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The following is an excerpt from “The Torque of
Attention” from The
Brightening Way Talk Series The Yajna Discourses
of Santosha Adi Da (1995-1996), Volume 1, Number 8.
A Gathering “Consideration” with Beloved Adi Da Samraj
in the Manner of Flowers on January 13, 1996
DEVOTEE : Beloved?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.
DEVOTEE: I’ve just felt over the last several days, as a
result of Your Work and Revelation of Your Self to us in
these gatherings, just this profound attraction to the
“Perfect
Practice“, and even though I know I’m still in the
listening position, and not capable of practicing that, I
feel profoundly drawn to that. Even at the level where I
feel like maybe I’m making the error of not wanting to stay
with the matter of Your similar Admonition and Revelation of
the hearing
process itself.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Hearing?
DEVOTEE: The hearing process itself. I guess it’s more of
a confession that I feel inclined to bypass that matter of
hearing, because, even though I know it’s not in any
way….
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, perhaps you imagine somehow in
yourself that you can bypass it.
DEVOTEES: Right.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: And that’s your sense of the “Perfect
Practice” and of the Witness-Position
and so forth, insofar as you have located all of that in
this “consideration”, you may imagine that it is of the size
required for the “Perfect Practice”. But even if you made
these two presumptions, if you try to do the practice, you’d
quickly find that you just weren’t doing it, you see. So you
do have to examine your real practice.
Even so, what you’re suggesting could be an aid to that
real practice, keep it focused toward what you’re being
prepared for and less interested then in adding baggage to
it all. That’s it?
DEVOTEE: I just wanted to say that in Your description of
the hearing process that You’ve Given us in the intensive,
just the fact that You would make the simple flip – at least
in my understanding – to the fact that the hearing process
itself, or the listening
process to the point of hearing, can be very focused and
brief. In other words, the dominant thing that you’ve been
Revealing to us about the practice is that it’s about
Ishta-Guru-Bhakti
Yoga and that once the basic foundation disciplines are
in place, and the detail is in place, it’s not a matter of
spending a lot of time focusing on that. It seems to us, by
Your Grace, we can be drawn quickly into the matter of
hearing.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes, well, it is a reasonably short period
of time. But we’ve covered that also.
As I was suggesting on the phone, we could talk about
something entirely different. Everything comes around to the
Great “Consideration” ultimately, but we don’t have to
confine ourselves to specific notions, or whatever, that
relate to hearing or to the “Perfect Practice”. We could
talk about something entirely, apparently, apart from all of
that, that is just something you have energy for, or some
question about, or whatever it may be. Because if you just
fasten on this particular matter we’ve been “considering”,
without anything further in yourself from which to generate
questions or participate in it, then it tends to be reduced
to subject matter – and even repetition, without any
usefulness in the repetition.
DEVOTEE: I did have a question from the other night that
– I don’t think I ever even asked the question or conveyed
my interest in it.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. What?
DEVOTEE: This matter of the evolutionary structure of the
body-mind, and the “consideration” of the fact that, as you
grow in the process, literal organs actually grow – a
process in which You have said the growing being identifies
with principle sources of pleasure and fulfillment, in the
first three stages of life and then . . .
ADI DA SAMRAJ: And the same on from there.
DEVOTEE: Right, and that the ultimate organ that becomes
the focus of your absorption and pleasure is Amrita
Nadi. And I was just wondering if You could speak about
the organs in terms of the development of the process in the
five stages.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: I could. [laughter] I believe you
brought this up the other night, and just focused on some
organs having to do with the first three stages of life
-neurosis.
DEVOTEES: Right. Only two.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: He couldn’t remember the genitals.
[laughter]
DEVOTEE: I said that it seemed like the middle heart
would be the next organ that would awaken.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, if you notice in The Dawn Horse
Testament, particularly, elsewhere as well, I do describe
the stages and the process in terms of such
things-particularly fundamental organs or centers associated
with each stage, and also including then the first three
stages of life in their natural development. In the fifth
stage, for instance, the brain core, the Ajna door to the
crown and so on.
The frontal Yoga is associated with the left side of the
heart, but also the middle. We’ve talked about the organs
associated with the pot-shaped, the lower body as a Yogic
mechanism, in which the bodily base is all connected and
intact. But there’s a kind of a pressure of living energy in
the lower body that makes it feel almost just like a
skin-empty inside otherwise, and somehow inflated with
energy, and it even feels like the air in your lungs goes
right down to the base of your body, you see.
So those are matters related to the organs of the body.
In this case, I was merely talking about the physical
features. When the Spiritual Yoga is done in the body from
the egoic seeking point of view, for the achievement of
effects of one kind or another, then there’s the focusing of
received Transmission in the body-mind itself -not only the
gross organs, but the subtler dimensions also. So that, in
effect, the Spiritualization of the various organs in the
Circle and so forth, is cultivated, and results in all those
areas are pursued, and held on to, and mulled over, and so
on. Things like visions and such become cultivated also –
subtle phenomena. Perhaps even abilities in the physical
that come from the energization of the internal subtle
mechanisms.
So when there is that cultivation of Spiritual Energy by
the body-mind for the sake of egoic or psycho-physical
development, then of course especially you see the various
potential organ and body changes and all the rest of it
associated with those developments. You see them in My Case
of course, but in the case of devotees, its not necessarily
going to develop like that because the Spiritual practice is
founded on hearing, and therefore the process is always
about direct ego-transcendence, rather than seeking or
otherwise clinging to phenomenal appearances, even the kind
of things that are generated by Spiritual
“conductivity”.
So if those processes are not themselves cultivated, then
the effects associated with them are not going to be
developed. Each devotee is different. The mechanics are set
up differently, and so on, so there will be some people who
will show evidence of more involvement in the effects of My
Spiritual Transmission, and some more of those developments
in the body-mind may occur then.
Generally speaking though, or in the general case, even
though there are various kinds of effects in the body-mind
that would be experienced. It is generally the case with
devotees that there’s some of that, but its not cultivated,
its not the purpose of the practice. Always in every moment
it is direct transcendence of egoity in Communion with Me,
rather than focusing on the effects. That’s the sadhana.
The Spiritual process then is basically finding Me,
recognizing Me Spiritually-being, through the hearing
exercise and Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga, altogether fully
entered into Communion with Me, not fascinated with effects
and so forth, although some things are purified and there
are some noticings. So the Spiritual process is really this:
See Me, and take up the “Perfect Practice”. You see, its
very direct. If you are entered into direct locating of Me,
Communion with Me, rather than registering the effects, you
find you are drawn to My Position, you are Attracted into My
Position. Not just standing off and getting Shined on. You
are Absorbed in Me. You become right-heart directed,
spontaneously.
That being the case, then, speaking generally of
devotees, the process is a simple one. Some purifications,
some this and that, but fundamentally it is a matter of
simply relaxing, balancing, opening to some degree, as
necessary, purifying the Circle, rather than developing it,
rather than dwelling on any center and so forth as a fixed
intention of practice. There is simply this Attractedness
into Samadhi, Spiritual Communion with Me, founded on
self-transcendence through hearing.
So yes, there will be Yogic signs in the body, since
there is that Force associated with the practice and you are
breathing Me. But compared to how it could be if you
developed it intentionally, the actual development of the
organs in remarkable ways won’t in general be the case. I
mean, you could do all that, like you could go to medical
school tomorrow and get a degree and become a doctor. You
could do all kinds of things that you’re not doing now. But
as My devotee you’re here to exercise your discrimination,
you see. “What is fruitful, what is Happiness, what is the
Way that supports it, that serves its Realization? Is this a
wrong course or right course? Is this distraction, is this
something to follow?” Its always discrimination, always a
profound sensitivity to the self-contraction and its
effects, and the whole mechanism of bondage. Sensitivity to
all that is fundamental to the Way of the Heart. So its not
just a gleeful good feeling, “come and get your Kundalini”,
just feeling energies and letting it rip-without any
fundamental focus in ego-surrender, ego-transcendence,
without any true discrimination relative to what you’re up
to.
That’s a religious self-indulgence of a kind, because its
ego-based, just as much founded in the self-contraction as
anything else you might do. So you could take a long time in
the Spiritual stages – bit by bit, yes Communing with Me,
but dwelling on all the effects, and letting them build, and
becoming exaggerated with them, and carrying on with all
that, even right on through the fifth stage of life. You
could do that. All of those things occurred in My own Case,
you see?
But in My own Case, it was a constant “consideration” –
Is this it? Is this fruitful? Constantly examining it,
seeing its limitations. And after all, when it came down to
it, I didn’t spend any years or extended time in the side
trips. It was all very direct. I had to examine everything
to establish that direct Way, but devotees need not – as if
they have no Guru, no Revelation. They need not, or they
should not, just blithely enter into developing
experience.
So if you wanted all kinds of Yogic signs, body signs,
psychic signs of a Spiritual nature, all that – well, this
is of course possible. There’s many requirements even to do
that – ultimately requires someone exceptional for all of
that to be developed fully, and exceptional Grace, or
Transmission altogether. But it would take a lot of time,
you would be totally occupied with it – which is making use
of the ego-method, indulging in experience. Fundamentally
its not any different indulging in experience in the subtler
domain of possible experience than it is in the gross. Yes,
different objects, but its the same bondage, its the same
structure of bondage. You see how readily you’ve all not
only gotten bound in the gross dimension of existence, but
have even continued to develop it further in My Company,
become distracted by all kinds of things, essentially gross,
over the years. And you see how years later you’re still
working on the same foundation.
Well, the same kind of thing happens when the subtler
dimension of experience is opened and magnified hugely. An
intense desiring motive occurs there, a kind of subtler
counterpart to lust, you see. Its very distracting. You get
distracted by pleasurable associations in the physical –
what makes you think you wouldn’t likewise be distracted in
the subtle? The subtle is basically the subtle side, the
energy side, of the senses, and of the faculties generally.
So its still about the same structure of existence, it’s
just on a subtler, so to speak more interior, level of it.
And certainly while alive there’s still some physical
associations.
There are, therefore, pleasures associated with the
subtle tour of body-mind, but you feel the same as you do in
the gross tour. I mean, you have extraordinary days where
you feel extraordinarily well in the gross dimension. So
there are those days in the subtle search, where you have a
good day, you know? [laughter]
DEVOTEE: A good trip today.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes, some really delightful visions and
you feel good, and you go into Samadhis perhaps a little
bit. But the next day, you’re in there grinding away at it,
trying to get up enough Shakti to even make your breath
even. [laughter]
So in other words you’re always working on the mechanism,
on its limitations, you’re always possessed by your search,
your dis-ease then. And sometimes there are breakthroughs,
but they’re always temporary. Altogether the course is
another version of struggle like what you do in the gross
play of the world. And, yes, there are high attainments in
it certainly – they are not eternal. But there are such
things, other planes. There is transition to such planes –
while alive and after death. This is certainly possible, but
it is not that the Truth has been Realized. Its temporary,
as I said. It has certain kinds of limitations of its own.
Its still fundamentally rooted in the dis-ease of the ego,
which must constantly be gone beyond. Contemplative states
are achieved, this and that is achieved, as a temporary
matter.
But all of the beings there, thus more sensitized, long
for release in their celestial palaces. They are like brides
in a tower, waiting for the Prince. Therefore, they don’t
exactly luxuriate in their situation. Their motion toward
Contemplation is profound, a profound tapas. Even having
done what was necessary to achieve a plane of delights,
their longing is so profound, its all ashes in their mouth.
It’s all nothing to them, you see. It’s only to those who
have not yet arrived that this looks like paradise. When you
get there so unsheathed, so sensitized to the Divine
Potential -and yet still sitting on that knot of
separateness? So its in those high planes where the greatest
longing is, and the least distractedness. Whereas from the
lower dimensional point of view you think, if you could only
get into that situation – you know, like politicians say,
“If you could just give people food and housing and so
forth, then they will live the happy life,” and so on. More
is required.
It’s when you actually get into such a situation that
that’s not enough. And there’s great striving there. It’s
not automatic that they go to God-Realization always. And
some just descend again. It’s too close and too agonizing
perhaps. So these are not final attainments. The planes
themselves pass, and change all the while, and the
Realization is not satisfactory yet. High, but not
finished.
Well, what’s the difference between that and, while
alive, Realizing conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi and seeing
that it is not finished? You see, it is the same state
-achieved temporarily there as it might be achieved
temporarily, and on and on again, through effort elsewhere.
So all of the wisdom is potential in the human situation.
You need not go elsewhere to Realize it. Of course, many do,
even using subtle means, serve their purposes in the gross
plane, and others serve them in the subtle plane. These are
karmic entities doing karmic things. All in need, all
seeking. All the planes are dual, made of opposites. They
all have their limitations.
So the Way is to Realize the Truth of the world, the
Truth of the conditional domain, the Cosmic Domain – rather
than commit yourselves to the Cosmic Domain itself. You’re
associated with conditional things, therefore you’re in
exactly the right position. You can use those things as
means of God-Realization. You need not look for other
things. Instead of seeking, you should put your place in
order where you are, and enter into this heart-seriousness,
going beyond egoity, with Me.
Until you find out and Realize that Truth, you’re subject
to many illusions and less-than-Truth motives, and you are
easily stimulated by all kinds of means. Those who Realize
greatly are capable of one-pointed concentration. They are
immovable, fundamentally. They don’t suffer that
distractedness that constantly draws the apparent being into
entanglements, adventures without a great end.
Distraction is bewilderment, you see? This is why it is,
in the traditions, called “Maya” and such – even called a
place of evil in some traditions. Its constantly about
bondage. You’re bewildered, can’t figure it out, it always
ends in death – every cycle. It’s possible to become so
absorbed in your desiring in the indulgences, that you cease
to be serious altogether, for a time, and become more and
more profoundly degraded, hardly even noticing it.
All desire is seeking. Just as you’ve discovered about
the motions of mind in our conversations here, how they
distract you from the Witness and so on. Yes, there are
thoughts in life, but there’s a lot of action, and action is
associated with thinking, but through the medium of desire –
or desire is even the leading force in it and mind or
thoughts play around it. So you also must notice then how
the mechanism of desire binds you, dislocates you from the
fundamental Position.
So any indulgence in the motion of attention exploits the
same mechanism of dislocation from the Source-Position.
In general, the traditional practices involve the
controlling of attention, controlling of all motion from the
Source, away from the Source, however that is conceived.
Since it’s all one mechanism, various traditions engage in
their pursuits by exploiting one or the other of the leading
faculties – and thereby hope to control the rest. I’ve
talked to you about the four principle faculties to
constantly be turning to Me, forgetting content and feeling
beyond it in Communion with Me: The body, everything called
emotion, the mind, which is epitomized as attention, and the
breath. All the traditional Yogas include approaches that
exploit one or the other of those, or perhaps a combination
of them sometimes, in order to control all of them. It’s
generally felt if you can control one, you do in fact
effectively control the others. So there are many Yogas
which exploit one or another of these capabilities
associated with these faculties. But, of course, that also
tends to become a dead end in itself and develops
modifications which then themselves become the basis for
seeking.
So in this Way that I have given you, the faculties – the
content of the faculties, the functioning of the faculties
in the context of the body-mind – are all simply turned to
Me, rather than exploiting the content and so on. In each
moment of Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga, you’re turning these
faculties to Me instead, surrendering through these
faculties, forgetting the content of the faculties, the
distractions of body, emotion, mind, and breath. And, in
that forgetting, Contemplating Me, entering into fullest
Contemplation or profound absorptive Contemplation. And by
disregarding the content, you weaken it, you are less bound
to it. It progressively relaxes, its purified, disappears
from non-use – because its part of that Law I’ve told you
about, whatever you meditate on you become. But if you cease
to look on that which you’ve become, turn the faculties in
Communion beyond, then the meditation keeping it in place
relaxes. You achieve wholeness, or another kind of wholeness
or structural arrangement, not requiring those things which
you’re disregarding. And you find a fullness and well-being
in that new adjustment, which hasn’t made use of these
binding qualities, and that’s how they become thoroughly
obsolete.
Its only in your emptiness or dis-ease that you meditate
on things, so to speak – desire them or not seek them and so
forth, and become entangled in them. But if you can forget
about them long enough to establish a new wholeness, a
wholeness that doesn’t include those aberrating factors,
then they’re truly obsolete, because you already have that
fullness which you otherwise would look to achieve by those
involvements. So you don’t need them. They’re not a need in
you. They’re not about desiring.
That’s what happens when it gets fully that way, but even
in the meantime there are degrees of purification and
relaxation of the binding tendencies, and you enjoy more
discrimination about them and discipline is effective more
readily, simply. Eventually its not a struggle at all. But
when there is this true, fully established equanimity,
there’s also great concentration, freedom of energy and
attention, and the previous adaptations that were binding
have been made obsolete by non-use, through discipline,
through Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga, all of it. So you are full,
whole, not seeking, the body-mind in a state of equanimity.
You see how you’ve become disentangled. So that’s what the
original period of the process is about. And as it moves
into the Spiritual dimension of the exercise, it Realizes
Spiritual equanimity, a fullness unagitated.
And that fullness, of course, is especially magnified in
the profoundest exercise, in meditation and so on. But when
you’ve entered into that sphere of equanimity – no longer
agitated such that your practice is undermined – its then
that you are presenting yourself, or established in
equanimity and in Communion with Me, such that energy and
attention can become directly focused in the right side of
the heart. Attention not agitated, attention can be
transcended directly.
If attention is simply moving about, you’re always
noticing its objects. But if that fitfulness relaxes, you
can be sensitive to attention itself, because it’s steady
and doesn’t just jump to objects. It has a certain kind of
equanimity itself, such that attention can be comprehended.
And it’s the last thing in the space – everything is
epitomized as attention. When it is found in the
Self-Condition, in Consciousness Itself, its something like
the hearing matter. You’re in the position of that first
contraction. In fact it is the hearing matter, but exercised
at this later stage. Its like the original hearing
understanding, because you suddenly grasp it – the
self-contraction and the ability to feel beyond it.
So in this noticing and equanimity, this noticing of
attention is the first stroke, really. It is the feeling of
relatedness, the feeling of separateness. It is the
root-disturbance, but you’re feeling beyond it. But yet you
notice this is a sensation in the midst of Consciousness
Itself, an apparition there. Suddenly you become aware of
the Self-Field in Which that primary thought or gesture is
arising. So this shift, in other words, is from being
identified with attention, by focusing on it, to being
identified with the Consciousness in Which its
appearing.
So that is the basic event in which there is a transition
to the Witness-Position. Its not that it’s just an idea you
study in My Teaching, and someday it happens. This is the
process, you see. It is simply a matter of suddenly
Realizing that attention – yes, anything arising – is simply
within the sphere of Consciousness, and that That’s Where
you are. That’s What you are. You have yet to Realize
altogether What it is, but its clear that That is the
Position in every moment of experiencing. And all
experiencing is of fundamentally the same nature – whether
its gross, at the level of the body and its relations, or
deeply interior, or at the level of attention itself.
Instead of that fitful re-identification with attention
and the whole cycle that goes beyond it, there’s an inherent
dwelling in the Position of Consciousness Prior to all of
that. And whenever attention and all of its following
reappears, the state of Consciousness Itself is clearly the
case. Every moment then becomes, so to speak, meditation on
this Sphere that is Consciousness, this Depth, this
Condition which you’re always in. But you are, like a child
pressing its face in the window looking into a house, all
kinds of absorbed in the sensations of all of this
entanglement, and never feel, enter into, profound
identification with the State you’re already in.
So, Realizing the Witness is just at that moment, just
beginning, like taking your face off the window. You sort of
stand back. Its there, but you’re not dwelling on it, not
attached to it through the mechanism of attention. And from
then you enter deeply into the feeling acceptance of that
Well, that Domain, in which I am Non-separately There,
Attractive to you, drawing you into that Depth. That’s the
Nature of the Spiritual process of the “Perfect Practice”.
And I am that Very Consciousness Itself, which you’ve
Realized non-“differently”, by Standing in My Place -in the
Transcendental Position Prior to the body-mind.
So that’s the nature of the Way of the Heart. The
question that was asked about developmental signs in the
body-mind, including the very organs of the body-mind and
such, well, I’ve essentially covered it, and this is in My
Teaching already. But it is entirely secondary. Its not
cultivated in the Way of the Heart. Its not the goal of the
Way of the Heart. So its really about different matters than
the Way of the Heart, at least in its fundamental nature, is
about.
I mean, you could get a bunch of body-building magazines
and see the results and the physiques of the people shown
there and decide to start engaging in an intensive program
of body-building so that you can get to look like that.
There’s a lot of development of organs in that. [soft
laughter] But you’d have to almost entirely devote your
life to it – to do it like it looks in the magazines, you
see. And what’s – [Beloved chuckles.] what
difference does it make anyway? [laughter] It’s just
something to do, you see. Well, the same with the possible
desiring and choosing of things subtler than the gross
world, or the gross entanglements of the body. Its the same
motive, same mechanism, you see?
You could, by a long course of discipline and preparation
and so forth, if you found the right contacts, put the body
in a position to be steadily conducting an immense cosmic
force, and you could develop every function, every center,
every potential for vision and experiencing, potentially.
And it would be very difficult, but you could choose to
devote your existence to that. And having done so, it
doesn’t make any difference. So what? Its just like doing
body-building. Maybe you can amuse yourself with it for a
while, but it doesn’t change anything to do it or achieve
it, you see. It doesn’t change anything fundamental or
profound.
So Spiritual experiences are superficial, like
body-building, and they’re based on the glorification of the
ego, the separate person. Its not easy to do, and even if
you do it, things quickly start falling apart again. If you
don’t keep lifting those weights, the body loses its
definition. You’ve got to keep pressing on those subtle
exercises there, you know, to develop otherwise. And there’s
only a relatively small likelihood of any great achievement
with it anyway. Just like very few really develop their
physique good enough to get in the magazines.
But you have to be really serious about your bondage and
the course beyond it and so forth – be really full of the
true signs of this Way – to be that direct and clear about
it such that you waste no time in the side-shows, gross or
subtle. If everyone gets distracted in this or that or the
other way through their desiring, in this Way you must
practice for real and gain the discrimination and the
capability and the Grace of Contemplation to release your
search.
You see, there is a certain amount of fun and pleasure in
conditional domains. One can enjoy, up to a point-never
utterly beyond fear and anxiety and limitation and
mortality. [laughter] But you can be amused and take
pleasure in various kinds of self-indulgence and so forth.
This is why you must exercise yourself more profoundly from
the center, at the center, and with real discrimination,
real self-understanding -because you can be very easily
seduced by your entanglements and associations, and lose the
thread.
But you also must understand this is not an ascetical Way
that just mechanically dissociates from pleasure or pain.
We’ve compared this Way to the Tantric tradition – could
compare it to other traditions too that have, not an
ascetical approach, that just cut things away, but an
approach full of wisdom and discrimination, that, even while
associated with such things, conforms them to the Greater
Purpose.
Still, some can choose to do it even more simply. They
can be celibate renunciates and such, if they have the
disposition for it. It should make things simpler, give more
time and energy and attention for the serious core of
practice, and the “bonding” entanglements and all the rest
are not there, at least as much as they would be in the
situation of maintaining intimacy and so on. So that
certainly is an option. Some people are involving themselves
in that.
A large number of others, I guess the highest percentage
of devotees, are disciplining but maintaining ordinary
life-circumstances. Of course, when they don’t quite
properly or effectively discipline it, then their practice
becomes mediocre.
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