Attention, Death, and Realization

MASTER DA FREE JOHN: The
common world of people is egobound. It is made out of a
certain state of attention. In the common state of
attention, when we are born into the bodily state in the
gross realm, the brain and nervous system act as a lock on
attention. They confine attention to a certain frame of
awareness, a certain selection of perceptibility,
knowability, and experience in general. Thus, human beings
automatically make life out of that state of
attention.

When you dream at night, images
arise from the deeper dimension of mind, and mind, or the
attention that is observing these conditions that arise,
does not react to this arising content judgmentally. The
mind does not assume, “This is odd,” or “This is not real,”
or “This is not the state I am really in. I am really lying
in my bed asleep,” and so forth. It does not make these
kinds of judgments. It immediately keys into the
environment, the appearance that exists at that moment, and
lives out that drama. It does not dissociate from
it.

Similarly, in the ordinary. waking
state of bodily existence we automatically presume that this
is Reality, this is It. And we go about making destiny,
life, existence out of this appearance that we take for
granted, that we take to be necessary. We declare whatever
arises to consciousness to be Reality, simply because
attention is focused on it, because it is arising. If
something else entirely different were to arise, as in
dreams, we would likewise opt for that, assuming that to be
Real, necessary, there to be lived out.

The entire human world is building
existence out of the convention of attention that is
ordinarily determined by the brain and nervous system. All
human pursuits of the common kind are therefore directed
toward the investigation and fulfillment of this particular
state of attention. Our sciences, our politics, all our
cultural activities in general are devoted to this
investigation and this fulfillment. On the other hand, every
human being is suffering. Every human being feels
mysteriously confined, feels somehow curiously trapped,
feels unfulfilled. This motivation toward fulfillment is
also part of human endeavor. Because we are trying to make
our life fulfill itself on the basis of an arbitrary
selection of Reality, there is no universal state of peace
or fulfillment in the world to date. This appearance that is
arising at the present time is an artificial reality. In
some cases, it can achieve a more or less sattvic or
balanced condition, but it cannot fulfill itself in the
Absolute sense, because it is not Absolute. It is only a
selection of Reality, a selection of possibility.

Truly, our most profound drive or
motive is the one based on our mysterious dissatisfaction,
our sense of being unfulfilled, our doubt, our despair, our
seeking in general. It is a deeper motive than the
superficial motive to fulfill this arising experience simply
because it is apparent. It is a motive that arises in the
depth of the being, grounded in the knowledge that this is
an arbitrary appearance, that what appears to be the case is
not Absolute. But our fundamental motive to be released is
in general covered over by our superficial motive to be
fulfilled in the midst of the manifest appearance of
life.

Among those who live in this world,
there are actually quite a number of individuals who for one
reason or another – based on an inherent dissatisfaction or
some mysterious circumstance that motivates them toward
something greater than ordinary life – glimpse something
about the pattern of ordinary phenomena which causes them to
consciously recognize and acknowledge that what we perceive
is in fact an arbitrary appearance. Many individuals have
curious experiences which represent glimpses of other
patterns or glimpses into the non-necessity or low status of
the common pattern of appearances. Thus, there are many
different kinds of extraordinary experiencers in this world
who communicate to others the various ideas that become the
substance of magic, prayer, religion, spirituality,
esotericism, the various teachings that are developed in the
fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of life.

Most human beings, however, are
profoundly bound in the superficial motives of attention
characteristic of the first three stages of life and are
bound, therefore, to the characteristic experiences and
goals of these first three stages of life. Nonetheless, such
people still suffer and remain ultimately unsatisfied. They,
like more extraordinary experiencers, also feel the
mysterious motive to be released, but their motivation is
expressed in general through seeking in the plane of the
common pattern of experience that is arising presently and
arbitrarily. They seek release in the plane of ordinary
appearances and thus they seek to be released through all
kinds of knowledge.

Science is one of the means of
seeking knowledge, but it is not based on the acknowledgment
that what we are actually seeking is release. It is based on
the presumption that what we are seeking is fulfillment in
this plane. However, science has begun to make curious
discoveries that border on a higher perception and
conception of Reality. Science is beginning, therefore, to
conjoin with the perceptions, experiences, and points of
view that belong to the higher stages of life. Even so,
although science is ultimately compatible with a higher
perception and conception of Reality, it is generally
devoted toward the purposes of the ordinary plane of
experience, such as politics.

Science is, in fact, a part of
politics devoted toward the presumption that human pursuits
should be oriented toward fulfillment in this world.
Politicians, the news, and the programming on television in
general all propagandize an idea of human existence as
attention devoted to fulfillment in this plane. And there
are many taboos against pursuing fulfillment in terms of the
higher stages of life.

In general, exoteric religions are
fitted to the needs and lifeprograms of the first three
stages of life. They commonly carry taboos against the
higher stages of life, against curious perceptions,
mysticism, higher perceptions, or even an orientation toward
release from this world. They generally propagandize the
notion of human existence as a pursuit of goals within the
frame of the common plane of attention. Thus, exoteric
religion, science, and politics are all generally oriented
toward the conventional frame of ordinary attention. But,
even in the results of all of these lesser pursuits is an
element that points toward a higher perception and the
realization that the usual pattern we are viewing is totally
arbitrary.

The esoteric traditions of the
fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of life propose knowledge in
a higher frame of perception, above and beyond the plane of
attention now appearing. That is why they are “secret” They
are not commonly accepted. They cannot be wholly integrated
with the purposes of life in this world, although many
teachers try to integrate esotericism with exotericism. A
kind of dividing line exists between the point of view of
attention in the first three stages of life, and that in the
fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of life, and it is a
division based on the two essential motives that I have
described. The first three stages of life are devoted toward
the fulfillment of attention in this plane, and the fourth,
fifth, and sixth stages of life are devoted toward the
fulfillment of attention through the realization of other
planes of appearance. The sixth stage of life is even
oriented toward the transcendence of all planes.

Thus, the first three stages of life
are devoted to the purposes of attention in this world, and
the next three stages are devoted toward the purposes of
attention in other planes. The three higher stages of life
are devoted, at least ultimately, to the purposes of release
from this world, although practitioners in the higher stages
also acknowledge the necessity for a grounding in purity,
equanimity, balance, or responsibility in the lesser stages
of life.

But all of the six common stages of
life are to one or another degree limited by the convention
of present attention, the way things presently seem to be.
Therefore, there is supreme value in entering directly into
the observation of the process whereby the present form of
attention arises. The Way that I Teach is the transcendence
of attention altogether.

The ego or self-contraction is
created on the basis of the convention of attention into
which we are born. It is a contraction in the midst of the
apparent relations of consciousness. It is possible to draw
attention out of the present, common limitation of
experience. Attention is, in some sense, inherently free. It
intending to be bound in the plane of all its relations, but
it is also eternally free in its Source.

The highest investigation is, most
fundamentally, the investigation of attention in its Source,
then secondarily in the plane of possibility or relations.
The common esotericism of the fourth and fifth stages of
life is toward the examination of the process of attention
in the frame of its possible relations, or possibility
altogether. The sixth stage of life, however, represents a
different orientation. It is a process whereby attention is
investigated in its Source. The common esotericism of the
fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of life begins, therefore,
without having first realized the Status and Source of
attention or consciousness. Thus, the fourth and fifth
stages of life are an un-Enlightened pursuit. The sixth
stage of life is also originally an un-Enlightened pursuit,
because it seeks to Realize the Source of attention but has
not yet actually Realized It.

The seventh stage of life is the
ultimate stage of life. It is that stage in which the Source
of attention has been priorly Realized, and therefore the
relations of attention are recognizable. In the seventh
stage of life, therefore, the real, true, and free
investigation of the relations of attention may be most
fruitfully carried out. It is only in the seventh stage of
life that the Status of the relations of attention is
obvious. The pursuits in the fourth and fifth stages of
life, which go beyond this world to investigate the higher
origins of the phenomena associated with attention, are not
based on prior Enlightenment, or the Realization of the
Source of phenomena. Truly, therefore, we must go beyond the
fourth and fifth stages of life into the sixth, and then to
the seventh.

The most direct Way of Realization,
the Way that I Teach, is to bypass the concerns and
limitations of the first six stages of life. It is to
understand them thoroughly and therefore to be free to
bypass them – not by exclusion, but by assuming the natural
position of consciousness and allowing equanimity to be
established in the plane of the body-mind. Then attention is
free to directly Realize its Source, and having found that
Source, to Realize the Status of all the relations of
attention.

The Way that I Teach is the Way of
the seventh stage of life, although people must be brought
to that disposition through a culture of preparation that is
associated with the first six stages of life. The
Realization of the seventh stage is a Great Secret to be
discovered, and its key lies in the principle of attention.
What we must discover is the Source of attention and the
Source and Status of phenomena. The first investigation, and
the one of most importance, is the Realization of the Source
of attention, because any investigation of phenomena prior
to that is based on egoity, or the convention of attention
itself.

The explorations of the fourth and
fifth stages of life are secondary. They are not fruitful
until the position of the seventh stage of life is attained.
But in the fourth and fifth stages of life, and particularly
in the fifth stage, there is a potential investigation of
the process whereby attention is arising in this current
frame of appearance and in the frame of other forms of
appearance. This investigation is not final in the fifth
stage of life, because the Source of attention must be
Realized in order for the Source of phenomena to be
Realized. The explorations of the fifth stage of life are
yet bound to the convention of attention or egoity, and
therefore there is no Liberation possible in the fifth stage
of life. Higher experiences may be attained, but not
Liberation, not Enlightenment.

There is the idea in the common
esotericism of the higher stages of life that if we explore
the higher sources of phenomenal appearance through the
mechanism of attention, we will attain Liberation, and it is
believed, furthermore, that the Energy Matrix that is Itself
the Source of forms will somehow bring us to Realization.
However, I have investigated all these matters, and it is
clear in my exploration that the un-Enlightened use of
attention in the plane of phenomena is always binding. It is
said of the Source of phenomena, which is called the
Shakti¹ in the Hindu tradition, that it is
Maya.² And this is true. It always bewilders. It
always binds. It does not lead directly to Enlightenment,
because Enlightenment is in the Subjective Source of
attention, not in the Objective Source of
phenomena.

In the fifth stage of life, many
techniques have been developed for the exploration of
subtler phenomena. But they all amount to basically one
thing: the movement of attention upward in our own nervous
system, beyond the limits of the brain, into the energy
matrix that is just on the other side of our current frame
of attention, and then a movement beyond into other
phenomenal planes of possibility.

1. In its capitalized
form, Shakti represents the Power aspect of divine Divine
Being. It is the Matrix or Creatrix of the manifest
world.

2. The Sanskrit term
muya means literally “She who measures.” The equation of
Shakti with Maya indicates the “deluding” force of the
Creative Power

 

This technique is a sound one. It is
a kind of science for the exploration of phenomena. It is
not an Enlightened science, but it is an effective method.
Just as the scientific method commonly used is an effective
method for learning about phenomena in general, the esoteric
method of the ascent of attention is a science that is
effective in the investigation of the process of the
patterning of awareness. It does not lead, however, to the
ultimate Liberation of attention, except in the case where
the individual pursues that method to its limit, and then
goes beyond it to explore the Source of attention itself –
in other words, if the individual goes beyond the fifth
stage to the sixth stage, and then to the seventh
stage.

The process of the ascent of
attention – which is methodically pursued in yoga, attained
to some degree unwittingly by mysticism, and also attained
(generally unwittingly) by people at the moment of death –
is also this exploration. It occurs in various other curious
moments during life, when a person may-in an operation, an
accident, fainting, sudden blows of one or another
kind-experience the separation of attention from the
body-mind in what are called outof-body experiences. In all
kinds of circumstances, attention may be lifted suddenly,
without thoroughly understanding its position, into a frame
of reference that is not directly or necessarily apparently
associated with the body, or the brain and nervous
system.

Mysticism is generally built upon
the exotericism of religion and then extended into the
generally dualistic emotionalism of the fourth stage of
life. But it may also extend into the phenomena of the fifth
stage of life. In the fifth stage of life a direct science
of exploration is taken up, whereby attention is first
methodically raised to the brain core, or what is called the
ajna chakra, which is an actual physiological center. By
putting attention there, in effect, the outgoing energies
that move into the extended nervous system of the elemental
body are withdrawn. This may be done successfully by various
techniques that draw attention into the brain core, either
by fixating attention at the brain center and relaxing all
physical activity, or by using a transmission of energy,
generally from an outside source, quite frequently from a
teacher. By one or another means, attention is brought to
the physiological root in the brain core. The same occurs at
death, in moments of trauma, and in other such experiences
as I noted before.

The process associated with
out-of-body experiences is similar to that associated with
raising attention to the brain core, although out of-body
experiences are often merely associated with the
exteriorization of perception into the plane in which the
brain and body exist. But these experiences may also be a
part of a process of ascending to the brain-core and beyond.
All these experiences, whether intentional or unintentional,
involve the movement of attention and the motion of energy
associated with attention away from the frame of the
elemental body and, at the beginning, into the frame of the
root nervous system and brain circuitry. When this event
occurs successfully, by whatever means, what is first viewed
is not visions of other places and so forth – although this
may occur. The fundamental exploration that becomes possible
through this ascent of attention is the exploration of the
process whereby states of attention arise, phenomena become
associated with attention, and attention becomes fixed in
one or another kind or place of phenomena. Thus, this
fundamental exploration is associated not with visions of
places and so forth, but with a vision of energy in the form
of lights.

The first visions commonly perceived
when attention ascends to the brain core are associated with
the energy in the brain circuit and are limited by the
brain. Many kinds of lights may be seen, but most basically,
what is first seen is a dark field, generally broken up by
perhaps flashes of little lines of light which may appear
chaotically. This phenomenon has been described as lightning
in some traditions. Then another level of perception may
arise, in this same dark field, in which patterns are
observed that seem very clearly to be made of strictly drawn
lines, perhaps of a silver to gold or a bluish and yellowish
color. When attention moves beyond this lowest stage, which
is closer to grosser physical awareness, it sees a center of
light, which, when clearly visualized, appears as a series
of rings of colored light surrounding a central light. The
outer ring is a golden-yellow field. At the center of it is
a brilliant blue field, and at the very center of this blue
field is a white star or flash of light.

Before this bindu,³ or
central light, is seen clearly, a golden, sunlike, colored
light may appear, representing the outer or yellow golden
ring, or a sort of moonlike, bluish, silverish color may
appear, representing the blue field, but not yet clearly
seen because attention is still associated with the more
vague energies of gross perception. When the bindu is seen
very clearly, it appears as the central image, with a
golden-yellow outer field, a blue interior, and then a white
center. Sometimes the white center does not appear, and just
the gold is seen, or the yellow and the blue, or the focus
moves directly toward the blue, and the gold
disappears.

The Sanskrit word bindu
means “drop” or “mark.” In addition to signifying a
particularly important visionary phenomenon, it also denotes
“subtle” centers that are the locus of specific energies and
transmutation of consciousness.

 

But this field of lights is actually
made up of all three colors-the golden-yellow, the blue, and
the white. When all three colors are clearly seen together
as a single field, then the exploration of each of the three
fields is possible. All forms of perception, all
appearances, all worlds are made out of this Matrix of
Energy, composed of these three lights. That is, the worlds
themselves are made out of the blue and gold fields, whereas
the white light at the center precedes all appearances. The
world of our common experience, therefore, is a perception,
arising to consciousness, which does not move. Everything
that is perceived through the mechanism of attention is made
out of this patterning process that develops out of the
yellow-blue phenomenon or Matrix.

If attention is free to move
directly into, through, and beyond those fields of light, it
does not become diverted into planes of vision. But as soon
as attention becomes fixed at one or another level of energy
or potential in the Matrix, the central field of light is
lost, and one becomes aware of being a person or being
attention in a world of one kind or another. This world and
the life that we are now apparently living in our elemental
bodies is made out of that light phenomenon, which is
arising directly to the plane of consciousness at the most
subtle or atomic level. Ultimately this world arises at the
level of the Transcendental Divine. We are bound to this
life by virtue of our acceptance of this life. We are
arbitrarily motivated by it simply because it is apparently
arising, and we do not generally believe there is an
alternative to it.

There are teachings in this world
which communicate to people that the real business of living
is release, that we should exploit our most fundamental
motivation, which is to be released from this world. Many of
those teachings say we should seek release from this world
and go to a higher world. Others say we should pursue
release, in the most absolute terms, from all possible
worlds. And the methods of release that are communicated
depend upon the stage of life or the basis from which the
point of view about release is constructed.

The elemental, gross world of our
common experience is an image made out of the total matrix
of yellow and blue light. The whole scale of color and
energy is apparent in this world. The whole rainbow is
apparent here, as it is in all worlds, but this world occurs
primarily at the periphery of the total Matrix of light. We
may say rightly, therefore, that this world is made
primarily out of the golden-yellow field, the outer ring of
the Matrix, although other worlds appear in this same yellow
field, closer to the center. Presumably then, further toward
the periphery of the yellow field are grosser worlds than
the one of our present experience or else gross dimensions
within the present one.

Yogis in the fifth stage, therefore,
frequently recommend that we pursue release from this world.
They generally recommend a basically ascetical point of view
toward living in this world, a point of view in other words
of intentional disassociation from this world in order to
free attention to move to the brain core and beyond into the
subtle realms in the plane of the blue field, the blue
light, or the blue portion of the bindu. This is why yogis
frequently teach about the blue bindu and do not mention the
golden-yellow field. They may speak of golden light, but
they recommend ultimate concentration upon the blue
field.

 

If attention is lifted up into the
blue field, by one or another means, temporarily or
permanently, the blue field ceases to be just a blue spot of
light and begins to break up into patterns. The total bindu
is a matrix of patterns. All possibility exists within it.
Therefore as soon as we concentrate in any portion of the
bindu, it begins to break up into forms, and we begin to see
visions. It is actually possible to visualize the very
process whereby the Matrix of light breaks up into visions
and perceptions and becomes solidified as an actual world.
When we dream at night and also when we are in the waking
state, we are involved in this process of visualization,
without being aware of it. We take up our point of view
bodily and do not conceive of ourselves ordinarily as
existing purely as consciousness in a Matrix of energy. But
that is exactly what we are at this very moment. We are
simply not conscious of it because our attention is confined
to the perceptual possibilities that are organized through
the gross body, brain, and nervous system.

If concentration is developed in the
blue field without gross physical awareness, then it appears
like a tunnel. It seems at first as if you are looking into
a very distant place. It looks as if there is a room at the
end of this blue tunnel, but if you move further with this
concentration of attention into that apparent room or place
at the end of the tunnel, you will see that it is not really
a room but a matrix of patterns. It looks like a place
somehow. It looks like there are things in it, but they are
not really things. There is nothing fixed about them. They
are generally just very clear patterns in primary colors
revolving, moving around one another, constantly changing.
It is a very clear place with very crisply defined edges and
lines, but it is not yet identified as a specific place. If
you concentrate in it, it can then move from this rather
plastic state to. become other worlds. And those worlds that
are viewed in the blue matrix are the heavenly worlds, the
subtle worlds or “lokas” that are pursued by the fifth stage
yogis.

As I have said, however, even though
one may move into those worlds, one has not Realized the
Truth there any more than in this world. The Truth is not in
any world. Worlds are simply possibilities. They are
completely arbitrary and temporary. No world is permanently
attained, all worlds are temporarily attained. There may be
worlds that are more pleasurable than the present one,
because they exist in a frame of greater subtlety, greater
expanse, greater beauty, one might say. But to be in them is
not to be permanently in them, nor is t to be
Enlightened.

Therefore, to awaken as a being in
some other world is to awaken much as we awaken here. It is
simply to be born there, to conceive of one’s existence in
that frame, mysteriously. Beings in those worlds pursue
their fulfillment, their self-perpetuation in those worlds,
just as beings do here, but they do not remain in them
permanently. They move into lower grade worlds, other
worlds, or they move on to higher realization or ultimate
Realization, Therefore, while they exist in those worlds, in
the deepest motives of their consciousness they are
associated with the same motive that possesses us. It is the
motive to seek release. But they, in their ordinary state,
do not pursue release. Their motive to release lies behind
their search for fulfillment in the plane of existence in
which they are appearing. Therefore, only the most unique or
extraordinary beings in the higher worlds pursue ultimate
Realization, or Enlightenment, or perfect release, just as
only the most extraordinary ones do in this present
world.

Therefore, the Way of Truth or
ultimate Realization is a matter of perfect release from
bondage to the patterning of attention. There is also an
indirect way toward release, and that is to pursue the way
of the stages, to exploit one’s motive toward release. Those
who would realize at least a higher condition of existence
must be able to build their existence on this motive toward
release, not on the motive toward fulfillment in the present
frame. Fulfillment in the present frame must be secondary
for anyone who is going to move beyond it toward either
higher conditions of existence or Enlightenment
itself.

Thus, the Way of Truth depends on
capturing this motivation toward release, this doubt, this
non-fulfillment that is always present in us and that
supersedes our superficial motivation toward fulfillment in
this world. But the Way that must be built upon that motive
is best developed if it moves toward release itself or
Enlightenment most directly.

The indirect way to Realize
Enlightenment or the Truth or the Divine Condition is to go
the Way of the stages as a seeker motivated toward release,
going from the common state in this world into the fourth
and the fifth stages of life, then hopefully into the sixth,
and then into the seventh. It is possible to do this. My own
life is a demonstration of all these stages and their
limitations. But I would not have passed beyond those stages
if prior Enlightenment were not at _he basis of my birth,
because there was no meeting in this world or any other
world that instructed me or lifted me out of any one of the
it-ages and moved me on to the next or toward the seventh
stage.

In this indirect path of the stages,
release is not only prolonged but the way is filled with
possible bondage, because it is the way or path based upon
attention to phenomena. Therefore, it tends to become locked
into the Matrix, Maya, or possibility.

The sages of the sixth stage of
life, therefore, recommend the direct process of release or
ultimate Enlightenment. And the direct process is not a
matter of moving attention into the plane or Matrix of
phenomena. It is a matter of investigating the root of
attention itself. It is a matter of the contemplation or
consideration of consciousness.

But this sixth stage pursuit is only
temporary because it is based on un-Enlightenment. It is the
pursuit of Enlightenment. Nevertheless, sixth stage is a
higher stage of life because it is not involved with the
devo ion of attention to phenomena but rather to its own
Source. The true fulfillment of the sixth stage, however, is
not meditation on consciousness separate or dissociated from
phenomena. Nor is it a matter of binding attention to the
atman,4 or consciousness separated from phenomena. The true
fulfillment of the sixth stage of life is the seventh stage
of life. The transition to the seventh stage of life occurs
with what I call “open eyes,” or the relaxation of the
motive of exclusiveness. It is not a strategy. It occurs
spontaneously when the sixth stage exploration of
consciousness or the root of attention has fulfilled itself
or been entered into perfectly. It is the spontaneous event
of the Realization of the Subjective Matrix of the Objective
Matrix of phenomena. It is the Realization of the Origin,
State, or Condition of the bindu, and therefore of the
world.

In the seventh stage of life, the
world, or whatever form of phenomenon is presently arising,
is inherently recognizable as a modification of the
Transcendental Consciousness, Being, Love-Bliss,
Self-Radiance. It is only in the seventh stage of life,
therefore, that the investigation of phenomena is free,
because it is not associated any longer with egoity. In the
seventh stage of life there is the inherent Realization of
Identification with the Divine or Transcendental Being,
which is Self-Radiant Bliss, Perfect Consciousness. The
inherent Radiance of the Divine or Transcendental Self is
objectified as the white light at the center of the bindu.
It is the Radiance in which the bindu arises and out of
which all worlds are composed.

Therefore, in the seventh stage of
life it is possible that this white light or Radiance may be
seen. The body-mind is Transfigured and Transformed by this
Radiance. The process of recognition in the seventh stage of
life sees through whatever phenomena are presently arising,
and thus releases the seed of the association of attention
with whatever phenomena are presently arising.

Therefore, as the seventh stage
matures, it becomes more and more characterized by a quality
of apparent renunciation in this world. It tends to become
more and more associated with subtle perceptions.
Transformation of a subtle kind begins to appear after an
initial period of Transfigured, benign existence or radiant
helpfulness in this world. The quality of renunciation
appears, and transformations occur that are more and more
characterized by the development of the siddhi5 of subtle
perception.

4. The classical Hindu
term for the very Self or Nature of the apparent individual.
From the point of view of the limited consciousness, the
atman is the soul. From the point of view of perfect
understanding, the atman is not different from Brahman, the
Eternal Divine Reality or God

5. The word siddhi,
which stems from the Sanskrit root sidh meaning “to
achieve,” signifies most generally “ability” or “capacity.”
In yogic contexts, the term is frequently used to denote
paranormal abilities or “powers.” In the Way of Radical
Understanding or Divine Ignorance such siddhis may arise
spontaneously, in which case they are simply allowed to
manifest and are observed and understood. The Great siddhi
is the Power of the Heart or Divine Consciousness which is
Transmitted through the Adept’s unobstructed
body-mind.

 

 

In the seventh stage of life,
therefore, it is quite possible that the bindu or Objective
Matrix of Nature and various worlds may be viewed during
this lifetime and after death, but in the movement of
attention toward phenomena of one or another kind, these
phenomena are recognized. The movement of attention or its
phenomenal condition in the present is recognized in the
Transcendental Being, and thus it is weakened and it tends
to dissolve. The possibility then arises that if death were
to appear at that point in the seventh stage there would be
a movement of attention into subtle worlds. But even in that
case, whatever phenomena arose would be
recognized.

Ultimately in the seventh stage of
life there is resolution in the Inherent Brightness, the
“Bright,” ⁶ the White Light, or Self-Radiance of
the Transcendental Divine Condition. That is the Divine
Domain, the Domain of Self-Radiance. It is perceptible in
the bindu, even prior to Enlightenment, as a white light.
There may be temporary samadhis of Inherence in that White
Brightness beyond the arising of the blue and yellow fields
of the bindu and beyond the arising of worlds in the frame
of the blue and yellow Matrix. But those samadhis will only
be temporary unless there is the Realization of the Status
of that Brightness.

If attention is merely wedded to the
White Brightness, swooning in It, then attention will tend
to gravitate back toward the blue and yellow fields, their
possibilities, their worlds of embodiment. It is only in the
perfection of the seventh stage of life, or prior
establishment in the Divine or Transcendental Self, that all
worlds become recognizable and are ultimately Outshined in
the Self-Radiance of Inherent Being. And that is
Translation. That is the perfect fulfillment of the seventh
stage of life.

6. The “Bright” is a
term used by Master Da Free John to describe the
spontaneously SelfIllumined Consciousness of the
God-Realizer. It is the God-Light, the unqualified Light
that is above and surrounding the head and is not different
from the Untreated Light of the worlds

 

You can see, therefore, why I say
that the seventh stage of life is itself a form of sadhana
or spiritual discipline. It is founded in Enlightenment, but
it is clearly not the end of the process of existence, nor
is it without transformations. It is a stage in which there
is Transfiguration, then Transformation, and ultimately
Translation. It is only in the Condition of Translation that
there is both perfect Enlightenment and perfect release. And
then there is eternal existence in the Divine Domain, which
is utterly beyond description.

The Divine Domain is not a world
like other worlds. It is not a heaven-world. It is not made
in the Matrix of Nature. It is beyond it. It is the Matrix
of the Matrix of Nature. It is the Matrix of the bindu, the
Matrix of all lights, the Matrix of colors, the Matrix of
worlds, the Matrix of beings, of egoity, of bound
attention.

The bindu, the Objective Matrix of
Nature, will not lead us to that Realization, because we
must transcend attention or Realize the Source of attention
if we are to recognize the Source of phenomena. Thus, the
fulfillment of existence is the Realization of the full term
of the seventh stage of life. This description of the
spiritual discipline of the seventh stage represents,
therefore, a summary of the esotericism of the Way that I
Teach.

In the seventh stage of life there
is prior Self-Realization or perfect Enlightenment,
functioning as recognition. In the seventh stage of life
there is at first a Transfigured state of existence that is
benign and positive in this world. It becomes more and more
apparently renounced once the seeds of motivation in this
world are transcended through recognition. And among those
seeds are even higher motives, such as the motive to Teach
or be Helpful.

When the seventh stage goes beyond
the stage of Transfiguration, it passes into the stage of
Transformation. In that second phase of the seventh stage,
transformations may occur even without a profoundly
renounced characteristic or habit of existence. But as the
renounced phase appears, association with this world itself
becomes profoundly weakened, and the transformations that
occur may be associated with subtler perceptions.

The experience of individuals in the
seventh stage will vary. Some will be more associated with
the benign activities in this world, while others will be
very much associated with higher subtle phenomena, even
going to subtler worlds after death. Others may even be
characteristically renounced in this world from the
beginning, and even renounced in terms of subtle
transformations, gravitating very simply and directly toward
Bhava Samadhi,7 Translation, or Perfect Nirvikalpa,$ the
Nirvikalpa that is free of self-bondage, based on the
Realization of the Transcendental Condition.

The fulfillment of the Way that I
Teach is in Translation or Bhava Samadhi. It is obviously an
extreme and perfect Realization, absolutely uncommon in this
world. I have come in order to Teach this perfect
Realization based on my own prior Realization of this entire
process. I speak from my own experience about all of this. I
am here to be Helpful to people who are bound in their
attention to this life, to Teach them a Way of release that
is not merely separation from phenomena but a Way of the
perfect Realization of Transcendental Happiness. What we
must Realize, therefore, is not fulfillment in any plane,
but perfect Identification with the Transcendental Divine
Being. In that case we dwell eternally in the Place, the
Domain, the Condition, the very State of the Divine Being,
and that Condition, that Domain, is beyond description. It
must be simply Realized through Realization of the
Transcendental Being and the recognition of phenomenal
worlds. The business of the seventh stage of life is to
-bide in the Transcendental Condition and to recognize what
arises.

That process of recognition is a
Yoga that can only be taken up in -rte seventh stage of
life, because it is based on Transcendental Realization.
That is its precondition. But it is a Yoga, and it has its
particular stages, which I have described under the general
headings of Transfiguration, Transformation, and
Translation. The fulfillment of that Yoga is Translation
into the Divine Domain, Identification with That which is at
the Center of the Matrix of Nature, the perfect White
Radiance, the Source of colors, which is not objective to
the self but is the Self Itself.

7. There are two forms
of radical Samadhi pertaining to the seventh stage of life.
The transition the seventh stage of life, described above as
“open eyes,” is Sahaj Samadhi, the natural disposition of
Identification with the Transcendental Reality and moment to
moment recognition phenomena as inconsequential
modifications of that Reality. Bhava Samadhi is the ultimate
form of God-Consciousness. It is the natural “Mood of
Ecstasy” in which there is Divine Inherence without any
noticing of arising conditions. In that case, at death there
is the complete dissolution or Translation of the individual
into the Divine Being.

8. Because of the
absence of any “contents” in the God-Consciousness of Bhava
Samadhi, it can be regarded as being analogous to the
disposition of conditional Self-Realization in the “formless
ecstasy” or nirvikalpa sarnadhi.

 

That Realization, therefore, is the
purpose to which we should be devoted. This Teaching is a
unique communication of that process. I have had to be
instructive to all kinds of people, but the Way that I Teach
is that of the seventh stage. The instructions that I give
to individuals or the general culture of people who have
been associated with me at this time are communications
based on the Realization of the seventh stage of life, but
they are intended to be helpful to people so that they may
prepare for the Yoga of the seventh stage of
life.

There is no perfect Happiness until
the Realization of Translation into the Divine Domain.
Happiness, therefore, does not come merely through the
promises of religion, or through merely dying and going
elsewhere, or through mysticism, conventional yoga, or other
traditional esoteric techniques. Perfect Happiness is
utterly dependent on Transcendental Realization, which
occurs only in the perfect fulfillment of the seventh stage
of life.

 

More:

Death is Not Your
Concern

Attention,
Death and Realization

Transcending
the Cosmic Mandala

Recognition
is the Key to Enlightenment

Leela – Near
Death