The Completing Discourses of
the 25-Year Revelation – Table
of Contents
The Infinite Sea of Undifferentiated Happiness
August 15, 1995
It was the very end of the extended Phone gathering of
August 15. Dawn’s first light is gently breaking above the
nearby ocean, and many devotees having been challenged in
their attentiveness throughout the long, yet immensely
Graceful, night of Divine Instruction are drowsy and ready
for sleep.
DEVOTEE:Beloved, You have described anandamayakosha as
attention and You explained why it is called the “bliss
sheath” because of not having any features associated with
conditionality.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Apart from the presumption of
separateness. In order to Wake Up totally to Realize the
True Self, you must do much more than merely fall
asleep.
Sleep is, in some sense, a kind of poor man’s
enlightenment, or ordinary man’s enlightenment. Things like
alcohol and so forth are also a kind of poor man’s, or
ordinary man’s, ecstasy in some sense. I have spoken to you
about this. Why do you go to sleep? Why must you sleep?
It is not just a physical matter and so on. In fact, some
people never sleep, do not feel the necessity for physical
sleep. It is not merely a physical or otherwise
psychological need. It is, In some sense, a philosophical
endeavor even. Yon have to sleep in order to get free, at
least have a space of a kind of freedom from the imposition
of conditional stress, the stresses of the bodymind. But it
is not True, or Ultimate, Enlightenment. It is a space. It
is a refreshment. You need, you must – completely apart from
any physical fatigue or psychological impulse to sleep –
sleep in order to be refreshed at the Source. You have to do
this regularly. That is the primary reason for sleep. It is
a kind of poor man’s or ordinary man’s enlightenment. It is
even a kind of relief or enlightenment for the ego, because
it relieves the separate consciousness, attention in other
words, from the imposition of objects and entanglements with
psycho-physical states and body identification and the
stressful constancy of thoughts. And this is the fundamental
reason for sleeping. It is not True Enlightenment, but it is
a relief. And it is a relief gotten by returning to the
Domain of the Source-Position, even though it does not
involve Awakening to the Source Position in any fullest
sense.
Feeling tired is one reason for wanting to sleep. And if
you were deprived of sleep, and people shook your body, made
a lot of noise, whatever, kept you from sleeping for some
number of days or so, then it would become a psychological
need also. Those are secondary, or peripheral, aspects of
the motivation to sleep. The primary motivation, we could
say, speaking of the psycho physical complex altogether, is
at the causal root. There is a need at the root, and
generally speaking in the domain of attention, a need to
simply stand there undisturbed to, for some hours, be
immersed in the general Field of Bliss without the
imposition of objects. And, therefore, it is a kind of
philosophical quest. It is a need in depth, not merely in
the mind or the body. More fundamentally, it is a central
need, a foundation need. It is even an expression of the
heart’s always already and constant knowing of the Divine
Self-Position, the Ultimate Subjective Position – how that
is the Position of existence, even in the context of
conditional experiencing or conditional embodiment.
So you sleep, with no objects imposing on you, but still
there is the fundamental presumption of separateness in some
sense-but not aggravated by the imposition of objects. And
there you lie in the Field of Inherent Blissfulness for
those moments or hours each day. It is a sign of the impulse
of the origin of the heart. Another sign that existence is
about much more than following the subtle and gross
objects.
And you might imagine, in the waking state, that it would
be terrible to not be able to experience a thought or an
object. But that is only a feeling you have in the waking
state, identification with the body, and so on – something
like it in the dream state. Actually, basically every day,
you spontaneously fall into a condition in which you have no
experience of objects whatsoever. And in that state you are
profoundly content. And you look forward to doing it again
every day. But you would not be content with it if it arose
in the waking state. Suddenly feeling the physical, feeling
identified with the body, suddenly you could not think-then
you would be disturbed.
But when you relax the hold on the body and on the mind,
suddenly you feel profoundly content in a state of total
objectlessness. Still there is something of the presumption
of separateness but you are swooned into a sea of Bliss,
with no objects whatsoever, no thoughts, no visions, just
the Inherent Blissfulness of heart full existence. There are
not any objects whatsoever. This should show you that this
condition without objects of any kind -gross or subtle – is
profoundly desired, profoundly desirable, and profoundly
fulfilling.
The impulse at the heart is not toward objects of any
kind, but to be undifferentiated in the sea of essential and
Inherent Happiness. And at heart you require no objects of
any kind. You slip into that sea daily. And to enter into
that sea to the point of Absolute Non-Differentiation is the
impulse at heart. And that is Enlightenment. That is
Ultimate Realization. It requires no objects whatsoever. And
if an object arises, it is inherently Recognized.
DEVOTEE: Is the dream state associated with subtle
objects of attention?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Of course. That is entirely what it is.
There are many different kinds of subtle objects, of course.
Some of them are rather mundane and in the likeness of the
gross experience. Others are subtler than that. There are
lucid dreams. There are visions, transports in the dreaming
state just as there can be visions, transports, in the time
of the waking state. The dream state is an association with
subtle objects in the grid. But deep sleep is to stand in
the domain of attention only, without objects, gross or
subtle. And you are perfectly content with that every
night.
When you wake up, if somebody asked
you if you slept well, you have a tacit recollection of
whether you did or not. And what is it to sleep well? It is
to be rested, immersed in essential blissfulness without any
objects. If you did not sleep well, what you mean is that
you dreamed, you tossed, you turned, and so on. There were
lots of objects – gross and subtle. But when you say you
slept well, you mean there were no objects at all just
immersion in blissfulness. And when you say you slept well,
you acknowledge the fact that to be in a state of
objectlessness, simply immersed in Bliss, is profoundly
desirable, profoundly pleasurable, profoundly happy. Even in
some sense then, you acknowledge it is superior to anything
you experience, gross or subtle.
Deep sleep, then, is in the likeness
of Divine Self-Realization. It is not itself Divine Self
Realization, but it is in its likeness, because it is to
stand in the attention-position, the causal position,
without objects. And so, even in the disposition of
separateness, since there are no objects there is a kind of
immersion in the Bliss of the Domain that is even prior too
attention. And every day you acknowledge that that state is
the best. Ultimately, you would rather sleep than dream or
wake. Merely to sleep is not enough, but it is in the
likeness of what is enough. And you acknowledge every day,
having slept, that the principal motive in your heart
disposition is to be in the Perfectly Subjective Position of
Love-Bliss, without any objects whatsoever. You do not
require separateness. You do not require objects. What you
require is the undifferentiated Happiness of essential
Bliss. And in that, you do not feel deprived of the objects
that are absent. And you do not want them.
Someone sleeping well does not want
to wake up, does not want to dream. Already having come to
the waking state or the dreaming state, you cling to it as
if you would not have it come to an end. But then you pass
spontaneously into sleep and do not regret any loss of
objects at all. And so it is in the Enlightened Condition.
There are no regrets for the absence of objects. There are
no visions in that profundity. There is no loss in it. It is
complete and whole. You acknowledge this great disposition,
as if you are all philosophers every day – simply because
you slept. And then you were content. And then you dreamed
and were seeking and disturbed. And then you woke up, and
were clinging, and feared death again.
Divine Self-Realization is a kind of
Infinite Sleep, Objectless, all Bliss, never to wake again,
never to dream again, never to suffer again. But it is not
to be unconscious. It is to be Infinitely Conscious, without
the slightest differentiation. You are deprived of that
Absoluteness even in sleep. But sleep is your pre-vision of
it. In some sense, then, it is the fundamental position of
your life. But you are troubled by waking and dreaming,
thinking and suffering. Wouldn’t you rather sleep? The
Infinite Sleep of Divine Love-Bliss? There is no vision
there. No objects there. I Am there only As That, without
the slightest “difference”.
That is Consciousness Itself – not
the consciousness you presume in the waking state or the
dreaming state. That is a trouble. True Consciousness is
beyond objects and without want, and without separateness.
It is Nirvikalpa Samadhi Absolute, without conditions,
without supports, without separate self, without world. In
the waking or dreaming states, you might suggest you do not
want that which would deprive you of your objects. But in
sleep, you know, you intuit something of the Truth of what
Happiness is really all about.
Ultimate Awakeness, then, is a kind
of sleeping, even if appearing to be awake, even if
appearing to be dreaming. It is to be asleep. It is to be
free of the imposition and implication of objects, of mere
appearances. Sleep is the foundation of life, then, the root
of all refreshment. It is the ground of waking and dreaming.
It is that to which you would return every day. And it
contains a secret, the secret of Ultimate Happiness and
Freedom. And there is no separateness in it. No faculty to
see or hear or move. But it is not an emptiness. It is
Infinite Fullness without qualification. It is the Divine
Self-Condition, in and of Itself, Vanishing all, Outshining
all, Transcending all, utterly without need, without a
separate center, without any bounds, without any desire,
without any karma, without any movement or mechanics to make
another event, a conditional event, an appearance, an
object.
And yet, remarkably, you fear death.
You might as well fear sleep. When you are agitated and
under stress in the body, you may even fear sleep because it
suggests to you the loss of body-consciousness. Well that is
all that death suggests. It is a loss of body-consciousness.
And yet you run to the loss of body-consciousness daily-like
going to sleep. Why fear death then?
DEVOTEE: I am just wondering about
my own experience with sleep all my life, and that I have
not desired much sleep. I understand what You say about
egoity in terms of not wanting to lose bodily consciousness
and to cling to objects. But also I can feel in me a sense
of an impulse to not, from the bodily point of view, just
lose consciousness, but to, while awake, Realize that
objectless Samadhi.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, you cannot do
that or Realize that by identification with the bodily
circumstance of the waking state. It is possible to Awaken
Perfectly in the seventh stage sense and not dissociate from
psycho-physical existence. But psycho-physical existence in
that condition is not what it appears to be from the
ordinary point of view.
What is being agitated in the body
really all about? Too much stress to rest, such that you are
agitated out of sleep. And being agitated out of sleep, then
you are identified with the body and the mind and so forth
and want to cling to them. You cling too much to the body
and the mind, you cannot get rest, you cannot sleep, or you
sleep fitfully, or you get little sleep, and do on. Even if
you only get a taste of it, a moment of it, it is still
sufficient as a refreshment at The Source.
The seventh stage Awakening is not
about clinging to waking conditions, or a state in which
objects are appearing. It is sleep, but without the
limitation of separateness. It is simply the Immense,
Unbounded, egoless Field of Conscious Radiance, the
“Bright”. And, therefore, Ultimately, it Outshines
conditional existence. It sleeps it into “Brightness”. It
does not fitfully hold on to the body, or to the mind, or
objective appearances. It simply (does not strategically
dissociate from them. But It Divinely Recognizes these
arising conditions constantly. So It is an Immense,
Brilliant, Unquenchable Sleep – not in the sense of
unconsciousness, but in the sense of a transcendence of the
need and impulse and drive and search for
objects.
And so, ultimately, all objects
Divinely Recognized, the body-mind, the entire cosmic
domain, is Outshined in the Immense, Eternal Wakeness That
is Objectless, and in that sense like sleep.
When people are afraid of dying, it
is because they are identified with the body and cling to
it. And they forget the joy of sleep, of rest, and think
they are threatened. But they are not really threatened. It
is because they are contracted in the waking state and would
not die. But if they really examine themselves they would
realize that is exactly what they want to do. They do not
want to go through the death process, and the suffering in
the body to make that transition and so forth. They would
rather just plain old forget about it and be immersed in
Immense Bliss and Happiness, and do not have to suffer such
transitions or struggle to get to rest.
The fundamental heart-impulse is the
impulse to Immense, Objectless, Joyful Peace, Infinitely
Conscious. And That is True Wakefulness. Divine Recognition
in the apparent waking state in the seventh stage of life is
just That. It is not about Enlightenment being perpetually
associated with conditional objects. It simply Recognizes
them from the Prior Position. And, ultimately, they
disappear like the shape of the pig in the kiln. No Form. No
separateness. It. is not an unconscious state. It is
Infinitely Conscious, but Objectless. That is the Divine
Self-Condition.
So every being is moved to this
Immense Peacefuiness, Happiness. And moves toward It
readily, spontaneously every day in the motion towards
sleep, the relinquishment that is sleep. Sleep is not
unconscious because when people wake up in the morning or
whatever, when asked if they slept well, they say yes. Well,
how would they know if it was unconscious? It is simply
objectless.
There is no lack of contentedness in
sleep.
All objects are replaced by their
Substance in sleep and in Ultimate Realization. The Essence
of all objects, That upon Which they are a play, is
Love-Bliss, Infinite Radiance.
In other words, in Ultimate
Realization, even in sleep, there is no deprivation, no loss
of objects. Rather, the Substance of them becomes immediate.
The Substance of objects is the Light, the Bliss, the
Love-Bliss upon Which they are a merely apparent play. The
play subsides – not into unconsciousness, but into
Objectless Love-Bliss. The Substance of appearances is What
is Realized in Ultimate Awakening, or Enlightenment. And
even in deep sleep, that Substance is touched upon. And that
is why there is rest. And it is in deep sleep that the
greatest intuition occurs daily by direct contact with the
Field of Love-Bliss. Therefore, the Heart-Disposition is
deep. It is as sleep. Fundamentally Objectless. It is moved
toward Its own Source-Condition. The heart would realize
that Happiness Which is Beyond objects, Which is just
touched upon in deep sleep, but Which is the Very
Source-Condition.
And when you even go to the
meditation hall to meditate, when it achieves a depth, it is
like sleep. It goes beyond objects, beyond the
concretization of separate self into a kind of Immersion in
sheer Bliss, the Substance of all objects, Beyond body,
Beyond mind, Beyond complication, Beyond stress and
suffering, Beyond seeking. It is a taste as in deep sleep,
when meditation becomes deep. It is a taste as in deep sleep
of the Source-Condition, the heart returned to its Pool of
Origin beyond suffering.
So in deep meditation and in deep
sleep, you touch upon the same Source-Condition and get the
Knowledge of Happiness. But you must take It seriously. And
not, then, return to a disposition of seeking, clinging to
objects, and so on. But stay steady in that nectarous
disposition of deep meditation, of Communion with Me, a kind
of Sleepless Sleep or Joy. That is the circumstance to which
you are moved in this devotion to Me. And it is beyond
death, beyond suffering, beyond dreams, beyond visions,
beyond body, beyond cosmos, beyond even the residual
impediments of deep sleep that is experienced by those who
are embodied otherwise. This can be Realized. It is My Gift
to you. This is what I Call you to. And this is the
potential you have in this Yoga of devotion to Me. Know,
then, it is a motivation in you that goes beyond all
conditional satisfactions, or impulses, or motives, or
searches.
It is to be asleep while alive. It
is to be Awake beyond awakening. And then when it is
fulfilled Perfectly, there is no embodiment, no cosmic
domain. So why fear death then? It is unreasonable. It is
like fearing to go to sleep.
In the daily waking state, as it is
presumed egoically, the point of view of individual beings
is that the worst thing that can happen to you, is that you
lose body-consciousness. And this is all epitomized in your
fear of death. Fear of death is attachment to the waking
state, attachment to the body. It is a loss of a sense of
this central Heart-Bliss as it is known even in sleep. The
body is just an object. The mind is just an object. To be
free of objects is an enjoyment you even pursue daily. Why
fear death then?
The Ground cannot be lost. The
Infinite Energy, the fundamental Force and Source in which
all phenomena are arising is a Constant. It cannot
disappear. Why fear death then? Why cling to life in fear?
Live on the Foundation. Live in Truth. Surrender to That
Which is Great and Fundamental and always Existing, always
already, and fear is gone.
Even in life then, being thus
fearless and grounded in Truth, you can live effectively.
You can do sadhana. You can function without fear and
without illusion. There is a detachment in this that is not
dissociative, just a ground freedom and peacefulness,
equanimity. There is no fear of death and does not cling to
the body, does not cling to the mind, does not cling to
objects, does not cling to wants – because there is the
ground heart – certainty of the Infinite Peacefulness and
Blissfulness of objectless existence, which is given as a
natural gift to every being in every world, in every day’s
cycle.
Sleep will happen spontaneously, and
you want it to spontaneously happen. You do not want to
cling to the body, to the mind, or ask any more questions,
or engage in any transactions with the body-mind. You are
looking forward to the peacefulness, the contentedness, the
happiness, of objectless sleep. You are looking forward to
it. You would like to do it right now, you know. Well make
this not merely a natural impulse or these day cycles. Make
it your heart-impulse and you transcend death and all
suffering.
Get this knowledge more profoundly
in the Samadhi of self-surrendering, self-forgetting, self
transcending, feeling-Contemplation of Me. Be willed to
this, then, in every moment, and relinquish the anxiety of
attachment to the body-mind. It is a mere appearance
floating in the Infinite Sea of Undifferentiated Happiness
Which you visit by Grace, in Communion with Me, and even
touch upon daily in the Grace of sleep. So much for death
then. So much for the daily news. So much for the clinging
activities of an uninspected life.
The heart has its Proof. All of you
have felt Me. I have even flooded your body-minds with this
proof. Be converted at heart, then, and live without fear,
and give up all without fear, because of this
proof.
This appearance of life will end
like any dream ends. But you always stand in the Superior
Position, having Communed with Me, and even having slept.
You need not take these objects seriously, then. And you are
superior to the fault in the adventure, in the horrible
epoch or epochs of mere appearances. And this is your
Freedom, even from the beginning of this Way.
Go to sleep in peace.
Meditate in peace.
Live in peace.
Live in depth.
Be in depth.
Go to this depth.
Be in this depth.
And be Free and Happy.
Will you?