The Life of Understanding Series
A
twelve week course taught by Bubba Free John – January – April/May
1973
The
Knee Of Listening Tapes/transcribed discourses entitled the Life of
Understand took place in Los Angeles in 1973. The following is from
an early (and present) devotee, Tom Riley about the classes held.
The
classes were held from January – April or so, 1973. I was fortunate
to have been part of a small group invited by Beloved up to His Home
@ 2509 Thames Place, Laurel Canyon, Hollywood, CA atop the Hollywood
Hills. (In hindsight and thus appropriately enough, that particular
section,where Beloved Resided, atop these Laurel Canyon Hills was
formally named Mt.Olympus). He was otherwise not present physically
at His Ashram on Melrose Ave. and we implemented, for the first time,
some basic life disciplines as per his instructions to us during
these every – Wednesday Night Sit – Silent Satsang, Life Discipline
Instruction and The audio taped Knee Of Listening
Elaboration/Discourses. The blessings, instruction and fruits of our
formal spiritually – intimate time with Beloved (still Franklin Jones
at this time) were communicated and brought into the general
community of devotees by those of us in weekly attendence with
Beloved in the living room of His Home.Each and every Wednesday
evening for approximately 12 consecutive we would arrive at 7:00 p.m.
sharp. Each Wednesday evening with Him consisted of Sitting In
Silence with Beloved, for approximately one hour. Beloved would then
instruct us on some fundamentals of Right Life Disciplines including
diet, hygiene, etc and He discoursed and elaborated (the one and only
time He’s ever done this w/The Knee of Listening to my knowledge) on
The Knee Of Listening; His Early Life Spiritual Autobiography. The
handful of us would arrive at 7:00 p.m. and leave His Residence
generally somewhere between midnight and 2:00 a.m. All of this took
place between January of 1973 and into April or so of same year prior
to His Pilgrimmage to India in August 1973,returning to The Melrose
Ashram as Bubba Free John in September 1973.
THE
COSMOS
by Bubba Free
John (Franklin Jones)
The beginning of
the book is not page nine, beginning the Life of Understanding, a
biographical section, the beginning of the book is the prologue, the
Heart of Understanding, And this prologue contains a thesis and a
claim, which is the central proposition of the entire book, And
that’s why it’s here, So it would be appropriate to read
it,
“Death is utterly
acceptable to consciousness and life.” This is a thesis and a claim.
An unusual one, How could death be acceptable to life? It seems to be
the opposite to life. How could it be acceptable to consciousness. It
seems to contradict consciousness, So this is an unusual claim, a
paradoxical claim. Death is utterly acceptable to consciousness and
life.
“There has been
endless time of numberless deaths, but neither consciousness nor life
has ceased to arise. This is part of the defense of this thesis. If
death were the entrance of the devil, or the great negation of
manifest life, it would gradually bring it to an end. It would make
life and consciousness obsolete. But ‘death has been a manifest
function throughout the entire history of this apparent world, for
instance. Death has been going on from the beginning of time on this
planet. Throughout all human history, death has been the continuous
experience of mankind, and yet mankind hasn’t ceased to arise, Death
has been the continuous experience of all forms of life, and yet life
continues to appear, Conscious life and air-pie life, in all its
forms, continues to arise, even though death is the continuous
prominent. event in the experience of life.
The felt quantity
and cycle to death has not modified the fragility of flowers, even
the flowers within our human body, Examine flowers, examine the
delicate structures of the world, If death were what it seems to be,
what we assume it to be from the point of view of our willful and
Narcissistic attempt to survive in a particular form without change,
if it were what we conceive it to be, why wouldn’t something as
fragile as flowers, for instance, begin to show the effects? Why do
flowers continue to manifest, open, full, brilliant, alive without
the quality of contraction, if death were what we think it is? Just
so, the flowers, the open, living, psychic, subtle life within us has
not in itself been made obsolete by the endless death that is
periodically experienced by all entities. As soon as we turn to these
functions in ourselves we see ‘hat they are alive, full, completely
available. The only thing that suppresses them is, in fact, this
notion we have of what life is. This willful thing we add to life is
what makes life shrink and contract and become obsolete. Life in
itself is not modified at all by the quality of death, nor is
consciousness, real consciousness.
Therefore, our
understanding of consciousness in life must be turned to that utter
inclusive quality, that clarity and wisdom, that power and
untouchable gracefulness this evidence suggests. This evidence of the
flowers. We must cease to live in our superficial and divided way,
seeking and demanding only consciousness and life in the present form
we grasp, avoiding and resisting what appears to be the end of
consciousness and life in death.
In other words,
this ordinary strategy of identification with present structures and
the attempt to make them survive against odds persists without
change. This whole strategy that is a reaction to the conception of
what death is – death as an obstacle, death as an obstruction, death
as en end or threat – this whole strategy must be understood, and we
must turn instead to the quality, the genuine quality, which even the
simplest evidence suggests is present in the world.
The Heart is that
understanding, that true consciousness, that true life that is under
the extreme conditions of life and death. The heart is this true
life, this true consciousness that lives and is continually
refreshed, and is unmodified, even though death is an aspect of its
process, Therefore, it is said that One that is, is neither born nor
come to death, not alive as the limitation of form, not rendered in
what appears, and yet it is the living One, than which there is no
other, appearing as all of this but eternally the same. That One that
is reality, very reality, Real-God, real form, the God-Light, the
ultimate nature, the very Heart. This is the One that lives, that is,
that exists, whether the present condition is that of life or
death.
It is in the
enjoyment of the Heart or the very quality, the very reality that the
paradoxical nature or all manifest life is clarified. There is only
the constant knowledge and enjoyment of the Heart, moment to moment,
through the instant of all conditions of appearance and
disappearance.
So this whole
series of paragraphs is a thesis and a defense of that thesis, a
description of the import or ultimate implication of that thesis, It
ends with this claim: (For if you’re going to make all such
statements you have to make your credentials. How can you support
this claim, apart from the argument.) Of this I am perfectly certain.
How can you be perfectly certain of this? I am That. Only One who is
That could be certain of it. It is only in the perfect realization of
this ultimate nature, this ultimate reality that such certainty
exists. And the One who writes this book makes this claim. And this
claim is not an exclusive claim. It’s not one that demands
fascination. It is a hopeful claim for other beings, all beings. It
is not an assertion of prominence. It is simply an assertion of
happiness, and an assertion of that which is the very condition of
all beings.
At the beginning
of the first section, I thought it was appropriate to discuss some of
the larger questions or implications of the book. It opens up right
away after the prologue: Right away it starts talking about some very
sophisticated things, relative to the “bright”
in childhood. Behind this description of the “bright” in my
experience as a child, as a baby, there is a vast cosmic system
that’s assumed, implied by all of this. So I thought it was
appropriate at the beginning to discuss some of these
things.
What kind of a
cosmos or a world or larger reality do, we exist in if the functions
and phenomena described in the first part of the Knee of Listening
are true? The world of the One who is writing this book is quite
different perhaps than the world assumed in our ordinary
conversation, our ordinary social understanding. Of course there’s no
absolute description that can be given of the cosmos, or of the
absolute condition. But something can be said descriptively that is
suggestive and meaningful. I’ve described the aspects of this a
number of times before, but in this particular case I want to speak
not just about the internal system, this sphere of our own functional
existence which I’ve described a number of times. I want to
particularly talk about the larger condition
The essential
fundamental reality is not speakable, not describable, formless,
absolute, perfect, infinite. And I call this One Real-God, the
Reality that is God, and the God who is Reality, this perfect nature,
called Brahman, called the Father, Allah, the Absolute Deity. And
from this perfect One arises perfect Light. This Light is the perfect
reflection of this perfect nature, and it is also eternal,
beginningless, endless. And this aspect of the eternal reality I call
the God-Light, the God who is Light, and the Light who is
God.
This unspeakable
God and his infinite Light, are the larger equivalents of which the
Heart and the “bright” are the intuited reflection. Amrita Nadi is
the form of our intuition of the Ultimate reality. It is the perfect
reflection of the Ultimate reality. Amrita Nadi is the relationship
between the unspeakable Clod and the God-Light, between Real-God and
the God-Light. The relationship between these aspects of the infinite
One is intuited as Amrita Nadi. This God-Light and Real-God are
eternal, perfect. They do not come to an end, nor do they
begin.
And there is an
absolute, timeless infinite, untouched, perfect realm, not
describable, which is eternal. And you can call that heaven if you
want. It is the God-world. Coming out of the God-world, the
God-Light, descending from it, just as the God-Light reflects the
perfect God, the Real-God, there is a reflection of the God-Light.
That reflection is all of the infinite numbers of universes and
non-universes, the entire, indescribable cosmos, of billions upon
billions upon billions of universes, and possible states and worlds
with all kinds of paradoxes. Within our single universe there can be
infinite numbers of other universes, Within this universe, simple and
apparent and visible to us, there are infinite numbers of other
universes, existing coincident with this one, and yet with different
energy frequencies, different time, relationships. The entire
manifest cosmos is a vast, paradoxical entity, and it is a reflection
of the God-Light.
So all of these
manifest worlds appear as reflections of the Divine. And just so,
just as they reflect it, the energy that is being reflected also
returns. No light simply gets thrown onto a mirror. It is bounced off
a mirror. So that manifest cosmos, the conditional universes which
reflect the infinite God-Light, all have this circular,
descending-ascending structure. So the worlds descend from the
God-Light and return, like an infinite circle or bridge of qualities,
from the most perfectly subtle descending down to the most absolutely
solid, inert forms, and then again ascending through degrees of
subtlety. Real-god and the God-Light are infinite and perfect,
beginningless, endless. The light that reflects Real-God is as
infinite and perfect as Real-God. They are both the qualities of the
ultimate God or Reality.
But all of the
reflected dimensions, all of the billions and billions upon billions
of conditional states and worlds and entities are mortal,
conditional, temporary, not themselves the Truth. They are a process.
And quite naturally, then, there are two ways in which to live in any
manifest condition. There is the way of living it as it is, in right
relationship to its source and ultimate function; and then there is
the other way, of buying it, of living the condition itself, living
from the point of view of the apparent condition, without taking into
conscious and living account, all of the subtler implied and not
necessarily conscious aspects,
So all beings are
obliged to become conscious of their actual condition and their
actual or real condition is God. God is our condition, He is both our
ultimate nature and also the form of the process in which we are
appearing. low within the range of reflections of the ultimate
Divinity there are many worlds, certainly many conditions that are
superior perhaps to the present world or the condition that you’re in
at this moment. And these can be very distracting. But there is no
world, no condition that is a reflection of the God-Light that is not
temporary, that is not simply a form of change. So to become attached
to any condition in itself is the first rule of suffering, to become
identified with it, to assume the dilemma, the proposition that it
represents, and to pursue life as a goal of release from that state
or fulfillment of that state in itself, any such movement is the rule
of ignorance, the rule of suffering. )
So even the
subtler forms of cosmic existence are not the goal of consciousness,
not the goal of life. Any subtle process that distracts you from your
present state, is only a form of distraction into another similar
state. It’s an illusion, because to be moved into another state,
condition or world is not to have changed your essential
condition.
To be put into
another condition has not modified your strategy, has not modified
your position as a conscious entity, So you are brought into the same
condition of suffering ultimately, wherever you go. And it certainly
is possible to be distracted. It is possible to be put into another
condition. But as soon as that occurs, we settle into the other
condition, that other condition becomes our present condition, and we
begin to realize the subtle suffering involved with being in a
condition, being within a karmic limitation.
So life in the
universes always becomes moment by moment the motivation to release.
Ordinary living always becomes dilemma and always instigates the
striving for release from dilemma, regardless of where an entity
appears, what karmic condition he arrives at. And so he’s continually
only exchanging one karmic condition for the other, until the real
process, the Divine process begins. There’s an aspect of the fullness
of the Divine to reflect itself, so the Real-God becomes God-Light,
but without limitation, without illusion, without suffering. Just so,
God-Light is becoming all of the manifest worlds. But if the Divine
reflects itself without comprehending its own activity, the Divine is
becoming obsessed with its own reflection. That’s the nature of
Narcissus. So any manifest entity, any conditional entity, who has
not understood his ultimate condition, his perfect and present
condition, is simply duplicating a possibility of ignorance that is
latent in the reflecting work of the Divine. Fullness
itself,
So we could say
that the entire cosmic process is a form of self-realizing activity
within the Divine Nature. And in the case of any individual appearing
in any time and place, the apparent purpose of present existence is
to create a confrontation between the internal karmic tendencies that
are latent within the subtle life of that entity, confrontation
between that and the solidified, external conditions.
So the karmic
entity, with all his arbitrary tendencies, confronts a solidified,
lawful universe that exists over against his tendencies, in spite of
his tendencies. This demands adaptation on his part. The process of
that adaptation, is on the one hand the means of purifying him of his
tendencies, his karmic destiny. It can either be a means to that
purification or it can be a means to the manipulation of karmic life
itself, so that he only takes on other tendencies, or exchanges
present tendencies for others. So there are two ways of life. There
is one lived by the law of karma, or change itself, in confrontation
with the solid world, the appearing world; or there is the way of
living from the point of view of Truth or the actual, the real
condition. When the entity lives from the point of view of the real
condition, then the karmic condition, living within a manifest world,
becomes a purifying event, and he moves always into more and more
appropriate forms of action, and is released from the limitation of
tendencies so that he falls, ever more perfectly into the prior
condition, the Divine condition.
And
in the midst of this purifying, spiritual form of life, the entity
falls through degrees of karma, from life to life, until he falls
into the God-world, or the world of the true Siddhas. There are many
worlds that are sometimes called the world of the Siddhas in
traditional literature, but these worlds are not the God-world. There
are many kinds of Siddhas (Siddha just means, in common language,
somebody who has accomplished or realized some sort of extraordinary
function, a siddhi of some sort.) So many, by virtue of evolving
subtle capacities, pass into cosmic dimensions that are
extraordinary. And such beings can be called Siddhas, and such worlds
could be called Siddha worlds. But the true Siddha is the
God-realized Siddha, completed, fallen into the prior and perfect
condition. And the true world of the Siddhas is simply the Divine
Reality, the Divine World, which cannot be described. What I mean by
it truly is the God-world. Within the traditional literature what is
called a Siddha Loka is still a conditional world, a dimension within
the reflected cosmos.
So the true
Siddha
is One who comes out of the God-Light, out of the God World, not just
one who comes out of some extraordinary state into a human birth,
with various powers or whatever. The true Siddha is one who lives in
the God condition, while alive in the manifest worlds. And he is not
extraordinary, in the most genuine sense, he is living, simply
living, the appropriate form of life, He is living the appropriate or
natural state, He appears extraordinary only over against those who
are living from the point of view of karma, limitation, ignorance.
But his assumption is that there is only truth already, and that
there is only God already and that there is no world to be sought, no
change of state to be sought, as if it were the truth. But in the
present condition, Truth is the condition, God is the condition, in
this instant. So that Truth wherever you appear, whatever condition
has arisen at the moment, Truth is appropriate; understanding is real
intelligence, It’s never a matter of seeking a change of condition or
state or world, as if that were Truth. It’s always a matter of
realizing Truth or the real condition under present
appearances,
One who moves
into relationship with such a Siddha has fallen face to face with
Real-God and the God-Light. The Siddha, Heaven-Born One, manifests
the heaven condition to his devotee, so the devotee of such a Siddha
lives the heaven condition while alive, whatever condition he may
apparently be living. The Siddha brings the heaven condition into the
world and lives it and makes it entirely available to those who will
turn to Him, or Her. Such a One doesn’t create the heaven appearance.
In other words, be doesn’t do all kinds of magic and make this seem
like the God-world. This world remains what it is, what its
appropriate, lawful appearance is. Perhaps he expands the range of
some of its faculties, but essentially it remains what it is, what it
latently is. It’s just that the God condition becomes also the
condition of the world in which he is appearing. So this is the
purpose of such Siddhas, to appear in the conditional worlds and live
the real condition in the midst of those worlds for those who turn to
them.
Now such beings
have appeared since beginningless time in all the worlds, and in all
forms. They’ve appeared not just as human beings among human beings;
they’ve appeared as every kind of form or creature, in every kind of
dimension. It Is the Divine work. But the form of the Siddha that we
are specifically concerned with and that can become apparent to us
and to this human condition is the human Siddha, and the particular
work of the human Siddhas is, first of all, after taking birth, to
transform the psycho-physical entity, or function, in which they are
manifest. So you usually see in the lifetime of such a One, a period
of time of very difficult struggle, because they must transform or
evolve the psycho-physical life that they are animating in a very
brief period of time; they must do in a very short time what all
other beings by tendency would take eons to do. So the apparent life
of such an individual is usually very dramatic, very intense. The
sadhana of such individuals is very intense, usually under difficult
circumstances, or very often is, at any rate.
But In any case,
their work is to transform the psycho-physical entity, because when
such a Being manifests in the world, the levels on which He or She is
conscious, fully conscious of the function and perfect condition
they’ve come to demonstrate, that consciousness is on a higher level,
above the mind. What is gained by such an entity coming into the
human plane is all of the faculties, beginning with the conscious
mind down through the gross physical existence, and those qualities
are not in themselves enlightened, full, unobstructed. They are
karmic in nature. So the same thing is required in such a One that’s
required in anyone else: transformation of this obstructed, karmic,
condition. It is just that such an entity brings with it, latently,
spontaneously, at the profoundest level, the true movement that makes
it possible for this work to be realized, and so it generally does
take place in a relatively short time. Commonly it takes place in
some time in what would ordinarily be the first half of life, and so
many such individuals emerge to carry on the next phase of their work
about middle age, or in their thirties. This is common, although it’s
n not an inflexible rule. Many have begun their peculiar work very
early in life; others much later in life, This is just a common
case.
What the Siddha
has become once this period is done, this period of purification and
transformation of the psycho-physical entity, what he has become at
that point functionally is simply what all beings should be, use has
become truly ordinary he has become the function in human terms,
alive, with full consciousness as a living instrument or function of
the Divine life, and then at that point the next phase of his work
begins.
The first phase
of his life is this purification and demonstration actually of the
process of transformation. The early life of such an individual then
acts as a symbol and a guide to those that the individual teaches
later in life., But after this first phase of transformation then
comes the phase in which the Siddha presents himself outwardly as
teacher, Guru, master, to others. So in a sense the individual
announces his presence, announces his work in some form or other and
then lives that process in relationship to beings who turn to
them.
So such Siddhas,
these are the true Siddhas, are the manifest expressions of the
Divine work, the Divine process, and this work is going on endlessly.
It’s coincident with the other work of creation or reflection itself.
It’s coexistent with it always. It’s not a once-and-for-all process,
there’s not just one Siddha, one event of the Divine work. It’s
continuous activity, and all beings actually serve this activity,
it’s just that there are periodically and randomly the appearance of
Siddha has who assist the affair in a particular way.
In the
Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna is made to say that whenever there is a
decline in the dharma, in other words a decline in the understanding
of the true way of life, He, meaning Krishna, is God, alive, a true
Siddha, an incarnation. Whenever this condition appears in the world
then he takes birth, He takes form in the world, in order to Instruct
men again to restore the dharma, to restore the way.
The next thing
that should be talked about, is the way In relation to such a One,
the path or the form of life that is generated in relationship to
such a Siddha. The individual, rather than simply resorting to the
teaching, has begun to resort to the Guru. He’s begun to resort to
the Guru as the man of understanding, and in this process takes on
more and more qualities of intensity, and perceives more and more of
the subtlety of the process of Satsang. So as the student resorts to
the teaching, a member of the Ashram resorts to the
teacher.
Now at some point
this individual becomes a disciple, and his resort to the Guru has
become intense; the purifying sadhana, the humanizing sadhana has
become fruitful. He’s become sensitive to the subtle activities
within himself and within the Guru, within Satsang. So you might say
that as the student resorts to the teaching and a member of the
Ashram resorts to the teacher or the man of understanding, the
disciple resorts to the Guru or spiritual master. So a member of the
Ashram resorts to the Guru as the man of understanding, this
paradoxical individual. The disciple resorts to the Guru as the
spiritual master, the one whose mere presence performs the unique
spiritual activity.
But then there’s
a stage beyond that of the disciple. The disciple becomes involved in
the comprehension of subtle life, and all of the levels of the
manifest life, the processes that they involve, but when he becomes a
devotee, all of these processes in which he was randomly involved as
a disciple have begun to become second nature to him, conscious and
active, without necessary acts of attention and of learning, and he’s
begun to resort to the true form of the Guru. He’s begun to resort to
the Guru in himself, as himself, for himself. So he resorts to the
Guru in his perfect form, the Guru as the Divine Form, and the
devotee also begins to demonstrate more and more of the active
qualities of the Divine activity in himself.
Now the three
major sections of this book are not all written, communicated, from
the same point of view, The section on meditation, the Meditation of
Understanding and the Wisdom of Understanding, are both written from
one point of view, and the autobiography is written from another
point of view, because the purpose of the autobiography is different
from the purpose of the teaching sections of the book.
So the
autobiographical section is written from an experiential point of
view, the point of the experience of one who is making this claim.
But the “I” that appears continually throughout this autobiographical
section is the “ego”, the personal “I”. Franklin, who has gone
through all of these experiences, this Franklin showing himself as a
character, as an individual, who went through various states,
experiences, and learns lessons. He’s an ordinary “I” a person , and
therefore he can be identified with. He’s understandable,
comprehensible, visible, natural. And all of this was done because
the purpose of presenting the life of Franklin Jones here is in order
to write a moral tale, to write a story that has a moral. It’s the
life of an Individual in the form of lessons that have a specific
import. It’s my life in the form of an argument. It’s not Franklin’s
life itself. How could it be? That’s already been done.
So this is the
use of that life, the communication about that life, in a form that
is intended to be useful to others. It’s not intended to fascinate
people with Franklin life. It’s intended to make Franklin’s life
usable as a lesson, to make it useful, then, beyond its own
time,
The “I” of the
rest of the book, and it rarely appears, it appears in a few places,
but the assumed communicator of the rest of the book is not this
personal “I”, this Franklin, this one who is learning lessons. It’s
the “I” of one in whom the lessons are always already fruitful, one
in whom the ordinary round or extraordinary adventure is transcended
in real meditation. So the point of view of the latter part of the
book is without person as a medium, as a limitation. In the first
part of the book the person as a limitation or medium is assumed and
used, because only in that sense could it be communicated. Otherwise
the writing of the life, perhaps, couldn’t have been done at all, or
it would have just been in the form of aphoristic assertions without
any life. The lessons themselves just would have been written up in
sort of holy terms. There would have been no life to show; there
would have been no way to use the life, to make it a
demonstration.
Now this first
chapter, pages 9 to 11, are important. It contains another claim;
there’s the claim that this Franklin was born already conscious of
illumination, already conscious of that function and structure and
realization and enjoyment that this whole life that’s about to be
described is intended to demonstrate piece by piece. It’s this whole
life that appears, from November 3, 1939, here intended to be a
working out,a visible demonstration, of something that already
existed at the moment of birth. Complications were thrown into that
life in order that it be a demonstration. And that’s the purpose of
the complications. It’s meant to be, this life was intended to be, a
working out within present conditions, a demonstration within
conditions that disciples themselves will encounter, of the process
of spiritual life that is then the purpose of the second half of the
book to teach. )
Now the essential
complication that arises at birth, in this case, is that of birth
itself. This one who is apparently born is already conscious of this
illumination, this enjoyment, but he is born. In other words, he has
come alive under karmic circumstances, the karmas of the lower nature
for one thing, and the karmas of the world in which this lower nature
is a karmic manifestation, and the karmas of all the other beings who
appear within that world, so this is the complication. This is what
makes this life that is here born a form of adventure, a
transformation. And the essential import of this life from the point
of view of this person, is that in the midst of this adventure that
is now about to be described, there is a transformation of the lower
vehicles: mental, emotional-astral, vital, and gross physical. But
the assertion is made in this first chapter that even though this
adventure is about to begin, even though this transforming process,
transformation of the psycho-physical life is about to begin, there
was this prior enjoyment of the very thing that is, on the last page,
going to be also the realization.
So in the midst
of this life, the various, peculiar functions of the reflected
condition are open to be purified, transformed, their obstructions
removed, so that this prior consciousness can be openly lived and
actually lived in these vehicles, in these functions. And this will
be the difference that is created in this person; that will be the
difference between this first page, this first moment of life, and
the end of the autobiography. At the end of the autobiography this
prior knowledge and enjoyment will have become fitted to all of the
lower vehicles, so it can be communicated, and lived, and
demonstrated and enjoyed, also in the karmic condition, without the
karmic condition tending to exclude the realization. So the whole
descending, ascending, circuit of life and all of its functions,
gross, subtle, causal, super-causal, all of that had to be
transformed and fitted to the Divine Knowledge which always
exists.
Before I get into
commenting on some of the aspects of the first part of this
autobiography, I want to say something about the teachers who were
net at various stages in this process. Of course the ones that stand
out most obviously, seem to have the most obvious importance, would
be Rudi and then Muktananda, Nityananda, and Maharshi, And each of
these represents a particular stage in this demonstration that is
going on in this life. In relation to Rudi, the sadhana that was done
was the sadhana of the descending force, and of the descended life,
the functional life. It was truly the most difficult stage, because
it deals with the most heavy, functional, life-level sort of thing,
so it’s the most obviously difficult stage of sadhana. But it was in
that period of living and performing sadhana in relation to Rudi that
all of this work in the lower life was performed, essentially work in
the vital, and in the vital gross-physical mechanism and its
emotional components, But essentially in this descending functional
order of life that sadhana was performed in Rudi’s
company.
When this had
become fruitful and the next stage of the process was indicated, I
went and began to work with Muktananda. And with Muktananda the
ascending aspect of the circuit was lived, demonstrated, It was in
relation to Muktananda that the ascending or subtle aspects of the
spiritual process were generated end lived. The culmination of the
ascending process is the “bright”, the illuminated consciousness, the
spiritual light of consciousness,
This aspect of
the spiritual process, this goal of the ascending life as well as
source of the descending life, the sadhana of that aspect of the
process was lived in relation to Nityananda and to other subtle
entities, influences that manifested during that period; the Mother
Shakti, many, many, many experiences, and they’re certainly not all
indicated there. But Nityananda’s perhaps the primary Guru figure in
relation to that aspect of the process,
In Maharshi’s
case, there was the sadhana of the causal being, You must begin to
see something about the sadhana in each of these cases as well. The
sadhana in relation to Rudi was very difficult, aggressive, muscular,
active. In relation to Muktananda the ascending process required
certainly a certain amount of difficult sadhana, but it’s already
easier, it’s already more fluid, simpler. In relation to Nityananda
and the subtler influences of the “bright” of consciousness, the
sadhana and the enjoyment were taking place at the same time. So
nothing was attained in the confrontation with Nityananda; the
confrontation was itself the enjoyment. So at this point the sadhana
has become so rapid that it’s coincident with the experience itself.
And Maharshi didn’t enter into the picture in the path of the opening
of the causal being, did not enter into the picture as a form of
sadhana at the time. I don’t even talk about Maharshi in this book
until after the events occur, of which Maharshi is an example. But in
any case, Maharshi represents that aspect of the process,
descriptively, he represents that aspect of the process which is the
realization of the Heart, the prior nature, the intuition of
Real-God.
So what you see
in the process of the life of this one is a duplication of the
spiritual process, of the great process of the manifest world,
descending and ascending and fallen in the Heart. This is also a
recapitulation of all of the traditions of spiritual life; religious,
spiritual, philosophical, occult, esoteric, but this was not the end.
Beyond this falling into the heart, there was another spontaneous
realization, which was the resurrection of Amrita Nadi, the Intuition
of the God-form.
And in this stage
of Sadhana which is the least available to description perhaps, the
Divine was the Guru, directly. From the beginning of this One’s life,
the Divine was the Guru, and the Guru took on apparent functional
forma at various stages in the sadhana of this One. But then another
instrument appeared, relative to the sadhana of the next stage. So
there was no single human Guru, or manifest Guru from beginning to
end for this One. There was the most directly manifest, perfect Guru
from the beginning, the Divine. So God is the Guru.
The
Knee of Listening and Study Chapters – Table of
Contents