distinct from the disciple, but from the point of view of the disciple, the relationship continues to exist till the end of life.
It is in the basic illusion of the phenomenal manifestation that the Guru acquires the role of the Guru in relation to the disciple;
The Bondage of Knowledge
When the intellectual understanding dawns that one is not this body, the darkness of ignorance is over.
This duality of ignorance and knowledge is still based on the individuality of the seeking “me ”.
When in ignorance, the individual seeker identifies himself with the body.
The seeking must begin with the individual seeking enlightenment, but actually enlightenment cannot happen unless the individual gets annihilated and seeking stops altogether.
Ignorance may seem to disappear, but it remains in the form of an individual with knowledge.
When ignorance is present, it gives the wrong perspective, but ignorance remains even in the form of the knowledge that gives another, more accurate perspective.
In Unicity there is no room for “bondage ”; how can there be any room for “liberation ” except in the mind of the individual seeker?
Conceptual knowledge may appear valuable, but it is the interrelated opposite of conceptual ignorance and, as such, is not constant.
Ignorance is like the transitoriness of the sleep state on the original waking state – what prevails is the pure knowledge irrespective of the temporary encroaching of ignorance.
Knowledge is like the impersonal Consciousness upon which the manifestation appears, while ignorance is the identification of the impersonal Consciousness with each individual sentient being.
It is only in relation to the earth that the moon has phases; otherwise it is always whole. The sun, depending on nothing else for its light, is not concerned with light and darkness. Similarly, the state of pure knowledge is such that it is not affected by the apparent duality of knowledge and ignorance.
Pure knowledge cannot be aware of itself – can the eye see itself? Pure knowledge cannot be an object to be experienced.
Nothingness cannot know nothingness – there must be necessarily something else to be conscious of that nothingness.
The Absolute – the noumenon – cannot be an object either to itself or to anyone else. This is the very essence of its beingness.
The objective void is the subjective fullness. The objective nothingness is the subjective fullness.
The disappearance of the activized energy can be only into its original potentiality.
If a black man (wearing black clothes) is in a pitchdark room, he cannot be seen by anyone nor can he see himself, but, all the same, he is conscious of his presence. Thus it is that “That-which-is ” is beyond phenomenal presence and absence, both of which are conceptual manifestations.
Sat-Chit-Ananda
Sat (Being), chit (consciousness) and ananda (bliss) are the three conceptual attributes of the Absolute, but they are not to be considered separately.
The sat-chit-ananda of the Absolute state is a relative concept – sat is formless (Nirguna), and chit is maya, and the combination in manifestation result in ananda.
On the sat (Consciousness-at-rest not aware of itself) spontaneously arises the chit, the movement I AM, and Consciousness becomes conscious of itself; and in the meeting of the two – in the realization of the unity between the manifest and the unmanifest – arises ananda or bliss.
When through the grace of the Guru the appellation is seen in this light, then the three terms sat, chit and ananda, having served their purpose of pointing the sentient being toward his true nature, withdraw and lapse into silence.
All disciplines, paths, experiences are equally useless. Everything becomes irrelevant and redundant as soon as there is realization that the manifest and the unmanifest, the sentient world and the Absolute, are both what we are – that is to say, what we are is Consciousness, one aspect of which is movement, and the other, stillness and repose.
The Inadequacy of Thought-Word
Thought-word (word is vocalized thought) can be useful only so long as the duality of bondage and liberation, ignorance and knowledge, persists.
The word is useful only for the purpose of reminding us of something we have forgotten.
Because of the word, sound assumes fuller meaning in communication.
It is indeed a mirror to the unmanifest in that the word is capable of indicating or pointing to the nature of that which is sensorially not perceptible.
The word is capable of enabling even one who is blind to see his real self.
Even the indescribable Absolute is brought within the grasp of the mind by influence of the word,
It is also the word that brings into existence the concept of bondage and liberation.
It is the word, through conceptualizing, which has placed the conceptual individual, identifying himself with the body, into conceptual bondage.
It is the word through the Guru’s thinking that is capable of pointing to the Truth.
The word – conceptualizing – is relevant and useful only as a reminder.
In the state of non-conceptuality, the word itself is the cause of bondage!
The question of remembering or forgetting has relevance only in the case of an object in phenomenal relativity.
The Absolute presence can never forget itself, and the term “remembering ” is irrelevant; the sun never knows the night, so there is no question as to whether the sun knows the days!
It would be equally foolish to say that the thought-word destroys ignorance and reveals the truth. Ignorance does not really exist and therefore needs no word to destroy it.
What you are seeking is what you already are.
“Ego ”, “Will ” and “Mind ” are synonymous terms.
No action other than a clear apprehension of the truth is necessary
The total absence of ego and volition means, in effect, freedom and spontaneity of action, acceptance of whatever comes one’s way.
All words are expressed thought, expressed cognition, which means only conceptualizing in duality of subject/object through the relativity of interdependent opposites like knowledge and ignorance.
The apperception of noumenal truth can neither be conceptualized nor expressed in vocalized word
All concept and thought can only be dual in nature.
Awakening can only happen spontaneously – when the conceptual, illusory individual is totally absent
It can only happen in the deepest abyss of negation, in the total absolute absence of both positive and negative Consciousness.
Awakening cannot happen to an individual “you ” or “me ”.
The Basic Teaching
The basic perennial principle behind all religions (before they were corrupted by interpretations and formal rituals) was the same: the existence of a Reality (by whatever name called – Reality, Totality, Consciousness, God)
The reality, which the first humans must have experienced, is the awareness of BEING – I AM – before any thought could have occurred.
This reality – I AM – got clouded through subsequent thinking based on the feeling the feeling of personal identity.
This perennial Reality is still necessarily available as an impersonal experience for any human being if there exists a certain mentality, a certain taste for utter simplicity and humility, an inclination towards silence and self-effacement.
This experience cannot happen when there exists a definite inclination towards a kind of life dictated by social convention and supremely devoted to the pursuit of temporal satisfactions.
The presence or absence of the sense of personal doership and achievement would thus seem to be the dividing line between the happening of the impersonal experience of Reality and its not happening.
What is the one single basis of the perennial principle? It is this: all there is is Consciousness – impersonal Consciousness expressed in the awareness ‘I AM’ – other than which, nothing exists.
Impersonal Consciousness is immanent in every single object in the universe. Consciousness thus exists in all objects both sentient and insentient.
While Consciousness merely exists in the insentient objects, it is through the sentient objects that Consciousness functions.
It is Consciousness which is the functioning principle in all human beings. You might quite easily substitute “God” for “Consciousness”.
If Consciousness (or God) is all that exists and functions through human beings, how can there ever arise the question of “personal” achievement for any human being?
Is it God’s Will, or is it your will, that must prevail?! It is this basic principle on which must rest all spiritual quest: Consciousness is all there is – other than Consciousness, nothing is.
The total acceptance of the perennial principle – the total acceptance of What Is at any present moment – brings about a tremendous sense of total freedom.
If I totally accept that it is Consciousness which functions through each and every physical organism, I cannot get rid of the actual feeling of being a separate individual with my own life to live.
Consciousness which functions through my body, how do I live my life? How do I make decisions which I must make every day? The answer is, in a way, simple. You act as if you are playing a role in the drama of life and living.
You make decisions as and when you have to make them, as if you have the volition to make such decisions – with the deepest conviction that Consciousness has already made those decisions along with their consequences.
The man of understanding does not shirk making decisions.
He thus makes his decision diligently, weighing the various alternatives, but knowing that it is Consciousness (or God) who is the actual functioning element, he does not have a feeling either of pride (if the action is successful) or feeling of failure or guilt (if the action turns out to be unsuccessful).
In other words, he lives in the present moment; he does not live for that which is always out of reach, he does not live in servitude, thirsting for survival in the future, because he is convinced the future is not in his hands.
In the absence of a personal sense of doership the man of understanding does not engage in a self conscious and deliberate campaign to “do his duty” with the intention of acquiring happiness.
The whole concept of happiness and unhappiness is based on the world of objects and is thus in effect quite illusory and transitory.
This would also be true for more refined concepts like “justice and injustice”, “good and evil” or “right or wrong”.
As Lao Tzu has put it, “When the world recognizes good as good, it has already become evil.” The more one becomes entangled in the means to be used to attain the good and virtuous, the more remote, complex and difficult the search becomes – and the end is forgotten.
The understanding that Consciousness (or God) is in charge of functioning of the universe brings with it the simple good and simple virtue with which one is endowed by the very fact of being conscious – I AM.
“I am” is reality. “I am so-and-so” is false, which brings with it the delusion of a sense of personal doership.
With this “Trust in God”, grows quietly the humility and simplicity of ordinary life of faith, which is a matter of seeing the good as it exists – the What Is – rather than as something to be achieved through one’s own effort.
There are events and deeds but no individual doer thereof, as Buddha has put it.
If there is no individual doer – and all actions are part of the functioning of Totality (or God’s actions) – then my actions are not my own.
The actions of someone else are not his or her either. And therefore how can I consider anyone my enemy?
With this basic understanding arises, naturally and spontaneously, humility, love and compassion. These are not virtues to be deliberately acquired – they cannot be acquired by personal effort. There are gift from God that comes as a result of this simple, basic understanding.
The man of understanding is not really the man who has “by a lifetime of study and practice accumulated a great fund of virtue and merit”, but the man in whom nature acts without the impediment of personal effort and vanity.
A contemplative life of meditation and interior awareness would make the seeker as much obsessed with his self-improvement as would a life of active effort and achievement.
The true tranquility can only arise when there is the deepest conviction that there cannot be any self-will – that it is only God’s will that must prevail all the time everywhere – and therefore the only thing to “do” is accept What Is, without wanting to change it and without wanting to become what one is not.
The action of the man of understanding is not inaction but non-action from the personal point of view.
The understanding itself becomes this non-action which transcends the distinction between action and inaction, the distinction between activity and contemplation or meditation.
It is the understanding itself that brings about the union with the impersonal Consciousness or Totality or God.
The proof of the arrival of understanding is an essential humility … one might say ‘ontological’ or ‘cosmic’ humility of the man who fully realizes his own nothingness and becomes totally forgetful of himself, ‘like a dry tree stump… like dead ashes’.
This humility is so full of life and zest that it responds actively to the joys and sorrows of all living beings that are in the vicinity. The basic humility is not different from the basic understanding that always translates itself smoothly and spontaneously into action that is non-action.
The continuous search and effort for happiness, whether based on abstract concepts or specific objects, result in frustration.
The basic teaching, therefore, suggests that true happiness – peace – cannot be found until you stop looking for it. The happiness and peace sought after so avidly can arrive only when one is content with What-is, only by non-seeking and non-action (or natural, spontaneous action).
Non-action or natural spontaneous action – is by no means inertia or quietism or fatalism. It is not mere passivity.
Non-action being both effortless and spontaneous, is in perfect accordance with our nature and with our place in the universal scheme of things. It is therefore free from force and violence, and, for that very reason is extraordinarily effective.
One of the fundamental elements of the perennial principle or the basic teaching is the total acceptance of the complementarity of opposites. Life is not a static phenomenon; living means being in a continous state of flux and change.
This does not mean that the man of understanding remains indifferent to the polaric opposites and treats right and wrong, proper and improper as identical. On the contrary, he realizes that they are basically different, but he refuses to cling to one limited and conditioned aspect of any matter.
He realizes that opposites are different but not irreconcilable and therefore accepts the complementarity of opposites. He retains his perspective and witnesses the alternating way of opposites as a part of life and living: happiness when pursued to an extreme becomes misery; effort when pursued to an extreme becomes frustration.
The perennial principle or the basic teaching is based on the dynamism of nature: the right action transcends self-conscious personal motives. “When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten”.
The knowledge of the basic teaching cannot be imparted if there is absence of receptivity to it. The basic teaching cannot be communicated. It will communicate itself in its own mysterious way at the right moment.
The basic teaching does not include any abstract theory of “universal love”. This is because LOVE is not something apart from the Understanding. The oft preached “universal love” is based on the premise that the individual must find his own happiness in caring for the common good of all. This makes an inordinate demand on the human nature that when pursued to an extreme it will only lead to a very deep frustration. Love and compassion are something natural to man when he is not conditioned by self-motive. When pursued through a constructed system that ignores the fundamental realities, such pursuit must inevitably turn love into hate.
The final Understanding is that Love is all there is.
Read More Like This
- The Bhagvad Gita: A Selection by Ramesh Balsekar
- Dhammapada – Translated by Max Müller
- The Way of Chuang Tzu – Translation by Thomas Merton
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