THE “BRIGHTENING” WAY TALK
SERIES
THE “BRIGHTENING” WAY TALK SERIES – The Yajna Discourses
of Santosha Adi Da (1995-1996) – Gathering “Considerations”
with Beloved Adi Da Samraj, at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort and the
Manner of Flowers, December 29 and 30 1995, and January 3,
1996.
Index
CONSENT TO BE THAT WHICH YOU ARE
A Gathering “Consideration” with Beloved Bhagavan Adi Da,
in the Manner of Flowers, on January 6, 1996.
THE “BRIGHTENING” WAY TALK SERIES
The Yajna Discourses of Santosha Adi Da (1995-1996)
Volume 1, Number 2
Consent to Be That Which You Are
SECTION I
AVATARA ADI DA: Didn’t I hear that some of you want to ask
some questions, or have something you want to talk
about?
DEVOTEE:: Yes, Beloved.
AVATARA ADI DA: What is it?
DEVOTEE: A number of us had questions tonight.
AVATARA ADI DA: See, right off the bat he starts bringing
up something we have to talk about. [laughter] “A
number of us” – just what do you mean by that, Daniel?
DEVOTEE: Us – A number of us.
AVATARA ADI DA: Yeah, exactly. What do you mean?
DEVOTEE: It means the individuals of us who “considered”
Your . . .
AVATARA ADI DA: That’s what I mean-what do you mean?
DEVOTEE:: Going deep fast.
DEVOTEE: Fellow associates.
AVATARA ADI DA: He’s got to really get into something in
depth right off the bat, you know what I mean?
[laughter]
DEVOTEE:: The usual suspects.
AVATARA ADI DA: Yeah, but I mean, what are you pointing
at? “A number of us “.
DEVOTEE: Individuals. Us.
AVATARA ADI DA: There are several names -where there are
some things that can be same, and there are a number of
them. And there is something about them all that it seems
like they are virtually identical. They’re just uss.
DEVOTEE: Yeah. Uss, that’s right.
AVATARA ADI DA: What you would all have in common is very
very simple.
[Beloved chuckles.] Do you have something,
Daniel? Are you talking about a real experience of yours?
That you are one of something there can be a number of?
DEVOTEE: Oh. Yes.
AVATARA ADI DA: What is that experience?
DEVOTEE: Well, its a sense of there’s me and then there’s
others. [laughter]
AVATARA ADI DA: Nonsense! [laughter] Yes, and
what are they?
DEVOTEE: I knew You were driving at something, Lord.
DEVOTEE: As You Said, there are presumed others who are
similar to or even the same as I am.
AVATARA ADI DA: I mean, what is that ?! What are you
referring to?
DEVOTEE: Generally other bodies, other entities, but also
individuals . . .
AVATARA ADI DA: Yes, but you declared yourself to be
virtually identical to all these others.
DEVOTEE: Something similar. “Us” is just a, is a-its a
language convention. [laughter]
AVATARA ADI DA: I know that you’re using it to try to
communicate with us. So I said, right off the bat you come
up with something that is. . . . it doesn’t ring a bell with
Me. [laughter]
[Everyone talks at once.]
DEVOTEE: Separation is not it.
DEVOTEE:: Yeah, and now there’s a number of us.
BRIAN OMAHONY: How many uss does it take to make an “us”,
Beloved?
AVATARA ADI DA: How many uss does it take to make a
what?
DEVOTEE: An “us”.
DEVOTEE:: Two.
AVATARA ADI DA: To make an “us”.
DEVOTEE: There’s “two of us”.
NINA DAVIS: Well, it is the plural of “me”.
DEVOTEE: Well, how many uss, though?
ANTODEVOTEE: Two.
AVATARA ADI DA: But, there can be a number of them.
DEVOTEE:: A number of uss.
AVATARA ADI DA: And they’re the same, because they’re all
part of an “us”, you know.
DEVOTEE: Its right there in the language.
AVATARA ADI DA: So what exactly are you referring to? You
cant just refer to “they’re all bodies” because you said
you’re one of those, and you don’t refer to your own body from
without. So when you say “I”, you mean something different
than they mean when they say “you”. [DEVOTEE:
Yes.]
Well, what is that? Is that what you were referring to
when you said “us”? Were you really speaking about yourself,
or just using language?
DEVOTEE: Well, using language was one part of it, but
when You asked me who are the “us”, there is just a
presumption that there is another person, a physical body,
and the way that they’re made up of. . .
AVATARA ADI DA: As a convention of speech, yes. But do
you mean altogether what you’re saying, or do you just use
conventions? I mean, are you actually referring to a
something when you say “I”?
DEVOTEE: No. When I refer to the “I”, no.
AVATARA ADI DA: Well, what are you referring to when you
say “I”?
DEVOTEE: When I’m referring to the “I” as myself. . .
AVATARA ADI DA: The “I”? Mm-hm.
DEVOTEE: Or myself. . .
AVATARA ADI DA: Yes, what are you referring to?
DEVOTEE: The totality of my sense of myself, and . .
.
AVATARA ADI DA: Yes. Mm-hm.
DEVOTEE: You know, experiences-also all my experiences as
well, collective experiences.
AVATARA ADI DA: But who is the “my”, the “me” behind the
“my”? Is there someone or . . .
DEVOTEE: Yes.
AVATARA ADI DA: . . . are there just simply all those
experiences. [laughter]
MICHAEL WOOD: There’s an organism here in the room.
AVATARA ADI DA: But when you say “I”, do you mean
anything other than all those experiences that are
remembered?
DEVOTEE: Yes, yes. I guess its a sense of essential self,
myself. It even seems to be not really definable.
AVATARA ADI DA: See, you’re referring to it as an “it”
right now.
DEVOTEE: Of course, when I go back into the mind and
start thinking about what I’m supposed to say about it . .
.
AVATARA ADI DA: What?-I mean you can relate to it however
you like. But is there a someone other than all those
thoughts and memories and such?
DEVOTEE: Oh, yes.
AVATARA ADI DA: So what is that? [laughter]
DEVOTEE: Its basically just a feeling, a thoughtless
feeling.
AVATARA ADI DA: Yes, yes. You are a thoughtless feeling.
Are you?
DEVOTEE: Well its-you make a presumption about
yourself.
AVATARA ADI DA: No, I’m not talking about your
presumption. Are you a thoughtless feeling?
DEVOTEE: Yes. [laughter]
AVATARA ADI DA: Yes. Well, it is so, isn’t it?
DEVOTEES: Yes.
AVATARA ADI DA: But if you just attach yourself to the
conventional mind, you think you’re referring to what people
can observe, or expressions on your face or something or
other-objective things to them. But when you examine what
you’re really referring to as “I”, it is a thoughtless
feeling, as you say. It doesn’t have any mind or body. Those
are all objects to it. So the being is, as you say,
experientially a thoughtless feeling.
So if you simply feel yourself as such, as you are, what
can you say about it? Anything else to be said about it
other than its a thoughtless feeling?
DEVOTEE: It also feels radiant. There’s a kind of sense of
radiance, but its not limited by the body. Its not limited
by thoughts or any of the other objects associated with the
body. It just-
AVATARA ADI DA: Sort of glows in the body.
DEVOTEE: Yes. And it seems to be all-pervasive, not . .
.
AVATARA ADI DA: Well, does it feel all -pervasive, or
does it have some kind of limited feeling?
DEVOTEE: Yes. It still seems to be associated with
others, other to that, you know, even just the body
itself.
AVATARA ADI DA: Do you feel, then, that every being here
represented by their bodies is a different thoughtless
feeling than you are?
DEVOTEE: I don’t know if I can answer it.
AVATARA ADI DA: Well, what do you feel about it? If you
didn’t just look at them and focus on them as individuals or
think about them, but are just here among them, so-called
“them”, do you feel yourself to be a separate thoughtless
feeling? Or the same thoughtless feeling that all could
refer to?
DEVOTEE: The same, because when you want to limit it to
another or-it seems to be greater than that.
AVATARA ADI DA: But as soon as you start using the
faculties to perceive everyone, not only do you see lots of
bodies and suggest separate persons but you begin to do up a
whole complex of associations and presumptions based on
that. In other words, you abandon the position of the
thoughtless feeling, and your knowing is all about these
perceptual and conceptual complexes, which are otherwise
simply Witnessed by you.
So through thought, perception, psycho-physical complex,
you organize separate-self-among-other-separate-selves kind
of complex mind and presumption about reality. But if you
simply remain established in the position you are always
already in, which simply is Witnessing the body-mind and all
that is perceived, you see, your sense of existence is
entirely different.
If you are to maintain that feeling, thoughtless
feeling-being, unagitated, how would you live
differently-since presently all of your thoughts and
feelings and actions and perceptions and so forth are a kind
of invention that’s dissociated from your actual being? So
you’re talking all the time about something that’s not Truth.
Your lives are organized all around this multiplicity, and
everything that comes with it. So that’s not the State of
Truth. You’d have to remain established in the Native State
of Being and Radiate from That in the form of life, to be
true .
DEVOTEE: This is what we’ve all been drawn to You,
Beloved, because we intuit Who You Are, and also that
You-whenever You’ve Spoken about it in Your Teaching, that’s
what draws us to You. Its a fundamental reason why we all
came here.
AVATARA ADI DA: Tcha.
Well, this conversation we’ve been having is a taste of
what that requires then, what that’s all about. You must
become relaxed from your agitated, contracted identification
with the body-mind and its play, and become capable of
simply Standing in the Native Position. Then all that
Radiates from that Position informs the body-mind, informs
the life, and you don’t lose Reality in order to be
alive.
So you must Stand in the Native Position, or you lose
Reality. And then you’re just involved in this invented life
based on un-Truth. To be True, you have to Realize once
again how to simply Stand in the Native State, the Native
Position.
At first there’s, in the “Perfect Practice”, an in-depth
entrance into that Well . And then there’s the ordinary
return to ordinary associations. And each time this Perfect
gesture is made, its entrance into the Transcendental
Disposition. And then there’s, after much depth of that, the
Realization that this also is kept in place conditionally by
this gesture of dissociation to enter the Depth, you
see.
At that point, one simply Stands in that Depth, the
Perfect Divine Position, and relinquishes dissociation in
order to be deep. So there’s no loss of that great
Realization, and yet the life-complex returns, but utterly
different, no longer with the conventional mind, no longer
with ego.
So “thoughtless feeling” is a simple way of describing
what is Realized-Self-Existing, Self-Radiant, Unqualified.
But its in the seventh stage Awakening-still remaining in
the Samadhi, that Depth, you see-that everything is
Recognizable in Reality, no longer the lie, the invented
life made by dissociation from the Native State, but
everything seen in Truth in and As the Divine
Self-Condition, unobstructed Light, unobstructed
Consciousness, One with all, Transcending all, in a flash of
no time whatsoever, all Siddhis Awakened in Me.
[pause]
So, you’re talking about why you came to Me. One basic
thing about it, then, about the process awakened in My
Company, is that fundamentally you must Realize again how to
Stand in the Native Position. But generally speaking its not
an instantaneous matter just because you get the notion,
because you are all kinds of adapted to passing away from
that Native Position, contracting, elaborating, assuming the
lie of ordinary mind, naive realism, no Divinity. So you’re
distracted in that Godless game or maya, the Godless
mind.
And you want to Realize It again, don’t you?
[DEVOTEES: Yes]
Well, everything Witnessed by the Native Being is not
only objective to It,you’re
Witnessing it, you see, everything objective, subjective –
when everything is perceived from the Native Position, it is
simply object to you. But not only is it object to you, it
also is composed of dualities exaggerated on the negative
side.
DEVOTEE: Why is it exaggerated on the negative side?
AVATARA ADI DA: Because you identify with the body-mind,
which has limitations, which suffers, has all kinds of
potential to suffer, and dies eventually. So its all made up
of yin-yang, positive-negative. But because you are
identifying with something mortal and limited, you are
fundamentally anxious, deeply afraid. So in addition to the
general yin and yang duality, there’s a strong negative fear
disposition.
Well, in the Native Position, as Daniel says, of
thoughtless feeling, of Being, you’re not identified with the
body or the body-mind. You are Radiant in apparent
association with it. So to Stand in the Native Position is
to be free of identification with what is limited and
mortal. The association remains, however, and the
Realization must become great. But when it does, both the
Perfectly Subjective Dimension and everything apparent,
conditional, become One. Everything apparent or conditional
is “Brightened”, simply, by the Divine Self-Condition.
So the first stage of this process, first fundamental
stage of this process, is everything that precedes the
“Perfect Practice”. Its all a process in which you’re
purified of your conventional bondage, ordinary mind,
fearful psycho-physical disposition. All kinds of
adaptations have occurred that have you clinging to this
mortality but with all kinds of complex presumptions,
thoughts, desires, and so forth, and suffering it and always
trying to escape by using the very same thing you want to
escape from.
So the first great stage in this practice is everything
preceding the “Perfect Practice”. And its a matter of being
purified of all of that , being purified of that
identification with the psycho-physical complex and the
conventional mind, or even mind at all, so that as a result
of that purification and that profound Contemplative
absorption in Me, you spontaneously volunteer to be What you
have been, completely free of identification with the
body-mind, just Standing As It Is, as you say, a thoughtless
feeling, and all the other ways Ive Described it, the Native
Self-Position, Prior to attention and everything that
follows. It is thoughtless, attentionless.
And even though you are just a thoughtless feeling,
somehow mysteriously you can open your mouth and say
something. And you don’t think what you’re saying. You don’t
even think any thinking. There is no thinking to think.
How do you get from that thoughtless feeling, which is
What you are Natively, to being able to say blah-blah-blah?
We talked about that last night, but its always remarkable
to discover that That Which is the Witness has nothing
whatsoever to do with conditional existence, nothing at all
directly to do with it. And yet you can speak. You see, the
conditional is not separate from the Unconditional. It is
ultimately Outshined by the Unconditional, but in its
appearance it is utterly One with the Unconditional Reality.
So its a great Mystery, but that’s why even though you are
just a thoughtless feeling, somehow you can say a word, or
move a body. “How did I do that?”
DEVOTEE: Is all that manifestation just a spontaneous
event?
AVATARA ADI DA: Mmm. Yes. In the Unconditional, Absolute,
Light, Consciousness, Love-Bliss. It is always just That.
You in your Native State of Feeling, are just That. And yet
you can feel That is also infinite Energy. All these
appearances, then, are just an apparent modification of
That. The Transcendental never is involved in the
conditional, and yet the conditional and the Transcendental
are absolutely the same.
The first step, as I said, is to be purified,
one-pointed, entered into the Samadhi of Communion with Me,
so that you can come to that spontaneous moment where you
consent to be That Which you Are, Standing in the
Witness-Position. I needn’t Describe the process again. We’ve
done that yesterday, in fact. You know what that process is
as a sadhana, leading to the “Perfect Practice”. We can talk
more about it later, if you like.
The beginning of the “Perfect Practice” is that discovery
that you’re all acknowledging at this moment anyway,
magically, that you are this-you are thoughtless
feeling.
Its not a mind.
Its not a body.
It has no attention.
Its just Itself.
Because there’s only this one infinite Energy.
Everything is the same as It.
So that’s the beginning of the “Perfect Practice”,
accepting Who you Are, Where you Are, Where you Stand, that
you are thoughtless feeling, just That. That’s the beginning
of the “Perfect Practice”.
Then the process becomes one of entering into the Depth
of that, that thoughtless feeling. That’s the second stage of
the “Perfect Practice”, Contemplating Self-Existing,
Self-Radiant Consciousness Itself, Me, “Atma-Murti”, no
self-reference made by association with the body-mind.
So this “Perfect Practice”, in its passing from the first
to the second stage, moves into that Depth. Each meditation
is that. Even in some tacit sense, every moment is that,
entering into that more and more profoundly-not just
superficially feeling the thoughtless feeling State but
entering into it absolutely beyond the body-mind
association.
Its not even peripheral at the point of Jnana Samadhi.
Just Perfect Non-“Difference” in that Samadhi, no separation
from the Divine Being Itself. You Are That. Each meditation
enters into it more profoundly. And of course it shows signs
in the life, but its beyond the life as well.
But there’s always the return from the in-depth of that
Contemplative practice, without “difference”, return
naturally to the associations of the body-mind and so on.
Its not that Wisdom comes out of those meditations, but
Bliss does, and Fullness of Being, more and more profoundly.
But otherwise the associations are whatever they were before
that practice. They continue in their natural course.
In that process of entering into that Depth and then
apparently coming back from It and rejoining, apparently
rejoining, conditional existence-all the while in this
Contemplation of Me in that profound sense-something starts
to be noticed about that. Its not even a noticing in the
mind. There’s some feeling that there’s something very curious
about this. It disappears suddenly-the sense that there’s a
difference. The dissociation from conditional existence in
order to enter into the Depth just stops. Jnana Samadhi is
not lost. It becomes Most Perfect. It never stops. But the
dissociative act to get into that Depth stops, disappears,
utterly. The difference between the Transcendental Self and
conditional existence absolutely disappears. And everything
is Recognizable. The “you” that is a thoughtless feeling is
still the ego-“I” in some in-depth sense, is an individuated
feeling also. When you enter into its Depth, you go beyond
that individuated feeling in some sense, but not
absolutely.
And that’s the curious thing that’s noticed in each of
these passages in in-depth meditation, and the “Perfect
Practice”, and then apparently reassociating with something
that’s not That, and so on-see that’s what’s curious about
it-the feeling of “difference”. And suddenly it is gone
beyond, in a moment. Its not even a moment. Its just like
waking up. Its the usual State, which you’ve totally
forgotten. And its no longer simply that you are a
thoughtless feeling over against all that you’re seeing
around-that you inside are a thoughtless feeling-its no
longer that, you see. The Divine Self-Condition is
Realized.
The sixth stage Realization is not the Divine
Self-Condition Realized as such. It is the depth of the
separate person, but allowed to open into the Divine Sphere,
and suddenly Recognizes It, that the separation was
imagined. And so it is the Samadhi of “Open Eyes” as I’ve
described it-there is no difference whatsoever between
conditional existence and the Divine Self-Condition. There’s
a difference between the thoughtless feeling, the separate
person, in that sense, and everything else. But the seventh
stage Awakening is Awakening to the Divine Condition Itself,
and there is no “difference” between That and apparent
arising, none whatsoever. And it is obvious as such. Its not
known to be such in some philosophical or mental sense. One
Is That. And everything is Recognizable as That.
I Am, My Self, no longer just a thoughtless feeling
within somehow, but the Thoughtless Feeling in Which all is
arising, merely apparently, no more substantial than smoke,
utterly transparent to the Divine View.
Well, to know what that Position is, you must Realize it.
But you’re entered into It in every moment of your devotional
Communion with Me done as the true Yoga I’ve Given you,
always going beyond that knot, opening it, flowering,
Radiant instead of contracted, in open Communion with Me .
It is an absorptive meditation in Me. Its not yet Perfect
Identification with Me, but it is Communion with Me. So
what’s the difference ? There is none. But perhaps some
presumption on your part that there’s “difference”, to some
degree effective. But ultimately there’s only the Divine
Self-Condition, and everything and everyone is That, but
directly known as That, no “I’m a thoughtless feeling
inside”, no “I’m a body-mind among other body-minds”-no. All
those are flawed presumptions based on a separative
notion.
In Truth, Always Already, I Am the Case. All this and you
is Me, not merely in the philosophical sense or intellectual
sense. As literal experience, literal Realization. In
Realizing Me, you Realize no “difference” from Me. You Are
That. You Are in this very same Condition. But you don’t
Recognize what is apparently arising. The whole matter of
Realization can be summed up in this one understanding.
And what is that?
[Devotees all talk at once.]
DEVOTEE: No “difference”?
AVATARA ADI DA: No.
DEVOTEE:: Realizing this in You, our Lord.
DEVOTEE:: That there’s only one.
AVATARA ADI DA: The matter of Realization is simply a
matter of Recognizing what is arising, rather than
persisting in the condition in which you now presume to
exist, in which you do not Recognize anything. You recognize
this and that through convention, based on ego-principle and
so forth, body-mind activities. But you don’t Recognize it as
it is . So you’re confused within it and seeking and
suffering and separate even from your own Native
Disposition.
You must be in that Position to enter into the ultimate
sadhana. But Realization is simply about this-simply stated
anyway. Its to transcend the state in which you do not
Recognize anything and to Realize the State in Which you
Recognize everything.
But to Recognize everything, you cant stand in the
position you are now presuming. You cant Recognize it from
the point of view of the body-mind. You don’t Recognize it
when you simply enter into the Native State of thoughtless
Feeling, you see. You Recognize it only in the case of the
seventh stage Awakening, when you are That in Which
everything is Recognizable.
The first five stages of life in the Way of the Heart are
done from the point of view of the body-mind, or in the
position of the body-mind.
The sixth stage of life in the Way of the Heart is done
from the point of view of the in-depth Self, Transcendental
dimension of Self, until it is gone beyond.
And so the seventh stage of life is not a part of the
psycho-biography of the ego. It is the Divine Demonstration.
That Demonstration, rather than sadhana, is done from the
Divine “Point of View”, in the Divine Condition, Recognizing
all and everything.
So there are three fundamental stages to the
process-everything that’s done in the context of the
body-mind, and then the first two dimensions of the “Perfect
Practice” where its done from the point of view of the
Conscious Witness and such, and then the seventh stage of
life.
So everything preliminary to the “Perfect Practice” is
really about one thing. Its this process of being purified
of entanglement, so that attention can fall or dissolve in
its Source, the Native State. All the agitations,
entanglements, functional, practical, relational
limitations, all of this must be purified, such that you are
concentrated in Me, altogether, and Spiritually. But its
just this process of purification, becoming established in
the Source-Position.
A lot of people are spending a lot of time at the
beginning , which is a very simple matter of adapting to the
practice I Give you. Its very straightforward. But people
balk at it or slow it down or take vacations. The real work
is what we were “considering” here last evening. Its to
simply, straightforwardly, establish all the basic practices
so you can exercise them, profoundly. You cant exercise them
most profoundly until you’ve got all of them intact, covering
everything, you see. So all the struggling with the
disciplines and all that sort of business, and
emotional-sexual problems and all the rest, instead of being
straightforward, just keep the practice superficial and
prolong it at a superficial level-it makes the listening
process superficial.
So devotees should urgently embrace all of the practices
and consistently practice them. And Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga
must be moment to moment, associated with the forms of the
conscious process and conductivity I’ve Given you. Then its
this profound intensity of “consideration”, examining your
act, your “what are you doing?” You see all the thiss and
that’s, perhaps, in various areas of your life where you
dramatize something or other or have a limitation and such,
and you take some discipline on about that. But its still a
kind of research to find out the source of this seeking, all
these disturbed patterns and so forth.
Then the arms of hearing awaken, a fundamental grasping
in the place of the self-contraction, fundamental
understanding, simultaneously the capability to flower, to
be the open hand in Communion with Me. It is from that point
that you have the full foundation equipment to then move on
to seeing Me and be established in the most profound
practice that precedes the “Perfect Practice”.
But effectively its all purification. You could say its
also about getting subtler, more refined, re-collecting
yourself, achieving a balance, an equanimity, in your
disposition, because you are focused in this moving beyond
contraction into the Radiant disposition in Communion with
Me. That’s the exercise, and the effects are purifications of
all kinds. It needn’t be necessarily outwardly very dramatic,
but this and that-whatever it takes, people get
purified.
Damaya was talking to Me this afternoon-this evening, I
guess it was-and the evening we first began our
“consideration” of she possibly doing the Kanya sadhana, she
was invited to the Darshan occasion. It was the evening we
went to Sugar Bowl. And she told Me on our drive from here,
I guess it was, that when she was sitting there with Me-
[to Damaya Ma] something cracked open in your
forehead, you described it. Right? [DEVOTEE: Mm-hm.]
So, I basically just acknowledged that, and we didn’t discuss
it much at length. But then today she was talking to Me
about it again, talking about how there’s a process going on
with her from the top of her head down, sort of collecting
around the throat area. Shes feeling stress in the throat,
congestion. Shes got a kind of a mucusy kind of thick
substance coming down behind her palate. [to Damaya
Ma] What other things were you telling Me about it?
DEVOTEE: Tears streaming out of my eyes, and its very
uncomfortable.
AVATARA ADI DA: Which part is the uncomfortable part?
[Damaya Ma makes sounds imitating her experience.]
You sort of start choking and then the tears come?
DEVOTEE: Yeah.
AVATARA ADI DA: Is there a mood associated with the
tears?
DEVOTEE:: Yes. Its definitely sorrow.
AVATARA ADI DA: Sorrow. Mm-hm. Tcha. So, you see, shes
been hanging around with Me here for a couple of weeks-a
week and a half, I guess-and the descending Yoga is
happening in her case spontaneously. She was asking if
there’s anything she should do about it. What could she do to
make it shorter. [laughter] Already shes bargaining.
[laughter]
However it has to be is the way it has to be. You can
assist it by keeping all of the aspects of your practice
intact. I told her one thing that could be quickening-apart
from maintaining all aspects of right practice-is to notice
not merely the physical symptoms of this thing that’s so far
gone down to her throat area, but to notice all the interior
parts, emotions, thoughts, whatever they may be. Notice the
internal content as well, because its not merely a physical
purification. Its a psycho-physical purification altogether
. So you can, so to speak, quicken the practice by getting
into it completely, take care of the internal part as well
as maintaining normal health practice for the physical part
or whatever.
And if you will notice all the insides and the physical
side as well, you’ll notice that there’s a Flow that’s passing
down into you. It wants to do certain things, but if you
wont release various contractions, attitudes, emotions,
sometimes physical things, the Current of My Presence cant
continue to pass down, and It also cant function up here
right yet. [Beloved Adi Da passes His hand around His
head.] There is something in your head, in your face, in
your throat that’s got to straighten out. That’s why people
have kriyas and such, also. The nerves are being purified.
All the centers of the brain are being purified. The face,
the personality, is being purified.
So you’ll notice all kinds of things. And if you will
address them somehow, by relaxing them or changing your act
somehow or other, and so forth, then you can make the
process quicker. And you’ll be making full use of it if you
do it that way. So whatever changes I’m insisting upon in
your feeling, if you feel this Descent, make those
changes.
[to Damaya Ma] One thing you said to Me on a
couple of occasions after gatherings recently is that during
the gathering you felt you wanted to say something, and for
some mysterious reason, you just didn’t Well, we talked
about that today in fact. That’s part of this stress in your
throat, this keeping your voice inside, and other verbal
mannerisms you have in your speech, maybe due to certain
nervousness or self-consciousness or fearfulness. You know
what I mean?
DEVOTEE: Oh, yeah.
AVATARA ADI DA: So I am Calling you to make those
changes. So that’s what this descending Yoga is about. If you
study how I’ve Described it in The Dawn Horse Testament , for
instance, you’ll see something about what’s going on in your
own case, even though you’re still practicing at 1.2-right?
Nonetheless, the frontal Yoga is happening, because I cant
have no half-assed Kanyas around My House. [loud
laughter]
So if you’re going to hang around Me here, you have to go
through some changes. So, if It cant get down any further
than your throat-its back to the art department!
[laughter] Or the Heavenly Prince Pork Cutlet Candle
Factory. [Beloved is humorously referring to Bright
Lights, a community-run candle business, but devotees are
puzzled and all talk at once.] I just couldn’t recall the
other name, so I called it a better one. You know about the
Heavenly Prince Pork Cutlet, right?
Nina and I – Patricia I guess must have been there also,
or maybe not – this was early 60s. So Nina and I were
wandering around some funky little antique store, I guess it
was, and I saw this lamp there, and it was a – it looked
like a traditional either Japanese or Chinese lantern.
DEVOTEE: Huge.
AVATARA ADI DA: And it opened up like an accordion-very
beautifully made wooden ends and had some calligraphy on it.
I think the store keeper suggested it was posted in front of
a princes gate or something, something like that, so that we
would imagine it was in a mansion or something somewhere. I
think it turned out to be Chinese, right?
DEVOTEE: It was Chinese.
AVATARA ADI DA: So anyway, somewhere along the line, I
don’t know how it happened, but somebody volunteered to get
us a translation, after we had it hanging in the house for
some considerable period, imagining it was some royal gate
lantern. I don’t remember who did this translation for us,
but anyway they knew somebody who knew the language. It
turns out in huge letters all the way down the front of the
lantern it says, “Heavenly Prince Pork Cutlet”.
[laughter]
DEVOTEE: That’s so funny!
AVATARA ADI DA: So it was just a lantern in front of a
butcher shop or something like that, I guess. So maybe its
an amusing name for a company some time.
I’ve also got to use that sign that I’ve mentioned a number
of times, in Hempstead – you remember that story?
DEVOTEES: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
AVATARA ADI DA: [Beloved is referring to a joke about
inmates of a prison, who have heard the same stories so many
times that they tell the jokes to one another by calling out
numbers. A few devotees groan.] Well, to make the story
brief, the next largest town over from Franklin Square is
called Hempstead – big shops, you know, sort of the big city
locally. And so while I was at Columbia, I went over to the
library nearby and was walking out from the library, and
there are stores as you get out of the park of the library.
And one of them was a company that sells prophylaxes, I
guess they call them-limbs and . . .
DEVOTEE:: Artificial limbs.
AVATARA ADI DA: Prosthetics. For some reason or other
they thought they would use a little modern-day promotion .
.
DEVOTEE:: I love this, I love this.
AVATARA ADI DA: . . . like in any other store selling
things. So they put up a great big wide brown paper sign.
They made it themselves. It must have been about three, four
feet wide, stretched all the way across the window. And it
says, “Lifelike artificial limbs for the ladies.”
[laughter]
DEVOTEE: For the ladies?!!
DEVOTEE: They were beautiful, so beautiful.
AVATARA ADI DA: What did those people have on their
minds? [laughter] Can you imagine dozens of
one-legged women running down the street to get their
lifelike artificial limb? [laughter] I mean, how do
you get people in off the street to buy a leg?
DEVOTEE: I don’t think they could get the foot traffic.
[More laughter.]
AVATARA ADI DA: Single footed traffic. [laughter]
“For the ladies”-it sounded like they were appealing to
their sense of being sexually attractive even.
DEVOTEE: Definitely.
DEVOTEE: It was probably one of the first Larsen
cartoons, My Lord.
AVATARA ADI DA: Yeah. It sounds like a Larsen
cartoon.
DEVOTEE: The precursor of Larsen.
AVATARA ADI DA: It was too long a line for a business.
Though I’ve always thought we should name some Talk or
something or other that we could publish. Its an amusing
title for something.
DEVOTEE: You could call it “L” . . .
AVATARA ADI DA: LLAL . . .
DEVOTEE: LLAL. ..
AVATARA ADI DA and DEVOTEE: . . . FTL. LLALFTL.
DEVOTEE: And then somebody could say, “What does that
stand for?” And then you get to say . .
AVATARA ADI DA: Nobody is ever going to guess it. How’d we
get into that? Weren’t we talking about something
important?
DEVOTEE: We were talking about the frontal line,
Beloved.
DEVOTEE: In Damaya.
AVATARA ADI DA: In Damayas case in particular. But that
was by way of getting into something else about such
matters. So in her case shes having experiences like that,
and so in anyone elses case, the frontal Spiritual Yoga
purifies the entire body-mind. It is My Crashing Down. It
opens up everything from above to the base. It does all
kinds of physical purification, emotional purification,
mental purification, subtle energy level purification. Some
of it occurs very subtly, in dreams, or in the back of the
mind, so to speak – it just passes. Its a process of
releasing energy and attention, so you can be attracted by
Me Spiritually to the Source-Position.
So that’s the “why” the purification takes place. That’s
the very important reason why it takes place. Secondarily,
of course, it generates positive signs in the life .
In the ascending course, there are purifications and so
forth of the same kind, but it is associated with the
pursuit of ascended Samadhi, which is conditional Samadhi.
In this Way, in the Way of the Heart, which I’ve Given you,
the purification is from above downwards. It does all the
purifying of the ascending Yoga, but its not associated with
this search for that conditional Samadhi. Instead it is done
in Communion with Me such that you are drawn into the
capability of the “Perfect Practice”. So practicing stages
four and five are not, in general, necessary. There may be
an unusual case here and there.
DEVOTEE: Is it inevitable that once the fourth stage of
life occurs that the fifth stage also in terms of the
practice, level four and level five-in other words, can you
go directly from level four to level six?
AVATARA ADI DA: From level three to level six-that would
be typical.
DEVOTEE: Right. But if you go into level four, does it
happen as a matter of course?
AVATARA ADI DA: Yes. It could be any time after that,
then. It need not go as far as the fifth practicing stage.
Perhaps the fourth would be something that some might do.
Its a matter of purifications, then, rather than pursuit of
ascending Samadhis. Whatever purifications have to occur to
release energy and attention to the Source-Position, those
are what must occur. But because the frontal Yoga is so
profound in this Way in Communion with Me, it will in
general be the case that people will go from the maturity in
practicing stage three to practicing stage six. In some
cases there may simply be some exaggerations of content in
the subtle aspect of the being such that they need the
ascending practice for some period anyway.
DEVOTEE: Beloved, how would you know that a person is
moving into the fourth stage of life and not in the first
stage of level six, with purifications occurring in the
level six practice, some of subtle kinds?
AVATARA ADI DA: Say that again. I’m not connecting what
you’re saying here.
DEVOTEE: I was just thinking that-Brian said that some
people would be-maybe some would go into the fourth stage of
practice.
AVATARA ADI DA: Mm-hm. Some, yeah, perhaps.
DEVOTEE: What would be the difference between those
individuals and what they’re dealing with compared to someone
in the sixth stage of practice who is having subtle
phenomena that are still being purified in that stage?
AVATARA ADI DA: In fact, there can be purifications any
time. Even in the sixth practicing stage you may still see
some signs of apparent purifications going on in the
body-mind or in some dimension or other of the character.
Its not perfection that moves you to the “Perfect Practice”,
not perfection of the body-mind, but sufficient purification
and Contemplative immersion in Me to Realize the Stand of
the Witness-Position. So its not that the individual has to
become a perfect character according to some model or other.
One must simply be purified to the point sufficient for that
Awakening.
So purifications occur before the “Perfect Practice”, but
some may be in evidence even afterwards. Even in the seventh
stage of life, if somebody cuts their finger, its got to
heal. You take in some toxins, you got to purify. Ordinary
disturbances do not cease. So you got to take a bath and all
that pain-in-the-ass stuff. [Beloved chuckles.]
DEVOTEE: So would it be a rather unique case where they
have to go through the level four and level five
process?
AVATARA ADI DA: Yeah. It will happen as long as its
necessary. Every time its necessary it will happen in that
case. But overall, as I said, in the general case,
practicing stage three will be sufficient. Once you’ve done
the purification via the frontal line, which affects the
body-mind universally, why would you have to do the
ascending practice? What are you going to accomplish? You
might concentrate in some subtler aspects of your
possibility. And if you have to do that to be purified of
that, to feel beyond those things that arise-if they must be
in your experience-then the ascending Yoga becomes
necessary. But not because its purposed to Realize the
Samadhis in that stage. Its purposed like all the previous
stages, for purification and release of energy and
attention, such that the “Perfect Practice” can Awaken.
DEVOTEE: What would happen if at some time a great Yogi
became Your devotee? Would they go through the fifth stage,
level five, because of their . . .
AVATARA ADI DA: That’s very possible. In other words,
wherever the karmas are, they have to be purified. But
sometimes a purification process can occur on the grosser
level and it will affect that in-depth level. So the frontal
Yoga, as I said, covers the entire body-mind, its just done
through the mechanism of descent, My Crashing down. So if
there is a lot of karmic content and impulse relative to the
things that can be experienced in the ascending process,
then maybe in some cases that will be necessary, because, as
I Said, purifications of that level occur in the course of
the frontal Yoga and the sadhana altogether.
You see, you’re doing the frontal Yoga in the sense that
that’s how you concentrate the practice-the meditation
practice and all the rest. That doesn’t mean you cant have
any ascending experiences during the course of the frontal
Yoga. I hope that’s clear to everyone.
I mean, devotees as beginners have Spiritual experiences
of Me. Its not, like, forbidden because they’re not at
practicing stage two or three or beyond it. So its-the
frontal course is a specific Yoga. That’s your
responsibility. Spontaneous movements, Spiritual movements
in the body, frontal or spinal, will happen spontaneously
anyway, whatever has to take place. So its very possible,
then, that during the course of the period in which you do
the frontal Yoga, sufficient purification altogether can
occur, even in the case of someone who has a lot of subtle
level or ascending kinds of karmas or attachments. So people
who are at practicing stage three do have ascending
experiences potentially, as many devotees who are not even
1.2 yet have.
Its just that you must do the responsible sadhana in
these stages, whatever ones are necessary, for this
particular sadhana to be fulfilled. Its not merely a matter
of having experiences that are in the likeness of what may
be expected at some stage-its a matter of doing this
particular ego-transcending sadhana in the context of that
stage. Then there is the real purification and
transcendence-the power of hearing and seeing releases that.
So there’s no bind on attention, attention getting fixed in
this or that drama or function or whatever. When that
process has gone on sufficiently, attention is collected,
not wandering.
That doesn’t mean that, then, in the process the
psycho-physical personality has become some sort of ideal
figure, absolutely perfect in every way that anyone might
imagine. No. Its a matter of when has this purification
taken place sufficiently.
DEVOTEE: Beloved.
AVATARA ADI DA: Mm-hm?
DEVOTEE: It seems possible, then, that the descending
Force-if the sadhana is strong, then the descending Force
could very possibly purify any of the aspects toward
ascending phenomena.
AVATARA ADI DA: Yes. That’s what I was just saying. That’s
exactly what I was just saying, .
[laughter]
DEVOTEE: You also said that there is a possibility for a
particular individual to, because of karmas, go back to the
more ascending aspects of their sadhana.
AVATARA ADI DA: When?
DEVOTEE: During the sixth stage.
AVATARA ADI DA: Sixth stage?
DEVOTEE: Mm-hm. That is a possibility.
AVATARA ADI DA: Experiences that relate to one or the
other of the stages of life can occur any time, except for
the seventh, which is the culmination of it all . But you
can have experiences at any time that are in the likeness of
a fourth, fifth, or sixth stage experience. You can have
them any time, even at the beginning. But, as I said, you
must do sadhana in the context of all these things. You can
have Spiritual experiences, but you’re not doing the sadhana
of this Way in Spiritual terms till you specifically
exercise that ability.
So its not the experiences that are the content of this
Way or the goal of this Way and all that sort of business.
Its a matter of persisting in this fundamental devotional
Yoga with all the aspects of the “conscious process” and
“conductivity”.
So you must do the sadhana in Spiritual terms, but you
don’t necessarily have to do it in practicing stages four and
five. Everything that has to be purified anywhere,
descending or ascending, will in general take place, in most
cases, at practicing stage three. That’s the stage of
Spiritual purification. The Yoga is frontal, but the
experiences can cover the entire Circle.
So you don’t have to do the specific Yoga of concentrating
in ascent, in the general case. There’s no need for such
concentration. The purification has already occurred, in the
entire mechanism, descending and ascending. So for the
“Perfect Practice” to begin, that establishment in the right
side of the heart is what must have been allowed or
accomplished by the previous sadhana. So its freedom from
the entire Circle, Standing Prior to it, Witnessing it,
Prior even to attention.
So its not that if you pass from practicing stage three
to practicing stage six that you’ve somehow avoided some part
of sadhana or your Enlightenment is going to be limited or
something, ultimately. No, as I’m telling you – I hope it was
clear before – the frontal Yoga is simply the discipline .
The effects are in the Circle entirely, in its totality, so
that there can be passage out of the Circle into descent in
Amrita Nadi, until the Awakening to the seventh stage, in
Which there’s the – what I call the regeneration of Amrita
Nadi, and the Enlightenment of the Circle, literal
en-Lightenment of the Circle.
You know what I mean.
That Which is Realized Radiates Freely in the body-mind,
whereas before It was pursued.
Ultimately, then, its ascent in Amrita Nadi that is the
Sign of Enlightenment, or Divine Self-Realization.
Remarkably so, because originally, in the origination of the
egoic tour, ascending in Amrita Nadi – locking the heart
behind, the right side behind, and taking on the Circle –
was the very basis for un -Enlightenment. So what’s the
difference? Well, the tour of egoity required you to shut
the door on the right side of the heart, so you had to go
back and open it up again, and then its fine to allow the
Light of Self to pass into the entire body-mind and
everywhere, because you don’t lock the door, and you
Recognize everything that arises.
If you lock the door and travel up Amrita Nadi into the
Circle, you’ve left God behind.
People imagine the Divine Person is above and beyond and
altogether outside of the sphere of human existence. And
that you have to somehow get out of at least the lower part
to be happy, or get to a very very high part to be happy. So
the usual purposes in the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of
life is to get outside in one sense or another. In the
fourth stage its to get from gross embodiment to a kind of
saintly aspiration. In the fifth its a matter of ascending
into subtler levels of experiencing, and after death to pass
into subtler planes. Its all a matter of getting out of some
level or other, you see? And the sixth stage tradition wants
to get out of everything altogether.
But all these pursuits, including the first three stages
of life in their usual egoic form, are based on separation
from the Divine Condition, the presumption of egoity. They’re
motivated to find the Divine Condition because they cant
Recognize anything. They’ve lost the Divine Condition. They
locked the Door, you see? The ego locks the Door. That’s the
knot on the right. [Beloved Adi Da makes a Gesture of
locking at the right side of His chest.]
So when the Door is opened and there is the Realization
of the True, Inherent State, and then the Current passes in
ascent through Amrita Nadi into the Circle, it is the
literal en-Lightenment of the body-mind. And everything is
recognizable, and all the purposes previously pursued in the
first six stages of life are released. There’s no further
karmic embodiment. No further history but that of the Divine
Person.
Well, in that Condition of full Awakeness, everything is
Recognizable as the Very Divine Self-Condition. And it is
the Divine Self-Condition. All of this is nothing but That
right now. It is entirely Me! If you would Recognize it, you
would have no sadhana to do. But I mean really . That means
you must Realize the Divine Self-Position and Condition,
because that is What everything is Recognized to be. So its
nothing the body-mind can presume.
I think one of the best lines in the Great Tradition is
attributed to Shankara, in a kind of prayerful aspiration
that he is presumed to have written. He says, in referring
to the Divine Person, “From the point of view of the body, I
am Your servant. From the point of view of the mind, I am a
part of You, a fraction of You. And from the point of view
of the Self, I am You.”
This is a kind of rudimentary reference to the stages of
life. To the degree you are attached to the body-self
presumption, you must serve Me and Contemplate Me in every
kind of service and in meditation.
When the process of your Contemplation of Me becomes more
profound and even subtle, then you’re in the aspiration of
becoming one with Me, united with Me, a part of Me, seeking
to be one with Me. So the disposition or the aspiration of
being one with Me, Communing with Me utterly, grows beyond
the servant stage. The servant life remains, but the depth
of the process becomes one of entering into Contemplative
Communion with Me, to enjoy undifferentiated Union with Me,
ultimately Non-Separation from Me.
And then in the context of the “Perfect Practice”, it is
as Shankara said, “From the point of view of That, I am Your
Very Self. I am You.” And that’s what the “Perfect Practice”
is about. And its culmination is as I have Revealed it to
you. And never shown before. Its culmination is the seventh
stage Demonstration of Open Eyes.
THE “BRIGHTENING” WAY TALK SERIES
Index