a talk by Da Free John
October 1982
Commentary on “What Is the Conscious Process?”
If people haven’t fully studied my Teaching on the conscious process, they might tend to associate or identify it with exercises in such traditions as the Advaitic tradition. The Advaitic tradition develops the talking school approach to Realization and therefore it tends to legitimize the point of view of advocates who preach to people about consciousness and call them merely to identify with it. Such advocates try to get people to relax their minds and settle into a conscious state that doesn’t have any particular reference to the body mind, although it’s still associated with the body mind practically.
There are many such advocates. Krishnamurti is one of them. They call people to do something like the exercise of logic recommended in the Advaitic talking school. They call upon people to identify with Consciousness, to believe and affirm that the essence of the being, the consciousness behind thoughts and actions, is presently and always already identical to Brahman or the Transcendental Condition. Therefore, merely by involving yourself in this kind of analytical exercise, you can presume that you are Enlightened, or that you have achieved Jnana. (Jnana Samadhi is the Realization of the Self Essence, exclusive of all phenomena.) That’s not at all true.
The same kinds of advocates are also busy telling people that there is no real purpose for a Spiritual Master except to bind yourself to another ego. The reason they can so easily dismiss the Spiritual Master is that they have already dismissed the whole process of spiritual practice. All that’s necessary for them is this kind of analytical effort of identifying with Consciousness. It is true that our own consciousness–that which is at the root of attention–is ultimately, even inherently, identical to the Transcendental Being. But it must be Realized to be so. And it cannot be Realized to be so until energy and attention are free for that most profound and radical intuition. It’s not factually so that Nirvana and samsara are the same. By definition these are opposites-that’s how the two terms arose in the traditions. They indicate two entirely different states of existence, one Transcendental and the other conditional. The Buddhists developed the formula that states that Nirvana and samsara are the same. This is a confession of Realized Adepts. In the case of Realization it is true, in some profound paradoxical sense. But it is not factually true. It’s true only in the case of Realization.
Likewise, in the Advaitic tradition and in many places in the Hindu tradition, we hear the proclamation that Atman and Paramatman, or Atman and Brahman, are identical. This is also not factually true, according to the original development of these terms. They were meant to indicate complete opposites. The equation is Realized to be the Truth in the case of an Adept, but not otherwise. So you cannot identify with the Transcendental Being merely by inverting upon the self-essence. To invert upon the self-essence is to continue the act of Narcissus, which is to meditate on the root consciousness of the ego. Until the ego is transcended, that’s all that’s at the base of the “I” thought.
We may have some intuition of That which goes beyond the limit of self-contracted consciousness, but we cannot realize our identity with It apart from the fullest development of spiritual practice. Therefore, it is a heresy to claim that Atman and Paramatman are the same, or that Atman and Brahman are the same, until you have Realized it. It is a heresy to declare that Nirvana and samsara are the same. It’s A ridiculous claim except in the case of Realization.
The conscious process is not to be equated with the conceits or presumptions of people who want to be Realized immediately without having to go through the hard school of purification, liberation, and awakening. The conscious process is part of the total affair of practice, which involves the transcendence of the ego, or conditional attention. The conscious process develops by stages–it has a number of forms. From the beginning it may simply have the form of prayer in the Way of Divine Communion. It may become enquiry or re-cognition, or it may take the form of the Perfect Practice in its first two stages, until Realization.
The Conscious process goes through stages of development as the individual matures, but the conscious process is not the whole of the practice. The practice is associated with supportive disciplines that are secondary but necessary, such as the dietary discipline, general health discipline, the discipline of sexuality, and of service. All of these disciplines come under the heading of what I call conductivity. That total regime of practice, exercised within the devotional culture, is indicated by the single term, the conscious process. The conscious process is the epitome of the Way and its most fundamental exercise, but it. is necessarily associated with this total culture of life.
The reason for this is that the ego, the self contraction, the character that is Narcissus, is not merely some superficial notion. My conception of Narcissus applies to every single aspect, every part, function, state, relation, and condition of the self. There is no part of the manifest self that is not characterized by the self-contraction, the complex avoidance of relationship. It’s not merely a superficial part of you, underneath which there is this eternally free essence which you should identify with. Even that essence underneath it all, that fundamental sense of self-consciousness, is a fraction of this total character that is Narcissus. This total character must be understood and transcended. In every feature, function, part, relation, state–waking, dreaming, and sleeping-this consciousness that is identified with in the talking school is nothing but the bare consciousness of the waking state, or attention apart from objects. It is not Transcendental Consciousness; it is simply egoic consciousness. That egoic consciousness in all of its forms must be transcended as a necessary precondition of the radical intuition of the Transcendental Being.
This Way is not merely some kind of self generated discipline, some effort made by the ego, that ultimately winds up being Enlightenment. The context of this practice is the submission of the ego to that which transcends it, to Transcendental Help, to the Agency made literally present through the work of the Adept. It is necessary for the individual to hear or understand this Teaching and to develop the various practices associated with the general exercises of conductivity and the conscious process. We should regard these to be simply the means whereby the individual enters into Communion with his or her own Help. It is that Help, that Transcendental Transmission, that permits conductivity and the conscious process to be fruitful
It is necessary for the individual who enters into such Communion to understand how that great relationship works. As the individual develops this practice in my Company and contacts me through all of the opportunities of this Satsang, the contents of this Narcissistic ego or karmic personality come into consciousness. As these contents arise, the individual is to practice the exercises of conductivity and the conscious process in daily life and meditation. That is done in direct Communion with the Divine Power, transmitted in and through and as the Adept. As these contents arise in the moment of this Company, they are purified. They are brought up by that Influence, they are lifted off, they are changed, either instantly, or through a process of trial. They are reduced, broken up, absorbed, or in one or another way eliminated by the Work of the Adept. This is literally so; it is not merely figuratively so.
When I spend time with people, or sit with them in the Communion Hall, I magnify this Influence to them, and it combines with the various contents of their conditional being in a fashion that would not occur if this Siddhi were not brought to bear in the individual case. This Influence is Conscious. It is all energy and full Consciousness. This is what you confront in your life and meditation. This is the character of this Siddhi. The Effects of this Siddhi is to bring these contents up and to break them up, and absorb them, and eliminate them.
I enter into all kinds of play with devotees for the sake of this transmission, this purification, balancing and awakening. My ultimate work with people is for these contents to be eliminated, absorbed, broken up and the energy returned to the primary condition and the Ultimate Condition of Transcendental Being.
This is a mutual responsibility. For this process to be awakened the devotee must hear and understand…must take responsibility for his or her own practice in real terms. This is their part. I must be Present to do my part also and that Presence is to magnify what is already going on.
Practitioners who do respond to My Influence realize or observe over time all kinds of changes that are signs of this work. This is a hard school as well as a school of Grace, in which there is Great Help. This help transcends the limits that you would bring to practice ordinarily, but it is still a difficult affair.
But if you enter into this process seriously then the purification will take place and energy and attention will be freed from the self contraction on every level and equanimity and responsibility will be the result of that.
The nature of Narcissus is to have this energy bound to the self contraction. Only when this energy is free of the self contraction can it be transformed into the means and the arms of spiritual practice and the conscious process.
The admonition, ‘Be Conscious as the Feeling of Being and Realize that is is Radiant Happiness’ is not a call that can be fulfilled instantly by anyone who hears it you see. It can be fulfilled instantly in some sense, you can sympathize with it to the degree that you can enjoy a level of self understanding.
Return to Conscious Process – Outline edit