Life of Understanding – Week 8

So starting with this section that begins in the middle of the page on page 187, “The enquiry doesn’t produce an instant result simply because it is used.” It’s not there to produce a result to begin with. I mean it’s not a method, like a remedy and when you say it you start feeling moisture in your ears or something. But some people look for that. They’ve had an experience related to the rise of enquiry or related to the awakening of understanding in them and so they look for some sort of opening, release, psychological effect, physical change, psycho-physical change of some sort to be related to the use of enquiry. When they enquire, they look for whatever peculiar disturbance they are involved with in enquiry at the time to disappear, because they are asking this question, and then if it doesn’t happen, they begin to get involved in aggravation over it or they think there is some mystery or some dilemma involved with the fact that it’s not going away and as a matter of fact, at that point they are no longer enquiring; they’re using this verbal enquiry. But they’re not doing the thing that I’ve called enquiry, which is simply an extension of understanding itself. At that point when they are getting disturbed by the fact that things are not disappearing, they are not enquiring of the quality of avoidance that is really primarily operative at that moment. They’re looking at something else. This something else is being held in place by the thing that they have not enquired of at that moment. The thing that they are forgetting to enquire of because they are obsessed with the thing they are waiting to disappear.

But in any case, even where enquiry is alive in a period of meditation, a time of meditation on any particular day, you don’t just sit down in a certain condition. You come out of a previous condition whether it’s coming out of sleep or out of some daily activity. So when you sit down there is generally a period of time of warming up, of adjusting or adapting to that situation, adapting to conscious Satsang at that moment, moving through the various preliminary stages that we’ve discussed in the weeks before.

So “often you must enquire for some time before enquiry becomes conscious and intense, operative as understanding rather than as method.” When you enquire you are not dealing with words but meanings. And these people who get involved in the kind of problem I mentioned a moment ago are obsessed at that time with enquiry as a verbal symbol, a verbal formula of some kind. As if this enquiry were a magic wand or mantra in the usual sense that they repeat and the repetition itself is supposed to gain results. Enquiry is of no value unless it is combined with consciousness, unless it is a conscious event. There is no real enquiry apart from the conscious event of understanding. Enquiry simply as the application of a verbal activity is not enquiry. That’s something else, something more like a traditional religious practice. In any case, you are dealing with meaning, in other words with the quality of consciousness, not with simply a linguistic or material form.

“And you are directing it not to unconscious and material forces but to mind and consciousness, which are also aware of these.” You’re not directing the enquiry, you’re not asking the question of something that is unconscious and inert. You’re not asking your body, your solid body for an answer. Enquiry is a process in consciousness. So it’s not in itself thrown into something unconscious and inert. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that the processes related to consciousness that are ordinarily sub-conscious and unconscious, it doesn’t mean that these do not become involved in the ultimate what we might call answer to the enquiry. They are as a matter of fact. The whole event of this enquiry does move into the unconscious and subconscious life.

And the recognition that arises, that awakens in the midst of enquiry is contributed to by what you have not yet observed. By what is subliminal, by what is not mentally conscious. The activity of enquiry or of understanding, is in itself an activity in consciousness. It’s just that once the activity goes on, it includes the other dimensions of awareness, the other dimensions of the mind. So when you sit and enquire, for instance, of some quality that has arisen, and you enquire of it, and you remain in the condition of that enquiry in order to discover the answer, or you are waiting on, during that time of remaining in the state of the enquiry, waiting on all of the qualities, unconscious, subconscious, conscious, super-conscious, that are involved in the present event of your life to manifest the answer. So other qualities arise in consciousness after the moment of enquiry itself, and reveal themselves. The things that are at the moment of enquiry outside the field of awareness may arise in the process of enquiry. For that matter as you continue during the time of meditation many, many qualities arise that you are not aware of at the moment you sit down, and all of those qualities are at the moment when you sat down, at that very moment, they are unconscious, not conscious. But enquiry itself, as an activity, as something you sit down and do, is an activity in the conscious dimension.

“Thus often in meditation it takes some time for understanding to arise and real meditation to begin. Therefore, when you meditate, meditate with understanding, and continue to enquire until it moves into consciousness, recognizes the forms of avoidance, resumes the form of relationship, and creates an opening and release of bliss.” This is the beginning of a description of what we might call the end phenomenon or the answer, the quality of what we might call an answer. Enquiry does not operate as method in which we do something and it has a result, so to talk about an answer really is not quite appropriate. But you all understand what I’m talking about, so we’ll use the word answer to refer to the qualities that arise when enquiry is genuinely operative. So you sit down in Satsang and enquiry begins, and at first there’s this sort of crankiness, you know, it’s not flowing yet, and the verbal enquiry may be generated. But it may not be full, it may not be loose for a bit of time when you first sit down, but continue this whole process of sitting in Satsang and of enquiry until it becomes a conscious activity, until it becomes alive, til the enquiry is existing it its genuine form, until there is the recognition, knowing again of the forms of avoidance that are generating in life and consciousness at that instant. (That instant) until you resume the form of relationship, the condition of relationship rather than this previously unconscious condition of separation and avoidance, and creates an opening and release of bliss.

“When there is no contraction, no dilemma, no avoidance, when this has been obviated through knowledge, re-cognition, and you’ve passed from this contracted state into the conscious awareness of relationship, whenever that occurs quite naturally then, there is usually a sense of opening in some form or other and a release of energy with the quality of blissfulness associated with it.

“Frequently you will find a sudden opening or release in the heart.” Perhaps not so frequently. In the early stages or in some people this is just a quality that may arise, but if it does arise in your case and when it does begin to arise, you may notice that this occurs with some sort of frequency. “It is the release of consciousness, bliss and energy to the Amrita Nadi. This opening, fullness, ease and release is the typical result of each daily meditation.” This is in the mature form, the mature stage of enquiry. “Of course, it is not a ‘required’ experience. It is only that you may perceive it and so I have accounted for it. Simply understand and enquire with intensity, not as a method or program to create various effects, but as an activity in consciousness.”

Now fundamentally what is being said then in these few paragraphs, this notion that enquiry should be the condition of Satsang and of understanding, observation and enquiry should be maintained as your condition until it becomes an intense living process, until it is conscious and alive in all the ways that we’ve described in these last several weeks. It should not be adhered to as a method, as a programmatic plan, to create various effects such as liberation and such as perhaps the effects that I have described here as the answer to enquiry, these openings of bliss. If you look forward to them as phenomena that you hope to generate by doing various ritualistic things you’ve learned how to do inwardly, you will eventually run into problems and the same dilemma you were in before. But you will discover that it doesn’t truly work that way. Just so if you look for any of these qualities for the conscious eruption of enquiry to begin, for understanding itself to begin, for observation to begin, for some sensation of Satsang to begin, if you look to recognize the form of avoidance as a specific end phenomenon of enquiry or of sitting there, you’ve devoted yourself to a methodical activity at that time. If you look for the sensation of relationship in any sense whatsoever, this is again the use of method, the application of consciousness to method in dilemma. And senses of opening, of bliss, or the opening of the Heart, if you look for all of these tidings, in themselves, if that is what your attention is on, you will always be living in the limited condition. You’ll always be creating the sensation of separation. As your present state, you’ll be looking forward from it to these other symbolic releases.

But if your point of view is always that of Satsang, and of understanding, and of enquiry, and of abiding in that, living in that condition of understanding and enquiry, then secondarily you will begin to observe, notice these other phenomena arise. And one of the phenomena that may arise in meditation is the sense of opening in the Heart, particularly the sense of opening on the right. And it is quite different from the opening of the heart chakra, or of certain other vital openings in the chest area, which have purely physical qualities associated with them of ease, and of opening, pranayama, automatic pranayama, whatever may arise at times which are associated with openings in this trunk area of the body. The opening of the heart chakra involves other sensations of love and devotion, these qualities. But particularly the kind of experience in the Heart that I’m describing is an event is consciousness. Not so much an event that consciousness witnesses; you can be aware of a blissful feeling, you can be aware of a sensation of opening. But this opening of the Heart on the right is an event is consciousness itself, an event in this awareness itself. So it involves the undermining of the ordinary limited condition of consciousness. So the bliss that’s associated with it is also a conscious bliss. Bliss as a quality of consciousness itself, rather than bliss as a quality of mind and body, psyche, or whatever instrument of perception to which consciousness attaches itself, of which consciousness may become aware. Nonetheless, when there is this opening in the Heart on the right, there are very often other sensations that are accompanied with it, and these do have the associated feelings of energy, of fullness, of devotion, whatever.

Now “this meditation,” what I’ve been talking about here, “This meditation is described in terms of the vital physical body, but it is not identical to it or contained in it. This meditation can be done exactly as described in any body, even some subtle, psychic body.” In other words, I’ve been talking about, last week we talked about this process of sitting down and beginning to observe things as they arise and how they related to levels of the body and levels of unconscious, sub-conscious, super-consciousness. How these qualities of consciousness or qualities that are reflected to consciousness are reflected from various areas in the body or one’s functional life that transcends the physical body. But in general the kind of situation that I’ve been describing is one that assumes your ordinary vital physical human form, living in the world, and sitting in Satsang, sitting in enquiry. But as a matter of fact, this process I am describing is not a process of bodily life. In other words, it is not a process of bodily life itself. It’s not equal to bodily life, it’s not equal to the human condition as a physical limitation. This process I’m describing is the process of intelligence, the process of very consciousness.

It can be generated under any conditions, in any body you may happen to be, any world where you might happen to be born, any state in which you may happen to feel yourself. Now there are conditions that may arise in the life of meditation and Satsang in which you actually do become aware of being in another body and in another place, or at the same time you are aware of this, some how, this form, this physical form, in the environment where you may happen to be sitting, you may have some vague awareness of that, but at the same time you’re more overwhelmingly aware in the terms of sensation and perception, of another form and environment. So it is important to make this point, because regardless of the condition, the bodily condition, now, not just the qualities of mind that arise, but regardless of the perception you have of your bodily condition in time and space, regardless of that perception of your condition, this enquiry is still appropriate, because it’s an activity in consciousness and consciousness is the fundamental under all these conditions of state.

“Every body is in the Form of Reality, the Amrita Nadi.” We might say every body is an expression of it. In a sense, a duplication of it, a ritual duplication of it, a reflection of it, of the ultimate form, Amrita Nadi. “The same centers and the same relationships pertain in each body and every realm of universe. Every experience and every plane of being is a manifestation within the same instrument. From the point of view of the Form of Reality, there is no higher or lower body. Every body is the same form, the same terminal of bliss and enjoyment. The same seat of consciousness and Truth. There is no need for ascent or descent in the name of truth. There is only present understanding.” In other words, regardless of the apparent condition in terms of time and space or bodily existence, the same functional condition pertains in terms of consciousness. The same condition is naturally being generated in different terms, with different shapes and colors. But actually all conditions in time and space, all bodily conditions, all perceptions of this kind, are reflections of the same ultimate form. They are expressions of it. And consciousness is the very activity of that ultimate form. So the process of understanding is appropriate under all conditions. Therefore, when a person begins to have sensations of existence in another time span or in the astral plane, or whatever, it’s not that then he should start meditating on the color of his forehead. He should abide in the same condition, the same intelligence is awake in him, the same possibilities are there, the same quality of suffering, the same activity of contraction, the same Narcissus is alive in other forms of perception, other forms of bodily life.

So it was my own experience, whenever phenomena arise of being consciously alive in some other place, some other loka where the qualities of appearance were dramatically different perhaps than this manifestation. But even though such things were arising, the same dilemma pertained. The same thing is ignorance in such a place, that is ignorance here, the same quality in consciousness is suffering in such a place as it is here. And therefore the same process of understanding is applicable under such conditions. Therefore, perfect understanding, or real knowledge, is fully liberating. It doesn’t just apply to the earth plane then, because it is the real activity, realization of the very Truth or Reality that applies, that is the core of experience in all planes. So the liberated man is simply liberated. The man of understanding is that, regardless of the change of state. This process is alive in him, this consciousness is his very nature. So the man who understands while alive is free forever, regardless of his change of state after death for instance. This does not modify his ultimate enjoyment. So he remains creatively present where he goes.

And just so, one who is living the path of understanding must remain in the form of understanding, must continue to enquire, must maintain the condition of Satsang, under all these conditions that may arise. So there’s no higher or lower body in terms of preference. From the point of view of Truth, all bodies, all conditions, all lokas, all realms are reflections of itself. They are the same form, the same expression, have the same ultimate nature, involve the same essential process. So there’s no preference from the point of view of Truth in terms of worlds. You don’t have to go to some other place in this world. Or go into a change of state in order to experience Truth, because Truth is not itself a state, it is not identical to a condition, a world, a place. So from the point of view of Truth itself, there is no need then to ascend to realize the Truth. Understanding is an activity of consciousness, which is the core of all manifestations.

“Enquiry is not simply directed to various actions that are concrete avoidance,” anymore than it was said in the previous paragraph, you know, enquiry is not delivered to the body, or to unconsciousness itself. It’s a process in consciousness. Just so you’re not enquiring of the form of avoidance itself. In fact it has no independent existence. It has no existence independent of consciousness, just as your body has no existence independent of consciousness. So the enquiry is not delivered to the avoidance itself, “it is delivered to oneself directly. “Enquiry is not in the form “Is this action the avoidance of relationship in some sense? Rather, its significance is in the form: ‘Presently avoiding being already, entirely in relationship?'” In other words, enquiry is not a meditation on the avoidance, on the contraction. As we said last week, it is not a meditation on negative qualities. It’s not directed to the qualities. It’s not a consideration of the qualities in themselves.

Under the conditions of whatever qualities are arising at this moment, you are enquiring of yourself, “presently avoiding being already, entirely in relationship?” You are enquiring of yourself, “Avoiding relationship?” “Thus enquiry moves you directly to self-awareness that is ineffably, unqualifiedly in relationship.” In other words, if you simply were to analyze some quality of avoidance in yourself at some moment, you could see “Oh yes, this is doing this and this is doing this,” and you could see the whole bad there and how it was working. But you haven’t examined yourself, you haven’t seen that affair of avoidance in terms of consciousness. You’ve only seen it as an event, it’s qualities as an event. So enquiry is conscious and it is self enquiry. It is enquiry to itself. It is an event in consciousness. And so the nature of enquiry involves realization of oneself in relationship.

“The enquiry is not in the form: ‘Are you avoiding relationship?'” as if you were asking somebody else. It is not in the form, “Am I avoiding relationship?” This enquiry that I’ve mentioned to you could have been put in any one of these forms, for instance, that I’m describing here. “There is no dramatized separation in this active enquiry between oneself as the questioner and oneself as the hearer. The one consciousness enquires of itself. Or in actual effect, observes itself alive in the present moment. There is simply the observation of the total present context of real experience.” So the question is simply, “Avoiding relationship?” And it’s not there to have you meditate on the qualities of avoidance itself, it’s asking oneself. It’s contemplating within oneself, without assuming the position of a questioner over against the hearer as someone else. But if someone were to take up this form of enquiry as a method, he would be doing just that. He uses it to get results. He uses it from the point of view of a motivation, a dilemma. He’s actually asking someone else. He’s looking for an answer to come from someone else. He’s looking for some magical effect.

The one who truly enquires comes out of this whole process that we’ve been describing for several weeks, and this activity is an activity within his own consciousness. That’s why the form of enquiry can be nonverbal. It ultimately is nonverbal. The verbal form of enquiry is a reflection of real understanding, or prior insight, which isn’t in itself verbal, otherwise you would only be chanting it all the time. You’d have to be continually talking to yourself in your head in order to be understanding. So this process of enquiry is self-generated within one’s own consciousness and self-observation within the context of various events that are arising at that time. “One does not enquire as or of some surrogate entity.” Some secondary person, some dwarf within oneself. You don’t enquire as that or of that. “One does not enquire as or of some part of the mind, some separate function, or etc. The one who understands enquires of himself in the creation of the present moment. The enquiry is not a means of liberation, but real consciousness enforcing its own form as the present moment. Thus it is necessary that the man who enquires be one who already understands. Enquiry is the activity of understanding. The enquiry is not understanding isolated as a method to produce an effect. The entire action of enquiring and realizing is understanding and each part of it is itself understanding.”

Previous to this time we’ve been speaking in very much the same terms that we were speaking last week, which began saying that enquiry is an activity of the conscious mind. It’s an activity in consciousness. And in the conscious mind the various movements, things that arise from unconscious, and subconscious, and superconscious ranges, various things from these dimensions are reflected in the plane of mind. And enquiry is an affair of observing these reflections in the conscious mind, of the various functional levels, and enquiring of them, or enquiring of oneself under those conditions from moment to moment.

Now we’re going to get into the description of the next stage of enquiry. This is at the bottom of page 189. “Simply enquire of yourself as yourself. When you feel yourself in the heart, enquire of yourself there as any tendency, any moment arises. There is no mystery, no difficult implied in this activity. Understand, and enquire of the instant of your being. In the beginning it may appear to you that you are seated in the mind and enquire of your deeper self in some unrecognizable place or in the heart. But the process of enquiry is in fact in the heart, and realizes itself in the heart. It is no-seeking and knows itself at last as no-seeking. When understanding becomes this revolutionary knowledge, the enquiry persists still. Until there is a radical realization utterly retired of all dilemma. Then, again, the fullness of being is assumed in the non-separate cognition of present reality.”

You recall I’ve talked about three stages of enquiry. The first I have simply called enquiry. That is the stage of understanding relative to the conscious mind. The conscious mind reflecting the various functional levels of existence, and enquiring of oneself under those conditions. But I’ve spoken of another stage of enquiry called recognition. And a third stage which I’ve called radical intuition. This form of enquiry that’s being described here is that stage of enquiry that I’ve recently begun to call re-cognition. In other words, at this stage one is no longer moving as the conscious mind relative to the various levels of manifestation. So just as there are many of these preliminary stages leading up to true enquiry, all the stages of Satsang, and self-observation and insight, that become true enquiry, just so, when enquiry itself begins, it has several stages.

The first stage is very directly involved and related to the process of conscious mind. But here it says, “Simply enquire of yourself as yourself.” This whole thing I’ve been discussing here tonight has been emphasizing the point of view that enquiry is an activity in consciousness not a activity of something arises in consciousness, not an activity of the body. Not an activity of some inert area. Not an activity of some function, of which consciousness is the witness. Enquiry is itself the activity of consciousness. When these earlier stages, not necessarily early in time, like you did them last year, and now you don’t do them anymore. For instance, this form of simply observing yourself and enquiry beginning may take place at the beginning of any time of meditation. And then as the meditation matures in you over time or at any one sitting, you may suddenly move out of the mental activity of reflecting the forms of consciousness in the conscious mind and enquiring of them. Your enquiry may have dissolved beyond all of that. So it’s no longer dealing moment to moment with the qualities that are arising in the conscious mind from the various planes of consciousness. Instead, spontaneously, and subtly, you’ve begun to identify with consciousness itself. Just as at the beginning one is chronically identified with the functions of life, and the functions of manifest mind. Now you have become just as spontaneously identified with consciousness itself, and the activity of consciousness. So you find yourself rested beyond the mind then. And the stage of re-cognition is re-cognition of the mind. Whereas the stage that I’m calling enquiry, simply enquiry, is enquiry through the mind, and through the various qualities or functions that are reflected in the conscious mind. So in the early stages of enquiry, one is usually very involved with one’s problems in life, vital dilemmas, sensations, feelings toward others, particular kinds of thought, and particular states that one is oppressed by or tending to.

But then in this stage when one begins to fall into the quality and mood of consciousness itself, that precedes the mind and the Heart is the root of the mind, the source of the mind, well at this stage then, enquiry becomes much subtler. It’s no longer verbal enquiry, because it’s not an activity of the mind. It’s rather a subtle activity of re-cognition that operates on the mind itself and not even the mind as particular thoughts. At this point there may no longer be any particular concern for what the thought is that is arising, whether it’s some super conscious manifestation or some manifestation of unconscious life, or some concept of other or some image. It makes no difference what’s arising in this stage or this form of the intensity of the life of understanding. Whatever it is, it’s a form of mind, it’s a form of the mind, it’s a modification of the mind. And it is recognized as such. It is known in itself to be this contraction of the quality of consciousness. All thought, all that is mind is recognized, re-cognized, known again at this point to be a contraction or modification of consciousness itself. Whereas previous to this time one was observing the contractions of oneself alive. One’s contraction in life. One’s avoidance in life. Now one has begun to see quite spontaneously, without trying to get into some sort of state like the one I’m describing here. Quite spontaneously one has begun to see and comprehend the rising quality of existence in quite a new way. No longer through the mind, but one is re-cognizing, knowing again, cognition itself. This is only when one has quite spontaneously begun to rest in the heart, which is the root of consciousness, which is the root of the mind.

At this point the verbal enquiry tends to subside. One feels no particular inclination to it. One feels no particular disturbance by the qualities, high and low that may arise and reflect themselves in the mind. And quite spontaneously and in a very subtle way one re-cognizes the quality of the contraction, or modification of the conscious or mental vehicle itself. And wherever this is known, wherever this is seen to be only this it is relaxed. One quite spontaneously moves into this condition that precedes modification. Again, this is not the mature or ultimate intensity of this process of understanding. This is the revolutionary stage.

The ultimate stage is a radical one. So then on page 190, “The activity of enquiry continues as long as the mind tends to move and take on forms.” So actually the process of the verbal enquiry is used randomly throughout one’s life, as long as one has a mind, which tends to continue with people throughout life. When a person gets to the stage where the mind is no longer functioning on any place at all, you know, he has drifted into one of these trance conditions that’s characteristic of certain types of spiritual seekers, in India, for instance. They have vast descriptive catalogues of the various states one can attain, and there are certain states where the person becomes absolutely inert and moveless, and without volition, without apparent mental activity at all. Well in such a case, the person has moved into an extremely subtle state beyond this plane of appearances so he is no longer concerned with what I am talking about here. But as long as one lives in the world and the life of understanding persists, the activity of the verbal enquiry remains as a random function in consciousness.

“But the most intense meditation is one in which the form of reality itself absorbs consciousness. Then understanding does not move with the mind to enquire of its forms, but rests prior to the mind. (The function of consciousness which is receptive to and records experience.) Well this resting prior to the mind (is) and yet being active in re-cognizing the mind is the state of re-cognition. The middle phase, or middle intensity of enquiry. But the highest intensity of enquiry is this point in which the form of reality itself absorbs consciousness and this is the stage of radical intuition, of which I have spoken. This is the stage of perpetual intuition of Amrita Nadi. At the stage of re-cognition one is still associated with the mind. But one is re-cognizing mind itself, or modification of consciousness itself. In the stage of radical intuition, even the activity of re-cognition is dissolved and resolved, so that an event need not take place in the instant of radical intuition in order to clarify or release one from the things that are arising. In this ultimate intensity one is holding to the form of reality. One is alive as Amrita Nadi. One is already mindless, one is already free. One is already unqualifiedly in relationship, unqualifiedly unobstructed. The spire of Amrita Nadi is perfectly enjoyed. The heart is perfectly enjoyed. Whereas the activity of re-cognition is one in which the Heart becomes firmer and firmer as one’s stable condition. In the stage of radical intuition the Heart is perfectly enjoyed, constantly enjoyed, always already enjoyed.

So this ultimate stage of radical intuition is both a stage that may arise in any one period of sitting in meditation, just as re-cognition and enquiry and observation and Satsang, and all these other things may be parts of any one time of sitting in meditation. Just so, these qualities, enquiry, re-cognition, and radical intuition may characterize in a more or less general way the essential activity of any individual in the life of understanding. So there are some who have not yet begun to include in a spontaneous way the quality of re-cognition. There are some for whom it has become the more or less stable process or activity of their meditation, while yet they still randomly are active in enquiry and the other qualities. But yet they have not begun to rest in Amrita Nadi, or to firmly live in the Heart, which is the foot of Amrita Nadi just as it is also the source of the mind. But then again at some point they may spontaneously begin to include this ultimate enjoyment. The stage of the radical intuition is the stage of the devotee. The stage of the disciple is one in which the process of re-cognition matures. The stages leading up to becoming a disciple are the stages of enquiry. The stages of Satsang, self observation, insight, and enquiry are what should become stabilized in the individual during his life in the Ashram. When he’s begun to take on the responsibilities of a disciple it’s because he’s moving into the phase of re-cognition. And when I begin to take people as devotees it will be because this phase of radical intuition has begun.

“Now one of the primary experiences in enquiry is a kind of letting go, but in its most intense form it is kind of holding on. In the first case there is understanding, but also a stimulated life form that tends to separative experience.” This first case I’m referring to here is this kind of letting go. The first events in the life of understanding for an individual is when he has these experiences of release from his ordinary bondage, his repetitive life of suffering, and experience in contraction and repetition. He’s feeling relieved, freed from the gross form of his separative life. So in the beginnings he begins to understand, but the life form remains there, tending toward the separative process. So his experience is essentially one of release under these conditions.

“Thus enquiry, the arm of understanding, moves to view all of these experiences as they truly are, and we are let loose in understanding, but when we have seen enough of this and know the game well, and when we almost naturally stand loose, then an entirely new form of consciousness emerges. We do not simply stand free, empty and apart, instead we recognize and enjoy that form which was always there, the very armature on which all our parts and functions were set. Whereas before we enquired ‘Avoiding relationship?’ and so felt images and tendencies dissolve, now we recognize and enjoy the silent imageless and attentive state of our true being. When the automatic activity of avoidance subsides, then the natural internal force and form of unqualified relationship comes into consciousness. The sense is simply one of unqualified relationship, always and already, prior to any particular experience, prior to present limitation, ignorance, or ‘sin’.” In other words, where the beginnings of one’s spiritual life, of understanding involved these various forms of release. At first release from the things that are reflected in consciousness, the various qualities of functional existence, and then at the stage of re-cognition, the sensation of release from the mind itself, from the modification of consciousness itself. In this mature phase of what ultimately becomes a phase of radical intuition, a perfect life of a devotee, the continual releasing serves its purpose. Now he begins to stand firm in his original state. But his standing firm is a standing firm in consciousness. It’s an intuitive condition. It’s not in itself a visionary state. Although there may be visionary qualities associated with it depending on the individual, but as the ultimate realization of the form of consciousness. So at this stage it’s not a matter of being released from things, but of holding to this very form, this very condition constantly, effortlessly, spontaneously.

“However, this realization is in understanding. It is not the same as the believer’s sense of the all-embracing God outside of him. It is the most intense form of understanding, enquiry has become fruitful in resonating the parts of the man, then meditation becomes a natural activity of holding on, of unqualifiedly asserting that form, of being unqualifiedly related, non-separate, included, already inclusive of high and low, whatever the apparent conditions. When the individual holds on to this perception, which is intense understanding, a forcefulness rises in him, that purifies the remnants of mentality and the automatic demands that force him to identify with separate levels of his being. Suddenly he ceases to be held and limited to the concrete mind, the ground of emotionality, and the lower functions of vital and physical life. The force of his understanding has become an intense attention to the form of reality, and he feels the limits of his consciousness expanding above to include the intuitive dimensions of super-conscious intelligence.”

Last week we were talking about turning with the conscious mind upward above the brows, above the functions that are lower than the conscious mind into what is above the conscious mind, what is super conscious. Well essentially there we were talking about the phenomena that get reflected in the conscious mind from what is above. And these are generally the visionary and subtle phenomena of the higher life. In this case I’m talking about the intuitive dimensions of super-consciousness. The consciousness of what is above the mind, rather than the forms that are above the ordinary mind that can be reflected in the conscious mind through various kinds of super sensible psychism. When this occurs, “the feeling is a kind of rushing ascent. The individual holds to his unqualified perception, the awareness of reality is inclusive, and allows himself to be drawn into the fullness of being. He may experience may effects of this purifying expansion including a stiffening of the body, particularly the spine and neck. He may make symbolic gestures with his hands or body. There may be tensions of the face, of the upper head, of the area between the brows. He may be moved to laughter or tears, to make strange expressions with the face, to utter strange sounds. He may hear inner sounds, see visions, taste or smell internal emanations, or experience unusual internal sensations. He may feel heat or cold. He may sense vibrations, vast internal spaces, emptiness, silence, a living void filling with a descending force and light from an infinite consciousness and power above.”

Well, in this paragraph I’m describing some of the various qualities to the phenomena of the ascending energy. I’ve been describing the events in consciousness up until this point, the event of consciousness itself, that is the life of understands relative to the life of consciousness, relative to the conscious events that arise at any moment may be manifest events. And in this case we’re talking about where there is this rushing ascent that may accompany release beyond the mind, and then holding to Amrita Nadi. At this time, as well as during any time randomly, in the meditative life, there may be these phenomena of the rising force, of the kundalini.

Alright, so more and more we’ll get into talking about all the various phenomena, that may arise when this conscious process arises. And so we’ll be talking about these things as we go on here. But the process itself, that is the core of our teaching, is the conscious process, and I do not teach from the point of view of the phenomena themselves, or attempt conscious life, is a conscious process. It’s just that in the midst of a conscious life these other phenomena may arise in the appropriate order.

“Thus the primary activity of understanding moves from recognition to enquiry to holding on to the form of reality.” These days as I’ve gone on and elaborated and found more words to use to describe the various aspects of this process, I’ve used a little different language. Now I used the word re-cognition, hyphenated word to indicate the second stage. And holding on to the form of reality, this is what I call radical intuition. Well, what I’m saying here is that the whole process begins with beginning to know, to see, to have insight into the whole affair of the avoidance of relationship and then enquiring of it through the medium of the conscious mind until you fall into the Heart beyond the mind and then enquiry becomes a purely subtle activity of re-cognition, of the modification of consciousness itself, until at last there is this spontaneous resurrection of Amrita Nadi, the perfect form.

“That form,” Amrita Nadi, “is simply the armature or structure of being. Understanding or real meditation turns a man to the basic form of conscious life, and concentrates him in its primary center or thread, which as an open circuit between the heart and the head. Thus, by naturally holding on to that form, that consciousness which is unqualified, the man grows over time into his real fullness, and he will include the emanations of the highest in the creative and functional realization of his life.”