54 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 Notes [1] The word upaniṣad can mean “sitting near a teacher”, or according to Shankaracharya, “knowledge of the Self” (Sa. Ātmavidyā). Apart from the historical Upaniṣads there are also new, de facto upaniṣads – treatises on ātmavidyā recorded by disciples of Ātmajñānis – “Knowers of the Self”, like Muruganar’s works on the teachings of Ramana Mahariśi. In the text, that translation of the upaniṣads was used, which seemed to express most clearly the function of kōśas. [2] In Vasugupta (2014, 200) spanda is defined as the “throb in the motionless Śiva, which brings about the manifestation, maintenance, and withdrawal of the universe”. Thus, it seems to be the very support of breath and prāṇa also and gives an explanation why prāṇa in unmanifested form is Brahman or “It breathed airless” but working as a driving force of life when manifested. [3] This “bliss-stuff” in context with annamaya kōśa can perhaps be related to neuropeptides (Burbach 2011, 1–2) formed as a reaction of the brain to a situation proposed by vijñānamaya kōśa after ahaṁkāra identifies itself with that proposed reaction. Or it can be identified as some of the substances like opioids created in the brain (Lutz and Kieffer 2013, 195–196). [4] Cittam has many meanings: memory, memory field, mind, intelligence, desire. Here it is given the meaning “will”. [5] The term “ego” is replaced in the text by the original term ahaṁkāra, which is its original form and is thus a better term for the concept of individual consciousness. The Kā ma-kalā -vilā sa (Puṇ yā nanda et al. 1953, 13) defines ahaṁkāra as follows: “Ahaṁkāra, which excels all and is the massing together of Śiva and Śakti and the fully manifested union of the letters A [note: first letter of the ABC] and Ha [note: the last letter of the Sanskrit ABC], and which holds within itself the whole universe is Cit.” The term ego has a different general connotation than the ahaṁkāra. [6] To give a well-established concept a new name without a radical need may create misunderstanding that may hinder the comprehension of a given term. [7] Talks with Sri Ramana Mahariśi (2006, 392): “Sri Bhagavan also added: Were the vāsanās in the brain instead of in the Heart they must be extinguished if the head is cut off so that reincarnations will be at an end. But it is not so. The self [note: ahaṁkāra] obviously safeguards the vāsanās in its closest proximity, i.e., within itself in the Heart [note: Hridayam], just as a miser keeps his most valued possessions (treasure) with himself and never out of contact. Hence the place where the vāsanās are, is the self, i.e., the Heart, and not the brain (which is only the theatre for the play of the vāsanās from the greenhouse of the Heart.” [8] For questions relating the perception and working models of ahaṁkāra, Wilber (1984) gives a very interesting overview, together with modes of perceptual risks in stages of inner development.
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