Distinguishing ego from true self

(Quotations from The Vijñâna Bhairava)

Objects elevated to the status of subject

Paraphrased: At rest within Himself, the Highest Lord manifests the limited, objective world within the luminous miror of His Self though the power of His own freedom. In the midst of this world, there are certain objects (such as the intellect and the body) which function together to play the role of a subject in relation to other objects. However they really remain objects and can never quite cast off the limitations that go with being an object, so the subject which they form shines with an assumed, yet imperfect self-consciousness.
(p. 125, commentary on verse 135, dharana 110, quoting Abhinavagupta)

The one Subject which is never an object

In the center of this etheric heart resides cit -- the consciousness which is always a subject, never an object. It is this center which is the essential Self of man and macrocosmically the center of all manifestation.
(p. 45, commentary on verse 49, dharana 26)

The real Knower is the witnessing awareness from which the subject {that is formed from objects} arises and in which it rests. The yogi is, however, always mindful of that witnessing awareness which alone is the {True} subject of everything, which is always a subject and never an object.
(p. 96, commentary on verse 106, further elaboration on dharana 82)

How the subject experiences consciousness

Savikalpa (activity of mind with thought-constructs) is the state of the psychological individual or the empirical self; nirvikalpa (activity of consciousness without dichotomising thought-constructs) is the state of the spiritual Self, the witnessing Consciousness of all the states.
(p. 98, commentary on verse 108, dharana 84)

Recognition of the true subject

Man is Shiva already in essence. The essential Reality in him has put on the mask of jîva. When the jîva intensely recognizes his essential Reality, the mask is thrown off. The state of ... veiling disappears; grace is operative now, and the jîva becomes Shiva (that he was in reality).
(p. 98 commentary on verse 109, dharana 85)

©1999 by Deb Platt

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