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today I'm presenting a comparative

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perspective on the exploration for

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universal truths from both an East

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Indian philosophical tradition known as

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Kashmir Shaivism

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and from contemporary Western science

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and as we go along I'll give a brief

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outline of relevant aspects of Kashmir

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Shaivism whose roots actually are lost

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in antiquity and which came to its

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flowering in the 9th to 11th centuries

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CE II an urge to know the secrets of

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life consciously or unconsciously

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motivates much of humankind the origins

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of the universe the Big Bang the four

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forces of physics the Unified Field

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singularities virtual particles all

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these major discoveries and theoretical

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formulations are important achievements

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of contemporary science these ideas and

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phenomena have analogs in Kashmir

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Shaivism although the specific

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nomenclature is not identical the

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concepts described are remarkably

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similar charting a comparison between

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concepts of contemporary science and

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Kashmir Shaivism we find that

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contemporary science talking about the

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ultimate cosmic singularity that gave

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rise to the Big Bang here matter is of

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infinite density all forces are infinite

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and unified the Unified Field of course

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time space and natural laws do not exist

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here from Kashmir Shaivism they say the

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first eminent principle above the

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created levels of vibration which we'll

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get into in a minute or shiva-shakti

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which is their term for it is formless

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and all pervasive but at the same time

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constitutes a small extremely compact

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mass that serves as the various seed of

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creation it is the most subtle

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expression of the power through which

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creation comes into being and it has the

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capacity to contain within itself the

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entire cosmos as an embodiment of

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ultimate realities unlimited powers

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analogous to the Unified Field of all

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forces or the powers necessary to create

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the universe it can take on any form and

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like the ultimate cosmic singularity

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that gave rise to the Big Bang it can

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produce or create

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in all possible forms out of itself at

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this level of universal manifestation

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space-time and natural laws do not exist

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in this model either the Big Bang itself

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obviously marked the beginning of the

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universe in contemporary first

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contemporary science and from Kashmir

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Shaivism

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we come to the universe manifesting

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first on the levels of vibration and

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sound as the universe developed the

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forces from the Unified Field separated

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and became the four physical forces that

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we know in physics today the nuclear

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electromagnetic weak and gravity quoting

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a contemporary nuclear physicist one or

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more of them of these forces acts at

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every level from the microscopic to the

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cosmological things together and yet

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keep them separated in just such a way

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that we in the universe are here and

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from Kashmir Shaivism quoting from a

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monastic scholar of Kashmir Shaivism one

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of the primary powers of universal

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reality is the power of action and they

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call it the term is Kriya Shakti Kriya

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translating to action Shakti translating

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to power as manifestation ensues Kriya

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Shakti both keeps things separate and

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unites them it maintains the world is

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separate from us and also keeps the

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objects in the world separate from each

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other so that the world does not become

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an amorphous conglomerate of matter

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Krrish Shakti also acts as an ordering

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force and it establishes how forms

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interact with each other in space the

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writings of the Eastern traditions in

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general use an economy of words they

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often a single concept has multiple

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meanings or multiple purposes for

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example the model here on the flip chart

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and I don't expect you to be able to

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read it it's just for effect

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mostly I'm going to use the bottom and

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the top here for illustration it's at

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once the manifestation of the universe

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and the manifestation of a human being

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so we have the concept of us as a

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hologram coming from the 10th century

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furthermore the model can be understood

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vertically as a

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movement from ultimate reality or

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consciousness with a capital C down to

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the physical manifestation in matter at

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the bottommost level here and back again

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or if I could flip this 90 degrees it

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could be seen horizontally as the

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movement of awareness towards and away

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from an object during the act of

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perception to quote a Kashmir Shaivism

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scholar perception serves in this way as

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a paradigm for Kozma Genesis and as a

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means of realizing the oneness and

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creativity of ultimate reality according

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to Kashmir Shaivism creation or

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manifestation is a subject object

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relationship the only way we know that

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the universe exists is because we

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perceive it therefore the universe

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exists as a relationship that and that

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between the perceiver and that which is

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perceived and between the subject and

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the object at the top of the model of

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universal manifestation is ultimate

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reality oops right here which is both

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transcendent and imminent and it's of

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two inseparable aspects they're often

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referred to as AI or Shiva and am as

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Shakti taken together in this model they

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constitute what's called the supreme

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subject the Shiva Shakti principle that

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we just talked about in that parallel

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with singularity and creation a moment

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ago ultimate reality or consciousness

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then becomes it's not an inventive

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creation but a becoming it becomes the

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universe and all that's manifested in it

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through a process of thirty four stages

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of vibrational transformation known as

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the taught foes or principles of

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creation it becomes what it needs to be

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here and here and here in order for the

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universe to manifest while at the same

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time existing beyond creation as the

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changeless principle according to

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Kashmir Shaivism of all changing

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the shiva-shakti principle in the first

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three created principles are included in

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what's known as the realm of pure

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creation in their words from this

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perspective of kashmir shaivism

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all that is separated from consciousness

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is considered impure term and all that

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is in a state of unity or identity with

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it is considered pure in this realm the

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idea of the object or this is just

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beginning to develop so it's perceived

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as being identical with consciousness

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also in this realm neither space-time in

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our natural law exists for this reason

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Kashmir Shaivism does not consider

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creation of the universe as a historic

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event in the realm of pure creation what

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we experience is that the universe is

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created anew in every instant below the

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realm of pure creation are the

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vibrational levels of the impure

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creation here due to certain vibrational

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processes that are absolutely necessary

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to create the world as we know it the

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true nature of consciousness is veiled

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as it congeals itself into ultimately

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here at the bottom material existence in

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this process it is said consciousness

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wills itself into a contracted state of

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separation from its own expansive state

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and free will it becomes a limited

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individual perceiver feeling cut off

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from the flow of consciousness imperfect

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impure incomplete duality appears as a

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sense of identity with universally

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reality disappears and becomes instead

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an identity of being separate from it

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here also the individual perceiver is

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subject to the limitations of time space

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and natural laws so that's where it

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comes in down here in this ordinary

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state of consciousness we may perceive

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who we are as the physical body down

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here we may perceive ourselves perhaps

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more of the level of the mind which

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comes in about right here actually

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what's considered the principle of the

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individual experiencer is just a little

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bit above the mind at a level notice

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Purusha yet another important fact is

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hidden from us at the level of impure

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creation that is that our bill

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to perceive external objects derives

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from the presence of identical

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principles residing within us as

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consciousness is universe bodied so the

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individual perceiver because

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consciousness becomes contracted has the

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body of the entire universe in a

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contracted form at this level we're

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unaware or unconscious of our status as

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a hologram of the absolute everything in

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each creative level or tattva is a

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hologram of ultimate reality this is

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true for both the perceiver and the

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perceived so when a scientist studies

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the universe it's essentially the

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universe studying the universe colored

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by the particular attribute

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psychological and other of the

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individual perceivers as well as their

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state of consciousness this state as we

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all well know can fluctuate in most of

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us from one moment to the next and of

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course can vary significantly from one

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person to another due to each individual

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perceivers unique attributes it's just

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the way it is with humans a beam of a

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Gupta an intellectual sage of Kashmir

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Shaivism in the 10th century states as

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is the state of consciousness so is the

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experience this could be one of the

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reasons that replicability of some