The Dreaded Gomboo or The Imaginary Disease That
Religion Seeks To Cure.
A Collection of Essays and Talks on the “Direct”
Process of Enlightenment.
By Da Free John.
Compiled and edited with an introduction and commentary
by the Renunciate Hermitage Order.
THE DREADED GOM-BOO
Part I: Understanding
CHAPTER 5
Purify Yourself with Happiness
August 25, 1982
SECTION I
MASTER DA: The essay I want to read to you today is a
summary of the point of view of this Way. The essay is
titled “Purify Yourself with Happiness.”
Purify Yourself with Happiness
an essay by Da Free John
1.
The Way that I Teach is founded on the Principle of prior
and, therefore, always present self-transcendence. And every
moment of self-transcendence is also a moment of
self-purification, as well as unmediated Realization of That
which is prior to the self, or to self-contracted
awareness.
The traditional paths also involve various means of
self-purification, but they generally propose
self-purification as the Way itself-or a method for
achieving Salvation, God-Realization, Liberation, or
Enlightenment as the future or ultimate Goal of a strategic
effort that is problem-based, ego-bound, or not yet Saved,
God-Realized, Liberated, or Enlightened.
The Way that I Teach is founded on a unique or singular
Principle. It is not founded on any presumed problem, nor is
it founded on the ego (or self-contraction). It is founded,
from the beginning, on direct Realization of That which is
proposed as the Goal (rather than the already Realized
Principle) of traditional effort.
2.
The conventional conception of religious or Spiritual
life is modelled after the idea of disease and its cure.
According to this conception, the religious or Spiritual
practitioner is to regard himself or herself as a kind of
patient, suffering from a terminal, but perhaps somehow
curable, disease. Likewise, the religious or Spiritual
process is to be regarded as the ultimate method of cure,
and the Teachers, priests, and doctrinal Sources of the
religious or Spiritual life are to be regarded as a patient
would regard his or her physician and medicines.
Therefore, in the traditional setting, religious or
Spiritual life is commonly engaged as an effort toward cure,
or the ultimate solution to a consistently presumed problem.
And, for this reason, the traditional language of religion
and Spirituality is, by convention, based on negative or
problematic conceptions, such as “sin,” the “flesh,” “evil,”
the “devil,” “hell,” “damnation,” “samsara,” “ignorance,”
“illusion,” “maya,” the “body,” and the “self” as a concrete
or inherently independent entity.
In contrast to these traditional conceptions, the Way
that I Teach may be said to be based on the model of
inherent well-being, and practice of the Way may be likened
to a process wherein health itself is more and more
profoundly magnified.
The traditional or conventional course of religious or
Spiritual practice may be likened to a progressive cure,
developed through often drastic remedies and dissociative
seclusion (or confinement to the “inwardness” of the disease
itself), and involving a protracted or even life-long
practice of convalescence (even in remedial isolation). In
contrast, the Way that I Teach involves immediate
self-diagnosis (or self-understanding) and direct,
instantaneous, or always present and complete release (in
the form of present self-transcendence) of the entire
principle of dis-ease.
The course of life-long (or even Eternal) practice of the
Way that I Teach will, especially in its earlier stages
(previous to full Spiritual maturity, or mature
responsibility for un-Happiness), manifest some of the
appearance of a gradual cure (in the form of progressive
self-purification), but the Principle whereby these changes
are naturally developed conforms entirely to the disposition
of an inherently healthy (or already cured) state of
well-being.
3.
Consider this. That which is the Truth, or Reality, or
the Real Condition of all that exists must necessarily
always already be the case. God, or Radiant Transcendental
Being, is always already (or always presently) the Condition
or Real Status of worlds, and conditions, and things, and
beings of all kinds. Therefore, whatever may otherwise be
presumed (or whatever may seem to be the case from the
conventional viewpoint of the body-mind-self), God, Truth,
the Real Condition, Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant
Fullness, Love-Bliss, or Happiness is Really the case.
4.
There is only Happiness, or the Self-Radiant Fullness of
Love-Bliss. Un-Happiness, like un-Reality, or un-Truth, is
only a false presumption, presently superimposed on the Real
Condition. Therefore, you can always presume or understand
yourself to Be Happy (or existing in the Condition of
God-Realized Freedom), but you can never become Happy.
If you are (or presume or seem to be) un-Happy now, your
only Real option is to observe, understand, and directly
transcend whatever you are now doing to Happiness to make it
seem to be un-Happiness. All other efforts, all searches for
Happiness, are based on the failure to presently observe,
understand, and directly transcend the activity (or
self-contraction) that is un-Happiness.
Therefore, I Teach the Way of self-observation,
self-understanding, and self-transcendence. That process is
necessarily and inherently self-purifying, but the Way that
I Teach is not based on the strategy of self-purification.
The strategy of self-purification is a conditional effort
based on the presumption of the self-contraction and its
problems (or un-Happiness). Therefore, that strategy seeks
to progressively eliminate the self-contraction (or ego) and
all of its problems or un-Happy conditions as a
pre-condition for the eventual or future Realization of
Happiness, God, Truth, Salvation, Liberation, or
Enlightenment.
I propose to you that the strategy of self-purification,
or the strategic search for Happiness (by whatever word or
State it is indicated or defined) is founded on a critical
error. And unless that error is understood and transcended,
no effort to purify or transcend the self or its
un-Happiness can be ultimately fruitful (because the effort
itself will produce only conditional or self-bound
results).
5.
All seeking (or every strategic pursuit of Happiness) is
based on the present and continuous presumption of
separation, independent individuality (or separativeness),
and emptiness (or un-Happiness). Therefore, all of the
objects or conditions found or attained by seeking are only
a superficial consolation for the separation, independent
individuality (or separativeness), and emptiness (or
un-Happiness) that are yet presumed or still seem to be the
case.
Only profound self-observation, self-understanding, and
direct (or always present ) self-transcendence dissolve the
presumption and the effects of separation, independent
individuality (or separativeness), and emptiness (or
un-Happiness). And such profound self-observation,
self-understanding, and present self-transcendence
inherently, necessarily, and always presently Awaken (or
re-Awaken) the Realization of prior or Eternal Unity and
Union with the Real Condition, the Truth, God, or
Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss,
or Happiness.
The Way that I Teach is the priorly, presently, or always
already Free, Liberated, Enlightened, Awakened, or Realized
life of Unity and Union with the Real Condition, the Truth,
God, or Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant Fullness,
Love-Bliss, or Happiness. Such is true “faith,” or the
life-process that is inevitably and naturally (or Freely)
generated on the basis of the prior or Eternal presumption
of the Real Condition, the Truth, God, or Transcendental
Being, and Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss, or
Happiness.
6.
There is, necessarily and inherently, only the Real
Condition, the Truth, God, or Transcendental Being, and
Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss, or Happiness.
You are necessarily, inherently, always already, and
presently One with the Real Condition, the Truth, God, or
Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss,
or Happiness.
Therefore, Be the Real Condition, the Truth, God, or
Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss,
or Happiness.
The Way that I Teach is the inevitable or inherently and
priorly Free discipline of Being the Real Condition, the
Truth, God, or Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant
Fullness, Love-Bliss, or Happiness in every moment, in all
relations, under all conditions and so not to react to the
appearance or merely conventional status of the conditions
and presumed relations of any moment (for such a reaction,
unless it is directly and presently transcended, makes the
Real Condition, the Truth, God, or Transcendental Being, and
Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss, or Happiness the not yet
Realized or Enjoyed Goal or Object of conditional or
strategic seeking).
7.
This unique or singular discipline or Way is a Bliss-Fire
that also gradually (but naturally or inevitably, rather
than strategically and conditionally) balances and
simplifies ones life and activity, dissolves un-Happy
desires and stressful habits of body, emotion, and mind,
and, ultimately, Transfigures, Transforms, and Translates
the body-mind into the Real Condition, the Truth, God, or
Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss,
or Happiness.
As a practice, it is not a matter of doing whatever you
please, or whatever you are habitually moved to do, while
merely projecting a “good mood,” a “positive outlook,” or a
“gleeful face.” Our habitual and chronic motives are based
on learned or previously presumed un-Happiness, and they
are, in general, part of the problem-based, egoic, or
self-contracted search for Happiness.
The real practice of the Way that I Teach is a matter of
always present and serious or profound sensitivity to your
states and motives of existence, so that the entire process
of presumed and active un-Happiness may be presently and
directly observed, understood, and transcended (before it
qualifies your existence and becomes the motive of action).
Salvation, God-Realization, Liberation, or Enlightenment is
either presently the case or it is not.
Salvation, God-Realization, Liberation, or Enlightenment
is not, as Truth or Happiness, an attainment toward which we
should strive or hope. Either you are Happy now-Fully and
Really-or you are un-Happy (no matter what you think, or
what you do, or what you intend to attain, or what you value
above all).
If you are not now Happy, to the Perfect or Full degree,
then you should and must directly and presently observe,
understand, and transcend your un-Happiness (or the
self-contracting activity that you are presently and
chronically or habitually superimposing on the Real
Condition that is Happiness). This practice of always
present and profound self-observation, self-understanding,
and self-transcendence will always be Awake as present and
Free Happiness, Salvation, God-Realization, Liberation, or
Enlightenment, and it will inevitably and naturally become
the life of true equanimity, free renunciation (or
simplicity in Happiness), Transfiguration, Transformation,
and ultimate Translation.
8.
To practice the Way that I Teach is to naturally or
Freely purify and transcend yourself in the Real Condition,
the Truth, God, or Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant
Fullness, Love-Bliss, or Happiness. It is not to
strategically purify yourself in order to Realize Happiness
as a result, or as an eventual reward, or as a solution to
your presumed problem of existence. It is to purify and
transcend yourself in and with Happiness, or the Inherent
Love-Bliss of Spiritual or Transcendental Divine Being.
It is not that every possible act or state of body,
emotion, or mind is inherently un-Happy and a search for
Happiness (so that you should, if Happy, avoid every kind of
action and enjoyment). Such is itself merely another
conception of un-Happy seekers. Rather, you should always
presently and directly observe and understand your
presumptions and motivations, and so liberate your body,
emotion, and mind to express and magnify prior Happiness
(rather than the self-contracted search for Happiness).
Therefore, understand and Be Free, and you will not then
become bound to un-Happiness by any of your functions or
relations or states or conditions, nor will you allow an
already presumed un-Happiness to negate (in an inappropriate
or un-Happily strategic manner) your functions or relations
or states or conditions (while they arise).
9.
The real practice of the Way that I Teach is founded on
true “hearing” (or understanding) of the Teaching Argument
of the Spiritual Master and true “seeing” (or intuition) of
the Real or Transcendental Condition of the Spiritual
Master, the world, and the self. Therefore, practice of the
Way must necessarily be founded on always present
self-observation and self-understanding and
self-transcendence through always present intuitive
participation in (or Communion and Identification with) the
Real Condition, the Truth, God, or Transcendental Being, and
Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss, or Happiness.
Because individuals differ in the specific types of
qualifications (or Enlightened virtues) they demonstrate in
the practice of the Way (or in the preparatory stages
whereby they enter into the Spiritual maturity of the Way in
its seventh or Fully Enlightened stage), I have thoroughly
described three basic kinds of possible disciplines (or
three Ways of demonstrating the unique and singular Way that
I Teach). These three are the Way of Insight, the Way of
Faith, and the Perfect Practice.
The Way of Insight is the Way dominated by the
disposition of self-transcending (or un-Happiness
transcending) insight.
The Way of Faith is the Way dominated by the disposition
of self-transcending (or un-Happiness transcending)
surrender.
And the Perfect Practice is the direct Way of
self-transcending (or un-Happiness transcending) intuition
of the Transcendental Condition of self and world.
10.
The self-contraction and all seeking for Happiness (or
Transcendental Realization) occur only, always, and
presently within (or as a modification, contraction, or
perturbation of) the Real Condition, the Truth, God, or
Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss,
or Happiness. Therefore, the Context of self-understanding,
self-surrender, or self-transcending intuition of the Real
Condition is always, necessarily, and presently the
Realization of the Real Condition, the Truth, God, or
Transcendental Being, and Self-Radiant Fullness, Love-Bliss,
or Happiness.
The Way of Insight is the basic or central form of the
Way that I Teach, since it is based on the principal
Argument relative to always present self-observation,
self-understanding, self-transcendence, and no-seeking. Its
practice is dominated by “hearing,” or self-transcending
insight, but it must also move via true “seeing” and
surrender, and it is summarized as ultimate or radical
intuition of the Real Condition.
The Way of Faith is also for those who truly understand
the gesture of un-Happiness (or self-contraction), but whose
dominant qualification for practice of the Way is the motive
and capacity for surrender into the Spiritual Condition of
Happiness. Their practice is dominated by “seeing,” or
responsive surrender to the Divine Condition Revealed in the
Company of the Spiritual Master, but their practice is also
founded in basic “hearing,” or understanding of the
principal Argument, and their Way is also summarized in
ultimate or radical intuition of the Real Condition.
The Perfect Practice is the essence of the process
developed in the case of both the Way of Insight and the Way
of Faith. It is the process in the form that becomes
inevitable at the point of Spiritual maturity (or when true
equanimity and freedom from the motives of the
self-contraction are fully established). Therefore, the
first stage of the Perfect Practice is only for those who
are uniquely qualified from the beginning (and who
demonstrate those qualifications via profound
self-understanding, equanimity of body, emotion, and mind,
free energy and attention, devotion to the already Realized
Truth and the Self-Radiant Spiritual Master, service to the
community of devotees, and freedom from the seeking and
conventional inwardness, or passive withdrawal, associated
with meditation on self). But even practitioners of the Way
of Insight and the Way of Faith eventually qualify for the
second and third stages of the Perfect Practice (once such
practitioners demonstrate the qualities of self-transcending
equanimity and free attention and energy that characterize
true Spiritual maturity).
11.
This simple Teaching about prior Happiness and no-seeking
is the Essence of all that I have ever Taught to devotees.
The practice of the Way, in any of its three basic forms
(each of which is simply an elaboration of the various
implications of this most basic Teaching), requires
understanding of this singular Argument and Awakened
intuition of the Happiness or Radiant Transcendental
Condition that I am here to Demonstrate to all.
Therefore, now and forever, test your understanding, your
practice, and your Realization against this unique and
singular message.
SECTION II
MASTER DA: The first paragraph of this essay states the
Principle of the Way that I Teach, which is the Principle of
prior and therefore always present self-transcendence.
Practice of the Way that I Teach is not associated with
conventional conceptions of existence, such as those that
animate the traditional paths. The conventional conceptions
of existence are self-based or ego-based, and the
maintenance of those conceptions transforms the Way into a
progressive process for seeking the ultimate Realization of
Happiness. Constant and present self-understanding and
freedom from the implications of the conventional
conceptions of existence are essential to the practice of
the Way. Therefore, it is appropriate that you study and
consider the conventional conceptions of existence as they
are projected in the form of the traditional paths.
A few days ago I considered with you some examples of
instructional stories from the tradition of Advaita Vedanta,
and I criticized certain aspects of that tradition. In
Nirvanasara I have indicated the sympathetic association
between this Way and the traditions of Advaitism, Buddhism,
and others, but I consider these traditions from a critical
point of view, or from the point of view of the Principle
upon which the Way that I Teach is founded.
The traditional paths are typically associated with the
conventional conceptions of “idealism” and “realism.” Even
apart from the traditional paths of the search for Happiness
or Realization, human beings, wittingly or unwittingly, tend
to base their course of life on presumptions about existence
that more or less correspond to the conventional views of
idealism and realism.
Idealistic individuals and paths based on the point of
view of idealism animate a course of life founded on some
ultimate, positive Principle or presumption that is proposed
and enforced through an act of faith but is not wholly or
presently Realized. Rather, through faith in the ultimate
Principle, the ultimate Principle may be Realized, proved,
or attained in the future. Faith, or the practice of
advocating and, as a discipline, presuming an ultimate
Principle, God, Truth, or Transcendental Existence, is
therefore the structure of seeking created by the
conventional view of idealism, which takes form as belief in
that Principle, strategic inversion upon It, or even the
strategic extroversion toward It common in conventional
religious idealistic movements.
The paths of idealism are based upon the reception of
some presumed revelation of Truth or God, some argument, as
in the case of the “talking school” of Advaita Vedanta, that
seems to prove the existence of the Transcendental
Condition, but that does not fully Realize It at the
beginning. The paths of idealism are generated therefore not
on the basis of the Realization of Truth, but rather on the
basis of faith-belief in that Truth or mental affirmation of
It. Christianity and Advaita Vedanta are examples of
idealistic paths that affirm a great Revelation or
Truth.
Other paths commonly adopted by human beings are based on
the conventional view of realism. Such traditional paths
include, in general, the tradition of Buddhism, and the
modes of life proposed by the doctrines of materialism and
the conventional secular view that is more or less common in
our time. The paths of realism are based on the presumption
that what appears to be the case, such as body, mind,
objective relations, and the objective world, is simply and
really the case. What appears to be actual defines Reality
from the realistic point of view.
The idealistic paths of seeking for Ultimate Realization
develop essentially as a dissociative process of
self-purification, in effect the elimination of the
conditions of existence, while the conventional paths of
realism based on the materialistic point of view are
expressed through the usual life of self-seeking,
self-indulgence, and the pursuit of happiness through
experiential self-pleasuring.
The Way that I Teach is not at all founded on the point
of view of either idealism or realism. It is not the
conventional conception of existence that is based on
egoity, separation, and the objective appearance of
phenomena. The Way that I Teach is not based on conventional
presumptions, either idealistic or realistic. It is not
based on the analysis of self as an independent soul or
entity nor is it based on inversion upon it. It is not based
on the presumption that the way things seem to be is the
definition of what Is. Rather, the Way that I Teach is based
on the tacit or direct observation of what we are as a
process in this moment of existence. It is founded on always
present observation and understanding of that which we add
to or superimpose upon the Condition of existence in this
moment and again in this moment.
If we observe and understand and transcend that which we
are adding to existence in this moment, then what Is in this
moment is Self-Revealed or Obvious. What Is, when what we
add to what Is is transcended, is simply what Is. It need
not be defined as an idealistic conception, nor should what
we are adding to what Is or superimposing on It in the form
of conceptions and reactions be the instrument of our
presumptions about what Is. Both our conception of what Is
as an ultimate Principle and what we superimpose on what Is
in the form of our self-contraction and its extensions as
ideas, actions, emotional states, experience, and presumed
knowledge, which form the basis of idealistic and realistic
conceptions, are transcended from the beginning and in every
moment of practice in the disposition of this Way that I
Teach.
The principle of understanding represents the unique and
single point of view that is fundamental to this Way. If you
properly comprehend it, then you will see how it is distinct
from the generally ego-based or problem-based conceptions
that animate the traditional paths and transform them into
forms of seeking or cure rather than the magnification of
prior well-being and Happiness.
Our Way is founded on Enlightenment. Enlightenment or
Happiness is magnified in the process of our Way.
Enlightenment or Happiness is not to be discovered in the
future through the process of our Way. Self-purification
occurs naturally and spontaneously in our Way, generated
naturally, spontaneously, or non-strategically by the
Principle of Happiness or prior Realization.
This argument of understanding is proposed in The Knee of
Listening , and you will find it throughout the written
forms of this Teaching. Understanding is the unique and
fundamental principle discovered in my own life and
adventure. Therefore, if you are to take up this Way as I
consider it, you must found yourself in understanding, and,
through understanding, be free of the motivations and
conceptions that are the conventions of egoic existence.
The Principle of this Way is self-transcending
understanding in every present moment, not some God-idea or
an idea of Transcendental Being that I propose and that you
believe. The traditional paths are based on such proposals
of belief in the Revelation of God, the will of God, or the
nature of God. And the path offered on the basis of such
belief is to Realize God or enter into perfect union with
God through a progressive activity whereby you are cured of
your dissociation from God. Until you go through the entire
process of cure, however, and come out on the other side of
it, now or in heaven or in some extraordinary state, it is
presumed that you have not yet Realized God and are not yet
enjoying a condition of perfect Unity with God.
The path of Advaita Vedanta is commonly based on the
proposition that the self is Transcendental and not
individuated, a proposition that is affirmed through
analytical arguments. One technique of the “talking school”
of Advaitism is simply to propose that you are the
Transcendental Self or that your consciousness is
Transcendental in nature. Another technique is to argue on
the basis of the analysis of the states of waking, dreaming,
and sleeping that consciousness is functionally other than
its objects.
The purpose of supporting this ultimate proposition
through argument is to prove it somehow, to make inevitable
the affirmation of or belief in that principle, and to
guarantee the practice of inversion upon the self-principle.
But merely affirming that the conscious self is
Transcendental rather than individuated and limited is not
the same as proving it is such to the point of actual
Realization.
The self is indeed Transcendental in nature and not
individuated, but this Truth is a matter of Realization. To
state it is to Confess it, not to prove it. Therefore, we
must do more than affirm and seek to Realize the Principle
that is Truth, that is simply the case. It is not
appropriate to conceive of What is the case without
transcending the difference that makes It seem not to be the
case, nor is it appropriate then to go on and merely believe
in It or affirm and seek It or engage in some exercise of
inversion upon It prior to your actual Realization that It
is the case.
The Way that I Teach, therefore, is not based on the
method of proposing and arguing that is typical of the path
of Advaitism. The Way that I Teach is founded on a
Confession that is clearly like the Confession of Adepts of
the Advaitic path. It is the same Confession made by
Realizers in the Advaitic Way and the same Confession made
by Realizers or seventh stage Adepts in the Buddhist Way. I
Confess the same Truth. It is a Confession founded on
Realization. I do not propose that Truth to you merely as a
principle to be believed. I call you instead to observe, to
consider to the point of understanding, and to transcend
what you are doing and what you are tending to be, what you
are and what you presume by convention, so that what Is will
simply be obvious, rather than merely proposed or believed
to be the case.
The Way that I Teach is founded on always present
Realization of That which is the case. That Realization is
directly available through the process of self-transcending
understanding, which bears a likeness to the processes
founded in the point of view of realism in that this Way is
not the idealistic affirmation of some ultimate principle on
the basis of argument or belief but it is the observation of
what seems to be the case. Even so, I do not propose the
observation of what seems to be the case as a practice that
continues until the presumed independent self and presumed
objective phenomenal realities are utterly destroyed.
Rather, I call you to understand and transcend, directly and
presently, the self-contraction or that which you are
superimposing on this moment. The transcendence of that
superimposition is always in the present, and the
Realization of what Is is always in the present. The
Realization of the Transcendental Condition is therefore an
always present Realization, if we found ourselves, directly
and presently, on self-transcending understanding.
The Way that I Teach is most properly the Way that is
fully Realized and expressed as the process and disposition
of the seventh stage of life. Nonetheless, the
considerations and practices that we may call preparatory
(the Way of Faith, the Way of Insight, and the first two
stages of the Perfect Practice) coincide with the same
Principle that is most fully Realized, most perfectly
established, in the seventh stage of life. The Way properly
includes the Way of Faith, the Way of Insight, and the first
two stages of the Perfect Practice, if we understand them
rightly. Through the process of the Way of Faith, the Way of
Insight, and the first two stages of the Perfect Practice,
spiritual maturity, or responsibility for un-Happiness and
unconditional Realization of the Transcendental Condition of
existence, is fully Awakened. It is certainly Awakened from
the beginning of all of these approaches, if the individual
will hear this Argument and see or Awaken to this Truth,
this disposition, That which is evident and magnified in the
Person of the Spiritual Master, That which is evident and
Self-Magnified as Reality in the moment of true, direct, and
present understanding.
The Way of Faith, the Way of Insight, and the first two
stages of the Perfect Practice are not like the traditional
paths, which are founded on the self-contraction and
therefore represent a process in the traditional mode of
cure. They are simply the earlier stages of a process that
is founded on prior Enlightenment, real understanding,
self-transcending surrender, or self-transcending intuition.
Those who would take up this Way must come to this
understanding and Realize this disposition and this
Principle. They must hear and see.
Thus, their initial association with this Teaching and
this Way, their initial association with the Adept and the
Agencies of Transmission, is established in the division of
our institution we call The Laughing Man Institute. At that
level of practice devotees may assume many disciplines, but
it is primarily a time when they must come to understand,
when they must transcend the conventional conceptions and
ego-based presumptions upon which they would tend to develop
the practice of this Way. Only when they become fully
established in the singular Principle that is unique and
fundamental to this Way can they practice the Way as it is.
The time of practice within The Laughing Man Institute is
the time to listen and come to this understanding, a time to
associate with the Teaching and this community to the point
of seeing, or intuition of the Real Condition. When hearing
and seeing are established, then the Way can begin as it is,
although even prior to such maturity they will already be
practicing certain phenomenal aspects of the Way.
Prior to true hearing and seeing people tend to practice
the disciplines as self-based remedial activities.
Therefore, they are generally struggling with simply
purifying and balancing themselves, studying, and adapting
to the community and culture of this Teaching. That time of
listening and watching and ordinary practicing has fulfilled
itself when the true Principle of this Way is fully and
firmly awakened and established and made the basis of
practice. Then the unique characteristics of the individual
that determine which of the three forms of approach is
appropriate will begin to become clear. Through the process
of practice in The Free Communion Church, the individual
will gradually develop one or another of the three forms of
approach. Until that time, until one or the other becomes
clearly and firmly established as the form of practice, all
three forms of approach are studied and experimented with,
until the individuals true qualifications for practice
become obvious.
So-is all of this clear? Does anybody not quite
understand the distinction I have been making? The essential
proposition that I am communicating to you is not that there
is God or Transcendental Being. That is my Confession to
you, but it is not the fundamental Principle of my Argument
to you. Nor am I arguing to you that you are a sinner or
suffering or ego-bound and that you need to overcome your
suffering, free yourself from it, and eliminate it so that
someday you will Realize the Truth or your Real Condition.
At some experiential level, this may be more or less true of
you, but that presumption is not the basis on which this Way
can be built.
The primary proposition, the Principle I am communicating
to you and considering with you, is that if you observe
yourself, in this moment and in every moment, you will see
that you are superimposing on this moment a whole complex of
presumptions and states, all of which stem from one simple
activity, which is the activity of self-contraction,
separation, separativeness, and emptiness. Therefore, you
are seeking Unity, Union, Fullness, or Happiness.
But if you will observe yourself truly and directly in
every moment, you will see that That which you are proposing
to discover, perhaps ultimately, is not ahead of you in
time. It is not conditioned or limited by time or space. It
is simply the Condition in which you always already exist.
You are superimposing on that Condition various experiential
and psychological and emotional limitations that begin as
ideas and develop as all kinds of neuroses, complexes,
habits, and results of habits and actions. All that you are
suffering is superimposed on your Real Condition in every
moment, so that as soon as you understand and transcend the
apparition created by this gesture, this act and its
effects, you Realize you are already established in That
which you would otherwise seek.
The Condition of this moment, the Condition of existence,
of Being, is inherently Free, Transcendental, Blissful,
Unqualified, Radiant. Therefore, instead of basing your life
on belief, proposition, and conventional faith in the future
Realization of the Ultimate, instead of gnawing away at your
dis-ease and meditating on it, I propose that you found
yourself on this understanding, not merely on some idea
taken from this moment of consideration, but on the moment
to moment or always present process of self-observation,
self-understanding, and self-transcendence. That process
always involves the direct intuition of What is always
already the case. It is always based on self-observation and
self-understanding, regardless of which of the three Ways of
approach you take. It is always expressed as
self-transcendence, or standing beyond the knot of self,
standing prior to the knot of self and to the vision, the
presumed knowledge and experience, that is merely a
projection of this self-knot.
If you will hear this Argument and see or intuit the Real
Condition, you will quite naturally and progressively be
purified of the limiting conditions of existence. The
process of purification certainly is a part of this Way, but
it is simply not based on the strategy of the
self-contraction. Thus, even in the form of the various
disciplines associated with the culture of this practice,
eventually your practice will become simple Abiding as the
Transcendental Condition. That Abiding is the disposition of
the seventh stage of life. I call it “open-eyed,” because it
is not dissociative in character. Whatever arises as body,
emotion, mind, relations of all kinds, and experiences, is
tacitly, directly recognized as nothing but an unnecessary,
transparent or merely apparent, non-binding modification or
contraction or perturbation of the Real Condition.
In the case of such unconditional Realization, the
body-mind is Transfigured or Radiated by the Self-Magnified
Life or Light of Being. The body-mind has a quality of
Transfigured Force. It is Radiant with free Energy and free
Bliss and expressive as Love and Freedom. In the process of
the seventh stage of life, this Transfigured state of Being
is magnified to the degree of Transformation. When the
purposes of this life are more or less complete, the grosser
aspects of life become profoundly simplified and the
qualities of experience may become more subtle. The
phenomena of the ascent of attention in the Mandala of
Cosmic Existence may begin to appear, as they certainly
appear after death. But even such phenomena are recognized.
The entire Way, from the beginning and in the seventh stage
of life, is simply a matter of Abiding in the Condition that
Is, or Self-Radiant Being, which is always already the case.
Whatever does arise, high or low in the scale of phenomenal
possibility, is simply recognized or inherently transcended.
This process of recognition continues until the Self-Radiant
Force of Being Outshines conditional existence. In that
case, there are no conditional states to be recognized.
There is simply the Self-Radiant Condition of Being, or
establishment in the Divine Domain, the Domain that is the
Divine Condition Itself.
Many people have associated with me and considered this
Way and adapted to the various practices for a number of
years, and yet it is still presumed that they are beginners
or even individuals who are not quite established in the
process. This evaluation of their practice is appropriate
because they do not yet demonstrate the evidence of hearing
and seeing. They do not yet demonstrate the evidence that
they are established in the Principle that is unique to this
Way. Their lives may have improved, they may be more
responsible for themselves, they may be happier in some
ordinary sense-and all of that is good from a human point of
view-but they are not established in the Way. This essay,
like the Teaching as a whole, is an offering to help people
become established in the Principle of this Way, which is
not a way of self-improvement or hardy belief, but the Way
of present self-transcendence and present Transcendental
Realization.
All of those who are considering the Way should study
this essay and all the many other examples of the Argument,
and test their practice, test their understanding, test what
seems to them to be Realization against this Principle and
this understanding, until the evidence of the Way becomes
clear in their case.
Physically based existence or existence embodied in any
form is not inherently un-Enlightened. We superimpose
un-Enlightenment on conditional existence through the
self-contraction. When that self-contraction is understood
and transcended, then even in the moment of the apparent
arising of conditions to attention, Self-Radiant Being is
Realized to be the Condition in which phenomena are
experienced. When such Self-Abiding is natural and
unconditionally maintained and all arising conditions are
recognized as nothing but That, then quite naturally the
process develops in which conditions are indeed gradually
Outshined, not through dissociation from them but through
Self-Abiding and continuous recognition of phenomena.
When there is nothing but the Self, then there is nothing
but the Self. Even if conditions seem to arise, they are
recognized as the Self, and as they arise and are
recognized, even in every moment of experience, there is
nothing but Self-Abiding, or Radiant Being. Thus, the
seventh stage of life is the priorly Enlightened stage of
life, and this Way of life is the priorly Enlightened Way of
life, even in its beginnings. But when there is
unconditional establishment in the Enlightened or
Transcendental Condition and when all phenomena have become
recognizable in that Condition, then phenomena are also
inevitably Outshined.
The Dreaded Gom-Boo – Table of Contents