TRANSCENDING IS TRANSMUTING
Ode #18 - Transcribed Poetic Dictation with Vision, Transmutant Ode
[Tapasā brahma vijijñāsasva; tapasā brahma vijijñāsitavyam. “By tapas, seek to know Brahman.” “Brahman is to be realized through tapas.” Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.22 and Chāndogya Upaniṣad 8.7.6. You can find the idea in Muṇḍaka, Taittirīya, Kaushītaki Upaniṣads too — as far back as the Ṛg Veda. “The seers, through tapas and brahmacarya, attained that highest Brahman.” Mahā Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad explains: tapasā devā devatāmagra āyan tapasārṣayaḥ suvaranvavindan tapasā sapatnānpraṇudāmārātīstapasi sarvaṁ pratiṣṭhitaṁ tasmāttapaḥ paramaṁ vadanti — “By tapas performed in the beginning gods attained godhood. By tapas seers attained to heaven gradually. By tapas we get rid of our enemies who stand in the way of our acquisitions. Everything is founded in tapas. Therefore they say tapas is the supreme (means of liberation).” Following the Upaniṣads, the Brahma Sutras of Bādarāyaṇa give us this commentary on tapas: “Taittirīya Upaniṣad (III.v) comes to our rescue by explaining a method to know Brahman. The Upaniṣad says, “tapasā brahma vijijñāsasva तपसा ब्रह्म विजिज्ञासस्व”. Tapasa means austerities, penance, etc; vijijñāsā means desire to know and willingness to inquire about; and brahma means Brahman. Upaniṣad emphasizes that one seek Brahman, provided they have the desire and willingness to understand and realize Brahman, by making self sacrifices. Brahman is to be inquired within. Brahman is to be searched and explored within and surely not outside the gross body. If Brahman is not realized within, Brahman cannot be realized outside the body. This Upaniṣad also says that knowledge required to realize Brahman can be attained in stages. Śaṁkarācārya says, “Stage by stage, explore Him within.” This goes to prove that one needs to train their mind and intellect (intellect is a superior form of mind), as Brahman can be realized only through these twin tools and not in any other way.” So we see one of the core senses of tapas — austerity, self-sacrifice, asceticism. The root source of tapas is Sanskritic tap- — to heat, to glow, to burn, to shine with inner fire. This is how I tend to think of tapas when it comes up. That incandescence of spirit, of vitality, of the vital force which moves life. Heat became “austerities” and “penances”, as asceticism (acc ‘ascenticism’) was the method developed expressly for the cultivation of the inner heat and glow of tapas. An intensifying condensation of that life-energy, achieved by focusing entirely on it — to the ~detriment~ of all else. “Brahman is to be realized through tapas.” For me this means, the heat of life is what avails us to the real. ‘Brahman’ is the absolute real; the full realization. Transcendence is not then the product of transmutation, of heat. Rather, transcendence is what brings us into the real, into the heat which reveals the real. The real which is all around us, and within us. All that is. And that too, and that too.. This is how I understand what the 18th Transmutant Ode is saying. Transcendence is not an escape from your circumstances. It is the process by which we realize the fullest extent of our circumstances~ ] Received 11/19/2025 | 10:01-19pm
Companion Missive #18 - THE MELDING OF RESENTMENT (9/9/2023)
Listen to the Recitation:
TRANSCENDING IS TRANSMUTING
Not escaping; moving into
Across and from where one was:
By tapas the One breathed forth the many
The ardor of sustained attention, disciplined
Truthfulness reveals the real, interiorization
Of the senses, concentrating life-energy —
Devotion magnified until it becomes heat.
We end what must be ended, mute the mutable
Until the longing is transformed into presence
And the sense becomes the perceived
Durable, not austere — transcendence moves
The fox into view. The scarred ear, chipped
Becomes Brahman, the sign of an inner radiance.
Transpondence despondents, a cluster of stars
Yielded from a slight imbalance, a preference
To matter over antimatter. Nothing grand
But enough, to see and feel one’s way
Touching and fumbling the damp stone walls
Limping bravely towards a new unknown
Gaining strength, our heat begins to glow
What was heavy becomes light, and pain
Loosens its hold on our joints, allowing
Flexibility, rotation, turning — movement
Of the one into on itself and about
Three core memories, each a mourning
The contents unknown to us, mere feeling
And the heat that follows something purifying
Purified by the bend, we turn again on ourself
Tremoring the keys and strings, vibrating soul
Comes upon a mystifying, a mysterium
This hall of tall columns fanning out into the dark
Smoothly polished to a mirror curve, our likeness
Escapes us around its sides; we touch the cold wet
To feel it, as if it were real to us. The past comes
Back to us, with a ferocity of antic baring down
The surface becomes a fist, turning claw against
Soft skin, cutting into bruise — we fold the skin
Back over its red bone, softly holding
With eyes closed, we lift ourself into the day
And notice the one before us, a sweet heart
Beaming upon us. The curve of their face,
Their eyes and mouth turned up at the sides
Rough as they are smooth, polished furrows
Worn in age unseen: a certain knowledge won —
A little bit of romance and humor transmute
A lot of pain and anger. I have come to find
Time and again, this truth remains:
That romance, followed with surprising laughter
May be the only real medicine, universally applicable
In every situation transcendent, transmutative
Leading to the mutation of the moment into
Gold — ahh, yes — gold, as gold is meant to be:
The warm aftermath of a hot refinery, bending
And folding a thousand layers of harm into armor
Beautiful plates and rings and chains, purely
Wrought into splendor and adornment, the adoration
Of our self, which itself is the transcendent
And the transcended and the transcending
And the simple joy of release, the quiet ease
Without which life never happens.
