The title of this blog is a pun. The word 'vimarśa' in Sanskrit is polyvalent and has a long history. Most commonly, it signifies thought, consideration, deliberation, reflection. This is also the primary sense of the word in my title: I study medieval Sanskrit epistemology and am spending nine months in Varanasi under the auspices of a Fulbright grant. This blog is a record of my reflections on my time here.
Vimarśa also has a very special meaning in the thought of Abhinavagupta, the 10th-11th century Śaiva philosopher from Kashmir who forms one of the two focuses of my studies. Vimarśa is the word Abhinavagupta uses to indicate the nondual consciousness of Śiva that is the totality of any and all universes. This consciousness overflows any kind of restriction or duality, including the basic duality between subject and object. It is undifferentiated and yet internally dynamic through a subtle vibration that, somehow or another, is aligned with the essential structures of language. It is inherently luminous and knows itself without having to divide itself into subject and object. The best translation of vimarśa that I have seen is 'reflective awareness.' This has the advantage of hanging on to vimarśa's general connotation of 'reflection', but still seems too static, dualistic, and perhaps even insentient or automatic. Two mirrors can reflect each other without being self-aware. Figuring out the relationship between vimarśa and vāc, which for the moment I will translate as 'language', is both the most important and most difficult thing I will try to accomplish during my time here. So in this sense, the title of my blog also means something like 'the ultimate-nondual-dynamic-linguistic-consciousness-of-Śiva that a Sanskritist is trying to understand'.
This kind of play between the conventional and the ultimate---in my case, between the very mundane musings of a young American woman making her way in India, and the nature of reality itself---is one of the things I have always loved in Abhinavagupta's thought. For Abhinavagupta, Śiva both is and always exceeds everything that is or is not or has been or could ever be. Human subjectivity is vimarśa too; our speech in the everyday world is continuous with the ultimate structures of language. But our world isn't all there is. Reality is a huge fabric of consciousness that turns in, balls up, stretches tight, and generally plays amongst its own contours. The reflections of a Sanskritist are one such contour; but so is a chair. Or a rock. Or the awareness of a cow sitting in the middle of the road. Or Herman Cain. Being a vibration of Śiva is not particularly glamorous. The funny thing about ultimate principles of the universe is that they actualize everything.
I have another bad pun along the lines of 'sāṃskṛtikāyāḥ vimarśam' in the Info section of my facebook page: rolangs khyaṭ kyis sems! zer lap kyi yod pa red. This is Tibetan and means, "Zombie Cat says 'BRAINS!'" 'Sems' is, once again, both the word that Tibetans use to translate the Yogācāra idea of ultimate consciousness (which is very close to but also different from Abhinavagupta's vimarśa), and the normal word for heart/mind/brain in Tibetan. So here I am, staggering around looking for the nature of consciousness and/or someone's brains to pick. Most of this blog, I imagine, will be more about the staggering and less about the consciousness.
I've been in India for a bit over two weeks now, and in that time seen three cities, so I have a bit of catching up to do. That will come soon...
Vimarśa also has a very special meaning in the thought of Abhinavagupta, the 10th-11th century Śaiva philosopher from Kashmir who forms one of the two focuses of my studies. Vimarśa is the word Abhinavagupta uses to indicate the nondual consciousness of Śiva that is the totality of any and all universes. This consciousness overflows any kind of restriction or duality, including the basic duality between subject and object. It is undifferentiated and yet internally dynamic through a subtle vibration that, somehow or another, is aligned with the essential structures of language. It is inherently luminous and knows itself without having to divide itself into subject and object. The best translation of vimarśa that I have seen is 'reflective awareness.' This has the advantage of hanging on to vimarśa's general connotation of 'reflection', but still seems too static, dualistic, and perhaps even insentient or automatic. Two mirrors can reflect each other without being self-aware. Figuring out the relationship between vimarśa and vāc, which for the moment I will translate as 'language', is both the most important and most difficult thing I will try to accomplish during my time here. So in this sense, the title of my blog also means something like 'the ultimate-nondual-dynamic-linguistic-consciousness-of-Śiva that a Sanskritist is trying to understand'.
This kind of play between the conventional and the ultimate---in my case, between the very mundane musings of a young American woman making her way in India, and the nature of reality itself---is one of the things I have always loved in Abhinavagupta's thought. For Abhinavagupta, Śiva both is and always exceeds everything that is or is not or has been or could ever be. Human subjectivity is vimarśa too; our speech in the everyday world is continuous with the ultimate structures of language. But our world isn't all there is. Reality is a huge fabric of consciousness that turns in, balls up, stretches tight, and generally plays amongst its own contours. The reflections of a Sanskritist are one such contour; but so is a chair. Or a rock. Or the awareness of a cow sitting in the middle of the road. Or Herman Cain. Being a vibration of Śiva is not particularly glamorous. The funny thing about ultimate principles of the universe is that they actualize everything.
I have another bad pun along the lines of 'sāṃskṛtikāyāḥ vimarśam' in the Info section of my facebook page: rolangs khyaṭ kyis sems! zer lap kyi yod pa red. This is Tibetan and means, "Zombie Cat says 'BRAINS!'" 'Sems' is, once again, both the word that Tibetans use to translate the Yogācāra idea of ultimate consciousness (which is very close to but also different from Abhinavagupta's vimarśa), and the normal word for heart/mind/brain in Tibetan. So here I am, staggering around looking for the nature of consciousness and/or someone's brains to pick. Most of this blog, I imagine, will be more about the staggering and less about the consciousness.
I've been in India for a bit over two weeks now, and in that time seen three cities, so I have a bit of catching up to do. That will come soon...
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