Neti is misunderstood. It is not Not this. It is Not only this, but also ….
In other words, not a negative but the Law of Expansion. (Expansion is My Life.) Instead of saying something does not exist, we say that whatever we are talking about includes more than we realize at this point in time … implying that further discussion/examination will reveal more of what the thing really is … without ever being able to reveal all that it is because that has no second.
If anything were in fact NOT real, we would not feel compelled to say that it is not real. Any time we negative anything, we positive it because we treat of it.
I, too, was under the impression that neti meant not this and was long engaged in just that practice, with good results. But then I ran across comment by His Nibs that it meant as I mentioned and suddenly the lights went on. It added a component of relish and even rhetorical opportunity because one can, as does a lawyer or politician, always riposte and with absolute justification: Yes, and have you considered ….
This is a better foil to tyranny of any kind than is neti taken as simply Not this, which really means just, No. This is not to say that neti taken Not this is wrong. Far from it. That works very nicely, up to a point. It is only to say that practically — for achieving the vedantic awareness — the way His Nibs described it is easier and surer and, I think, also quicker.
We have here an echo of the discussion of sadhana as of a monkey (neti as Not this) who holds onto his mother’s back as she races around the arbors and sadhana as a kitten (neti as not only this, but also …) who waits to get carried about by mother, in her own mouth.
When Krishna mentions that knowledge renders a Sage mute, He means mute with superfluity of knowledge, not mute with absence of knowledge. Knowledge is light and absence of light is the definition of evil. The Avathars bring superabundance, over-the-top.
The ways and means of all Yogis are superfluous during the presence of an Avathar. The Avathar is the all-important center.
The passages on Dharma were quotes from Gita Vahini.
5 elements combine and permute to make 15 senses of which mind is one, being a component of the body. We can say 6 or 7 senses for tactical purposes during an illumination, but the full report is 15 senses. That is the number of the fully human. The Avathar has the 16th quality or sense: All-Knowing. The Avathar’s number is 16.
I am a Calvinist. Also an Augustinian, a Franciscan, a Benedictine, an Anglican, a Scot, a Tillichian, a Heschelian, a Moses Ben Maimonan and a whole lot more besides. Apply neti of either type to one’s grasp of Calvinism. All is scripted. What is wrong with scorched earths? Fire cleans.
AMDG
