a talk by Da Free John
October 1982 (a commentary on “What Is the Conscious
Process?”)
(Beezone edit)
If people haven’t fully studied my Teaching on the
conscious process, they might tend to associate or identify
it with exercises in such traditions as the Advaitic
tradition. The Advaitic tradition develops the talking
school approach to Realization and therefore it tends to
legitimize the point of view of advocates who preach to
people about consciousness and call them merely to identify
with it. Such advocates try to get people to relax their
minds and settle into a conscious state that doesn’t have
any particular reference to the body mind, although it’s
still associated with the body mind practically.
There are many such advocates. Krishnamurti is one of
them. They call people to do something like the exercise of
logic recommended in the Advaitic talking school. They call
upon people to identify with Consciousness, to believe and
affirm that the essence of the being, the consciousness
behind thoughts and actions, is presently and always already
identical to Brahman or the Transcendental Condition.
Therefore, merely by involving yourself in this kind of
analytical exercise, you can presume that you are
Enlightened, or that you have achieved Jnana. (Jnana Samadhi
is the Realization of the Self Essence, exclusive of all
phenomena.) That’s not at all true.
The same kinds of advocates are also busy telling people
that there is no real purpose for a Spiritual Master except
to bind yourself to another ego. The reason they can so
easily dismiss the Spiritual Master is that they have
already dismissed the whole process of spiritual practice.
All that’s necessary for them is this kind of analytical
effort of identifying with Consciousness. It is true that
our own consciousness–that which is at the root of
attention–is ultimately, even inherently, identical to the
Transcendental Being. But it must be Realized to be so. And
it cannot be Realized to be so until energy and attention
are free for that most profound and radical intuition. It’s
not factually so that Nirvana and samsara are the same. By
definition these are opposites-that’s how the two terms
arose in the traditions. They indicate two entirely
different states of existence, one Transcendental and the
other conditional. The Buddhists developed the formula that
states that Nirvana and samsara are the same. This is a
confession of Realized Adepts. In the case of Realization it
is true, in some profound paradoxical sense. But it is not
factually true. It’s true only in the case of
Realization.
Likewise, in the Advaitic tradition and in many places in
the Hindu tradition, we hear the proclamation that Atman and
Paramatman, or Atman and Brahman, are identical. This is
also not factually true, according to the original
development of these terms. They were meant to indicate
complete opposites. The equation is Realized to be the Truth
in the case of an Adept, but not otherwise. So you cannot
identify with the Transcendental Being merely by inverting
upon the self-essence. To invert upon the self-essence is to
continue the act of Narcissus, which is to meditate on the
root consciousness of the ego. Until the ego is transcended,
that’s all that’s at the base of the “I” thought.
We may have some intuition of That which goes beyond the
limit of self-contracted consciousness, but we cannot
realize our identity with It apart from the fullest
development of spiritual practice. Therefore, it is a heresy
to claim that Atman and Paramatman are the same, or that
Atman and Brahman are the same, until you have Realized it.
It is a heresy to declare that Nirvana and samsara are the
same. It’s A ridiculous claim except in the case of
Realization.
The conscious process is not to be equated with the
conceits or presumptions of people who want to be Realized
immediately without having to go through the hard school of
purification, liberation, and awakening. The conscious
process is part of the total affair of practice, which
involves the transcendence of the ego, or conditional
attention. The conscious process develops by stages–it has
a number of forms. From the beginning it may simply have the
form of prayer in the Way of Divine Communion. It may become
enquiry or re-cognition, or it may take the form of the
Perfect Practice in its first two stages, until
Realization.
The Conscious process goes through stages of development
as the individual matures, but the conscious process is not
the whole of the practice. The practice is associated with
supportive disciplines that are secondary but necessary,
such as the dietary discipline, general health discipline,
the discipline of sexuality, and of service. All of these
disciplines come under the heading of what I call
conductivity. That total regime of practice, exercised
within the devotional culture, is indicated by the single
term, the conscious process. The conscious process is the
epitome of the Way and its most fundamental exercise, but
it. is necessarily associated with this total culture of
life.
The reason for this is that the ego, the self
contraction, the character that is Narcissus, is not merely
some superficial notion. My conception of Narcissus applies
to every single aspect, every part, function, state,
relation, and condition of the self. There is no part of the
manifest self that is not characterized by the
self-contraction, the complex avoidance of relationship.
It’s not merely a superficial part of you, underneath which
there is this eternally free essence which you should
identify with. Even that essence underneath it all, that
fundamental sense of self-consciousness, is a fraction of
this total character that is Narcissus. This total character
must be understood and transcended. In every feature,
function, part, relation, state–waking, dreaming, and
sleeping-this consciousness that is identified with in the
talking school is nothing but the bare consciousness of the
waking state, or attention apart from objects. It is not
Transcendental Consciousness; it is simply egoic
consciousness. That egoic consciousness in all of its forms
must be transcended as a necessary precondition of the
radical intuition of the Transcendental Being.
This Way is not merely some kind of self generated
discipline, some effort made by the ego, that ultimately
winds up being Enlightenment. The context of this practice
is the submission of the ego to that which transcends it, to
Transcendental Help, to the Agency made literally present
through the work of the Adept. It is necessary for the
individual to hear or understand this Teaching and to
develop the various practices associated with the general
exercises of conductivity and the conscious process. We
should regard these to be simply the means whereby the
individual enters into Communion with his or her own Help.
It is that Help, that Transcendental Transmission, that
permits conductivity and the conscious process to be
fruitful
It is necessary for the individual who enters into such
Communion to understand how that great relationship works.
As the individual develops this practice in my Company and
contacts me through all of the opportunities of this
Satsang, the contents of this Narcissistic ego or karmic
personality come into consciousness. As these contents
arise, the individual is to practice the exercises of
conductivity and the conscious process in daily life and
meditation. That is done in direct Communion with the Divine
Power, transmitted in and through and as the Adept. As these
contents arise in the moment of this Company, they are
purified. They are brought up by that Influence, they are
lifted off, they are changed, either instantly, or through a
process of trial. They are reduced, broken up, absorbed, or
in one or another way eliminated by the Work of the Adept.
This is literally so; it is not merely figuratively so.
When I spend time with people, or sit with them in the
Communion Hall, I magnify this Influence to them, and it
combines with the various contents of their conditional
being in a fashion that would not occur if this Siddhi were
not brought to bear in the individual case. This Influence
is Conscious. It is all energy and full Consciousness. This
is what you confront in your life and meditation. This is
the character of this Siddhi. The Effects of this Siddhi is
to bring these contents up and to break them up, and absorb
them, and eliminate them.
I enter into all kinds of play with devotees for the sake
of this transmission, this purification, balancing and
awakening. My ultimate work with people is for these
contents to be eliminated, absorbed, broken up and the
energy returned to the primary condition and the Ultimate
Condition of Transcendental Being.
This is a mutual responsibility. For this process to be
awakened the devotee must hear and understand…must take
responsibility for his or her own practice in real terms.
This is their part. I must be Present to do my part also and
that Presence is to magnify what is already going on.
Practitioners who do respond to My Influence realize or
observe over time all kinds of changes that are signs of
this work. This is a hard school as well as a school of
Grace, in which there is Great Help. This help transcends
the limits that you would bring to practice ordinarily, but
it is still a difficult affair.
But if you enter into this process seriously then the
purification will take place and energy and attention will
be freed from the self contraction on every level and
equanimity and responsibility will be the result of
that.
The nature of Narcissus is to have this energy bound to
the self contraction. Only when this energy is free of the
self contraction can it be transformed into the means and
the arms of spiritual practice and the conscious
process.
The admonition, ‘Be Conscious as the Feeling of Being and
Realize that is is Radiant Happiness’ is not a call that can
be fulfilled instantly by anyone who hears it you see. It
can be fulfilled instantly in some sense, you can sympathize
with it to the degree that you can enjoy a level of self
understanding.
Return to Conscious
Process – Outline edit