Aziz Kristof (anadi), The Human Buddha: Enlightenment for the New Millenium (Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000)

The editor makes the following clarification:

   “A reader who is familiar with the teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj should be aware that anadi gives different meanings to terms like ‘beingness’ or ‘I Am.’ The translators of Maharaj were using both these terms as synonyms for ‘consciousness’ or ‘sense of existing.’ For anadi, I Am is more than consciousness as it includes the quality of being and heart. From the other side, beingness (being) is beyond consciousness and represents the energy of rest, that which gravitates towards the absolute. The absolute represents the very ground of beingness, where the manifested reality is transcended. The recognition of the absolute, which was not elaborated by Maharaj, signifies the meeting of consciousness with beingness. Because of this meeting, the absolute state, though beyond consciousness, can become consciously recognised.” (p. xiii-xiv)

   anadi himself states:

   “To say that the absolute is unconsciousness is incorrect, for the absolute exists beyond the polarities of consciousness and unconsciousness. The term unconsciousness simply does not apply here. The unmanifested is below consciousness; it is a domain of pure isness which ‘no one’ is conscious of...Realisation of the absolute is quite fascinating, for it is a meeting of the time dimension with the timeless. Here, paradoxically, consciousness is conscious of non-consciousness; consciousness becomes conscious of its own absence. That which is beyond recognition, becomes recognised. Consciousness meets face to face that which originally gave birth to its existence. Otherwise, if there is no consciousness, the absolute alone reigns and no one can recognise it; it is like in deep dreamless sleep.” (p. 189)

   [Comment: The difference between the sense of 'no-mind' in the absolute state and in the state of presence, says anadi, is immense. Yet it is rarely distinguished by teachers of 'presence-awareness'. The absolute is the unborn, fundamental ground of creation. The conscious realisation of the absolute is what Maharaj meant by the the absolute state. This is what he pointed to but never fully elaborated. When he spoke of being 'beyond consciousness,' he usually meant the state of presence or consciousness itself. He was contrasting this, consciousness without self-reference, with normal egoic-awareness or self-consciousness, and exhorting his listeners to go beyond that by keeping the 'feeling' of I Am, similar to Ramana Maharshi's 'I'-thought, in awareness as often as possible, until dualistic perception gradually faded out. He was, therefore, teaching conscious presence most of the time. Whenever he mentioned the absolute state, however, he was teaching about consciousness meeting its absence while remaining conscious. It is confusing, because one can get the idea that there is some thing 'beyond consciousness.' But there is not really anything 'beyond' consciousness. Yet consciousness can meet its absence consciously; this is a deeper experience than the state of conscious awareness or presence. anadi calls it extreme, and not the destiny for most souls. He refers to its deepest depths by a Zen term, the 'Diamond Mountain.' Nisargadatta called his realization 'rock solid,' 'a solid mass of consciousness.' This could be interpreted in different ways, but the absolute state is of the beyond. It requires grace, and is usually experienced in deep meditation. The difference between the state of presence-awareness and the absolute state is the difference between what Paul Brunton would call realization of the 'void-mind' of the Overself and realizing the uttermost depths of the Void-Mind itself. In short, it is a deeper realization, for something about which all such qualifiers are but pointers.

   The dimension of the awakened heart is also a portal to the beyond, to the divine dimension, which also requires grace. The absolute and the divine together make up what anadi calls the ultimate, the universal I AM, from within which the awakened soul finally knows itself in truth. This is an aspect of anadi's teaching that goes beyond what Maharaj taught].

   [For the reader of my works, the explanation of the absolute state given here may offer an answer to the question, “what is ‘beyond consciousness’ ?”, raised in the essay, The Primordial Ground].

   Back to synopsis and analysis of anadi's teaching in Dual Non-Dualism.