The freedom to transform suffering to joy
In 1997, Sthaneshwar Timalsina was knocked unconscious and hospitalised by bricks hurled through his classroom window in Nepal. The Maoist uprising placed his life in danger several more times, and he still has the scars to show for it.
In 2019, Bernardo considered suicide when facing catastrophic tinnitus. The constant excruciating drill in his ear is grounds for legally assisted dying in the Netherlands.
In this context, the claims of Kashmir Shaivism are poignant:
Could the multiplicity and suffering we experience actually be expressions of freedom and purpose?
This philosophy inverts a Buddhist perspective that life is suffering. Instead, existence is fundamentally joy. And we can train our perspective to find meaning and fulfilment even in the unspeakable horrors of existence. This training expresses our freedom for our limited perspectives to mirror the attributes of the absolute.
According to Trika, not only is consciousness fundamental to reality, but freedom, creativity and purpose are inherent to its being.
But Bernardo is wary of claiming existence is inherently blissful - it seems an insult to those experiencing unspeakable suffering. However, he acknowledges the peace he now experiences despite the tinnitus, and the possibility that future, deeper insights await him.
Sthaneshwar meanwhile spoke to the meaning and freedom he found in response to the attacks, and the perspective that underpins them:
"We have a choice, we have a freedom: to embody particular pain and go through it, or to somehow give another telos, another purpose, to live life.
Life is full of suffering — I'm not denying that. But somehow, the freedom the subject has is to be happy.
And happiness is not just about 'ahaha' fun. Happiness is about finding meaning in the world, and doing something in the world, in spite of all that is there, in spite of the evil that is out there.
Being able to do a small thing. We can always say, what difference does it make? There's so much suffering happening in the world. But that's a different topic. The real thing is about our finite ability, within that finite ability, to do and to think.
We are able to do the right thing; we have the freedom to think correctly...
...recognising within suffering the higher telos: fulfilment, upliftment.
We can uplift others. And if not others, we can uplift ourselves to face this death."
The full recording and transcript are below, moderated by Professor Ravi S. Kudesia of Temple University.
Bernardo Kastrup and Sthaneshwar Timalsina exchanged perspectives on several fundamental questions:
- How does the world arise?
- Is it spontaneous or planned?
- Is there a purpose?
- Is consciousness inherently self-aware?
- What is illusion & what is real?
As ever, I look forward to hearing your perspective, on Ttelegram or in the comments below, and I hope you can join us next week for the session with Rupert Spira.
Members can join here.
Non-members can get a one-off ticket here.
With love!
Amir
Links:
Sthaneshwar Timalsina's upcoming book Reframing Dynamism will be available here.
You can learn more about his approach here:
Recording
Time Stamps
0:04:00 Refutations of materialism
0:10:30 How does the world arise?
0:16:00 Is creation spontaneous or planned?
0:18:50 Purpose can be instinctive, not planned
0:21:30 Is consciousness inherently self-aware?
0:22:30 Fundamental qualities: freedom, being, will
0:24:00 Multiplicity is an expression of freedom
0:26:00 Ananda/bliss really means progress & growth
0:27:00 for the Yogi, the world is the body
0:33:30 spontaneity does not need time
0:36:00 materiality is the sense of externality
0:37:00 self-awareness vs self-representation
0:42:00 arising of subject and object
0:46:00 Trika vs Advaita: consciousness is self-determined, not passive
0:49:00 what is free-will?
0:55:30 the future is determined but unknowable
0:57:00 order is an expression of freedom
1:00:00 what is illusion what is real?
1:06:00 does perception capture reality?
1:09:00 perception is reality recognising itself
1:20:00 is there an external world?
1:26:00 speaking at different levels of reality
1:29:30 the joy of being is fundamental
1:34:00 thinking is meditation
1:39:00 recognition of truth and liberation
1:42:00 transforming horror & disgust to ecstatic bliss
1:48:00 confronting unspeakable suffering
1:52:00 Bernardo's peace with suffering
1:56:00 the merits of philosophy in reducing meta-suffering
2:01:00 Sthaneshwar: happiness & freedom is finding meaning in spite of the suffering inherent in limitation.
2:10:00 The absolute itself is dialogical
