The Art of Spiritual Life



Beezone White and Orange Project* is based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Blue & Brown Books books. The Blue & Brown Books of Wittgenstein’s were dictated as a set of notes to his student in 1934-1935.

Beezone will use three formats for assembling a project. One is to present a short piece directly from Adi Da. Then Beezone will write down the highlighted points from said paragraph and/or a group of like paragraphs.

The second format is ‘thematic’. Beezone will take a ‘theme’ of Adi Da’s teaching and go through various talks and essays and write down a sentence or two related to that theme or topic.

Lastly is a compilation or remix. This is a blend of the two other methods. In this style Beezone will take a number of talks and essays based on a theme. Beezone will then use the ‘cut-up’ method. The cut-up technique is an aleatory literary technique in which a text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. This method can be traced to at least the Dadaists of the 1920s, but was popularized in the late 1950s and early 1960s by writer William S. Burroughs, and has since been used in a wide variety of contexts.

Beezone White and Orange Project

 


The Art of Spiritual Life

a talk by Da Free John – August 13, 1983

Crazy Wisdom Magazine – January 1984, Vol 3, No. 1

 

MASTER DA: People look for uncommon phenomenal signs because they are full of doubt and un-Happiness. Such experiences suggest to them that there is a reason to feel good perhaps, but they are not profoundly transformed by witnessing such signs. In fact, having witnessed them, they begin to think of all the explanations that reduce these experiences to nothing.

 

THE SEARCH

1. People look for uncommon phenomenal signs.

2. Because they are full of doubt and un-Happiness.

3. Experiences suggest a relief from un-Happiness.

4. But witnessing the experiences of other people and themselves people feel that experiences are basically nothing.

 

Because of the use and misuse of such phenomena, another kind of tradition has arisen, in which it is not considered all right for these signs to appear, in which it is not all right to delight in them when they appear. And that is equally false. Uncommon phenomenal signs inevitably appear when the Spirit-Force is allowed to be active via the devotee’s submission. These signs are also inevitable in the case of an Adept. The taboos against their appearing and the taboos against enjoying them, as well as the lust for them on the part of people who are not converted no matter what they see, are equally inevitable in the egoic world.

 

1. Uncommon signs and experiences occur.

2. But they occur in a cultural taboo against them.

3. Or a lust for them.

4. When people are not converted they see through their own doubts and taboos.

 

When there is submission to the Spirit, such phenomenal changes and what are called miracles inevitably occur, but these signs are merely, part of the normal evidence of spiritual life, and are part of the delight of spiritual life. They are not the ultimate matter, but they are an ordinary part of a Spirit-filled existence.

 

1. There are genuine spiritual experiences, but they are not the point.

 

DEVOTEE: In your Company the simplest, most profound miracle is this matter of Remembrance. It is miraculous that a completely self-possessed person can give their attention and energy to the Spiritual Master and receive the Blessing that transforms their whole life in that moment.

MASTER DA: That is the art of spiritual life granting attention and following it with total psycho-physical submission to the Spiritual Reality. People are not tending to do that, of course, and so attention is constantly getting locked into problems, conceptions that are problematic, states that are uncomfortable and problematic. The art of spiritual life, once you have, heard and, seen, is this capacity to be re-devoted in any moment to the Living Spiritual Reality. To do that, you must be equipped with hearing and seeing, you must be, able to observe and understand yourself, and primarily, what there is to observe is how attention is functioning.

 

1. The art of spiritual life is granting attention and following it with total submission to Spiritual Reality.

2. But, instead of following with submission people tend to get locked or bound to problematic states of mind and body.

3. The art of spiritual life (once you’ve HEARD and SEEN) is the ability to ‘re-devote’ (FREE ATTENTION) to the Living Spiritual Reality.

4. You must be able to OBSERVE how attention is functioning.

 

Attention is moving toward forms and conditions, and because the individual is tending to be in the self-contracted state, attention is moving toward forms of contraction. These forms of contraction are all the things that bother you. The ego is bothered, contraction is a bother, and attention is tending to move toward the weakest point, the bother, the difficulty in the moment. However, there is usually nothing in the environment or as immediate as a physical pain to be bothered about. The mind produces problematic conceptions. Attention is always getting locked into these problem states, and thus you are experiencing contraction, a problem, a limit. You do not experience the Spiritual Reality, you are not whole, in fact you are not even aware of the Spiritual Reality. Thus, the art of spiritual life is to notice this mechanical, contracted state and be wholly reoriented to the Spiritual Reality through Remembrance. In other words, in the midst of a mechanical state that is tending to take on this contracted form, you must be able to merely notice it, and rather than working to untie the knot, be reoriented through devotion, as well as by being artfully responsible for the mechanics of your activity.

 

1. Attention (in the gross and subtle dimensions) is always moving towards forms of contraction (objects).

2. Ego is disturbed and is tending move toward the weakest point of difficulty.

3. Pain, physical and emotional, are the most common points of difficulty.

4. The mind produces problems and gets locked into problematic states, limits.

5. You are not aware of Spiritual Reality.

6. The art of spiritual life is to notice the mechanical (unconscious) contracted states and be capable of ‘reorienting’ through Remembrance and responsible.

7. You must be able to observe whatever arises in a problematic (or otherwise) form and submitted and responsible – at the same time.

 

Last night I was talking about the mind, how the mind itself is contraction. Unless the mind is informed in the moment by spiritual consideration, it is a form of contraction and attention is locked into that contraction. People are constantly engaged in thinking, thinking. Thinking is really a conversation you are having with yourself. Speech is the same thing engaged with others. That process is a meditation on contraction. The mind, is a problem, it takes the form of a problem. You hope that thinking will produce release from this contraction, this problem. You are trying to get free of a knot, an oppressive sense of existence. You are trying to think your way out of it, trying to solve a problem, get an answer. And, of course, occasionally the mind does let loose with some relieving concept or other, but it always returns to these contracted states, because the mind is about this self-perpetuating disease. This disease is as much a lock on attention as a cramp in the body. If you have pain in the body, attention dwells on it very directly, or at least subliminally. Thinking is pain of this kind. It is a compression of the Living Conscious Force, a suppression of it, a knot in it, a contraction of its field. Therefore this perpetual thinking is pain.

 

1. The mind and attention are forms of (one) contraction.

2. Unless the mind is ‘informed by spiritual consideration’ it is locked in its own mechanics.

3. Thinking is a conversation with yourself.

4. Speech is thinking engaged with others.

5. Thinking is about looking for solutions, inventions and trying to solve problems.

6. Thinking is about trying to free yourself of this ‘knot’, an oppressive sense of existence.

7. The mind is a question trying to find an answer.

8. The mind is a self-perpetuating dis-ease.

9. This ‘knot’ of of mind and attention is simultaneously in the body.

10. This knot is a compression of the Living Conscious Force, a suppression, contraction of its field.

11. Perpetual thinking is pain.

 

In these moments of chronic thought, rather than put our attention in that thought process and try to think your way out of the pain, you should understand yourself, be able to find yourself out and divert your attention, submit yourself with full attention to the Living Reality. Submit yourself whole bodily, release yourself from the oppression of chronic thinking, chronic conversation with yourself, Narcissism. The art of spiritual life is a matter of relocating attention, noticing that attention is simply dwelling in a contracted state and giving it over to the Transcendental and All-Pervading Force and Being with every aspect of the body-mind. This is the direct way of practicing. Your common technique, however, tends to be developed on the basis of contraction itself or egoity itself. You think and feel that you have a problem, even though you might not be able to explain just exactly what that problem is, and you generally try to keep on thinking. You think and think and think and fret and fret and read and read and talk and talk and are in pain the whole time.

 

1. Instead of trying to ‘think’ your way out of this chronic pattern of mind you should understand yourself, see what you’re up to.

2. You should divert and submit your attention to the Living Reality.

3. Whole Body submission.

4. The art of spiritual life is the ability to relocate attention.

5. The is a directed way of practicing.

6. The common method of practicing is based on the contraction itself, trying to relieve or direct attention itself, not submission of attention.

 

I was considering this crap in the solar plexus with you the other evening. We were having a conversation about the yoga of the frontal line. Perhaps the most common experience people have of contraction in this frontal line is a cramp over the solar plexus, the “knot in the stomach” that people refer to. If you become aware that you are suffering this knot and this anxiety over the solar plexus, your first resort, by tendency at any rate, will be to try to relax it. You will take deep breaths and so forth. That may work if the contraction is rather superficial and your attention is relatively free, but you may also discover that you cannot do it, that you cannot relax it. In that case, you will begin to think some more and work on your trouble, whereas the most direct way of dealing with it is to divert attention from this knot, rather, than keep attention in, the knot and try to undo it. I suggest to you, as a practical matter, that instead of keeping your attention in this knot over the solar plexus and trying to relax it you should simply remember that attention goes wherever the knot is. Attention gravitates toward the contracted states and becomes fretful suffers the pain of these contractions gets stuck in these contractions and then tries to work its way out of them, you see.

 

1. The knot of the solar plexus is a primary knot and people try to relax it by taking deep breaths and so forth.

2. This may temporarily work if the cramp is superficial.

3. But you will discover you cannot relax it.

4. This leads to more trouble, maybe panic.

5. Adi Da suggests, as a practical matter you should remember that attention goes wherever the knot is.

6. Attention gravitates toward contracted states and objects.

7. This then creates an effort to escape or a strategy to work its self out.

 

Well, this knot over the solar plexus is occurring a little more than halfway down the frontal line of the body. The Current of Life is not descending below that point. The knot over the solar plexus is a little bit like nausea, the urge to vomit, weeping, and anger. This contraction is a revulsion, a reversal of the Current in the frontal line of the body, and in effect it prevents this line of force from going to its lower terminal in the bodily base.

 

1. The knot is a reversal of the Current and it prevents the current from going to its lower terminal.

 

One way of naturally relieving this contraction, in addition to the basic resort that is your devotional practice, is to place your attention lower down in the body, below the point where you feel that cramp. If you place your attention above the point of disturbance, the revulsion will continue. The most intelligent approach, therefore, is to place your attention below that point, where there already is no contraction, you see. Place your attention below the navel in the vital battery region in the genital region or at the perineum. Do nothing other than that. Simply place your attention there, and then practice the meditative disposition, the devotional disposition, the breathing and relaxing that are your daily practice. You will very likely notice that in those moments when you otherwise would not be able to release such a contraction, it will naturally relax, and you will enjoy the capacity to breathe and feel and submit the total bodymind to this Fullness. Indeed, this is how conductivity must be practiced, by submitting yourself to the native disposition of the body rather than fastening your attention to some point in the circuit of the body-mind.

 

1. One way of relieving this contraction (in addition to your basic resort of devotional practice) is to place your attention LOWER DOWN in the body, below the point where you feel the cramp.

2. If you place your attention above or at the cramp the revulsion will continue.

3. If you place your attention below the cramp you will enjoy the capacity to submit to the total bodymind in its Fullness.

4. This is conductivity.

5. Do not fasten attention to some ‘point’ or locus (object).

 

The way, then, to submit whole bodily when the body-mind is in a contracted state is to place your attention lower down in the line of the frontal Current, place it in the lower abdomen, in the genital region, in the perineum. In these regions there is in general a residual sense of pleasure, because there is a portion of this Current always descending – it does leak through this knot, you see. Thus if you place attention in this pleasurable expression of the Current, the knot, which is being reinforced by holding attention in this anxious place will tend to relax. Then resort to the devotional disposition, and, the practice of, conductivity will be found to be fruitful.

 

1. There is natural pleasure in the body in the places where the current ‘leaks’ through.

2. If this form of conductivity and devotion the practice becomes fruitful.

 

The same wisdom applies to thinking. Instead of talking to yourself through thought or talking to others about this contraction through speech-thought and trying thus to get out of your problems, simply submit attention to the Living Reality, submit attention with the total body-mind, or whole bodily. Instead of trying to do something with thought, simply submit to the Living Current. Submit yourself to the Feeling of Being. Instead of making this knot in the head which becomes thinking, let the head relax into the Living Current. In that case, thoughts will change, thought becomes an expression of Spiritual Consciousness. Apart from this submission, thought is only an expression of the self-contraction that precedes your thinking activity. If you are going to think at all, you should think in an already awakened state of natural submission, so that even your ordinary communications become a feeling expression, a spiritual sign.

 

1. This same wisdom applies to thinking and talking – where the ‘knot’ is in the head.

2. Submit attention to the Living Reality, the Living Current, feeling attention.

3. In this manner any thinking will be informed with a spiritual communication.

 

There is very little thinking that has even practical value if you are not in such a submitted condition. This is why most of the communications that human beings make to themselves through thought, and to others through speech, are diseased, troublesome, angular, and disturbing. Most of the communications that people make verbally, emotionally, and physically disturb other people and are evidence that they themselves are disturbed. Therefore, you must first of all and in every moment be submitted, and grant attention to the Spiritual Reality rather than to these knots and disturbances.

 

1. Thinking has a practical and abstract value but must be informed by the Living Current.

2. Thinking coming out of the knots are problematic and have to do with the search.

 

This is why I suggest that the first thing you do when you get up in the morning is go to the meditation place. When you do that, you enter into the sphere of activities in the natural state, spiritually awakened, whole, balanced. Your activity or expression is transformed by that disposition. Of course, you must maintain that disposition through the practical exercise of the Way throughout the day, even turning aside to sit at some other point during the day, and certainly in the evening again. In this manner you develop the capacity for abiding in this full, natural state, spiritually awake at all times, under all conditions. When this realization, which is the essence of real meditation, becomes full, uncaused, and natural or inherent, then meditation has served its purpose.

 

1. The first thing you should do when you get up in the morning is Meditate.

2. From your meditation you will be ‘informed’.

3. From this ‘orientation’ you can go about your day spiritually awake, under ALL conditions.

 

You are hoping that you are going to think something, or discover something and think about it, that will make you feel good about Reality, feel good about life. Whatever Reality is, it is the case, and thinking about it is not the way to be in touch with it. Thinking is something you do by standing back. When you think, you contract back, you turn away, you turn inside, you become involved in the programmed mechanisms of the verbal mind, hoping to discover something that will give you some excuse, some reason to return to Reality openly, to feel good about it. You are trying to find a reason to surrender, to let go, to let yourself be vulnerable in the midst of this mortal circumstance. That is why you are thinking. However, no reason you can think of will either finally justify or make you capable of being Happy.

 

1. Most thinking is problem based and trying to solve problems and make the situation better.

2. Thinking is contraction.

3. Thinking can not make you happy.

 

You are inherently obliged to surrender, to be vulnerable, to be Happy. Only this participatory disposition is the right disposition in which to live. We can prevent ourselves from living in this way, and thinking is one of the ways we do it, but it is the only way to live. Only that participation in Reality is living. To participate in Reality means you must allow yourself to be continuous with it.

 

1. You are always obliged participate in Reality and to surrender and be Happy.

 

The body-mind arises in Reality. Reality is the case, it is whatever it is. To be continuous with Reality you must be free of everything that disconnects you from it, free of every impediment or form of disease that makes you discontinuous with whatever is the case, In other words every form of the self contraction is precisely what is preventing your Happiness, and your direct awareness of Reality. Hear me a, little bit, think along these lines a little bit, and you will discover that this is obviously the case.

 

1. Reality is always ALREADY the case. The body-mind arises in Reality.

2. Self-contraction makes you discontinuous with Reality – in the full sense.

 

Instead of this effort of thinking to locate something that will make you feel good and justify surrender, you should be actively surrendering, on the basis of hearing and seeing, submitting yourself whole bodily to this participatory disposition. This means you must submit bodily, release bodily contractions, submit without placing limits on the Living Current, on this Circle of conductivity. You must submit attention. To submit attention means you cannot let attention become fastened in thought. You must submit emotionally. To submit emotionally means you cannot let emotion assume a contracted form, become a reactive state. You must simply feel whatever is the case. You must put yourself in a position to be wholly vulnerable to whatever is the case, through feeling. Feeling is a kind of touch. Our communication with feeling is a circuit, in fact, that relates you to whatever is the case altogether, or Reality.

 

1. Instead of effort of thinking, surrender based on hearing and seeing

2. Submit and participate in Reality.

3. Submit, intellectually, emotionally and physically.

4. Submit through FEELING, tacitly.

 

If you are thinking, reacting, and being physically knotted, you are not practicing this Way of life. Not only are you not practicing this Way of life, you are not really alive, you are standing back from life, you are not participating in life, you are Narcissus. This is fundamentally what human beings must appreciate, and not just as a generalized philosophy: Every one of you must appreciate it in the terms of your personal existence. That is why you must hear my Argument. You must bring yourself to me and to my Argument in such a way that this Argument generates self-observation in you, in all the moments of ordinary living. Then it will become clear to you specifically how you are, withdrawing from Reality to sulk, to hide, to protect yourself, to think about it. That is your disease. That is precisely why you are not Happy.

 

1. Do not stand back from life, participate.

2. You are not participating in Life, you are reservedly armoring and defending yourself.

3. Bring yourself to my Argument so it generates self-observation.

4. You are un-Happy and it is you that is causing that.

 

True knowledge is not what you get as a result of your contracted mental wanderings, it is what you realize when you are, not thus contracted, What is directly obvious when you are in this continuous state, this participatory state, this true knowledge, and that is precisely what is unknown in the contracted state. Therefore, only what is known in the uncontracted state, and only the uncontracted state continuous with that, is Happiness. Nothing else is Happiness. To realize this is Wisdom, is hearing., And to be thus submitted and to Realize what there is to be Realized in submission, what simply Is, is seeing. To do all of this, moment to moment, is practicing.

 

1. True knowledge comes when there is NO contraction.

2. When you are in a free and participatory state, uncontracted.

3. The realize this Wisdom is hearing.

4. This is a moment to moment practice.

 

Primarily, then, practice is a matter, of being feelingly submitted to, whatever is the case in this moment. Whatever is the case is not limited merely to what events seem to be occurring in the natural world relative to this body-mind. Whatever is the case is what is altogether, visible and invisible, apparent and not apparent, in the gross plane and in the subtle plane, altogether. To be submitted to that is to be feelingly submitted, period. It is to be continuous with whatever is the case even if you do not know very much about it. Submission is another, word for faith, really. That process of surrender, that disposition of submission, is faith, rather than any kind of hopeful believing in some proposition about reality acquired through religion. That submission is true religion.

 

1. Primarily practice is feeling submission to whatever is already the case in this moment.

2. Period!

 

What you must realize is a disposition in you can be feelingly submitted, uncontracted, in every moment. This feeling submission carries the body, attention, and therefore mind along with it, and in that condition you become aware of the Spiritual Reality. In that condition you, can notice, acknowledge, and use the Transmission of the Spiritual Master. Therefore, it is in that condition that the great Confessions and Demonstrations associated with spiritual life are made.

 

1. This feeling submission carries the body, attention and therefore the mind along with it.

2. In that condition you become aware of Spiritual Reality.

 

In the process of this submission there is a good deal to be observed about yourself, but that information is not what is significant. That process humanizes you and improves the quality of your living, but the import of all of that is the the spiritual process and not what you can say about yourself based on self-observation. In other words, the import of self-observation is not self-knowledge in the sense that “I do this and that, and I tend to be this way and that way under these circumstances.” The, import of self-observation is the capacity to be feelingly submitted, to be without self-contraction in every moment, and therefore to directly intuit the Condition in which you exist. To be thus submitted puts the body-mind in a circumstance in which it, can be a conductor of the inherent Radiance of the Living Reality.

 

1. In this submission there is a good deal to observe about yourself.

2. That process is purifying.

3. That submission is self-observation and self-observation is the capacity to be feelingly submitted without self-contraction in every moment.

4. In every moment intuit the Condition in which you exist and thus conduct the inherent Radiance of the Living Reality.

 

It is rather easy to understand this matter that we are discussing all the time. It is really a very simple matter. I have just summarized it. However, you must appreciate the fact that even though you are party to this consideration, you are still by tendency making the resorts that egos make. You still find some way or other to be the ego, even in the midst of the apparent practice of this Way of life. In other words, you will tend to use the devices that the ego uses. You will tend to do the kinds of things I was talking to you about earlier, such as keeping your attention in the knots, in the problems which reinforces the knots and the problems. That tends to be your technique. You talk about it, think about it, try to break out. of it, relax or bust your way out it. That is the ego’s fundamental technique. That is life along the, lines of the Dreaded Gom Boo, the search for the cure, whereas the technique of Wisdom, if we can even call it a technique is to notice what you are doing and to divert attention, submit attention otherwise. Instead of keeping attention in the knots, the problems, you should, through feeling whole bodily, submit attention to, whatever is the case, to the living instant, to the uncontracted, participatory states. Be continuous with whatever is, and the Blessing and the intuition of Reality will come and then grow.

 

1. It is simple to discuss this matter, but discussing and Realizing are very different.

2. The ego will always try and take the teaching and make it into a technique.

3. A system of seemingly rational, devotional, insightful practices.

 

You must, through hearing and seeing, develop the capacity to practice just this, rather than the ego’s technique, moment to moment. You must discover how to submit attention artfully by practicing over time, because in every moment, that sacrifice is played in a subtly different way than at any other moment. If you are reserved, and running this Current through a little teeny wire and knotting it up and using up all the energy to run the idiotic machinery of your habitual reactivity, then of course your happiness is limited and diminished, your life becomes complicated, and the demonstration of the Spiritual Reality will not occur in your case to any remarkable degree. Here and there you may have a positive experience, because everybody has some moments in which they are relatively loosed, you see, but there will not be any significant or continuous demonstration.

 

1. You must develop the capacity to practice based on hearing and seeing.

 

The Demonstration of the Way is a, great delight. Happiness Demonstrated is Magnified Happiness, Incarnate Happiness. That Happiness is the position that all of this spiritual labor leads to. However if you spend your entire lifetime resorting to the egoic technique and fretting over, your limits and merely acquiring information about yourself, you will never truly practice the Way.

The human body-mind has great capacity for this, Demonstration of the Living Divine. That Demonstration is what we are born to do. If you spend yourself getting Enlightened, then you spend your life getting born. Enlightenment is simply the fullness of birth, full birth, true birth. The lifetime that most people spend is not a fully born life. It does not Incarnate its own Principle. Thus, most people are struggling to be born, looking for some reason to feel good. Enlightenment is simply the basic Principle of our birth. The Demonstration of the Spiritual Condition is what is beyond Enlightenment, and that Demonstration is what we are born for and is the Way that I Teach.

 

1. We are born to Realize the Living Reality, the basic Principle of our birth.

2. The Demonstration of the Spiritual Condition is beyond Enlightenment, and this is what I teach.


 Highlights

1. Uncommon signs and experiences occur.

2. But they occur in a cultural taboo against them.

3. Or a lust for them.

4. When people are not converted they see through their own doubts and taboos.

5. People look for uncommon phenomenal signs.

6. Because they are full of doubt and un-Happiness.

7. Experiences suggest a relief from un-Happiness.

8. But witnessing the experiences of other people and themselves people feel that experiences are basically nothing.

9. There are genuine spiritual experiences, but they are not the point.

10. The art of spiritual life is granting attention and following it with total submission to Spiritual Reality.

11. But, instead of following with submission people tend to get locked or bound to problematic states of mind and body.

12. The art of spiritual life (once you’ve HEARD and SEEN) is the ability to ‘re-devote’ (FREE ATTENTION) to the Living Spiritual Reality.

13. You must be able to OBSERVE how attention is functioning.

14. Attention (in the gross and subtle dimensions) is always moving towards forms of contraction (objects).

15. Ego is disturbed and is tending move toward the weakest point of difficulty.

16. Pain, physical and emotional, are the most common points of difficulty.

17. The mind produces problems and gets locked into problematic states, limits.

18. You are not aware of Spiritual Reality.

19. The art of spiritual life is to notice the mechanical (unconscious) contracted states and be capable of ‘reorienting’ through Remembrance and responsible.

20. You must be able to observe whatever arises in a problematic (or otherwise) form and submitted and responsible – at the same time.

21. The mind and attention are forms of (one) contraction.

22. Unless the mind is ‘informed by spiritual consideration’ it is locked in its own mechanics.

23. Thinking is a conversation with yourself.

24. Speech is thinking engaged with others.

25. Thinking is about looking for solutions, inventions and trying to solve problems.

26. Thinking is about trying to free yourself of this ‘knot’, an oppressive sense of existence.

27. The mind is a question trying to find an answer.

28. The mind is a self-perpetuating dis-ease.

29. This ‘knot’ of of mind and attention is simultaneously in the body.

30. This knot is a compression of the Living Conscious Force, a suppression, contraction of its field.

31. Perpetual thinking is pain.

32. Instead of trying to ‘think’ your way out of this chronic pattern of mind you should understand yourself, see what you’re up to.

33. You should divert and submit your attention to the Living Reality.

34. Whole Body submission.

35. The art of spiritual life is the ability to relocate attention.

36. The is a directed way of practicing.

37. The common method of practicing is based on the contraction itself, trying to relieve or direct attention itself, not submission of attention.

37. The knot of the solar plexus is a primary knot and people try to relax it by taking deep breaths and so forth.

39. This may temporarily work if the cramp is superficial.

40. But you will discover you cannot relax it.

41. This leads to more trouble, maybe panic.

42. Adi Da suggests, as a practical matter you should remember that attention goes wherever the knot is.

43. Attention gravitates toward contracted states and objects.

44. This then creates an effort to escape or a strategy to work its self out.

45. The knot is a reversal of the Current and it prevents the current from going to its lower terminal.

46. One way of relieving this contraction (in addition to your basic resort of devotional practice) is to place your attention LOWER DOWN in the body, below the point where you feel the cramp.

47. If you place your attention above or at the cramp the revulsion will continue.

48. If you place your attention below the cramp you will enjoy the capacity to submit to the total bodymind in its Fullness.

49. This is conductivity.

50. Do not fasten attention to some ‘point’ or locus (object).

51. There is natural pleasure in the body in the places where the current ‘leaks’ through.

52. If this form of conductivity and devotion the practice becomes fruitful.

53. This same wisdom applies to thinking and talking – where the ‘knot’ is in the head.

54. Submit attention to the Living Reality, the Living Current, feeling attention.

55. In this manner any thinking will be informed with a spiritual communication.

56. Thinking has a practical and abstract value but must be informed by the Living Current.

57. Thinking coming out of the knots are problematic and have to do with the search.

58. The first thing you should do when you get up in the morning is Meditate.

59. From your meditation you will be ‘informed’.

60. From this ‘orientation’ you can go about your day spiritually awake, under ALL conditions.

61. Most thinking is problem based and trying to solve problems and make the situation better.

62. Thinking is contraction.

63. Thinking can not make you happy.

64. You are always obliged participate in Reality and to surrender and be Happy.

65. Reality is always ALREADY the case. The body-mind arises in Reality.

66. Self-contraction makes you discontinuous with Reality – in the full sense.

67. Instead of effort of thinking, surrender based on hearing and seeing

68. Submit and participate in Reality.

69. Submit, intellectually, emotionally and physically.

70. Submit through FEELING, tacitly.

71. Do not stand back from life, participate.

72. You are not participating in Life, you are reservedly armoring and defending yourself.

73. Bring yourself to my Argument so it generates self-observation.

74. You are un-Happy and it is you that is causing that.

75. True knowledge comes when there is NO contraction.

76. When you are in a free and participatory state, uncontracted.

77. The realize this Wisdom is hearing.

78. This is a moment to moment practice.

79. Primarily practice is feeling submission to whatever is already the case in this moment.

80. Period!

81. This feeling submission carries the body, attention and therefore the mind along with it.

82. In that condition you become aware of Spiritual Reality.

83. In this submission there is a good deal to observe about yourself.

84. That process is purifying.

85. That submission is self-observation and self-observation is the capacity to be feelingly submitted without self-contraction in every moment.

86. In every moment intuit the Condition in which you exist and thus conduct the inherent Radiance of the Living Reality.

87. It is simple to discuss this matter, but discussing and Realizing are very different.

88. The ego will always try and take the teaching and make it into a technique.

89. A system of seemingly rational, devotional, insightful practices.

90. You must develop the capacity to practice based on hearing and seeing.

91. We are born to Realize the Living Reality, the basic Principle of our birth.

92. The Demonstration of the Spiritual Condition is beyond Enlightenment, and this is what I teach.