Dreams, horror & beauty are real

Bernardo's dialogue with Sthaneshwar Timalsina was personal and revealing. It did not shy away from a deeply human response to the horror reality can contain, and how emotion doesn't always keep step with our philosophical commitments.

As such, both Sthaneshwar and Bernardo revealed their personal responses to political violence and the nightmare of evil, in moments that were both vulnerable and heart opening.

Consciousness is dynamic and understanding Time

But first, they contrasted their views with strands of Advaita Vedanta that dismiss appearances in consciousness as "unreal."

Although Bernardo acknowledged that change requires time and space, and that these are artifacts of our cognition, that doesn't mean that what is projected in time and space isn't saying something true about that which is projecting. There is something in eternity that corresponds to the notion of structure, change and purpose. For them both, consciousness is inherently dynamic.

East vs West and the Reality of Reality

I especially liked how Sthaneshwar pointed out the limitations of 'bottom up' philosophy. When you start with the fragmented perception of the senses, in the hands of great philosophers like Nāgārjuna the inevitable conclusion is that everything is dependent on everything else, and therefore 'empty'.

But he hints at another perspective: taking the absolute or the 'whole' as the starting point, and seeing time, space and dynamism as expressions of its freedom and power.

They compared Western and Eastern perspectives - blurring the lines whilst acknowledging distinct trends. Sthaneshwar pointed out how in Trika philosophy, the awakened one realises the absolute, whilst totally awaken and alive to all their senses - eyes flaming and wide open, known as Bhairava.

Beauty, rapture and transcending emotion

He spoke movingly about how our raw emotions, love, humour, grief and compassion, can connect us to the absolute.

"When there is the self-experience of Shiva, (consciousness) he cannot transcend his subjectivity beyond Shakti. Shakti's self experience is Shiva. They interpenetrate to the extreme that in their love they are absolutely merged within each other."

In this way, the pure raw emotion of grief, love or even anger can be transformed into aesthetic experience. If we are deprived of worldly experiences we cannot have aesthetic experience, and the emotions become conduits to the ultimate. This is the gift of the body.

The Reality of Dreams (& Nightmares)

Advaita and Buddhism often used dreams as a teaching device, pointing to the unreality of everything we experience. In a dream we feel hunger, pain, fear, love. We experience colours, shapes, sounds and smells. When we wake we can see it was all just imagined - not real. So consider all of reality the same.

In contrast, Trika philosophy takes all experience, including dreams, to contain their own reality. There is a reason people in the West see aliens and people in Nepal and India see ghosts. These visions say something real about the consciousness experiencing them. They have causal power, influencing our decisions and perspectives.

The problem of religion the last 3000 years

Sthaneshwar shared a critique of the last few millennia of religion, and their sales pitch to relieve suffering, indicating there is something wrong with reality and spirituality is the cure.

In contrast, the Trika perspective is that the world is not a problem, and philosophies are not the solution. The anticipation of eternity and absolute freedom within the finite is an over-reach of the spiritual industry. The problem-solving factory simply creates more problems. In contrast, realisation would be preferable - correcting misconceptions, and even deconditioning.

As such, the body, as well as sensual pleasures are reconciled with the absolute. Equally, in Bernardo's model in which the Body is the appearance of mental activity, there is no issue with enjoying good food, sexuality, the pleasure of swimming...

And more

Much more was discussed, in the poetic and energetic way both these speakers share.

I hope you enjoy, and I look forward to any thoughts shared in the comments below :)

Amir

Time Stamps

Courtesy of Rita Conde

00:01:00 - Presenting today’s guest
00:03:40 - Shiva: Universal consciousness in Classical Tantra
00:04:54 - Reflexive self-awareness
00:06:37 - The Creative Surge: Assuming space and time within itself
00:07:19 - The World as the actualization of Freedom
00:08:28 - The world as the orgasmic expression of the absolute
00:09:00 - How Kashmiri Shaivism was marginalised in India
00:10:30 - DYNAMISM: Time and space as artifacts of our cognition
00:12:20 - Projections of the eternal reveal something about the eternal
00:13:52 - Analytical Idealism acknowledges dynamism
00:14:46 - Time = Freedom in Kashmiri Shaivism
00:16:24 - Different cultures on time; Advaita, Trika, etc
00:22:00 - The Western Path vs Eastern Path
00:24:54 - Dissolution vs dilution of the Ego
00:29:44 - The meaning of mandalas:
00:31:04 - Being awake to the absolute and completely present in the world
00:32:14 - Empedocles, Spinoza, and Meister Eckhart: east or west?
00:33:00 - Categories as concessions to labels
00:34:30 - Aesthetic rapture and the ultimate awakening
00:37:00 - The mirror of the manifest reflects the absolute
00:39:29 - Transcending raw emotions; humour, grief, love
00:42:40 - Bodily experiences are necessary for aesthetic experiences
00:44:08 - Total oneness and absolute singularity
00:45:45 - Bernardo nightmare: erasing dichotomies
00:50:00 - Advaita's use of dreams as a metaphor to reject reality
00:51:48 - There is nothing unreal: even hallucinations point to something
00:52:32 - Consciousness cannot exceed itself
00:55:20 - Parmenides: All experience is real vs Shankara: Only permanent is real
00:56:40 - Limits of conceptual analysis bereft of emotions
00:57:54 - Is Evil a Necessity?
00:59:14 - Taking your ideas to their last consequences
01:00:23 - Spirituality is as much hell as paradise
01:01:24 - Good and evil
01:07:11 - Political incidents in Nepal
01:10:00 - The moral justification for evil
01:10:10 - Is reality suffering or bliss?
01:15:20 - Critique of religions as a problem-solving method
01:17:40 - Reconciling spirituality and the body
01:24:40 - The Cosmic Itch to know itself
01:27:00 - The blessing and curse of being everything
01:29:30 - If every cell is sentient, every action is murder
01:30:20 - Comparison between Kaulas (“families” ) and modern corporations
01:31:10 - Consciousness transcending itself

Video #1 Intro to Kashmiri Shaivism

The first 20 minutes we had Sthaneshwar give some conceptual and historical overview of Kashmiri Shaivism, or Trika philosophy:

Video #2 Bernardo | Sthaneshwar dialogue