CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT

THE POWER OF NONDUALITY

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO

THE FACULTY OF THE MERU SEMINARY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

OF

MASTER OF DIVINITY

BY

Will Hagerbaumer

Approved by the
Meru Seminary Dean

__________________________________

Approved by the
Meru Seminary Provost

__________________________________

Approved by the
Meru Seminary President

__________________________________

SAN JOSÉ, CALIFORNIA

JUNE 2013
Copyright ©2013 Will Hagerbaumer

All rights reserved

ii
 ABSTRACT

Drawing on the teachings of Kriya Yoga as taught at the Center for Spiritual
Enlightenment, this thesis claims that the nondual nature of reality becomes a
certainty when consciousness is realized as binding the unique and temporal into
one fully interconnected and inseparable transcendent whole that includes
consciousness itself. It further claims that our identity is that of the whole.

Counter claims such as: We are completely separate from the whole; we are part
of the whole, but not identical to the whole; we are unworthy of being the whole;
and we do not have the power of the whole at our disposal, arise only at reduced
states of awareness.

The many practices of Kriya Yoga expand our awareness of consciousness to the
level of nonduality in which we realize our true identity as the transcendent
whole, the source and substance of all that is. We come to know that by serving
the whole, we serve ourselves. All we desire, including peace, truth, prosperity,
love, and joy, is already ours. It lies, even now within us, just waiting for us to
expand our awareness that we may experience it fully.

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 EPIGRAPH

Meditate on the Self.

One without two,

Exalted awareness.

Give up the illusion

Of the separate self.

Give up the feeling,

Within or without,

That you are this or that.

—Byron, 1990

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 CONTENTS

ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER 1: NONDUALITY ............................................................................... 1
Alignment with CSE Vision and Mission ...........................................................5
Nonduality as Change in the World................................................................. ....6
Objectives and Overview.....................................................................................6
CHAPTER 2: KRIYA YOGA TRADITION ......................................................... 8
Spiritual and Metaphysical Principles of Nonduality ........................................ 8
Relationship of Nonduality to Kriya Yoga Tradition ........................................ 9
CHAPTER 3: THE INSPIRATION OF NONDUALITY .................................... 11
CHAPTER 4: IN DEPTH VIEW OF NONDUALITY ........................................ 17
Uniqueness ........................................................................................................ 17
Identity .............................................................................................................. 18
Truth as Existence ............................................................................................. 19
One Truth .......................................................................................................... 22
Movie Reel Analogy ......................................................................................... 27
Power of Oneness ............................................................................................. 30
CHAPTER 5: PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF NONDUALITY ........................ 32
Concepts of the Philosophies of India .............................................................. 33
CSE Lineage ..................................................................................................... 34
Other Sources of Yoga Teachings and Teachers .............................................. 36
Other Teachings of Oneness ............................................................................. 36
CHAPTER 6: THE KRIYA YOGA PATH TO REALIZING ONENESS .......... 38
CHAPTER 7: LESSONS LEARNED, OBSTACLES OVERCOME .................. 41
Potential Impact on CSE Ministry and Community ......................................... 42
Implications of Realizing Nonduality for Ministers ......................................... 43
CHAPTER 8: FURTHER DEVELOPMENT ...................................................... 44
APPENDIX A: ELEMENTARY CONCEPTS OF SET THEORY ..................... 46
APPENDIX B: MANY WORLDS ....................................................................... 48
REFERENCE LIST

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have awakened each morning to fresh inspiration from the One reality.

Much of this inspiration has found its way into this thesis. In addition, this reality

has been present throughout my life in all I have experienced, in all the lessons I

have been taught, in every teacher, and in every teaching whether in philosophy,

science, mathematics, logic, or literature.

I have sought my whole life for teachings I could question and doubt to

my heart’s content and at the end of the day know that I am satisfied with what I

am being taught. The guru lineage of Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami

Sri Yukteshwar, Paramahansa Yogananda, Roy Eugene Davis and especially my

guru Umaji, Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, have made such teachings

available to me. Without the ministers, staff, and community of CSE, these

teachings would never have reached my ears.

The Provost of Meru Seminary, Reverend Sundari Jensen, and its Dean,

Reverend Pat Kirti Hall, have handled with grace, skill and love my urges to

forego the growth that I had to attain to remain in seminary. Each Seminary

teacher has left traces of their teachings on me.

My seminary sisters, Sri, Gena, Jodie and Tina have travelled this path

with me. I have enjoyed their companionship and their individual uniqueness.

My successive wives, Nancy, Karen, and Janice have each currently

supported this task. I am thankful for their alignment with the aims of this thesis.

Janice, in particular, has given much of her time to listening to my fresh

revelations and helping me clarify my thoughts. My daughter Katharine has

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patiently listened to my thoughts on consciousness for almost twenty three years

on walk after walk after walk. Without her, this thesis would not exist. My older

children Rick and Sharon also have helped me immensely in coming to know who

I am. Blessed am I to have such intelligent, loving children.

I am deeply indebted as well to Michael Nagler without whose teachings

on consciousness and devotion to nonviolence, I would not have come to know

the power of understanding consciousness as the path to peace. Without him, I

would never have come to know my true identity.

My deep gratitude to my daughter Katharine, my seminary sister Sri, my

thesis advisors Ann Bhakti Fisher and Reverend Pat Kirti Hall, and my editor

Parthenia Kavita Hicks for supporting me in writing this thesis and contributing

their editing skills to give this thesis its cogency, flow, and artistry in appearance.

I love you all, especially you the current reader. May reading this thesis be

a blessing to you on your own journey.

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 PREFACE

One path only is left for us to speak, namely, that It is.

In it are very many tokens that what-is
is uncreated and indestructible, alone, complete, immovable and without end.
Nor was it ever, nor will it be; for now it is, all at once, a continuous one.
For what kind of origin for it will you look?
In what way and from what source could it have drawn its increase?
I shall not let thee say nor think that it came from what is not.
It can neither be thought nor uttered that what is not, is.
—Parmenides of Elea

Aum. We live in illusions of the senses. One such illusion is that of

movement. Some centuries after Aesop, in order to demonstrate that movement is

an illusion, a brilliant philosopher, Zeno, devised a number of proofs toward this

end. In one, he showed that if a tortoise were given a head start, no matter how

much faster the hare, the tortoise would never be caught, much less overtaken,

even if the hare plugged on at full speed and never took a nap. While this can be

shown to be true for any ratio of relative speeds and length of head start, let us

avoid complex mathematics and simply demonstrate the absurdity that movement

could be other than an illusion.

Assume the hare is twice as fast as the tortoise and the tortoise is given a

lead of half the distance to the goal. In the first interval, the hare travels half way

to the goal, reaching the place the tortoise had been at the beginning of the race.

However, in the same interval, the tortoise has also covered half its remaining

distance to the goal. This gives the tortoise the same relative head start for the

next interval, in which the hare and the tortoise each go half their respective

remaining distances to the goal. Interval after interval, the length of each

successive interval reduces by half. Ultimately, intervals become infinitesimally

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small. Yet at the end of each interval, the tortoise is halfway closer to the goal

than the hare. Neither animal ever finishes the race no matter how short the

original distance to the goal. Therefore motion is logically impossible. Are we to

trust our senses or our intellect? Parmenides and his student, Zeno, chose the

intellect.

Many others have been unable to accept that their senses have been

“deceived.” The senses say there are no gaps in reality. They contend that when

they see a ball roll from A to B, it is the same ball at B that it was at A, that the

ball has occupied every position between A and B, and that there are no gaps

between A and B in which the ball would not exist.

Over the centuries, mathematicians have resorted to obtuse tricks in which

they mathematically place infinitesimal gaps into reality that they hope we do not

see (or that they specify we are to ignore because these gaps are too small to

worry about.) Such mathematical tricks necessarily continue to be developed to

this day as the errors in previous attempts come to light. For far too many, Zeno’s

proof has been thoroughly discredited.

One way to understand Zeno’s proof is to say that what appears as a ball

rolling is actually a sequence of different motionless balls, which successively are

available to view at positions along the trajectory of the perceived ball’s motion.

Then, motion is disappearance of one thing at one location and appearance of

another very similar thing at another location, much like teleportation. Attachment

to anything perceived by the senses such as the ball at A is therefore impossible. It

no longer exists to view. Science in the late nineteenth century has begun to

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reveal that reality is indeed discrete and not continuous. Particles have been

observed to disappear at one location and similar new particles appear at a

different location that could not be reached by continuous movement. These are

known as quantum effects and prediction of the new location is probabilistic

rather than predetermined.

If hares, tortoises, balls, and particles disappear and similar new ones

appear, what binds our experience of life into a seemingly continuous experience?

Like the sages of ancient Greece and India, scientists are beginning to assign that

role to nondual consciousness. What is meant by nondual consciousness? I have

chosen the teachings and practice of Kriya Yoga as taught at the Center for

Spiritual Enlightenment by my teacher Yogacharya O’Brian to explore this

question. Others may choose Zen or other mystic traditions. The truth is one. All

who pursue it will ultimately arrive at the same truth, whether philosopher,

scientist or mystic.

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 CHAPTER 1

NONDUALITY

Vanished are the veils of light and shade,

Lifted the vapors of sorrow,
Sailed away the dawn of fleeting joy,
Gone the mirage of the senses.
Love, hate, health, disease, life and death -
Departed, these false shadows on the screen
of duality.

—Paramahansa Yogananda, from the poem, “Samadhi”

The whole is all that is, with nothing left out. The whole is made up of two

timeless principles: consciousness, Purusha, and the objects of consciousness,

Prakriti. The objects of consciousness are an unbounded number of unique

unchanging, unmoving entities. Although consciousness can be brought to focus

sequentially on certain entities, creating the illusion of time and motion,

consciousness itself never changes. Nonduality, Advaita, or oneness as used in

this thesis, says that the whole is but one unchanging identity. If the whole could

change, there would be at least two instances of the whole, each itself being the

whole with nothing left out. This, of course, is absurd. Nonduality explains the

appearance of change as the misidentification of two similar entities as being one

and the same entity.

To make sense of nonduality, we must inquire, “What is the nature of that

which creates the illusion of change?" It must be that which, of itself, does not

change and yet is capable of experiencing change. It must be the subject for which

all else but itself is object. Although known by other names, we can call this

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subject consciousness. There can only be one overarching consciousness: the

nondual consciousness of the whole. For how can one consciousness be conscious

of the objects of another consciousness unless they are both aspects of the

consciousness of the one whole?

In ancient India, people bound two oxen together with a yoke so that the

two would serve as one. Yoke or yoga then became a symbol for unifying or

binding together many things into one just as, the English word, union does. With

the revelation of nonduality, yoga came to be the goal, practice and name for a

path to spiritual enlightenment in which nonduality is realized.

As the union/yoga of all objects is itself a composite object, the whole

consists of the union/yoga of the one subject, Purusha, and that single composite

object, Prakriti. The whole, Brahman, is fully interdependent and completely

inseparable. As no contradictions lie in the whole, all contradictions must be

misperceptions of the whole.

When I first began learning the philosophy of yoga, the question that kept

arising for me was: How could all of the unique time-varying beings, things,

thoughts, emotions, dreams, and memories be said to be one unchanging whole?

Drawing on both recent scientific findings and the nondual teachings of Kriya

Yoga, this thesis examines how all the unique entities of our experience coexist

with their union as one unchanging whole. In addition, it looks at the

empowerment this knowledge provides us in all our relationships.

We find an early reference to nonduality in Chapter 6 of the Chandogya

Upanishad (Easwaren 2007, 131-139) in which Uddalaka repeatedly assures his

2
son, “There is nothing that does not come from it. Of everything it is the

innermost self. It is the truth; it is the self supreme. You are that, Shvetaketu, you

are that.”

The teaching of nonduality continues to this day. The founder of both the

Center for Spiritual Enlightenment and Meru Seminary, Yogacharya O’Brian, is a

teacher in the Kriya Yoga lineage of Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami

Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda and Roy Eugene Davis, who teaches

nonduality as the four principles of the Eternal Way (Sanatana Dharma): “It is, we

are it, we forget, we remember.” (O'Brian 2002, 13) This teaching is expanded by

the teaching we each sometimes, even frequently, identify our “self” as an

individuated aspect of the whole that is shrouded in veils of ignorance regarding

our true nature of being whole, of being all that is. (O'Brian 2002, 62)

Realization is having something become real for us. It is experience that is

understood and it is understanding that is experienced. Nondual realization

requires both the experience and the understanding of our self as being the whole,

the “that” of Uddalaka and the “it” of O’Brian.

A helpful metaphor that points to this realization is that of a movie-goer

who becomes immersed in the illusion of continuous motion on a movie screen.

The movie is in fact composed of still frames that are sequentially illuminated and

projected on a blank screen. Immersed in the story of the movie, the movie-goer is

usually only aware of being in ordinary consciousness in which one believes self

to be a physical/mental rather than a spiritual being. However the moviegoer can

sometimes be aware that it is consciousness that is observing the movie.

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Consciousness at this level of awareness is called witness consciousness. Witness

consciousness is consistent with realizing the self as spirit, yet retaining the

illusion of self and “others” as individuations of spirit.

When the mind is clear, free from believing in the possibility of

attachment, there is an even greater awareness. This one is not an illusion. This

awareness is that the consciousness that turns the projection of the still frames

into the story of the movie is the same for everyone in the theater although they

may, because of the nature of the mind, perceive the movie quite differently. The

consciousness encountered at this level of awareness is ever-present nondual

consciousness. When we are aware of nondual consciousness we realize our self

as the whole. We see our self in all beings and all beings in us. There is no sense

of separation. There is just the whole. And, we are it. This is the “I am” that all

are.

The practices of Kriya Yoga represent a path to being awake to living in

nondual consciousness. Realization of nondual consciousness is best achieved in

stillness, yet it is always accessible and can be retained by intention outside

stillness once realized.

We often hear claims that are contrary to: “You are the whole.” For

example, “I am completely separate from the whole.” “I am a part of the whole,

but not identical to the whole.” “I am unworthy of being the whole.” “I do not

have the power of the whole at my disposal.”

All claims to the contrary of "you are the whole" arise at a reduced level of

awareness of consciousness. At reduced levels of awareness, consciousness is not

4
recognized as binding the unique into one fully interconnected and inseparable

unchanging whole that contains consciousness itself.

In reduced awareness, certain unique and seemingly lasting aspects of the

whole are experienced as the same entity going through change whereas it is only

consciousness sequentially lighting similar, but not identical, frames on the never

changing reel of the one whole. It is as if we see dynamic life passing before our

eyes rather than our dynamic consciousness following a path through stationary

life.

Alignment with CSE Vision & Mission

CSE Vision: “Individual and planetary awakening to the One Truth known

by many names.” (CSE Directors 2003)

CSE Mission: “We are dedicated to spiritual awakening by fostering an

oasis of peace in the community, the world, and in the hearts of individuals.”

(CSE Directors 2003)

Nonduality says the whole truth of all that is, is but one. The aim of this

thesis is to aid the awakening soul in recognizing the nondual nature of all

existence when that is experienced in nondual consciousness. When fully

awakened to oneness, there is peace in the heart that radiates into the community

and the world.

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 Nonduality as Change in the World

“Realizing” nonduality clarifies all our relationships. Having clarity in

our relationships allows us to see things as they are and to think, speak and act

appropriately in accordance with the way they are.

Even after attaining an experience of oneness in meditation, many find it

difficult at first to retain nondual consciousness outside of meditation. The culture

and language into which I was born has been built on the idea that the true nature

of the soul is different from the true nature of the whole. Overcoming this

linguistic barrier allows us to always have the concepts we need to be aware of

our true nature as we pray, think, and speak.

Objectives and Overview

The objectives of my thesis are:

• To investigate nonduality (oneness) in depth.

• To indicate the benefits of the realization of oneness to the individual, the

family, the spiritual community, and the world.

• To describe how the practices of Kriya Yoga serve to support the

realization of nonduality

• To indicate how this realization supports ministers.

• To indicate how ministers can inspire members of the spiritual community

to realize nonduality.

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 A Brief Overview of Chapters Two through Eight

Chapter Two connects the subject of nonduality to Kriya Yoga and the

Center for Spiritual Enlightenment. Chapter Three tells of the inspiration that led

me to choose nonduality as the subject of my thesis. Chapter Four discusses

nonduality in some depth. Chapter Five draws on the philosophies of India to

provide a basis for adopting a nondual understanding of reality. Chapter Six

describes how the practices of Kriya Yoga allow one to realize nonduality.

Chapter Seven describes how I have been affected by my study of nonduality and

further avenues I can pursue and Chapter Eight describes how realization of

nonduality can support ministers and their communities.

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 CHAPTER 2

KRIYA YOGA TRADITION

45. The one Reality appears to be a soul because one’s true nature is not known.
—Adi Shankaracharya

Spiritual and Metaphysical Principles of Nonduality

The nature of the one reality is nonduality or oneness. When one’s true

nature is not known, one may appear to oneself to be a soul individuated as a

“unit” of the one reality. The true nature of soul is realized as one awakens to

knowing soul not as a unit of the one reality, but as none other than the “one”

reality. This is equivalent to knowing Atman and Brahman to be one. As taught

by Ramana Maharshi and referenced by Ken Wilbur, this is equivalent to

expanding awareness of one’s consciousness, the ever present ground of being,

beyond ordinary consciousness, beyond witness consciousness or Turiya, to the

ultimate level of nondual consciousness, Turiyatita. Whereas Maharshi defined

Turiya as witness consciousness and Turiyatita as nondual consciousness and

referred to each as a level, not a state, of consciousness, Wilbur uses these terms

somewhat differently. Wilbur claims the understanding of Turiyatita has evolved

to the standing of nondual spirit shared by all sentient beings:

[Earlier] It was understood that there was turiya, or the One True Self, the
Pure Witness, and there was turiyatita, the Witness one with all form, in a
true non-dual suchness. (Wilbur 2012)

[Now] And so turiyatita—non-dual Spirit—is itself evolving. It has evolved

to a new level of emergence, which is not just One Self one with form, but
One Self seen through many selves, all one with the world of form. And so

8
 there’s a kind of reverse e pluribus unum arising: out of One, Many.
(Wilbur 2012)

In ordinary consciousness, one may further misidentify the soul as

conditions, possessions, ego, body, mind or body-mind. In witness consciousness,

one realizes soul as spirit, yet still experiences soul as an individuation or

reflection of the one reality. Only in nondual consciousness is wholeness actually

realized.

Relationship of Nonduality to Kriya Yoga Tradition

A clear indication that nonduality is the core of the Kriya Yoga tradition is

that Roy Eugene Davis presented everyone attending the Third International

Kriya Yoga Congress in San Jose, California with a copy of the first printing of

the first edition of his just completed book Self Knowledge, in which the

following quote appears. “In our Kriya Yoga tradition it is said that he [Adi

Shankara] was also initiated by Mahavatar Babaji.” (Shankaracharya and Davis

2010, 9) Self Knowledge is a translation of and commentary on Adi Shankara’s

book Atma Bodha.

Atma Bodha is a sixty-eight verse treatise on nonduality, and

recommended reading for all who would like to delve deeper into the philosophy.

In the book, Self Knowledge, Mr. Davis quotes several of the Kriya Yoga Gurus

on the subject of nonduality:

“Few people know that the reality of God extends fully to this material
realm. -- Mahavatar Babaji” (36)

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 “Meditation is conscious awareness of the presence of God within us. It is
revealed when our consciousness is purified by liberating it from all
concepts of duality and finiteness. – Lahiri Mahasaya” (15)

“Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness,
trying at the same time to remove yourself beyond their power.. -- Swami
Sri Yukteswar” (30)

Mr. Davis also speaks of his interactions with Paramahansa Yogananda

about nonduality:

“Paramahansa Yogananda often told disciples to remember that a

changeless Reality exists behind the drama of ordinary life. He said that
events as most people experience them are like motion pictures that one
observes without being aware of how they are projected on the screen of
space and time.” (15)

“In 1950, I asked Paramahansa Yogananda, ‘How many of the saints

that you wrote about in Autobiography of a Yogi are now liberated?’
He said, ‘Not many. Many saints are satisfied to experience the bliss of
God-communion and don’t aspire to liberation of consciousness.’ He
then emphatically said, ’You must go all the way.’” (35)

Mr. Davis gives the following nondual meaning for the word soul:

“In the philosophical system of nondualism, a soul is viewed as a pure-

conscious unit of one Reality temporarily identified with mental
modifications and its environment, confined and limited until it is
spiritually awake and realizes its true nature.” (12)

In her book, Living the Eternal Way, Yogacharya O’Brian gives this

perspective of the spiritually awake:

“When one is spiritually awake, Spirit is perceived as the Single Reality

that is Cause and Support of all that is. Body and mind exist within the
realm of spirit. Here the individual world view is different [from the
perspective of the spiritually asleep] – it is expansive and full of Light.
Concerns of the body/mind are tiny in relation to the all pervasive
influence of spirit.” (O'Brian 2002, 57)

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 CHAPTER 3

THE INSPIRATION OF NONDUALITY

“Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward all.”
Angels to shepherds after announcing the birth of Jesus
—Luke 2:14 KJV

Up until five or six years ago, my pursuit of knowledge had been primarily

one of curiosity. Now, because I have come to realize that living knowingly in

nondual consciousness may be the only workable basis for peace and good will, I

have replaced my desire to understand consciousness with a desire to serve it.

As a child, I was driven to make sense of all of my experiences. The

eternal and the infinite confounded me and I would lie in bed night after night

contemplating how space and time could be unbounded. I would imagine an outer

shell for space and realize that only space lay beyond this shell. Eventually,

making no progress on comprehending the infinite, I became interested in the

unseen forces of electricity and magnetism, which I felt were more available to

comprehension. I set out to obtain a degree in electrical engineering.

My background in electrical engineering and computer science led me in a

quest to understand consciousness. This quest still sustains me. My current

understanding of consciousness leads me to want to live in constant awareness of

the whole.

My interest in logic began in my junior year of high school with the study

of plane geometry. I was delighted to discover abstract insights into the nature of

11
reality which allowed me to know beyond doubt the relationships of certain

concepts. As I sat in class, the teacher was saying that in plane geometry a point

lying in a three dimensional space is understood not to have the property of

volume. This did not make sense to me. Every point I had ever seen had the

property of volume. As she continued to speak, I gazed at the intersection of two

adjoining walls with the ceiling of the classroom until I could envision a point so

infinitesimally small it lost the property of volume and had only the property of

locality. This was my first realization of the power of abstraction. I had grasped

that the seen was conceptually held together by the invisible. This has allowed me

to grasp that time, space, and form arise from that which has none of the

properties of time, space, and form.

In physics classes I learned the power of precise definition of concepts.

Terms in common usage that I had been using somewhat interchangeably were

given precise meanings. For example, in Newtonian mechanics, energy, force,

and power are different concepts. They each share the more primary concepts of

mass, distance and time in their definitions. Through experimentation, the

interrelationships of these concepts have been found to correspond to patterns in

reality, allowing humanity greater power in the physical realm.

I found the study of logic highly satisfying. Starting with self-evident

axioms, logic provides a means of proving a theorem with such clarity that its

validity can be established beyond doubt. I fully honor the value of the logician in

each of us. It is the divine property which strives to go beyond self-held

12
contradictory beliefs about the whole, that which is never in contradiction of

itself.

In my first job, I was given the assignment to design and build a digital

computer. Very few digital computers had been designed and built at the time. I

went to the library at Princeton University and learned about the then new

theories of self-altering programs and Boolean algebraic computation in a book

written by Von Neumann, one of the earliest computer scientists and a major

contributor to the theory of sets. Later, I would write programs for this computer

and after that a computer for which I only designed the architecture. Computer

design and computer programs share the property of using precise definition of

terms and Boolean logic.

Boolean logic is a relative of set theory. Boolean logic specifically deals

with single variables using ones and zeroes, one representing true and zero

representing false. Set theory gathers individuals for whom some statement is true

into a set. Operations are defined on sets which allow individuals and the sets to

which they belong to be spoken about with ease even when the number of

individuals in a set is unbounded. Set theory was initially developed to place

arithmetic, mathematics and logic on firm ground, especially when dealing with

the infinite, that which has no bounds.

Yoga is a science dealing with the relationship of the unbounded nature of

the soul to the unbounded whole, a struggle for understanding that engages all

human beings at all times. To my knowledge, set theory, designed as a language

13
to deal with that which is unbounded, has yet to be applied to the ancient

concepts, aphorisms, and teachings of Yoga.

Noticing that Yoga means union, I wondered if set theory could be used to

give more clarity to the terms used in Kriya Yoga. Would this greater clarity

allow deeper understanding of the aphorisms and teachings of the ancients?

Would deeper understanding give us more power in the application of these

teachings in our lives?

My thesis is the evolution of this wondering. As I worked on relating the

mathematical concept of union to the spiritual concept of Yoga, I found I needed

the support of the “many worlds” interpretation of the quantum effect. Each

morning, unexpected and thrilling insights flood my consciousness as I wonder

about our relationship to the ancient teachings when viewed through the prisms of

set theory and quantum mechanics.

It is my intention that readers of this thesis will experience new insights.

For any mathematician, logician, computer scientist, or one of many others with a

background in science or philosophy, who is already facile in the language of set

theory, this thesis is intended to translate the ancient wisdoms into a familiar

language they can accept, understand and apply in their daily lives. Because of its

simplicity and basis in ordinary language, I trust the language of set theory will be

easily grasped by all. It is the perfect language in which to understand nonduality.

Appendix A provides additional information on set theory for those who

are new to it. Appendix B discusses the many worlds interpretation. It is

supportive in contemplating the vastness, abundance, and stillness of the whole.

14
 In the four years I have been associated with the teachings of Kriya Yoga,

I have come to know that all I intend and surrender to affects the life we have

before us. It is the whole that supports us in every way.

In choosing nonduality as the topic of my thesis, I have “knowing and

serving the whole” foremost in my mind while I think and write. I want others to

know themselves as whole and that starts with me becoming constantly aware of

oneness and living from this place of peace, love, and truth.

For many years I was driven to comprehend the nature of consciousness

just because I was confounded by that which cannot be understood as an object. It

was even difficult for me to speak to others as to what I meant by consciousness

because language turned my attempts to speak of consciousness into perceived

attempts to speak about experiences.

In the fall semester of 2006 my daughter, Katharine Anderson, was taking

the Peace and Conflict Studies course, PACS 164A at the University of Berkeley.

I took it on line. In this course, taught by Professor Michael Nagler, a disciple of

Eknath Easwaran, I was introduced to some of the teachings of Yoga. Videos of

the 2006 course are currently online at YouTube™ (Search for PACS 164A.) In

Lecture 03, Nagler teaches that nature is discontinuous and consciousness is the

basis of nonduality. From this he derives that nondual consciousness is the path to

peace for humanity. Lecture 03 turned me on to the path of Yoga. In this thesis, I

show how I use Kriya Yoga, set theory, and the “many worlds” (rather than the

Copenhagen) interpretation of quantum theory to put Lecture 03 into practice.

15
 Because Eknath Easwaran recommends a spiritual community, I began my

search for a Yoga based spiritual community. I found the Center of Spiritual

Enlightenment in December of 2008 and enrolled in Meru Seminary in 2009. My

pursuit of living a life based in nonduality began in earnest.

16
 CHAPTER 4

IN DEPTH VIEW OF NONDUALITY

When the Self relates to a mind and body and assumes a viewpoint of being a
mind or body, it is referred to as a soul. This error in perception does not change
the fact that the Self is ever what it is: pure Consciousness Existence.
To be Self-realized is to be fully awake to our true nature.
—Roy Eugene Davis, The Science of Self Realization

Uniqueness

As humans we are each unique. Not only are we uniquely different from

each other, we are uniquely different from ourselves from one moment to the

next. Not only are we unique in our own form, we are unique in what we

experience. The objects we experience are also each uniquely different from each

other and they are also uniquely different from themselves from moment to

moment. Our experience of an object is uniquely different as we become aware of

it with different senses and from different perspectives. All relationships,

including those between our self and the objects of our experience, are uniquely

different in time, space, and form.

We can experience great joy when we take time to realize the uniqueness

of even a single leaf. This great joy cannot be experienced just by reading this

paragraph. One needs to actually pick up and study a single leaf until one’s

curiosity as to the leaf’s infinite nature is satisfied and the leaf is no longer a

concept nor made up of concepts. As we observe it, we notice more and more of

its nature. As we turn it and expose its appearance to all of our senses, we become

17
aware of all its relationships with “all that is.” Eventually, the infinite nature of

the leaf reveals itself. Try this and note the joy you experience!

We can act appropriately in each situation only if we realize that each

situation is unique.

Identity

We are often unaware of uniqueness. We confuse similarity with

sameness. We profess identity with that which is only similar yet never identical

to itself from one moment to the next. Because we experience sensations, we may

think our identity is that of a body. Because we experience emotions or thoughts

we may think our identity is that of a mind. Because we may be aware of

possessing witness consciousness, we may think our identity is that of a soul. But,

sensations, emotions, thoughts and what is witnessed vary with time and lack the

property of being identical from one moment to the next.

However, the only thing that possesses the property of identity, that is ever

identical to itself over time, is the nondual whole. As humans we are inseparable

from and fully interconnected with this whole. We know ourselves as who we

truly are only as we realize nondual consciousness as our being and that of all

beings. We would not be who we are without the whole and the whole would not

be what it is without us. As this is the only thing possessing identity over time, it

is our identity over time. Thus: It is. We are it. This is the basis of nonduality and

oneness. There is only one; thus only one truth. Of course, we are often forgetful

18
of who we truly are. We forget. This is why the practices of Kriya Yoga described

in Chapter 6 are important so that we may remember. We remember.

Truth as Existence

“A fire appears as if it will consume a house at 100 Elm Street unless the

fire department extinguishes it.” This statement can be true or false. It makes a

difference. It permits the practice of truthfulness, Satya. Human life is enriched by

being able to make such statements and have truth, existence, or “it-is-ness” as

revealed by those statements, understood, trusted, and appropriately acted upon.

Life provides opportunities for many such statements to be made.

If there is but one truth and yet there are many statements to which “truth”

may properly be attributed, how do we reconcile the one with the many? The

resolution of this seeming paradox is revealed using the linguistic constructs of set

theory.

For the purpose of this thesis, we restrict sets to contain members which

exist in the same way for every being in nondual consciousness and do not allow

members which simply exist as the delusions of the mind of a single beholder in

ordinary consciousness. To truly exist is to exist in nondual consciousness.

Sets allow us to focus on the similar in all its unbounded plurality. Sets

allow us to turn our focus toward the particular set of objects of which an object is

a member. A set is defined by one attribute that applies to every member in the

set. Every object for which that attribute truly exists is also a member of that set.

Thus if such a fire exists in nondual consciousness, then “the house at 100 Elm

19
Street” belongs to the set defined by the attribute: “A fire appears as if it will

consume the house unless the fire department extinguishes it” and “the house at

100 Elm Street” cannot be left out of that set.

All members of a set have one attribute in common. That attribute may be

simple or complex. For example, “this object is black” is true, speaks the truth

about or may be attributed truthfully to each member of the set “all things that are

black.” Truth is not a qualifying attribute of any member to belong to a set, as

there is no member of any set that does not exist. However, truth is what

determines the eligibility of each member to exist in or belong to any specific set.

Truth is a verb, another name for existence or being. Truth is not a noun. It only

serves as predicate, the predication of existence. Truth is nondual and exists in

nondual consciousness. If truth were dual, then a coin could simultaneously exist

and not exist. If we see something as both existing and not existing, we are

accessing mind. We need to drop into nondual consciousness for the truth.

The members of all sets belong to the whole. It-is-ness is truth. It-is-ness

is what determines set membership in each and every set. For example, if there

truly is a fire at 100 Elm Street it-is-ness is what places 100 Elm Street into the set

“Addresses of homes where fires exist.”

It-is-ness is the name of the whole. To belong to the whole, the only

prerequisite is to be. There is only one it-is-ness that selects members for sets. It-

is-ness is not the function of the mind of any sentient being; rather sentient beings

must dip into non-dual consciousness to access it-is-ness. In nondual

consciousness, there is but one being and that is the whole.

20
 The whole is the union of the single subject, Purusha, with the union of all

objects of consciousness, Prakriti. This whole determines it-is-ness for all that is

and does not include one member of what is not. As Parmenides passed on to all

of us directly from the lips of Alethea, the goddess of truth, “I shall never let thee

say nor think it came from what is not. It can never be thought nor uttered that

what is not, is.” (Parmenides of Elea 500 BC, translation 1892 Burnett, Chapter

VIII)

Nondual consciousness has the nature of and is the substrate on which

even limited and fragmented ordinary consciousness is built. We all have direct

and constant access to unbounded nondual consciousness as it is what we are. It is

what allows us to come to agreement about it-is-ness. Thank the one and only it-

is-ness, truth, for enabling us to get along with each other and have peace in our

lives.

Indian philosophy identifies three worlds of manifestation. The material

world is known in the mental world through the senses, and the mental world is

known in the spiritual world through consciousness. There is but one existence

and that existence includes all three worlds. Purusha and Prakriti exist in all three

worlds. There is but one truth and that truth exists in all three worlds. When we

rely on the one truth of nondual consciousness, we rely on that truth which

testifies to the existence of each attribute of each object at each instant in all of

prakriti. The senses and the mind are easily deceived. They can attribute existence

to that which has no existence and no existence to that which exists.

21
 One Truth

There is but one truth, the whole truth, the truth of the whole. This truth is

unconditioned, absolute, inconceivable, the union of conditions, inseparable and

fully interconnected. What does this mean?

Conditioned versus Unconditioned

“The inclination to identify with conditioned states of mind and awareness

and to allow ordinary self-conscious interests to determine one’s life is
influential until the urge to be spiritually awake prevails.” (Davis 2000,
122)

Something experienced as limited, bounded, finite, and temporary we refer

to as a condition, yet no condition comes into being or departs from being. We

speak of a “change in condition” as an event. Our life consists of events in which

our soul travels from one ever-present never changing set of conditions to the next

set in sequence. We speak of our current condition as being conditioned by the

conditions of our past whereas they exist independently. Conditions are static in

existence and ephemeral to the soul. They do not last intact long enough in the

awareness of our soul’s journey to even be a fragment of that journey. Conditions

always have relationships with other conditions, yet are not the cause of any

other. All conditions are ultimately related by union with all other conditions.

Usually any statement about a condition is only a fragment of the truth. There is

but one statement that is ever the full truth of any condition. This statement is the

statement of the whole truth. It covers all conditions and all their potential

relationships with each other. The whole truth is both inconceivable by mind and

unspeakable by tongue.

22
 That which is unlimited, unbounded, infinite, and eternal, we refer to as

the unconditioned as it is not the consequence of any set of conditions. It has no

beginning; it has no ending; it is always present everywhere. It transcends, by

lying both within and outside of, space time. The unconditioned has but one form

which is formed by the union of the forms of all conditions in and beyond all

times and spaces.

The veils of ignorance that surround the illusionary “soul” have us confuse

ourselves as conditioned, bounded, and fragmented when we are truly

unconditioned, infinite, and complete.

Absolute versus Relative

When we see reality only in relationship to our own physical and mental

states, we see truth as dual and relative. There is but one reality and its truth is

absolute.

In the physical world, most energy fields are radiant. They radiate from a

physical source and diminish in strength with distance. Their strength at any

location can be expressed in relative terms by comparison with their strength at

another location. As the other location becomes further and further from the

source location, the strength becomes weaker and weaker, eventually approaching

zero in magnitude. The strength is always positive and never negative. Any

measurement that can only be positive and that uses zero as its basis is an absolute

measurement. Any measurement that can be both positive and negative is a

relative measurement.

23
 The Kelvin scale for temperature has a range with a lower limit of

absolute zero where there is absolutely no relocation of any particle relative to

another. This is an absolute scale. The Centigrade scale is a relative scale, having

both positive and negative values, as it has its zero point at the tri-point of

dihydrogen oxide at sea level. The tri-point of a pure molecular substance is

specified by a temperature and pressure where the substance can coexist in its

solid, liquid, and vapor states.

Temperature measurements using the Centigrade scale can be converted to

temperature measurements using the Kelvin scale by adding the Kelvin

temperature for the tri-point of dihydrogen oxide to the Centigrade temperature.

We can therefore understand temperature as having an absolute value whether it is

measured in the Kelvin or Centigrade scale.

Human beings have the ability to speak about temperatures in personal

terms that are relative to the uniqueness of their own experience. One person may

find a room too warm while another finds the same room too cold. If we are not

aware that these are relative truths rather than absolute truths we can find our self

in unnecessary conflict with others. Very few people will argue with

instrumentation showing that the temperature is 25 degrees centigrade. There are

many married couples who will argue as to whether it is too hot or too cold in the

same room.

In nondual terms, goodness is a nondual absolute principle of oneness with

a zero point where there is no goodness present. There is then no need for evilness

as a conflicting principle. All experiences become experiences of some amount of

24
goodness. As human beings, we often translate goodness into dualistic relative

terms of good and bad. Then each of us establishes for our self an artificial zero

point where anything having more goodness is good and anything less is bad. This

lets some of us find something “evil” that others find “good.” Any border

introduced by duality becomes a potential battlefield.

Concepts and Reality

One thing is the same as or identical to another if and only if everything

that can be truthfully said of the one can be said of the other. One thing is similar

to another when some substantial number of truthful statements about it holds true

for the other as well. This allows us to refer to two unique things that are similar

to each other by the same name or concept. As no two things are exactly the same

as each other in all their relationships, all concepts that refer to two or more

individuals equate them simply because the individuals are similar and never

because they are the same. We may believe that we perceive the same apple from

one moment to the next, yet we perceive two similar apples. Not only do these

two apples have different relationships to all that is, which naturally includes us,

they also have different constitutions. Nothing and nobody is the same from one

moment to the next. We perceive reality when we perceive the uniqueness of all

individuals and the oneness of their union.

Concepts have limited usage. We may expect two individuals, for which

the same concept applies, will both respond to similar conditions in similar ways.

When we think in concepts, we may even believe the similar conditions to be the

same condition or a similar response to be the same response.

25
 Reality never allows responses to be fully predictable. While we may

often predict a certain response, the non-defining characteristics that exist are

never the same and they play a role in the response. We cannot expect every

woman to respond as we have observed some women to respond. Nor can we

expect what we perceive to be the same woman responding as we have seen her

respond before.

Understanding the nature of concepts allows us to know reality as fixed

and nondual, all that is and all that will ever be, fully interconnected and

inseparable, indescribable and indefinable. We may point to aspects of it, but

never with any high degree of precision and we can never trace the infinite

relationships within it. This forces us to simply delight in the awesomeness of

reality and pursue with intentionality and surrender a path through it in harmony

with its true nature.

Intersection and Union

The intersection of all conditions that apply to an entity uniquely identifies

that entity. We are each temporarily members of sets defined by the intersections

of any conditions that apply to us as long as all those conditions hold for us.

The union of a set of conditions includes every individual for which any of

this set of conditions applies. The union of all conditions is the whole truth which

is the unconditioned. We are, always have been and will always be a member of

this union.

26
 Interconnectedness and Inseparability

One condition that interconnects all individuals existing at the same time

is the time. One condition that interconnects all individuals existing in the same

locality at different times is the locality. These two conditions in and of

themselves interconnect and make inseparable all individuals who reside in the

same time space “continuum.”

Movie Reel Analogy

Yogananda often used analogies to motion pictures in his translation of

and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. (Yogananda 2005, 226,552-553,561,669)

Multi-Track Reel, Still Frames, Frame per Soul

One way we can picture the experiences of “sentient beings” is using a

movie reel as an analogy. The movie reel is made up of still frames.

Each frame is a transcendental, always existing description of all that is

experienced by a sentient being in a single present moment. The frame contains a

track for each sense. There are tracks for what is sensed in the physical fields,

such as fragrance, taste, visual, tactile, and sound images. There are tracks for

things sensed in the mental field, such as thoughts, dreams, emotions, and

imaginings. There are tracks for the substance of prayers and intentions which lie

in the realm of spirit. This full reel exists outside space and time. There is such a

reel for each sentient being. These reels are somewhat consistent with each other

as they reflect views accurate or not of the one reality.

27
 Consciousness

The three states of consciousness are: awake, dreaming, and deep sleep.

The three levels of consciousness are ordinary, witness, and nondual.

Awareness

Awareness is directing attention to certain aspects of consciousness. If one

can keep part of one’s awareness on nondual consciousness while aware of other

aspects of consciousness, one can remain rooted in peace, joy, and truth.

The Soul

In terms of nonduality, the soul is simply a concept. It is how sentient

beings experience themselves. Being aware of nondual consciousness allows a

sentient being to know itself as the whole and to a greater or lesser extent,

experience itself in this way. When it knows itself as the whole, a sentient being is

capable of experiencing itself and all beings as just one being, all beings being

completely indistinguishable one from the other except in forms generated by

mind and senses.

Continuity

Consciousness provides to each soul a sense of continuity in its experience

as its reel unwinds. Consciousness chooses the content for its next frame based on

certain criteria. The content available in a successive frame is limited by 1) the

laws of nature: physical, mental and spiritual, specifically, the effect on waves in

the field of consciousness, which when selected for observation by consciousness,

become particles, thoughts, and intentions, each affected by the uncertainty

28
principle between its individual static and dynamic components 2) the cycles a

“soul” experiences at the physical, mental, and spiritual levels of its being, 3) the

conditions of the past as long as the veils of ignorance cover the soul, 4)

intentions which have been set in earlier frames creating tension with the

intentions of other souls for the content of future frames, 5) guidance that is

received from nondual consciousness, and 6) the ever-present grace of the whole,

which is present in every life.

Because consciousness is what selects the contents of sequential frames,

the “many worlds” theory described in Appendix B is becoming more and more

popular with quantum scientists. This theory allows all possible content for each

frame as stipulated above to exist statically, never changing, at least in probability

or even more radically in actuality. For each illusionary sentient being, the

specific content of each of its frames is chosen by the one reality. That reality

establishes a path for the apparently dynamic journey of that “being” through the

static offerings of the whole. These static offerings of the whole contain all

possible offerings for all possible lives of every “being.” Intention and surrender

to the consequences of intention allow the “soul of the sentient being” to choose

its own journey, its own destiny.

The many worlds interpretation makes obvious sense of the statements

“All things are possible,” “There is no doer,” and “Everything is already done.”

29
 Power of Oneness

We can live simultaneously with awareness in both ordinary

consciousness, where we immerse our self in the illusion of the senses to enjoy

one of the journeys through that illusion, and in nondual consciousness, where we

know our self and each sentient being to be actually just the one great illusionist,

itself on one of many such journeys. Having simultaneous awareness in each

consciousness, we see fellow journeyers as our self, and what a joy that is for our

self and for them. One who rests in nondual consciousness is whole, complete,

peaceful, generous, courageous, content, and loving to all.

From the Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita has several lists of the powers to be gained by

achieving awareness of nondual consciousness.

Chapter 6
8 That practitioner of Yoga who is satisfied with knowledge and
discernment, who is unchanging and has mastered the senses, to whom all
observed things are perceived as varied manifestations and expressions of
one reality, is said to be established in oneness.
9 That one who is equal minded toward friend, companion and foe, among
those who are in conflict with each other and who are related, and who is
impartial among the righteous and unrighteous, is accomplished in Yoga
[oneness.] (Davis 1996, 119-120)

Chapter 13
7 Absence of pride, freedom from hypocrisy, nonviolence, patience,
honesty, serving the teacher, purity, constancy, self-restraint,
8 Indifference to the objects of the senses, absence of egoism, remaining
mindful of the misfortunes of birth, death, old age, disease and pain.
9 Nonattachment, absence of clinging to family members and to one’s
dwelling place, and constant even-mindedness toward desired and
undesired outcomes are characteristics and behaviors of one who knows
the self. (209-210)

30
Chapter 16
1. Fearlessness, purity of heart, abiding in Yoga (Samadhi) along with
knowledge, charitable giving, self-restraint and holy offerings, study of
sacred texts, austerity (disciplined practices), and uprightness.
2. Nonviolence, truth, absence of anger, renunciation, serenity, freedom
from finding fault, compassion for all beings, absence of cravings,
gentleness, modesty, steadiness.
3. Vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice and from
pride; these are the endowments of those born to a divine destiny.

31
 CHAPTER 5

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF NONDUALITY

God is without beginning or end, complete and eternal; the one, indivisible being.
—Sri Yukteswar, (Davis, Seven Lessons in Conscious Living)

Philosophies of India

Yoga includes teachings of Samkya, Vedanta, and Tantra. It was

articulated in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra as Kriya Yoga: the Yoga of action. It is

passed down from teacher to teacher through guru lineages allowing differences

in emphasis and interpretation to arise to meet the needs of different cultures and

people.

Indian philosophy began as an oral tradition. Sages in a later time

collected the truths and practices of this philosophy into written works called the

Vedas.

Samkya is an enumerative philosophical model drawn from the Vedas. It

specifies 24 stages of cosmic manifestation from the field of pure consciousness

to the physical realm. Manifestation begins with core consciousness,

individuation, intellect, and mind. This is followed by the subtle essences of the

five modes of sensing: hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling; the subtle

essences of the five modes of acting: speech, dexterity, mobility, reproduction,

and excretion; the subtle essences of the five elements: cosmic forces, circulation,

transformation, fluidity, and solidity; the gross essences of the five elements:

32
ether (or space), air, fire, water, and earth. As we meditate, Samkya is useful, as it

provides a conceptual map of what it is to be manifest as a human being.

Vedanta sums up the wisdom of the Vedas. Advaita (nondual) Vedanta as

taught by Adi Shankara underscores that one reality is all that is.

Tantra is a means of transmitting truth by presence and ritual.

Concepts of the Philosophies of India

While reality is itself indivisible and inseparable, aspects of it may be

pointed to by concepts.

The three Gunas are qualities of all that is manifest. Sattva guna

contributes to ripeness, order, purity, and luminosity. Tamas guna contributes to

decay, heaviness and inertia. Rajas guna contributes to the illusion of

transformation by pointing to that which is neither fully ripe nor fully decayed.

Combinations of these qualities exist in all that is manifest.

Purusha is consciousness. Prakriti is the manifest unconscious objects of

consciousness that includes all the senses, even the mind. Purusha and Prakriti are

eternal coexistent aspects of the one reality: Brahman.

Transcendent refers to that which transcends space, time and form.

Cosmic refers to the qualities of all that exists in space, time and form. Personal

refers to the cosmic qualities as they appear in and to individual sentient beings.

Soul or self is the perceived individuation of consciousness resulting from

the interaction of Purusha and Prakriti. Liberated soul is Mukta Jeeva or Atman

33
and Atman is Brahman. Unliberated soul is Jeeva. Ego is false identification of

oneself as Jeeva rather than Brahman.

The unliberated soul is covered with five sheaths: the food sheath, the life

force sheath, the mental sheath, the wisdom sheath and the bliss sheath. These

sheaths are the source of Avidya, the ignorance of one’s true nature.

The seven chakras are energy centers of the human body. The lower five

lie along the spine, the sixth between the eyebrows in the frontal lobe of the brain

and the seventh a few inches above the crown of the head. Many different

qualities such as element, sense, action, and seed mantra are related to the first

five chakras: 1) earth, smell, excretion, lum 2) water, taste, reproduction, vum 3)

fire, seeing, movement, rum 4) air, touch, dexterity, yum, and 5) ether, hearing,

speech, hum. The sixth chakra is associated with soul, the seventh with the one

nondual essence of being. Meditating on the chakras can free attachments and

eliminate blockages to the flow of life energy from the root chakra to the crown

chakra.

CSE Lineage

Mahavatar Babaji. “Babaji is the name given to the enlightened saint who

revived the ancient Kriya Yoga teachings and made them available in India during

the nineteenth century.” (Davis, Seven Lessons in Conscious Living 2000, 128)

Lahiri Mahasaya. September 30, 1828 – September 26, 1895. Lahiri was a

householder. He was taught by Babaji and initiated 5,000 into Kriya Yoga,

34
including Swami Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda’s parents. He was one of the first

yoga teachers to include women and people of all castes.

Swami Sri Yukteswar, disciple of Lahiri, was given the assignment by

Babaji to write a book establishing Kriya Yoga as a science supporting all

religions.

Paramahansa Yogananda, disciple of Yukteswar, was a swami who

brought the teachings of Kriya Yoga to the United States in 1920. His

commentary on the Bhagavad Gita provides an extensive introduction of eastern

philosophy to the western reader. His presence was one of great strength and

attracted many to the path of Kriya Yoga.

Roy Eugene Davis, a householder, is a direct disciple of Paramahansa

Yogananda. His writings, including translations and commentaries on the

Bhagavad Gita, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and Adi Shankara’s Atma Bodhi,

show great clarity of thought and dedication to truth.

Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian is a disciple of Mr. Davis. She is a

householder who dedicates herself to “individual and global awakening to the one

truth known by many names.” She is deeply interconnected with interfaith leaders

locally and globally. Her surrender to the one truth allows her to teach Kriya

Yoga at many levels to broad audiences. Her sense of humor, mastery of language

and sensitivity to the human condition allow her to reach deeply into the daily

lives of all and motivate each to his or her highest potential: full liberation.

35
 Other Sources of Yoga Teachings and Teachers

The Upanishads collect and expand on the teachings of the Vedas. Often

entire verses of the Bhagavad Gita are directly taken from the Upanishads.

The Bhagavad Gita is an allegory of the battle of the soul to free itself

from identification with limitation and to know itself as unbounded spirit.

The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali define the Kriya Yoga path for those who

aspire to the complete freedom of nondual consciousness.

Adi Shankara is the founder of the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, a

nondual interpretation of the Vedas.

Other Teachings of Oneness

In western Philosophy, Parmenides declared “all-that-is” as one uncreated,

unchanging whole. He proposed the primacy of intellect over the senses,

including the mind, as the knower of truth. He was an influence on Zeno, Socrates

and Plato. Zeno demonstrated movement to be an illusion. Plato attempted to

differentiate the illusory from the real. Solipsism recognized oneness as being one

consciousness. However, the one consciousness of solipsism is not manifest in all

beings, rather just in the single human being who is contemplating its own

existence. Idealism could as easily fall into solipsism as into nonduality.

Nonduality has its proponents in both the free will and determinist camps. My

preference is that of free will which allows the illusory soul to determine its own

journey through the unchanging whole using intention and surrender, with truth

36
available from nondual consciousness for guidance. Such indeed is the teaching of

nonduality at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment.

Mathematics and the physical sciences have as of the last century, been

moving from pure object-oriented materialism to recognition of observer as a

necessary component to any explanation of reality. While few scientists have yet

asserted nonduality, a growing number are turning to Zen and Advaita Vedanta to

gain a deeper realization of reality.

In psychology, there is a growing movement toward the view of universal

underlying consciousness as the way to understand mental phenomena.

37
 CHAPTER 6

THE KRIYA YOGA PATH TO REALIZING ONENESS

The teacher says,

“I can tell you about it, but you will have to know it by direct realization.”
—Roy Eugene Davis, The Science of Self Realization

The core teachings of Kriya Yoga are found in The Yoga Sutras of
Patanjali. This is an eight-limb path to achieving Kevala, aloneness or oneness.
The eight limbs consist of the Yamas: restraints; the Niyamas: observances;
Asanas: postures; Pranayama: control of life force; Pratyahara: withdrawing
awareness from the senses; Dharana: alert concentration; Dhyana: meditation,
and Samadhi: oneness, nondual consciousness.

Yamas

There are five Yamas. Ahimsa, harmlessness, is to intend and surrender

to every being thriving and prospering. Satya, truthfulness, is to live, think, and
speak in agreement with what is as it is. Brahmacharya is to always and in all
ways live in recognition of the one divine being that one is and to manifest the
best that one has to offer and by so doing, honor its true nature. Absteya is non-
stealing and non-envy. It is recognition that there is only one. There is no other
to envy. What the “envied” experiences is of course being experienced by the
one “in which envy is also arising.” The thief and the robbed are identical. To
steal is to be robbed. In nondual consciousness this is recognized.

Niyamas

There are five Niyamas. Shaucha, purity, is the search for and
recognition of oneness. Santosha, contentment, knows that in the present there is
nothing other than what is here now to desire. Tapas, pleasing the soul, is

38
intentionally following the path that leads to a world in which all are awakened
to nondual consciousness. Svadyaya, self-study, is to come to know the nature of
being as nondual through introspection, study of scripture and grace of guru in
all its forms. On the Radiant Path behind the CSE Temple of The Eternal Way at
the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment in San Jose, California, a monument to
the fifth Niyama states: “Ishvara Pranidana recognizes oneness and frees one
from fear.” Literally, Ishvara is the lord (means) of manifestation of the infinite
into name and form that can be imagined (by those wanting such) as having a
human-like form and Pranidana is to bow. In nondual consciousness, Ishvara is,
like the soul, simply illusionary as the one is all that is. Traditional concepts
such as Ishvara and God, unless fully appreciated in terms of nonduality, can
serve as obstacles to sorting out that which is experienced at the level of nondual
consciousness from that at the levels of witness and ordinary consciousness.

Asana

Asana, pose or attitude, specifically describes how to sit for meditation,

yet has broader implications as to a posture/attitude for living. Sutra 2.46 of The
Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali states “Sthira sukham asana” where Sthira is steady,
Sukham is happiness (or ease) and asana is posture. Ordinary consciousness may
be restless and discontent. When one allows any restlessness and any discontent
to subside, one can include in one’s awareness both witness and nondual
consciousness.

Pranayama

Prana is life force that flows in the body. This life force can be
experienced as rising into the higher chakras on the in breath. This practice stills
the body and mind, strengthens the physical and astral bodies for contemplation
of the infinite, and allows awareness to move from the senses, including the
mind, to witness and nondual consciousness.

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 Pratyahara

Pratyahara is the conscious withdrawal of awareness from the senses. By

withdrawing awareness from ordinary consciousness, there is less to distract one
from awareness of witness and nondual consciousness.

Dharana

Dharana is alert concentration. By concentration on a single object the

mind is stilled. Distraction from witness and nondual consciousness is reduced.
These last three limbs of Ashtanga Yoga cannot be achieved by effort. The
conditions for their achievement are established through regular devoted
practice of the first five limbs. Then by surrendering to grace, one eventually
falls into the full experience of nondual consciousness.

Dhyana

Dhyana is meditation. Meditation is full absorption in contemplation.

From the Shandilya Upanishad, “As salt in water becomes absorbed, so the
devotee’s awareness becomes absorbed in the true essence of what is
contemplated.” (Davis 2004, 88) This Upanishad contains many helpful
suggestions on the practice of meditation, including highly useful esoteric
information taught by the gurus of the CSE lineage as preparation for initiation
as a Kriyaban. While this information is highly useful, it is most useful when
received directly from a guru, as there are subtleties that cannot be learned
through written or spoken transmission alone.

Samadhi

Samadhi is the experience of nondual consciousness. One then realizes

“what-is” as it is.

40
 CHAPTER 7

LESSONS LEARNED, OBSTACLES OVERCOME

United we stand, divided we fall

—Aesop: Four Oxen and a Lion

My initial goal was to establish myself in super consciousness at all times.

Preparing this thesis has allowed me the opportunity to immerse myself in the

infinite, finding it to be far greater than I could have ever imagined before I

began. I have learned that many know of nonduality to some degree or another,

although it is spoken about in a great variety of ways.

I now see that all levels of consciousness, ordinary, witness, and nondual

coexist in “self” and “others” at all times. I can often see “myself” in the “other”

and the “other” in “me” creating an instant bond. While I still often experience

separation from “others” and the whole, I have the means to restore myself to

union. Situations where this experience of separation is greatest is when I realize

that knowing nonduality as the essence of our being is very uncommon and that

conflicting viewpoints act as barriers to knowing it. For example, there are those

who know nonduality in terms of certain phraseology or certain teachings. Yet not

knowing it personally, they cannot recognize it in different phraseology or

teachings.

I feel strong and secure, that I stand with all in the union that is God. I

have gained confidence, lost self-consciousness, gained comprehension, found

deep love for all life and know that I am headed toward ever-greater experiences.

41
 Potential Impact on CSE Ministry and Community

The CSE Ministry has its origins and headquarters in Silicon Valley, with

a potential for outreach locally and globally to many whose religion is primarily

contemporary science. While the truth is present in contemporary science, the

spiritual nature of the truth is often less understood, less appreciated, and less put

into practice. Contemporary science has mainly focused on the objects and far

less on the subject for whom the objects exist. The invisible, that which is only

spirit, is becoming more and more in the domain of mathematicians and

physicists. Recent developments in both quantum mechanics and astronomy are

making an understanding of consciousness a necessity in the explanation of

experience that science endeavors to fulfill. It is the goal of science to understand

the whole.

Into this need, the ancient teachings of yoga provide not only explanation

and fruit for further exploration, but also provide a moral compass sorely needed

as humanity meets the challenges posed by greater knowledge of the objects of

consciousness and their relationships. In all the new fields of technology new

dangers present themselves. Nevertheless, the greatest danger remains the

possibility that people become so engrossed in the material world they become

even more unaware of their connection in consciousness to each other and to the

whole.

The greatest offering of yoga is realization of the union of each soul with

the whole and with its future experiences of the whole. When the soul evolves to

realization of this union, it no longer clings to the guidance of the fears and

42
desires that arise when it falsely identifies itself to be a finite being separate from

its own long-term future(s). It turns willingly and with intentionality to guidance

from the whole. This guidance directs the soul on a path through the whole that

leads to experiences of increasing personal and global awakening. Along this

path, each turn toward the light emanating from the heart of the whole, brings into

view ever and ever more glorious vistas of love, peace, truth and joy.

Implications of Realizing Nonduality for Ministers

For the minister, the realization of nonduality is extremely helpful. One

knows the true nature of self and of those to whom one ministers. One can

separate illusions from the real, clarify misapprehensions, and teach what is

required for those seeking to become established in enlightenment.

In addition to leading one to realization of nonduality, the Kriya Yoga

teachings at CSE make the Kriya practices easier to personally establish and

model for others.

Yogananda and Roy Eugene Davis encourage everyone to go all the way

to full enlightenment. The enlightened minister becomes a light that draws in

those who lie in the dark, a source of safety for those in fear, a source of hope for

those in despair, and a source of joy for those in sorrow.

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 CHAPTER 8

AREAS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

[A Physicist on Zen] In any case (as I see it,) the hope is that by gradually
deepening one’s self-awareness, by gradually widening the scope of “the system,”
one will in the end come to a feeling of being at one with the entire universe.
—Douglas R. Hofstadter

One area deserving development is tracing the nondualist thread in

western philosophy, which goes from Xenothanes, Parmenides and Zeno through

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all the way to the western idealists whose

understanding is in concordance with eastern Advaita Vedanta. This could prove

to be supportive of development in western philosophy, especially if the methods

of attaining nondual consciousness by the practices of Kriya Yoga are

emphasized.

Other areas to explore are how awareness of nondual consciousness

currently exists and is practiced in transpersonal psychology, physics, law,

education, and interfaith harmony.

The most important area to explore, as I see it, is clarifying and making

the teaching of nonduality available to as many as possible.

44
APPENDICES

45
APPENDIX A: ELEMENTARY CONCEPTS OF SET THEORY

"19 Thus, according to belief, things were born and now are, and hereafter,
having grown from this,
they will come to an end.
For each of these did humans establish a distinctive name.

20 One and unchanging is that for which

as a whole the name is: 'to be'."
—Parmenides of Elea

When we deal with a single object, we map many attributes to a single

object. When we deal with a plurality of objects, we map similar objects to a

single attribute. Set theory is designed to deal with unbounded pluralities of

similar objects. Two of the fundamental processes or operations of set theory are

union and intersection.

All entities for which some condition is true are bound into new entities by

the process of union. These new entities are called sets. For example, if an entity

is a crow, it belongs to a vast number of different sets: as examples, a crow

belongs to the set of crows, to the set of birds, as well as to the set of all that is.

Entities can be uniquely identified by the sets to which they belong by the

process of intersection. Any intersection of sets that contains only a single entity

uniquely identifies that entity. For example, I belong to the set of people who

were born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 13, 1935. I also belong to the set of those

with mothers named Alice Mae Hagerbaumer, née Fenner. Belonging to the

intersection of these two sets uniquely identifies me because no other such person,

to my knowledge, belongs to both of these sets. The “many worlds”

interpretation of quantum mechanics indicates there may actually be an infinite

46
number of other beings in this same set, although we would never know of them

in this lifetime.

47
 APPENDIX B: MANY WORLDS

All things in harmony with natural law are possible.

—Roy Eugene Davis, Open Yourself to Infinite Possibilities

Particles and Configurations

Let us assume that the physical universe is made up of an unbounded

number of particles and all configurations of particles are possible. Thus we may

have many possible logically consistent worlds, some with unicorns and some

with instances of beings with our own history living in worlds having histories

only slightly different than the world we live in at this instant. If all logically

consistent sequences of configurations were experienced in nonlocal universal

consciousness, the futures of these beings, and the worlds in which they live,

would be seen to multiply and diverge quite rapidly as “time” progresses.

In any single configuration, each particle making up that configuration has

a certain relationship with each other particle. According to the experiments

underlying quantum physics, until a particle is observed, there is a probability

cloud as to where that particle may be located relative to all other particles.

Following observation by an observer, the particle will only lie in one of its

possible locales. The actual location of particles is therefore a function of

consciousness.

There are a number of interpretations of this probabilistic relationship of

consciousness and configurations. One such interpretation, first proposed in 1950

by Everett, has come to be known as the “Many Worlds” interpretation. This

interpretation proposes that when an observer makes an observation, that observer

48
splits into as many identical observers in as many worlds as are required to cover

all the new configurations. This interpretation is becoming the favorite of many

well-known physicists.

Around 1990, when I first heard of the many worlds interpretation, it was

in a book I can no longer locate, written by a dabbler in physics with no university

credentials. He professed no understanding of consciousness. Neither did I.

Understanding consciousness became a fascination for me. It is not surprising to

me, that physicists such as University of Virginia Emeritus Professor of Physics,

Stanley Sobottka, are turning to the ancient teachings of nonduality for an

understanding of consciousness.

All choice is the non-volitional choice of nonlocal consciousness, and

complete freedom is the experience of unconditioned, dis-identified
awareness. (S. E. Sobottka 2010, 7.9)

Because of the saints and sages he has studied, Professor Sobottka has

adopted a deterministic interpretation of the quantum effect and even of the many

worlds interpretation. Because there is no doer, there is no chooser. Whatever

does happen does happen. Whatever does not happen does not happen. In this

deterministic view, even when we recognize our self as the nondual one, we have

no choice as to what happens for any specific split (or its successors) of our self in

any instant.

Kriyabans, those initiated into Kriya Yoga, reject this deterministic

interpretation, choosing intentionality and surrender as the means to having some

impact on destiny.

49
 A Non-deterministic Interpretation of the Many Worlds Interpretation

In the teachings of the lineage of Mahavatar Babaji to Yogacharya

O’Brian, choice is an essential ingredient for attaining enlightenment and absolute

freedom of choice is a reward of enlightenment. Therefore, imagine that when a

person sets an intention, then the possible worlds into which all the split off

duplicates and their successors of that person may enter, conform to that intention.

Each succeeding split will have the same domain of worlds into which the split

can further split. A soul could then be seen as a path taken by consciousness

through the many splits of the many worlds. At the time of the split all the

resulting souls would have the same history, the same parents, the same

schooling, the same body, and the same beliefs, but not the same futures.

Realizing the possibilities of this consequence of setting an intention, I

have set an intention to only split into worlds having the greatest amount of

spiritual awakening. All earlier splits of me who did not make this intention will

end up wherever their intentions may lead. By setting this intention, I not only

intend to limit the fates of all my successors as long as they continue this

intention, but also the fates of all those other souls now present and their future

splits who travel with me and my future splits into the unbounded number of

futures we have together.

50
 A Lay Person’s Introduction to the Science of Quantum Physics

For details on quantum physics you may, as I have, refer to an on-line

course on consciousness (S. E. Sobottka 2010, Chapters 3,4,6) by Professor

Sobottka. Off and on, I have been exposed to this science since my undergraduate

studies in physics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1956. The science itself

has been experimentally verified many times. It has been in large part the basis

for the astounding expansion of technological achievement over the course of the

past century.

In the late eighteen hundreds, people began studying the relationship of

the light energy given off at various wavelengths when any dark body such as a

piece of iron is heated to higher temperatures. Classical physics predicts that the

energy will increase sharply with decreasing wavelength. Instead, there is a peak

at a certain wavelength and then a decrease toward zero with further decreases in

wavelength.

In 1900, German Physicist Max Planck, in order to match the above

observations, created a new model of how the energy is produced by the

oscillations of molecules during the heating of the dark body. This model says the

energy produced cannot increase or decrease in a continuous manner, but has to

do so in a stepwise manner. Each step has a specific value of energy named a

quantum. The energy of a quantum is equal to Planck’s constant, which is a very

small number, times the frequency of radiation. He further proposed that this is

because as the substance is heated, a particle he named a photon is emitted. The

energy of the emitted photon is exactly one quantum.

51
 Also first observed toward the end of the nineteenth century was the

photo-electric effect, in which certain substances exposed to light produce

electricity. In 1905, Einstein explained this effect using a model in which

electricity is produced in quantized energy steps, where each step has the energy

of a photon. Light came to have the dubious distinction of sometimes behaving as

a wave with wavelengths and frequencies, and sometimes behaving as a stream of

photons.

The concept of continuity of Newtonian physics, built on the view of the

senses, has had to be replaced with the concept of discrete quantization based on

the view of the intellect. We have returned full circle to Parmenides and Zeno

who placed the intellect higher than the senses and to the Rishis, the early seers of

India, who relied on the intuition, sourced in our true nature alone, to reach the

truth. Aum, Tat, Sat.

52
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Parmenides of Elea, translation by John Burnett. 1892. Poem of Parmenides : On

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Sobottka, Stanley, Emeritus Professor of Physics University of Virginia. 2010. A

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