What Is The Conscious Process – Adi Da – Conductivity – The Conscious Process – Beezone

In The Liberator (Eleutherios), I have written: “Be Conscious as the Feeling of Being and Realize that It Is Radiant Happiness.” This Admonition summarizes the Teaching relative to the “conscious process.” And that practice epitomizes and fulfills the entire Way that I Teach.

However, it must be understood that this Practice or ultimate Realization of the conscious process is not a matter of remaining fixed in the conscious or merely left-brained mind of the waking state. It is a matter of Realizing the Transcendental Condition of Consciousness, Free Being, or Self-Radiant Happiness–what is called “Turiya,” or the “fourth state,” in the Hindu tradition. Therefore, the ultimate Realization of the conscious process requires, as a matter of real preparation, the liberation of attention from the self contraction (or ego-bond), and thus the liberation of attention (or functional consciousness), from bondage to the limiting structures of the three common states–waking, dreaming, and sleeping.

For this reason, the practical discipline of the Way that I Teach involves not only a sequence of preparatory disciplines or phases of the conscious process (finally epitomized in the Realization of the Practice as described above), but also a culture of associated secondary or supportive disciplines, all of which may be regarded to be forms of the general practice I call “conductivity.”

Apart from the conscious process (generated in the form of true prayer, enquiry, recognition, and the first two stages of the Perfect Practice), my devotees also practice a broad spectrum of functional and relational disciplines (relating to general health, diet, sexuality, intimate society, community, and so on). These disciplines, in the midst of the entire culture of devotion, study, and right relationship to the Spiritual Influence of the Adept Spiritual Master, are a secondary but necessary supportive regime of practice that ultimately provides the maturity or free ground for the fulfillment of the conscious process.

As I have always indicated, the fulfillment of the conscious process requires, as a matter of preparation, the significant development of truly free energy and attention. This means that, for the conscious process to fulfill itself in the terms I quoted earlier from The Liberator, energy and attention must be truly and stably free from bondage to the self-contraction in every kind of functional and relational context.

It is the work of the secondary disciplines (or the entire regime of conductivity) to release energy and attention from the ego-bond. Without this supportive exercise, the conscious process remains nothing more than a minor psychological and verbal exercise of the waking mind. It is only to the degree that energy and attention are set free by the practical and meditational exercises of conductivity that the conscious process can enter profoundly into the Real Source of life and attention.

It is because of the absence of profound practice of supportive disciplines involving total psycho-physical submission into the Life-Current that the Way of the conscious process gets reduced to a kind of “talking school” obsession with “consciousness.” Many people read and even write books and give lectures about the primacy and freedom of consciousness, as if they could, merely by analyzing consciousness out from the mass of thinking, knowing, and experiencing, achieve the incomparable State of “Jnana,” Enlightenment, or Transcendental Realization. But all such talk is the mediocre chat of the waking mind. In order to Realize the Transcendental Truth that Is Consciousness, the entire process of attention must be liberated from functional bondage to the states and functions and emotions and thoughts and relations of the egoic or self-contracted body-mind.

Therefore, I call you not only to consider my Arguments and understand, but to practice that consideration in the form of real disciplines that restore psycho-physical equanimity and liberate energy and attention for the ultimate affair of radical intuition.

The practices of conductivity and the conscious process are the responsibility of each individual devotee. But the Way is not merely a matter of self-generating these disciplines. The Way that I Teach (in both its preparatory and mature or ultimate forms) is the Way of “Satsang,” or Transcendental Spiritual Communion with the Adept in God (or Reality). The practices of conductivity and the conscious process are simply the means whereby individuals enter into that Communion moment to moment. The Adept Spiritual Master provides the Ultimate Means whereby the practices of conductivity and the conscious process become fruitful.

It is in the “talking school” of heady non practitioners (or self-contained egos) that we hear so much nonsense about the non-necessity of a Spiritual Master. Of course, the Adept is of no use (except perhaps to write books to feed the ego minds) for those who are self-bound and not interested in the real fulfillment of the Great Way. And there are also many kinds of ego-based, childish, adolescent, merely cultic, and false kinds of approach or attachment to the Adept–and I criticize those inappropriate approaches and attachments more than any of those who merely damn and anathematize the Great Relationship between the devotee and the Adept Spiritual Master. But when the Way is fully understood, valued, and practiced, then-and only then–the Great Relationship is seen to be the Primary Principle of the Way itself.

The Adept Spiritual Master is not merely an independent Realizer of the Truth. The true Adept is a “Siddha,” or a Living Agent of Help and Awakening. Thus, beyond the Work of Communicating the Arguments of the Way, the Adept is Present to Transmit the Power of Awakening.

Those who are devotees of the Adept not only “hear” or understand the Teaching Arguments and practice the conscious process and the relational and functional disciplines of conductivity, but, by these means, they “see,” or enter into Communion with, the Radiant Power of Being Transmitted by, as, and through the Adept. There is no practice of the Way that I Teach apart from such participatory “seeing.”

On this basis, the practice of devotees is made fruitful by self-transcending or self surrendered association with the Divine Help and Awakening Power. The Way is not fulfilled by the efforts of the ego, but by the ego’s transcending itself in Communion with its Ultimate Help.

Those who are only beginning their association with me in this Way are yet preoccupied with the initial obligation to listen to and hear or understand the Teaching. Therefore, they are also preoccupied with the struggle to adapt to the various

disciplines that are their obligation. For these reasons, such people have not yet developed the means of Communion with the Adept’s Transmission. And, for them, a formal relationship to me as the Teaching Source is their right form of association with me. But as their practice begins to develop, devotees also begin to “find” me, or Locate the Power of my Spiritual Transmission in their daily lives. For this reason, I make myself available to actual practitioners in various occasions or gatherings devoted to the Magnification of my Transmission.

Those who practice thus in my Company develop over time a sensitivity to my Influence, and, as devotees mature via the stages of practice, they are offered many different kinds of opportunities to enter directly into the sphere of my Influence.

If you will ask mature devotees about the development of their practice in my Company over the years, you will hear countless remarkable and extraordinary stories. Those stories are indicators of how the Radiant Divine Influence has made Itself felt and effective in the case of those who know how to use me. And what is the actual process behind all of those remarkable effects?

As I have told you, when the Adept Awakens into his Function for others, the “Siddhi” or Divine Awakening Power achieves universal Agency. Thereafter, when the Influence of the Adept is contacted via the practice of devotees (or when the Adept makes his Influence effective, spontaneously or at will, in the case of any person or condition), changes begin to occur. The essence of those changes is a Work that purifies, balances, and ultimately Awakens the individual being.

Those who truly practice, and thus cooperate with (rather than resist, or even merely luxuriate in the superficial effects of) the Adept’s Transmission, are progressively relieved or purified of the “karmic” (or self-based and habitual) limitations they have accumulated in the functional domain of the body-mind and its relations.

It should be understood that the karmas or habit patterns of every individual are effective at every level: physical, emotional, mental, unconscious, subconscious, conscious, waking, dreaming, and sleeping. And those karmas extend beyond the individual body-mind to include others, objects, and environments on every level, visible (or gross) and invisible (or subtle), known and unknown–past, present, and future. Also, because of the universal effectiveness of the karmic or conditional associations of individual being, it is not at all possible merely to invert upon and identify with the self-essence (the “atman” or most inner consciousness) and have that be true Transcendental Self-Realization or Enlightenment. The inner self or “atman” is not identical to the Transcendental Self (“Paramatman” or “Brahman”) unless it is Realized to be Such. (Just as “Nirvana” and “samsara” are not identical until they are Realized to be So.) And such Realization is not at all possible until the individual or self-bound consciousness has first been transcended through the real discipline of practice.

Transcendental Realization requires, as a prerequisite, the purificatory release of karmic accumulations, or the tendencies of attention that limit and suppress the ability of attention to Locate its Ultimate Source-Condition. Therefore, the ultimate fulfillment of the Way (which is to “Be Conscious as the Feeling of Being and Realize that It Is Radiant Happiness”) requires, as a matter of preparation, the purification or release of attention from the self-bond, the stable development of true psycho-physical equanimity (or full responsibility for self-transcendence), and the magnification of free energy and attention.

The Adept Spiritual Master Works spontaneously for devotees as a Free Agent that Serves both the initial or preparatory process (of purification, self-transcendence, equanimity, and free energy and attention) and the ultimate process of Transcendental Awakening that follows naturally upon and even always coincides with every stage of such preparation. Therefore, when I regard my devotees, or when I sit with them in Transcendental Communion (whether I am physically near or far from them), I Magnify the Purifying, Liberating, and Awakening Power to them, each and all.

As devotees progressively develop and mature in their practice, the Power in my Company acts directly and effectively to prepare them and to Awaken them. This is shown by many kinds of evidence in life and meditation, and there are at least many hundreds of individuals thus far who can attest to this. The Awakening Effect is affirmed even by those who first study the literature of my Teaching. Likewise, all the Effects that serve to purify, to release the self-contraction, to create equanimity, and to release energy and attention can be testified to by many who have practiced this Way in my Company for years or even months.

The process whereby these Effects are Demonstrated is directly associated with the unique daily life and meditation of each devotee. Each day, unique tendencies, associations, and conditions of life and meditation appear in the case of each devotee. When those tendencies, associations, and conditions are combined with real practice (in the forms of conductivity and the conscious process) and brought into the sphere of Communion with the Adept in God (or Reality), a purifying, harmonizing, liberating, and Awakening Force is brought into the context of the moment–and this Event produces all kinds of transformative changes, both ordinary and extraordinary or profound. In this manner, the various karmic accumulations or habitual limitations of each true devotee are gradually lifted off and absorbed or eliminated by my Agency.

My own Work in this regard is a spontaneous Siddhi that has always been Alive in me, but I accepted full responsibility for It in relation to others only after the Event in the Vedanta Temple. Then the Signs of Its Operation began to Move and Oblige me toward others for the sake of their Awakening, and I began to Teach. Over the years since then, I have entered spontaneously and freely into all kinds of relations with people in order to allow this Siddhi to do Its Work without limitation. As a result, the Great Way has now been fully Communicated anew, and devotees and I practice the Siddhi of our Great Relationship even at great distances. It is a Marvel of Divine Grace which few are able to value and understand.

And so I call you to practice this Way in my Company. I call you to understand, surrender, and transcend yourself in Divine Company, free of the conceits of egoity. If you do this, then all of these obvious and also hidden content of manifest consciousness will gradually rise up to your attention–and each portion of it will be inspected and released in your own case. When all of that content has been drawn up and released, then attention will stand bare in you, and all of the energies of your manifest being will be free to collect in the locus of the right side of the heart. Then, and only then, your own consciousness will be free to Identify with the Transcendental Consciousness, which is prior to the body-mind and all of Nature.

Therefore, do not think you can “take Heaven by storm.” The mere “I” thought is not now an indicator of the Great One. The “I” is Narcissus-more than a thought, but a profoundly complex pattern of destiny. You must first transcend the complex “I” through real practice of the self transcending Way. And I am always Present to Help you Awaken from your sleep, your dreams, and your waking conceits. That Awakening, in the midst of the hard school of self-transcendence, and in the constant swoon of Transcendental Communion, is the conscious process that I Teach.

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