by Da Free John
If you are thinking, the separate “I” is already the basic presumption of your existence. But if there is simply bodily activity, or bodily existing, the separate “I” is not necessarily presumed and operative.
The Secret of God-Realization is in the transcendence of the separate “I,” which is the conceptual reflection of the contraction of the total body-mind into separation from the All Pervading Transcendental Identity (or Divine Self Condition) and withdrawal into confinement by the illusion of independence as a limited, defined, and knowable psycho-physical self.
The Western Way (or the Way of Divine Ignorance) is a process of self-transcendence, or ecstasy, generated in the specific terms of the seven basic stages of human adaptation, growth, and transcendence. Each stage presumes various disciplines of a personal, moral, and evolutionary kind. But these are secondary to the fundamental or conscious process at each stage. The conscious process is the process which is generated from or at the most fundamental level of awareness itself. And, at each stage, that process is generated as intuitive understanding and immediate transcendence of the self-contraction (or the suggestion of independence and limitation that arises every moment as experience, or the states of the body mind).
The fundamental consciousness does not create or generate experience. Rather, experience is an apparent modification of the fundamental consciousness. Psycho-physical states are nothing more than electronic fabrications made by a seeming transformation of the fundamental consciousness or Radiant Being. If psycho-physical existence is, in any moment, presumed via identification with the body-mind in itself, then experience, thought, and action become a drama of self-seeking in the midst of mortal and absurd threats to existence. However, if, in any moment, the self-contraction of the body-mind is transcended, even physical existence is Realized to be a transparent moment of Immortal Divine Existence.
The various expressions of the conscious process that appear in each of the stages of the spiritual Way are all moments of the same process of self-transcendence, ecstasy in the Divine, or transcendence of the contracting, limiting, and defining power of psycho-physical experience. If in any moment you simply indulge patterns of mental and physical experience, you fall into the moods and limits of Narcissus, the separated and threatened self. If, however, the conscious process is generated in the instant of the arising patterns of body-mind, both mind and body are transcended in Divine Communion, or Inherence in the Divine Condition.
In each moment in which the conscious process is generated, states of mind and body become open and transparent, and there is only the direct intuition of the Real Condition, which is always already the case, whatever seems to be arising as experience in any moment.
In the initial stage of spiritual practice, the conscious process takes the basic form of simple emotional surrender of the body-mind into the Radiant Divine, Who “lives” the body-mind and the world. This simple practice (commonly associated with the surrender of attention into the Divine via the Name), when associated with basic personal and moral disciplines, makes possible the transition from the merely vital and lower mental adaptations of the first three stages of life to the heartfelt disposition of self-surrender, which characterizes the fourth stage of life and all later stages.
The simple practices of surrender and Remembrance are to be engaged within a pattern of daily formal devotional exercises, but such formal exercises are themselves to provide a base of concentration from which the conscious process of surrender and Remembrance is exercised more and more as a constant or moment to moment activity. And in any moment that the conscious process is exercised, the conventional pattern of mere identification with and indulgence of states of mind and body is interrupted. Instead of merely thinking and acting as a search for fulfillment and release of self, the fundamental being is, in this manner, involved in self-transcending Communion with the Radiant Divine. Therefore, as maturity in this conscious process develops over time, a positive equanimity begins to characterize the body-mind. Obsessive thinking dissolves in the profound Fullness of Radiant Being. And the bodily individual becomes spontaneously active as a direct expression of the Divine Life-Impulse. As such, the body becomes a form of Light, or Life-Radiance, expressed as a harmonious economy, full of love, bliss, and delight.
When such maturity begins to acquire the body-mind, the verbal aspect of prayer in the fourth stage of life begins to be naturally transcended. The Name gives way to tacit Communion, and the struggle with personal and moral disciplines is replaced by easeful responsibility and equanimity. Then the devotee is ready to enter the esoteric order of the Church, wherein the conscious process and the evolutionary practices of higher human growth develop in new ways.
The Secret of practice is this: In every moment, instead of merely thinking and acting, engage the conscious process. If you do this moment to moment, the self-contraction will be constantly transcended, the mind will become deeper than thought, and bodily existence and activity will become balanced and spontaneous.
Of course, moment to moment exercise of the conscious process is not natural or possible at the beginning, but as you mature and become stable in regular and daily formal practice, the conscious process will extend itself more and more easily into all the moments of ordinary experience.
Don’t punish yourself with practice. Develop your understanding through study, and gradually and progressively adapt to the personal, moral, and formal exercises. Do it simply, easily, from the heart, and you will inevitably grow beyond yourself.
Return to Conscious Process – Outline edit