The following is adapted from The
Illusion of Relatedness a book by Adi Da Samraj published in
1986. The adaptation if part of Beezone’s
White
and Orange Project
The Illusion Of
Relatedness
The Illusion of
Relatedness: Essays on True and Free Renunciation and the
Radical Transcendence of Conditional Existence.
Da Free John (Adi Da
Samraj)
pp. 97 – 147 (minus
109-117)
VIII.
Practicing stage five
involves the discipline of the ascent of attention into the
domain of the superconscious mind (or the Cosmic Mind) via
the “Ajna Door”12 (in deep meditation). Some may
be significantly attached to the subtle possibilities of
mind, so that they must practice for a significant time in
the domain of the superconscious mind (above attention to
body and breath). Therefore, in order to quicken the course,
distractions must be transcended. The discipline at
practicing stage five is, thus, based on the conservative
discipline of the total mind, including the superconscious
mind, just as previous stages of practice are based on the
conservative discipline of food and breath and feeling.
(And, in fact, all disciplines of the body-mind are,
effectively, disciplines of attention, which is the
functional core or root of the bodymind, and, therefore, all
disciplines of the body-mind serve to Release attention, and
feeling and energy as well, to the Great Process of
“hearing”, “seeing”, and “Ishta-Guru-Bhakti
Yoga”.)
As soon as you begin to become
sensitive to the deeper personality, or you start
incorporating the mind of the deeper personality into the
play of your life, then you start identifying with that,
becoming limited by that. urged by that.
You get more mind, in other
words. This is why I call you to the Perfect Practice. I do
not even recommend that you go to practicing stage four or
practicing stage five. If you must, of course, I have
indicated to you what that process is about and what it
requires. But I am calling you to enter into a relationship
with me directly such that those stages of practice may
become unnecessary.
Nothing left But the
Ash – Adi Da Samraj
The question is not, should you
do the specific sadhana in the ascending stages, in
developmental stage four and perhaps developmental stage
five. It is a question in each individual case, and the
answer must be seen on the basis of the characteristics of
ones sadhana. There cannot be true Awakening to the
Witness-Position without at least maturity at developmental
stage three of the Way of the Heart. The vehicle must be
purified, the submission must be made. It is not a matter of
experiences only. The real practice must be
done.
Therefore, the circuit of the
body-mind must endure the Yoga, at least in the form of the
practice of developmental stage three to
maturity.
The Sign of My
Brightness – Adi Da Samraj
12. The “Ajna Door”, also
known as the “single eye”, the “mystic eye”, or the “third
eye”, is the subtle psychic center or “chakra” located
between and behind the eyebrows and associated with the
brain core. The awakening of the “ajna chakra” may give rise
to mystical visions and intuitive reflections of other
realms of experience within and outside the individual. The
“ajna chakra” governs the higher mind, will, vision, and
conception, and is also referred to as the “Guru’s Seat”,
the psychic center through which the Heart-Master “contacts”
the devotee with His Spirit-Baptism or Blessing.
In The Dawn Horse
Testament (1st ed., pp. 443-44), Da Love-Ananda describes
the method of meditation at the “Ajna Door”:
Truly, The Ajna Door Is
Not So Much A Place As It Is A Direction. Therefore, To
Contemplate At The Ajna Door Is Not Merely To Focus On A
Spot In the brain (Between and Behind the brows). Right
Contemplation At The Ajna Door Is Always A “Going Beyond”
Action, Always Up and Back, Up and Back, Deeper and Deeper,
Further and Further. The Upward Motion Goes Beyond the
Descending Tendency, and The Backward Motion Goes Beyond the
Tendency To Move Prom The Spinal To The Frontal Line. The
Combination Of This Dual Upward (or Ascending) and Backward
(or Deepening) Gesture Leads attention Up; The Center and,
In The Context Of The Fifth Stage Of Life, To the top of the
head and Beyond, To The Infinite Matrix (or Formless Source)
Above.
The ascending discipline of mind
itself must be founded on the equanimity of the total
body-mind (Realized via the disciplines of the earlier
stages of practice).
more:
Equanimity
– A Study in the teachings of Adi Da Samraj
The ascending ”discipline of mind
is itself a matter of the full submission of attention into
the Spirit-Current at the “Ajna Door”. This (practice, done
with great ease, and great attention above, allows attention
to ascend through the progressively subtle levels of the
higher or superconscious mind (or the super;conscious Light
within and above the “gross body” and the gross
world).
The discipline of mind corresponds
to the traditional
1. “Raja Yoga” (which is based on,
and thus includes,
2. “Karma Yoga”,
3. “Bhakti Yoga”, and
4. “Hatha Yoga”).
“Raja Yoga” also traditionally
includes
5. “Mantra Yoga” (or the use of
Spiritually potentized word-syllables or Divine
Names),
6. “Nada Yoga” (or ascent via
attention to subtle internal sounds),
7. “Kundalini Yoga” (or ascent via
the Spirit-Current and its Revealed Light or internally
perceived lights), and
8. “Laya Yoga” (or dissolution of
the total mind and the resolution of attention in the Matrix
of the Spirit-Current above the body-mind, in “Conditional
Nirvikalpa Samadhi”).
The progressive practice (or “Yoga
of Consideration”) of the Way that I Teach includes all of
these “Yogas” and all potential aspects of the Spiritual
Process. Just so, it includes the stages of “Jnana Yoga”,
13 which are beyond “Raja Yoga”.
More:
The
Necessary Disciplines of Right Life
13. Jnana Yoga is the
process of differentiating the “knowing” consciousness from
everything that arises to it, and then of inverting the mind
upon its most subtle root, the traditional “atman” or
essential self.
The unconscious mind, the
subconscious mind, and the conscious mind together form the
“manomayakosha“. All of that is only the personal and
lower conditional psyche, and it is typically expressed in
association with:
Breath,
Emotion, and the “gross food body” (or the gross
senses) as the ordinary mind of the waking state.
The ordinary mind also expresses
itself in subtler forms, as in reverie, or in dreams, but
the mind may also express itself in extraordinary or higher
forms; as in superconscious reverie, or in Revelatory dreams
and visions. When the subtler and higher mind is expressed
in the form of superconscious visions and Revelations,
attention has reached into the superconscious dimension of
mind, beyond the “gross body” and its world. That
superconscious field of mind is the outer field of
“vijnanamayakosha” (which also includes the
discriminative faculty of higher intelligence and the, basic
mental ‘conception or assertion of the “I”, or the will, of
conditional being).
Practice of the Way that I Teach in
the context of the fifth stage of life
involves:
1. The ascent of attention via the
discipline of mind (based on continued conservative
discipline of the “gross food body” and
2. The ascending discipline, or
“conductivity”, of breath and feeling in the
Spirit-Current). That ascent may become the full elaboration
of “Raja Yoga” (even to the degree of “Conditional
Nirvikalpa Samadhi”).
However, if mind is subjected to the
fullest discipline of self-understanding, the contractions
that appear as the forms of mind will quickly lose their
attractive power, and the root of “vijnanamayakosha” (or the
root of the total mind), which is attention itself,
will become the “hitching post” of the “Yoga of
Consideration”.
IX.
The “root-mind” is not the subtle
display of Universal (or Cosmic) mind and experience. The
“root-mind” is self contraction itself. Its root-form
in the mind is self consciousness, egoity, or the “I” of the
conditional self, which is, at its very root, simply,
functional attention itself.
Traditional `Jnana Yoga” goes beyond
the psychic ascent of “Raja Yoga” by holding on to the
“Witness-Consciousness”, or else to the “I”-thought, or,
simply, the “I”-feeling, and tracing it to its Source in the
heart. “Aham Sphurana”, the “Presence” (or original
Spirit-Current) of the original “I” (or self-contraction),
Prior to all thought, is apparently in the heart, on the
right side. By contemplation of Consciousness via the
“I”-feeling in the right side of the heart, the Process goes
beyond “I” to its Ultimate Source, Which is Consciousness
Itself.
In the Way that I Teach, the sixth
stage Process associated with “Jnana Yoga” is developed as a
natural extension of Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga”. That is to
say, either through “self enquiry” (in the form “Avoiding
relationship?”) and nonverbal “re-cognition” of “gross”,
“subtle”, and “causal” forms of self-contraction, or through
“True Prayer” (culminating in “Mahamantra
Meditation”14), the devotee transcends the
self-contraction (even in its root-form, which is attention
itself) and becomes Identified with What Is when the
self-contraction his absent.
(Even the sixth stage practice of
“Feeling-Enquiry”, as described in the Love-Ananda Gita, is
a form of “Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga”, based on previous
effective practice of “Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga” in the form
of “self-enquiry” and “re-cognition”, or in the form of
“True Prayer”.) Thus, the ascending Process moves naturally
into the context of the sixth stage of life, or the
Heart-Domain of the “Witness Consciousness”, the “Aham
Sphurana”, and Consciousness Itself, via the principle “you
become What you meditate on ‘(or identify with)”, and the
sixth stage Process fulfills itself in the spontaneous
transition to the seventh stage Process via the Ultimate
Principle “You Always Already Are What You Always ‘Already
Are”.
14. “Mahamantra
Meditation” is the devotional practice given to devotees in
the fourth practicing stage of the Way that Da Love-Ananda
has Revealed. In meditation the “Mahamantra” is invoked
silently at the “Ajna Door”. This practice is discussed
further in this essay and in p. 130, n. 18.
Even before the final elaboration of
fifth stage possibilities (in “Conditional Nirvikalpa
Samadhi”), or, in rare cases, perhaps even in the midst of
practice in the context of the fourth stage of life,
attention can be Released from search or attachment relative
to conditional objects (“subtle” or “gross”) and so become
Free to Realize Native Identification with its own Source,
Which Is Consciousness Itself (Realized as the “Witness” of
conditional objects, forms, states, and others).
Sixth Stage
When attention relaxes and subsides
in Consciousness Itself, the Spirit-Current resolves into
the “Sphurana” (or the Native Bliss-Current or Feeling of
Being) in the right side of the heart. When the Perfect
Status of Consciousness Itself becomes Obvious in this
Process, there is the Realization of “Jnana Samadhi” (or
Consciousness in Itself), then “Sahaj Samadhi” (or
Consciousness as the Divine Condition of all conditions).
And “Sahaj Samadhi”, “Open Eyes”, or Self Abiding
“Recognition” of all phenomenal or conditional forms and
states, may also be Realized directly, without necessarily
being preceded by either “Conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi” or
“Jnana Samadhi”.
The “Aham Sphurana”, or
Consciousness associated with the Radiance of the
Spirit-Current in the right side of the heart, is the First
Sign of the penetration and transcendence of the “causal
body”, or “anandamayakosha” (the seat or heart of
conditional bliss). The “causal body” is (apparently)
conditionally associated with egoity (or separate
Consciousness), in the form of an illusion that
Consciousness is separate and unIllumined in deep sleep.
Truly, all illusions, being a part of mind, arise only with
the mind, and, therefore, only when dreams and thoughts
arise in the dreaming and waking states. Therefore, the
illusion of separateness and non-Illumination associated
with the “causal body” and deep sleep, in general, only a
presumption about the sleep state, and, that presumption
arises in the mind in the states of dreaming and sleeping.
However, that presumption (or feeling) is perhaps also a
characteristic of the sleep state itself, and, as such, it
is an indication that the mind, as a primary
self-contraction, is somehow still effective in its
latent or dormant presence in the state of deep
sleep.
In deep sleep, beyond the dreaming
or waking experience of the body-mind, the Inherent or
Native and Transcendental Self-Bliss is “touched” (because
the body-mind has become relatively inactive, or latent, in
Consciousness itself), but dreaming or waking states quickly
arise from this latency, and then the self-contracting
reaction to identification with the body-mind surrounds the
heart (and Consciousness Itself) with more intense illusions
that loudly suggest (while sleep perhaps only “whispers”)
that Consciousness is separate, limited, and conditional
(rather than Transcendental, Divine, and Inherent).
Likewise, the “causal” or root-tendency of self contraction
is associated with the automatic arising of attention toward
mind and body (or “subtle” and “gross” conditions).
Therefore, the root of the “causal” tendency is not
originally and constantly expressed as the “I”-thought, but
as attention itself, or the simple (or thoughtless) feeling
of relatedness, or the most primitive and formless feeling
of contraction in and of Consciousness Itself, associated
with the Spirit-Current in the right side of the heart. And
these appearances or illusions continue to “veil” the heart,
until the “causal knot” is penetrated (or the depth of the
“Aham Sphurana” is entered), and the Free Transcendental
Divine Status of Consciousness Itself, Prior to the
body-mind and the world, is Realized.
Seventh Stage
Sleep is not Transcendental Divine
Self-Realization, nor is it the Way to it. The shapeless and
deep “causal” presumption of separateness remains, and all
the “subtle” and “gross” sheaths are also hidden (and
merely, or nearly, “speechless”) in mere sleep. Thus,
dreaming and waking follow sleep, just as every kind of
experience returns after death.
Even the ego of sleep must be
transcended in Consciousness Itself. Sleep is rest in the
inherent Bliss of the Transcendental Divine Self, but with a
most subtle contraction (of latent mind, or
body-mind) into separateness, or non-Awakeness, or the
apparent diminishment (or non-Awareness) of Freedom and
Bliss.
The heart on the right is not fully
penetrated in mere sleep, nor is the “Aham Sphurana” entered
by sleep itself. The essence of mind persists, although
latently, in deep sleep. Only equally (and more) persistent
“sadhana“,
or real and effective practice of the Way, to the degree of
Full Awakening to Consciousness Itself and spontaneous
“Recognition” of all conditional arising, Releases and
“Outshines” the mind and all conditional or apparent
forms.
The Transcendental Divine Self is
“touched” in deep sleep, but It may likewise be “touched” in
the dreaming and waking states, via meditation and the
Process of Transcendental Awakening. Only persistence in the
transcendence of attention, or self contraction, allows the
direct and Perfect Realization of the Always Fully Awake and
Transcendental! Divine Self, or Consciousness Itself,
beyond:
1. The physical body;
2. beyond every level of the
mind,
3. beyond thought,
4. beyond images in mind,
5. beyond attention,
6. beyond
self-contraction,
7. beyond reaction,
7. beyond action,
8. beyond avoidance,
9. separation,
10. separateness,
11. independence,
12. separativeness,
13. difference,
14. relatedness,
15. limitation,
16. dis-ease,
17. illusion,
18. dependence,
19. threat,
20. fear,
21. pain,
22. conditional pleasure,
23. others,
24. objects,
25. places,
26. time,
27. desire,
28. attachment,
29. conditional love,
30. sorrow,
31. anger,
32. death,
33. futility, and
34. the apparent diminishment (or
non-Awareness) of Freedom and Bliss.
When the self contraction (in its
root-form, which is attention) is transcended in the
Realization of Native or Inherent identification with
Consciousness Itself (Prior to the body-mind), the Truth of
Consciousness Itself becomes Inherently Obvious. And,
thereafter, even if conditions apparently arise (whether in
the waking, the dreaming, or the sleeping state), they are
Inherently “Recognizable” as transparent, or merely
apparent, and non-binding modifications of the Divine
Self-Radiance of Consciousness Itself.
X.
Fourth Stage
The Process of the “Yoga of
Consideration” in the context of the fourth stage of life
(and thus in continuity with the first. three stages of
life) depends on maintenance of the feeling of,
identification with the “gross body” (or the gross body-mind
itself, and its natural relations). When that feeling (which
is self-contraction) is transcended, practice moves into the
context of the fifth stage of life.
Fifth Stage
The Process of the “Yoga of
Consideration” in the context of the fifth stage of life
depends on maintenance of the feeling of identification with
the “subtle body” (or the conditional,’ “I” itself, and the
total mind, including all of its natural, energies and
relations). When that feeling (which is self; contraction)
is transcended, practice moves into the context of the sixth
stage of life.
Sixth Stage
The Process,of the “Yoga of
Consideration” in the context of the sixth stage of life
depends on maintenance of the feeling of identification with
the “causal body”, or the feeling of relatedness (which is
the essence of attention itself) and the feeling that
Consciousness (as the “Witness” of conditions) is perhaps
separate, limited, and conditional. When that feeling (which
is self-contraction) is transcended in the Feeling of Being
(or the “Aham Sphurana”) and, beyond, in the Inherent
Realization of the Transcendental Divine Condition of
Consciousness Itself, practice moves into the context of the
seventh stage of life.
Hearing and Seeing
Truly, all of these stages of the
transcendence of self contraction, leading to the Native
Realization of Consciousness itself (spontaneously, or
Always Already, “Recognizing” whatever apparently arises),
may be quickly gone beyond. It is only necessary to “hear”
and “see” the “True Heart-Master”
(or the “Ishta-Guru”).
To “hear” is to consider (or truly
“listen”15 to) the Arguments of the “True
Heart-Master”, so that you truly observe and understand and
are Released of the motive of self contraction. Ultimately,
it is simply to Be, Identical to the Original Current or
Feeling of Being,-Inherently Free of identification with the
body-mind and attention (or the Sense of relatedness,
otherness, separateness, and contraction). Perfect “hearing”
is to Stand in Native Identification with Consciousness
Itself.
15. Da Love-Ananda refers
to the preparatory practice of the Way that He has Revealed
as “listening”, or giving one’s attention to the Teaching
Argument and considering it in the context of one’s
life.
To “see” the “True Heart-Master” is
to be truly heart attracted in your attention to the “True
Heart-Master” as “Ishta”. To submit to such
heart-attractedness is to be drawn beyond all of the layers
of conditional or contracted self-identity and conditional
or contracted self-experience. To “see” Perfectly is to be
Awakened, beyond the gesture of self contraction, to the
Transcendental Divine Self-Condition In Which and As Which
the “True Heart-Master” always Stands before you, within
you, and As You.
If you will allow “hearing” and
“seeing” to be magnified, and if you will express them
through real conservative discipline of the body-mind and
real devotional discipline of attention, then Perfect
Awakening to the seventh stage practice can certainly be
Realized, by the Grace of the Mere Presence or Self
Existence of the Divine Person.
X. (left blank)
XI. (left blank)
XII.
Mind is “invocation”.
Mind “invokes” (or calls forth)
conditional experience and conditional knowledge, high and
low.
Mind “invokes” apparent modification
(and apparent modifications) of What “Merely” (or
inherently) Is.
Mind is the agent of
self-contraction, and conditional experience and conditional
knowledge are the results of mind.
Mind is the act of “invocation”, or
the search for modifications, and it evolves only from self
contraction itself.
Therefore, the transcendence of mind
is the transcendence of self-contraction, “invocation” (or
seeking), conditional experience, conditional knowledge, and
all apparent modification of What Is. And such transcendence
is the Way that I Teach.
Beyond the Body
Both the Process of “self-enquiry”
(and “re-cognition”) and the Process of “True Prayer”
address and release (or feel beyond) contractions of the
body-mind, but the body-mind itself (or, more exactly, the
Spirit-Current in the context of the body-mind) is the
conditionally “given” or “naturally” presumed point of view
of either Process, until practice begins in the context of
the sixth stage of life (and thus from the “Point Of View”
of the “Witness-Consciousness”).
The Process of “Feeling-Enquiry”
also addresses and releases (or feels beyond) contractions
of the body-mind, but the “Point Of View” of the Process is
the “Witness Consciousness”.
Even the Process of “Self-Abiding
Recognition” apparently addresses and releases (or feels
beyond) contractions of the body-mind, but the “Point Of
View” of that Great Process is the Always Already Given and
Inherently Realized “Position” of Self-Radiant
Transcendental Divine Being (or Consciousness
itself).
Therefore, the Ultimate (or seventh
stage) Process of the Way that I Teach does not address or
release or feel beyond contractions of the body-mind by
first assuming (or presuming) either the point of view of
the body-mind itself or the point of view of the
“Witness-Consciousness”.
Rather, the Ultimate Process indeed
addresses and releases (or feels beyond) whatever arises
apparently (or conditionally), but whatever apparently
arises is Inherently “Recognized” (an Inherently
Transcended) as a transparent (or merely apparent and
non-binding) modification of Self Radiant Consciousness
Itself. And such “Recognition” can take place only from the
“Point Of View” of Consciousness Itself.
Transcendental Divine “Recognition”
is the same as Transcendental Divine Self Abiding (or
Abiding As What Is Inherently, Always Already Prior to self
contraction or apparent modification). To “Recognize” what
apparently arises is simply, or “Merely”, to Be Self Radiant
Consciousness itself, or “Love-Ananda” (Which Is Inherent
Love-Bliss, or Happiness’ Itself).
XIII.
The feeling of relatedness
spontaneously and constantly communicates itself as the
complex feeling of separateness (or dark and deprived
independence of being, or aloneness, and craving for an
“other”), limitation (or small and threatened and inadequate
being), and emptiness (or un-Happy futility of being,
craving for any “thing” that fills). The feeling of
relatedness (or any instant of attention) is self
contraction itself, at its original or “causal”
level.
When I am “heard” and “seen” most
fully, the Process of “real practice” becomes the discipline
of immediate and direct transcendence of attention itself
(via this conditional “feeling” of relatedness) in the
Spiritual, Transcendental, Divine, and Inherent Feeling of
Being (the “Aham Sphurana”, or the Spirit-Current in the
right side of the heart). And this Process fulfills itself
in Perfect Awakening to the Spiritual, Transcendental,
Divine, and Inherent Condition That Is Consciousness Itself
(spontaneously “Recognizing” whatever apparently arises as a
condition related to Consciousness to Be Only Consciousness
Itself, Inherent or Self Existing Being Itself, or Inherent
Bliss itself).
Indeed, if you will “hear” and “see”
me at the heart, even now, the essence of self contraction
will be noticed (as the mindless, or thoughtless, imageless,
speechless, and soundless feeling of relatedness, at the
right side of the heart).
When this noticing becomes steady
and profound, “real practice” will spontaneously move beyond
all the distractions of attention in the “others” and
“objects” and “places” and “experiences” and apparent
“knowledge” associated with the first five stages of
life.
In this manner, practice will be
established in the “Witness-Consciousness” and in the
context of the sixth stage of life. In the maturity of that
transition, the unique discipline of attention will be the
immediate, always present, and persistent noticing (or deep
contemplation) and transcendence (in the right side of the
heart) of the “feeling’; of relatedness. And the
“re-cognition”, or otherwise stead contemplation and direct
transcendence, of the feeling of relatedness (in its Source,
Which is the inherent Feeling of Being, or Self Radiant and
Self Existing Consciousness Itself) soon becomes “Jnana
Samadhi”, or even “Sahaj Samadhi” (fully Awake As Awakeness
itself, even in the context of appearances).
Therefore, consider this: You are
active as self contraction, Indeed, you, as a conditional or
psycho-physical personality or} “I”, are the activity of
self-contraction.
The activity of self-contraction is
suffering, it is deluding, and it is itself an illusion, or
an illusory “disease”.
The activity of self contraction is
unnecessary. The activity, of self-contraction is not
Ultimately Real, but it is only; (apparently) being added to
Reality. The activity of self contraction is being
superimposed on What Always Already Is.
The activity of self-contraction is
dramatized in the “gross” bodily plane of experience as the
complex avoidance of relationship. It is dramatized in the
“subtle” plane of, experience as emotions and thoughts. It
is dramatized essentially (or at the original or “causal”
level) as attention itself. And the essence of attention
itself (in itself) is the root-feeling of relatedness.
Observe all of this.
“I”, or egoity, or self contraction,
or attention itself, is simply and originally the feeling of
relatedness. The cognition of “I”, or relatedness, is
self-contraction. The noticing of relatedness (or any
object) is self contraction (or separation). The
transcendence of “I” (or of self contraction) is not the j
avoidance of relationship, but it is the transcendence of
relatedness, or of separateness, or of self
contraction.
Therefore, transcend the separate
and separative “I”. Transcend self-contraction, Ultimately
and Finally, by transcending it directly, at its root.
Transcend egoity, or self-contraction, or attention itself,
at its essential root, as the feeling of relatedness, even
before it becomes the object seeking activity of
attention.
If you “hear” me and “see” me to
this degree, then meditate thus: Locate the Source of self
contraction via the feeling of relatedness. Do this moment
to moment, in formal meditation. Constantly Locate (or
Re-Locate) the feeling of relatedness. Do this via
“Feeling-Enquiry”, or “self enquiry”, or non-verbal
“re-cognition”, or one or another version of “True Prayer”.
Whichever form of this practice you choose, Locate the
feeling of relatedness and Stand Free at the Source. The
Source Is Freedom Itself. Therefore, Realization of the
Source is Realization of Freedom Itself.
The Source that is to be Located and
Realized is not an Objective Source. No object of attention,
however Great, is the Ultimate Source of attention. The
Source of the feeling of relatedness is not any relation of
that feeling (or any relation or object or activity of
attention), but It is That Which Simply (or Always Already)
Is, or That Which Is Obvious when the feeling of relatedness
(or attention, or self-contraction) is absent (or directly
transcended). Therefore, the “Immediate and Ultimate Source
of the feeling of relatedness is “Subjective” (or
“Subjectively” related to the feeling of relatedness, rather
than objectively related to it). The Immediate and Ultimate
Source of the feeling of relatedness (and, therefore, of
self-contraction, or attention itself) is Itself the Subject
(or Very Self) of that feeling. The Immediate and Ultimate
Source of the feeling of relatedness is the Transcendental
Subject, or Consciousness Itself, To Whom and In Whom and As
Whom the “feeling” is arising.
The Ultimate or “Subjective” Source
of whatever is “gross” (or physical) or “subtle” (or
emotional or mental) or “causal” (or egoic) Is What Is,
Always and Already, when or if the feeling of relatedness
does not arise (or even if it does arise).
What Is Is What Is when or if self
contraction is not added to What IS. That is not Finally or
Ultimately Realized by the motion of attention toward any
object (whether it is a lesser object or even a Great
Object). This is because attention is itself a form (even
the original form) of self contraction itself.
Realization of Reality is
Realization of What is prior to self contraction. Therefore,
“It” cannot be Realized by attention to any object, other,
or place (however Great). “It” can only be Realized As “It”
Is (or As That Which Obviously Is when there is no self
contraction). “It” Is That Which Is Obvious when the feeling
of relatedness is Released, or is simply not noticed, and is
thus transcended.
Consider this: What Is Behind the
feeling of relatedness? What Is “Subjective” to the feeling
of relatedness? What Is Always Already Standing As, or In
the Place of, the feeling of relatedness? Locate
That.
Feel, Locate, and Stand As the
Source of the thoughtless, imageless, and silent
heart-feeling of relatedness. Be That Source. Abide As That,
even “Recognizing” (As That) whatever arises apparently or
conditionally.
This meditation (or consideration)
is not a matter of Locating any object, other, state, or
place that stands in front of attention, or in front of the
feeling of relatedness. It is a matter of Locating What Is
There, In or At the Place of attention, or As That Which is
attention itself. What Is Always Already Standing There,
when attention (or the feeling of relatedness) does not
arise to the notice? “It” Is the Inherent Feeling of Being,
or Consciousness Itself. Therefore, when it is observed and
understood that the feeling of relatedness (which is the
root-essence of the body-mind and attention) is only self
contraction (and even the first form or root-form of all the
“gross”, “subtle”, and “causal” forms of self-contraction),
then let the feeling of relatedness be liberally Released in
the Inherent Feeling (or Great Heart-Feeling) of
Being.
Simply by deep inspection or steady
contemplation of the feeling of relatedness, it dissolves
(or re-solves) in the inherent or Prior Feeling of Being, or
the Great Heart-Feeling In Which it is arising. In that
Event, only the Inherent Happiness of Consciousness Itself
Stands Free and Still As the Obvious Reality. Thus, It
Becomes Obvious: There Is Only Consciousness Itself, and
Consciousness Itself Is God, Reality, Truth, and Happiness
Therefore, Realization of Consciousness Itself Is
Realization of God, Reality, Truth, and
Happiness!
XIV.
Consider this:
“I” is the body-mind.
The body-mind is a product of Cosmic
elemental forces.
The body-mind is constantly
dependent on those forces, and yet it is separated from them
by its own independence or individuality.
Consequently, the body-mind is
constantly related to (and yet contracted from) the same
elemental forces of which it is itself made, and of which
all other forms or products of elemental forces are
made.
Indeed, the body-mind is always
related to and yet separated from (or in tension with) all
elemental (or Cosmic) forces and their forms or
products.
The body-mind is “I”, or attention,
or self contraction, or the feeling of
relatedness.
Because this is so, the mature
practitioner of the Way that I Teach should
constantly return to (or Always
Already Abide At)
the Place Where he or she
Stands.
That is to say,
one should constantly
return
from the field
in which one wanders, or,
better still,
there should be
no wandering.
(And attention is the
wanderer,
expressed as
the body-mind,
or will
and desire,
in relation to
all kinds
of Cosmic,
or elemental,
objects,
relations,
and states.)
The mature practitioner
should
constantly allow attention (and its
objects, including every aspect of the body-mind)
to
subside, or
be at rest,
in the bodiless and
mindless, or
thoughtless,
imageless,
speechless,
soundless, and
heart-silent,
feeling of relatedness.
If this feeling of relatedness
is
simply or
merely and
steadily
contemplated (or fully
felt),
both the feeling and
the contemplation
will dissolve
spontaneously (like a mirage of
water, when it is approached and inspected).
In that instant of
dissolution,
the “pond of Narcissus”
disappears (with its illusions of
self),
and What Remains
Is the “Gaze in the Heart”,
or
the Feeling of Being,
the “Aham Sphurana”, or
the Form That Is
Consciousness Itself.
Therefore,
merely to contemplate
steadily (and thus to dissolve or
directly transcend, and even cease to notice)
the feeling of
relatedness
is to Be,
Free of the arising of
attention
in and to
the forms and
relations
of mind and body.
This is because
the feeling of
relatedness
is itself
the contraction
that precedes (or is the essence and
background of)
attention,
mind,
body, and
their objects
or relations.
To steadily contemplate
the feeling of
relatedness
(and, spontaneously,
to Feel and
Be the Condition
That Is Prior to it)
is to Stand
(or Be)
Where neither
attention,
nor mind,
nor body,
nor any objects,
others,
places,
or conditional state
arise.
Therefore,
do not seek
any object of attention.
Do not seek.
Do not casually “wander”
as attention,
or via attention.
Do not identify with
attention,
for it is
the self contractions
itself,
and it is
inherently
and always
moved
toward object,
others,
and conditional states.
To Release attention
(or Be, Released from it)
it is only necessary
to Stand Prior to it.
To Stand Prior to
attention,
it is only necessary
to steadily observe
and contemplate
and “re-cognize
and transcend
the essence of attention,
which is the simple,
thoughtless
heart-feeling of
relatedness
that is naturally
associated
with the right side of the
heart.
When this has become stably
clear
and obvious to you
(through real practice in the stages
of the “Yoga of Consideration”),
such that
you have no other
or contrary motives
(or binding attachments
to the psycho-physical point of
view
(characteristic of the first five
stages of life),
then meditate thus:
Constantly submit
to feel
(rather than put attention on the
thoughtless feeling of relatedness).
Do this moment to moment,
rather than
follow attention itself.
In every moment
of this natural and
easeful
feeling-contemplation,
“re-cognize”
the feeling of relatedness
as
self-contraction,
or simply feel
into (and, spontaneously,
beyond)
the heart-feeling of
relatedness,
and thus Feel
That In Which
the feeling of
relatedness
is arising
(or in Which
or Of Which
the feeling of
relatedness
is a contraction).
What Is That
In Which the thoughtless
feeling of relatedness
is arising?
What Is
That In Which or
Of Which
thoughtless feeling
of relatedness
is an apparent
contraction?
Feel,
Locate, and
Be
That,
Until
It Gracefully
Reveals
Its Own Nature,
Status, and
Inherent Bliss,
even to the degree
that apparently arising
conditions
are Always Already
“Recognizable”
In and As That.
Consciousness Itself
Prior to
(or Free of)
all apparent
modifications
(“gross”, “subtle”, and
“causal”)
is “Love-Ananda”
(Inherent “Love-Bliss”,
or Self Existing
Happiness).
If any apparent modification
arises,
the Self-Existing Being,
or Consciousness Itself,
or Happiness Itself,
is apparently diminished,
or limited
and reduced
to the quality
of that “gross”,
“subtle”, or
“causal” modification.
Therefore,
Be Free
of all modifications.
Stand Free and
Be Free
of identification
with the body,
the mind,
the total body-mind,
and all the worlds
of the apparent relations
of these illusory
or merely apparent
versions of conditional,
or limited
and temporary,
selfhood.
Stand
and Be Free
As the One
(or the Transcendental Divine
Condition)
Who is merely
“Witnessing”
and Who is apparently
modified
by
or as
all
that arises
conditionally.
Even When You Have
Realized
(and Are Awake As)
That Very
and Self Radiant
Consciousness,
simply allow
all apparent conditions
to arise
and pass
as they will,
but
(rather than cling to
or follow what arises)
simply and
spontaneously
“Recognize”
whatever arises.
In this manner,
let all apparent
conditions
be Felt
As Is,
or Felt
Beyond,
as if they are,
all together,
like a shawl of gauze,
or an insubstantial
vapor,
transparent
to the inherent
Self-Light.
Do This,
and all this
conditional seeming
will be “Transfigured,”
“Transformed”, and,
finally,
“Outshined”
in the Self-Radiant and
Unqualified Feeling of
Being,
or Absolute Consciousness
Itself.
XV
“Hear” Me and “See” Me.
Always Feel, Breathe, Love, Trust,
Have Faith In, Surrender To, and Inherently Identify With
The Divine Person and The “Ishta-Guru” (or The “True
Heart-Master”), Both As Your Very Self, or Consciousness
Itself, and As The Conscious Energy or Self-Radiant Person
Who Lives and Breathes and Is Your apparent body-mind, all
apparently other beings, and all apparent worlds.
Allow The Divine Person and The
“Ishta-Guru” To Stand As all that arises and Thus To Stand
Even As Your Own bodymind (Within it, As it, and In
Relationship To it). If You Allow This With Love, Faith,
Devotion, and No Withholding, The Entire Process Associated
With Realization and Liberation Will Be Given To You,
Spontaneously and Exactly.
All You Need To Do Is Respond and
Cooperate. Give Your “self” To The One Who Is Always Already
Realized and Liberated. Respond To That One Heartily. Then
The Very State Of That One Will Be Realized By You, Quite
Naturally, As A Gift. This Is The “Secret” Of The Way That I
Teach.
At Last You Will “See” The
“Ishta-Guru” (The Very Form Of The “True Heart-Master”) As
“Atma-Murti” (The Image Of Inherent Happiness, or The Very
Form Of Consciousness Itself), and You Will Thus Transcend
The Illusion Of separation and relatedness.
May all beings Be Blessed To “Hear”
and “See” and “Practice” In The Free Radiance Of This True
Heart.
May all those who Suffer The Bondage
Of attention Be Released, Even Now, By The Power Of My
Contemplation.
Let The Power Released Through My
Realization Of The Truth Be Sufficient For The Liberation Of
all beings. Let It Be So.