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DEVOTEE: Is the presumption of duality somehow a
presumption in Consciousness Itself?
AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: Only in the sense that
Consciousness Itself is in conjunction with conditional
arising. Consciousness does not make presumptions. The
functions arising make the presumption of duality. However,
Consciousness may seem not to discriminate or to understand
and, indeed, It does not Realize Itself, until there
is Most Perfect Realization (or Most Perfect Samadhi).
DEVOTEE: Is this presumption (in the forms apparently
arising) somehow at the level of some kind of primal force,
some kind of primal movement or contraction?
AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: Contraction, yes!
Consciousness does not, once again, identify with
attention and then all of the proceeding faculties of the
body-mind then become re-attached to conditional existence.
That is not what happens. It does not happen at all.
Consciousness does not return. It abides as Itself,
Inherently and Most Perfectly.
So what appears to be in association with conditional
existence, in the case of a seventh stage Realizer, is just
a perception or a presumption from the point of view of
others who are yet bound to conditional existence, who exist
in the knot of egoity, identified with attention, the
body-mind, and the play of conditional existence. For the
seventh stage Realizer, it is not so. Consciousness Abides,
Self-Existing and Self-Radiant, as It Is . That is the
seventh stage Realization.
The seventh stage Demonstration then, is not based on a
return to conditional existence. It is a Demonstration based
on Inherent Identification with the Divine Self-Condition,
and perpetual Abiding as such. It is perpetual Samadhi,
unbroken Samadhi, not held in place by any condition
whatsoever.
There is the paradox, then, of Divine Recognition in the
seventh stage of life, as compared to the sixth stage of
life in the Way of the Heart. The Process of Identification
with the Ultimate Self-Condition is expressed through Divine
Recognition. Whereas, in the sixth stage case, it is
expressed through relinquishment of conditional existence,
exclusion of it in a process of more and more profound
identification with the Ultimate Self-Condition. In both
cases however, fundamentally, there is simply identification
with the Ultimate Self-Condition. In the sixth stage case,
it is done through the mechanism of apparent exclusion of
conditional existence. And in the seventh stage case, it is
done through the process of Divine Recognition of merely
apparent condition, existence.
There is nothing to be transcended in the seventh stage
case, nothing to be excluded. And in fact, there is no
“event”, except for That of the Divine Self-Condition
Itself. The things arising are merely an appearance in the
seventh stage case. And even to say that is not quite
correct. Truly, from the “Point of View” of the seventh
stage Realization, there is no “thing” that arises. To say
that conditions apparently arise is a paradox, or a
paradoxical statement, because even though, in some
paradoxical sense, that may be said to be true, in the
instant of the apparent arising, whatever arises is
Inherently Recognized to be nothing but the Divine
Self-Condition Itself. Therefore, only the Divine
Self-Condition is Realized in the seventh stage of life. And
Divine Recognition is the demonstration of that.
The only Realization, and the only “experience”, so to
speak, in the seventh stage of life, is the Divine
Self-Condition, Self-Existing and Self-Radiant. There is no
“thing” that arises apart from that, or over against it.
There is just that.
So, yes, there is this apparent Demonstration of the four
epochs of the seventh stage of life. But it is merely an
appearance and a paradox. Truly, there is nothing but
Samadhi. And therefore, in truth, there is not the slightest
difference between Divine Translation and any of the three
epochs that precede it. So the seventh stage Awakening is
the Awakening to the Eternal, Unconditional, and
Unconditioned Samadhi, or Divine Self-Realization.
So even your understanding or your presumption about the
seventh stage of life tends to be conditioned by egoity and
the identification with conditional existence. This is so
until the actual Realization of the seventh stage of life,
which is nothing but the Realization of Divine Samadhi.
So just as you, prior to Most Perfect Realization, tend
to seek, and tend to project yourself toward, conditional
goals, your interpretations of the seventh stage of life are
likewise conditioned or subject to misinterpretation or
misunderstanding. The correct view is the one I just
described to you. That is the correct view of the seventh
stage of life.
Just so, the correct view of the entire process of the
Way is different from the view of it made by the ego and the
ego-mind in its identification with conditional existence.
So you often tend to make errors, then, in your
interpretation (or understanding, even) of the process in
the stages previous to the seventh. So I have helped you to
correct some of these errors in discussions in recent days,
and in fact, for all these twenty-three years.
And among those errors is the tendency to associate any
transition in this Way with the achievement of some kind of
conditional state or goal-called “Perfect” or “advanced” or
whatever. You tend to presume transitions must be associated
with certain idealized conditions or states-including
various behavioral signs and so on. Whereas none of the
transitions are correctly so characterized. The transitions
are events in the process of the transcendence of egoity.
And, therefore, they are about more and more profound
advances in the process of transcending the ego and entering
into identification with the Divine Self-Condition.
Now, it is certainly appropriate to examine conditions,
or what people do and so on, in the process of evaluating
them relative to transitions. But it is not a matter of
looking for ideal conditions, or states of perfection, or
perfect fulfillment of behavioral norms and so forth. The
principal judgement is always relative to the core of the
practice and signs of the core becoming or being more
profound. Anything that can be conditionally observed or
that is of a conditional nature, can be taken into account
and often must be – but not because some perfection is
expected, but simply because the reality of that core does
express itself in the life of the individual. And that must
be observed as a way of becoming serious or taking seriously
the fact that the transformations at the core are actually
taking place, or have actually taken place. But that is far
different than looking for some perfect conditional
achievement.
The Witness-Consciousness Does Not act. To Witness Is A
State. It Is A State Of Being, Rather Than a form of action.
Only attention, which Seems To Be Consciousness (but Is
Really an object Of Consciousness), Is an action. To Be The
Witness-Consciousness Is (Ultimately) To Identify With
Consciousness Itself, or Consciousness As A State, and Thus
(Ultimately) It Is To Stand Inherently Free Of all actions,
including the act of attention.
The fundamental consciousness does not create or generate
experience. Rather, experience is an apparent modification
of the fundamental consciousness. Psycho-physical states are
nothing more than electronic fabrications made by a seeming
transformation of the fundamental consciousness or Radiant
Being. If psycho-physical existence is, in any moment,
presumed via identification with the body-mind in itself,
then experience, thought, and action become a drama of
self-seeking in the midst of mortal and absurd threats to
existence. However, if, in any moment, the self-contraction
of the body-mind is transcended, even physical existence is
Realized to be a transparent moment of Immortal Divine
Existence.
The various expressions of the conscious process that
appear in each of the stages of the spiritual Way are all
moments of the same process of self-transcendence, ecstasy
in the Divine, or transcendence of the contracting,
limiting, and defining power of psycho-physical experience.
If in any moment you simply indulge patterns of mental and
physical experience, you fall into the moods and limits of
Narcissus, the separated and threatened self. If, however,
the conscious process is generated in the instant of the
arising patterns of body-mind, both mind and body are
transcended in Divine Communion, or Inherence in the Divine
Condition.
In each moment in which the conscious process is
generated, states of mind and body become open and
transparent, and there is only the direct intuition of the
Real Condition, which is always already the case, whatever
seems to be arising as experience in any moment.
When there is fullest entrance into the second stage of
the “Perfect Practice”, there is never again any return to
conditional existence. In other words, in the transition to
the third stage of the “Perfect Practice”, or the seventh
stage of life, there is no return to conditional existence.
Instead, there is Most Perfect identification with the
Divine Self-Condition. The last gesture of egoity, or that
which is a sign of sadhana based on egoity, or the search to
escape egoity – however it may be described – that last
sign, which is the strategic exclusion of conditional
existence, is transcended.
But this does not mean that Consciousness returns to
conditional existence via Amrita Nadi. Consciousness does
not, once again, identify with attention and then all of the
proceeding faculties of the body-mind then become
re-attached to conditional existence. That is not what
happens. It does not happen at all. Consciousness does not
return. It abides as Itself, Inherently and Most
Perfectly.
So what appears to be in association with conditional
existence, in the case of a seventh stage Realizer, is just
a perception or a presumption from the point of view of
others who are yet bound to conditional existence, who exist
in the knot of egoity, identified with attention, the
body-mind, and the play of conditional existence. For the
seventh stage Realizer, it is not so. Consciousness Abides,
Self-Existing and Self-Radiant, as It Is . That is the
seventh stage Realization.
In the traditional development of the sixth stage of
life, attention is inverted upon the essential self and the
Perfectly Subjective Position of Consciousness, to the
exclusion of conditional phenomena. In the Way of the Heart,
however, the deliberate intention to invert attention for
the sake of Realizing Transcendental Consciousness does not
characterize the sixth stage of life, which instead begins
when the Witness-Position of Consciousness spontaneously
Awakens and becomes stable.
I have overcome life as dilemma. There is still free
growth in two directions. Life is a creative possibility.
Life as creative action, free in relationship, is indeed
action, participation, politics. Thus, out of peace and
harmony and bliss I can create and know as I choose in
relationship. This is the beautiful occupation of energy.
And consciousness is also realizable in itself.
Consciousness presides over all the realms of our
experience, waking, dreaming and sleeping. Thus to uncover
its peace by disarming the problem of waking
consciousness does not reveal the totality of consciousness
itself. It simply permits you to enjoy it, manifest as it,
and know it. Life, then, also involves the permissive
realization of consciousness in its totality as well as
relationship in its totality. When the life problem is
dissolved in understanding, then there is a way of life, as
intelligent and natural as hunger and eating, that permits
growth and realization of the fullness of possibility.
Water and Narcissus
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Patterns and experiences always come and
go. That never stops. Never. An entirely realized being
still experiences these cycles, manifesting within and
without. It is just that his presence in the midst of that
is of another order. It is not a matter of being concerned
about precisely what to do about these qualities that arise
in you. It is a matter of remaining in your true Condition,
Divine Communion.
There will be periods of dullness, of tamasic qualities,
when you are just stupid, without any clarity whatsoever,
when you do not remember anything about what you have
understood, when you have no capacity whatsoever to be
intelligent, to speak clearly, to be straight with anyone,
to feel like you have surrendered yourself. But that is the
tamasic quality. It will always come and go. No one ever
eliminates it entirely. It is always there, as one of the
qualities of existence.
Just so, there are other times when you become intensely
active to the point where you have no peace. You are full of
energy, creativity, endless thinking, motivation, and
obsessive concerns, some of which are apparently “positive.”
That is the rajasic quality.
There are also those times when you become very clear,
straight, simple, and full. Everything then becomes obvious,
and no effort is necessary for you to surrender and know
that God-Communion is your Condition. You feel the Divine
Force everywhere. This is also a quality, the sattwic
quality, that of harmony.
These three qualities come and go all the time. They
never stop alternating. That is the Law. All these qualities
have their place, but because of your improper relationship
to them they become binding. They are repeated, and you
become fixed in certain states or moods which are negative,
rigid, immobile. When consciousness identifies with any
quality, Divine Communion has ceased to be the obvious
principle. Consciousness does not realize that it is
witnessing that event, and that the event is only a
modification of itself. All tendencies to react to the
qualities of consciousness have the same limiting effect,
whether it is a matter of identifying with them or resisting
them.
Amrita Nadi, the circulation of energy is the reverse of
the yogic process of return. It is instead a creative
emanation from the heart which includes all forms, animates
all forms, and sacrifices all forms again to the heart. So
the point of view, the true point of view of this spiritual
work is that of Truth itself, realization itself, the Guru,
the Heart, all of these things are the origin of one’s
spiritual life. From the yogic point of view, from the
seeker’s point of view, the Heart, the Guru, the Self, the
ultimate Form, God, the Form of Reality, these are the goals
of the spiritual process. So the yogi directs himself
through the medium of various activities to return toward
these ultimate sources where he may consider them to be. But
the true process begins with them. And the true process is a
kind of flowering of all of the qualities of existence from
the Heart.
Thus, the man of understanding may perceive the blissful
energy rising out of the heart to the sahasrar as the Amrita
Nadi, his blissful presence. This is in the case (where he),
the case of the ultimate example of the devotee who is
beginning to have perceptions in subtler forms of the life
of Amrita Nadi. Anyone in various stages of this work
randomly may have these experiences of the blissful energy
rising out of the Heart to the sahasrar. Then it may appear
to descend through the various centers to the muladhar. In
turn it may appear to rise again from the muladhar, through
the root of the sex center and the solar plexus,
surrendering itself in the sahasrar above.
He may even perceive this movement in relation to the
breath. Now this is the reverse of the yogi’s perception of
it. The man of understanding perceives it rising out of the
Heart to a terminal above then down through the circuit of
manifestation, the frontal form, then ascending again
through the spinal form. The yogi sees it rather, if he sees
it at all, descriptively he sees it perhaps descending and
then ascending again, ultimately getting to the sahasrar and
then perhaps ultimately then again getting to the Heart. But
the man of understanding from the beginning witnesses this
process from the Heart. And he may even perceive this
movement in relation to the breath. When he Inhales, the
energy may appear to rise from below to the sahasrar and
then drive downward to the Heart. So he may inhale and feel
force rising and then come down into the Heart.
Then there may be a retention of breath accompanied by
silence in the mind. The breath may stop momentarily. When
he exhales again the energy may appear to rise forcefully
from the Heart through Amrita Nadi to the ‘bright,’ then
down through the centers in the spine to the muladhar, and
rest there during another brief retention. Or this same
process may appear to take place entirely between the heart
and the sahasrar, so that consciousness does not appear to
move through the forms of mind and life. In descriptions in
this book I am not separating the descending and the
ascending forces quite as diagrammatically as I have
recently. So I don’t mean that it falls down the ascending
pattern of the spine. Rather it comes down the frontal
portion of the body and rests below.
Therefore, the most direct approach is to obviate the
dilemma in the present rather than make it the principle of
the future and of the vision of existence.
If dilemma ceases to be the point of view in the present,
then existence ceases to be a matter of strategic
manipulation of personal conditions of existence toward some
ultimate solution that will make Truth or Happiness obvious.
Rather, it is a matter of present Happiness in Truth, always
already in the vision of Eternal Life. Thus, existence
becomes a matter of creative participation in the presently
arising pattern of relations through love, or sacrifice.
Since all that arises passes and consciousness does not know
what even a single thing is, the Law is sacrifice rather
than resistance to change and mystery. Therefore, the Way of
Life in Truth is Love and release of all contraction of the
whole body-being rather than strategic manipulation,
inversion, and self-meditation.
Bubba Free John – The Way That I Teach
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