Words and Ultimate Reality

 

Some days I spend long periods staring quietly out of the window, just watching what’s going on. Today, an attempt to describe ultimate reality in one word came to mind as an alternative to doing some gardening or tidying up my flat, so...

If I had to pick just one word to describe ultimate reality, based purely on my experience of looking within, then it would be ‘silence’. 

If I could use two words then they would be ‘silent awareness’. 

Having enjoyed and found the process of coming up with these words insightful, I wondered about three words. When I sat with this awhile, what popped up was ‘sat chit ananda’, three Sanskrit words that I previously read had been used together in some branches of Hindu philosophy, dating back to about 800 BCE, to describe ultimate reality. These three words seemed to pull together my meditation experience with religious / philosophical concepts in a way that felt quite satisfying. By the way, I should add that I don’t identify as Hindu.

I’ve also been playing around recently with the artificial intelligence (AI) program ChatGPT, and that often gives clearer descriptions of things than me (or my academic writing sub-personality, if you prefer), so I asked it to write a paragraph on ‘sat chit ananda’ and it gave the following:

“Sat, chit, and ananda are fundamental concepts in Hindu philosophy that are still relevant and widely understood today. Sat, which can be understood as "being" or "beingness," refers to the ultimate reality, existence, or truth. It encompasses the idea that there is an underlying essence or substratum that is eternal and unchanging. Chit represents consciousness or awareness, highlighting the idea that reality is not just inert matter but also includes the presence of consciousness. Ananda, often translated as bliss or divine joy, signifies the ultimate state of fulfilment, beyond mere happiness. It signifies a transcendent experience of profound happiness and contentment that arises from a deep connection with the divine. Together, these concepts provide a holistic understanding of the nature of reality, emphasizing the interconnectedness of existence, consciousness, and the pursuit of spiritual awakening.”

Quite a nice way of putting it I thought and we’re still in the world of putting words to deep and profound concepts. However…

I usually meditate or sit quietly for an hour or two every morning and the day after playing around with the above (I wrote the above notes on 9th June 2023) I felt like doing a jhana meditation (described in a previous blog on 24th April 2023 https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2023/04/what-are-jhanas-and-how-can-they-help.html). Here are my notes, written straight after the meditation:

“Through to 8.(Meaning that I experienced going from the 1st to the 8th jhana)

Beyond words

Beyond profound

It’s everything and beyond everything

Post-meditation insight:

No words will do. ‘Sat Chit Ananda’ are as good as any words and yet are also utterly inadequate.”

I’m not saying anything new here, quite the opposite. This just seemed like a good time to put out a reminder that, no matter how well we (or Artificial Intelligence) express a concept in words (or musical notation, film, picture or whatever) sometimes they will fall so far short that one could be forgiven for wanting to give up on them! It’s a problem I often run into in my little attempts to write a blog about something as deep, profound and perhaps unfamiliar to many people as the experience of awakening.

Maybe the most I can say is that if, after reading this, you feel more motivated to persist with, or try out, a meditation practice that explores consciousness and the inner worlds, then it has probably done as much as can be done through the medium of words.

¡Buen Camino!

Bibliography

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (version 3.5) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Key words

ChatGPT, meditation, jhana, dhyana, consciousness, absolute, awakening, ultimate reality, silence, sat chit ananda,