Here is a message which I posted on 12 Dec 2003 on the Advaitin List at
on idealism in the Yoga Vasistha. Idealism is the controversial philosophy that 'everything is consciousness', which I espouse, and the Yoga Vasistha is a classic of Advaita. It is my opinion that the nondual traditions, such as Advaita, Mahayana Buddhism, etc. are all either explicitly or implicitly idealistic. A number of interesting excerpts from the Yoga Vasistha are included here.
Note that Ananda is a disciple of famed Advaitin Atmananda. (The 'ji' at the end of his name is a common form of respect in Hinduism.)
Benjamin
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Namaste Anandaji,
Perhaps, instead of merely theorizing about idealism, we should ask a practising idealist, like Benjamin, what his experience is, in this regard. Of course different idealists would give us different answers. But, if Benjamin is listening, I'd be interested in his take.
To be honest, I did not read this entire message carefully, as I feel the discussion is getting a bit stale. Perhaps I am being a bit unfair, but it seems to me that Michaelji is trying to milk too much out of a few ambiguous lines in the Brahma Sutras Bashya, which were disposed of so brilliantly by Sadanandaji some time ago.
Besides, a lot of the problem in this 'idealism' debate revolves around the use and misuse of terminology. That is true of philosophy in general, and it becomes tedious to have to redefine one's terms each time.
So this time, I will offer something different. Lately, I have become quite enthusiastic about the (longer) Yoga Vasistha (trans. by Swami Venkatesananda), in which I read, on page after page, an 'idealistic' view which sounds like it's taken right out of my head. This is without doubt a classic of Advaita, as attested to by Ramana, Sivananda, Chinmayananda and countless others. Let me simply present a few excerpts, all spoken by Vasistha to Lord Rama, and readers can make of it what they wish:
"I shall now declare to you the creation and its secret. For, it is only as long as one invests the perceived object with reality that bondage lasts..." (p. 41)"This same infinite self [Brahman] conceives within itself the duality of oneself and other. Thence, mind arises, as a wave arises when the surface of the calm ocean is disturbed. But please bear in mind that just as a bracelet of gold is but gold ... the qualities and nature of the created ... are inherent in the creator. The mind is non-different from ... the infinite self." (p. 41) (Advaitins are often confused about this subtle point.)
"Even as the mirage appears to be a very real river of water, this creation appears to be entirely real. And, as long as one clings to the notion of the reality of 'you' and 'I', there is no liberation." (p. 41) (That last sentence is also pure Buddhism, by the way.)
"Even as the dream objects are experienced only by the dreamer, the objects of perception are experienced by the perceiver." (p.42) (This and much else here is classic Advaita, as found in, e.g., the Vivekachudamani.)
"Surely the created (like a bracelet) is of the same substance as that of which it was created (gold). The Creator's thought being the cause of this manifold creation and the Creator himself having no physical body, the creation, too, is truly of the nature of thought, without materiality." (p.43) (This, my friends, is idealism, pure and simple. Please surrender. All resistance is futile!)
"The Creator is also of a dual nature: consciousness and thought. Consciousness is pure; thought is subject to confusion. Hence, he appears to come into being (arise), though he does not so arise ... Though all these forms [created by thought] are of the nature of pure intelligence, on account of self-forgetfulness [of their true nature as consciousness] ... they freeze into physical forms, even as goblins ... The Creator, however, is not [in his inner nature] subject to such delusion [only the Jivas imagined by the Creator] ... The materiality of the creation is like a castle in the air, an illusory projection of one's own mind - imaginary." (pp. 43-44)
"Even as empty, inert nothingness is known as space, mind is empty nothingness [and thus so are the creations of mind, namely, the Jivas and the so-called material world]." (p. 44).
Here is a nice confirmation of the Mahayana Buddhist notion of emptiness. As I have often said, this only refers to the emptiness of the external world, which is a necessary step to realizing our nature as pure consciousness. Buddhism seems to consist of a certain subset of ideas found in the Yoga Vasistha, those ideas necessary for liberation but which dispense with any kind of God-notion. Even for Advaitins, Ishwara is unreal from the nondual standpoint, as Sadanandaji has so brilliantly explained. And as a scholarly detail, the image of the castle in the air reappears in the famous Mahayana sutra known as the Lankavatara (the foundational sutra of Zen), as do many other ideas of the Yoga Vasistha, such as the following one.
"The entire universe if forever non-different from the consciousness that dwells in every atom ... the object exists in the subject. But when this notion of object is firmly rejected ... then consciousness alone exists without even an apparent or potential objectivity. When this is realized, evils like attraction and repulsion, love and hate, cease in one's heart, as also the false notion of the world, you, I, etc. Even the tendency to objectify ceases. This is freedom." (p.44)(Ananda, do you remember how I said that perceptions are only illusory and not-self when invested with a trace of objectivity? Otherwise, they are clearly nothing but consciousness in themselves, and the world to which they seem to refer is utterly non-existent.)
"The Lord can be realized only if one is firmly established in the unreality of the universe even as the blueness of the sky is unreal ... Only when the creation is known to be utterly non-existent the Lord is realized." (p.46)
Just look at how much we have seen in a few pages! I could go on and on. This work is a motherlode of nondual wisdom. And amazingly, it is written in the same clear and modern language which we find in Ramana and Nisargadatta, even though it is thousands of years old. It is simply not true that 'mystical' writings must sound like mumbo-jumbo. The true sages of ancient times had minds as clear and sharp as ours, indeed much more so. I do recommend this excellent book, which is not expensive.
Benjamin