POSTHUMOUS PIECES : 33




The Positive Way


VEDANTA

Being-Aware may be said to be what noumenally I am.
All aspects of being aware are what phenomenally I am,
But these are devoid of being in themselves,
For they are manifestations of being-aware.

If awareness can be said to be cognisable at all,
Such cognising is ultimate inseeing,
And might be called 'radiant voidness', manifesting as 'Grace'.
If I am aware of radiance - that may be awareness of what I am,
For, being Awareness, I am Radiance also.

What awareness is - I am,
What awareness seems to be - I am not,
Yet I am what every object is,
For every object is I.


The Negative Way


CH'AN

What I am must necessarily seem to be Unawareness,
Unaware of being aware.
It has been objectivised as 'Voidness'.

That is why I perceive awareness as my object,
Which I do not recognise as being what I am.
It has been objectivised as 'Cognition'.

This functioning, which is known as 'cognising',
Inevitably manifests in a conceptual extension,
Which is termed 'space-time',
And this is experienced by me as 'living'.

Since I can never become aware of my unawareness,
I can never be an object,
And I alone, of which I cannot be aware, cannot be known.

But everything of which I am aware,
Must necessarily be my object,
And therefore must be what I am,
For my object and I are not two.


(© T.J. Gray, 1968)
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