SELF-KNOWLEDGE
(An Eighth-Century text by Adi Shankara)
"I
am composing this treatise on Self-Knowledge
for
those who are purified and peaceful,
calm
of mind, free of craving,
and
desirous of Liberation." (1)
THE JOY IS NOT IN
THE OBJECT
The business of life is the business of
happiness. Because we feel limited with
respect to happiness, everyone every minute is fully engaged trying to attain
greater happiness. When I take a job,
fall in love, read a book, eat a meal, go to the dentist, pray or meditate, I
expect the activity and/or its results to make me feel better than I do at the
moment. No matter how good I feel I can
always imagine a state of greater happiness.
If I’m feeling miserable, my actions will be calculated to remove or
lessen the misery, a situation I view as an increase in happiness. When a better state is inconceivable, I
refrain from activities that might compromise it. An investigation of the world’s tropical
beaches reveals countless people, flat on their backs, content as clams, not
moving a muscle.
Everything we do is for the sake of
happiness. Some accumulate money, not
necessarily for itself, but for the happiness it supposedly brings. Others seek happiness in life-threatening
sports which produce a "high," an aliveness beyond the
"normal" state. We ingest
chemicals, pills, drink, and drugs to change our state of mind for the
better. Belief in God is never intended
to make one miserable. Nobody gets
married to suffer.
At first glance activities seem to
produce happiness. I jog, garden,
meditate, or ski and feel happy. But if
happiness were in an activity the activity should produce happiness for anyone
performing it. Giving away millions
makes philanthropists happy. Letting go
of a dime is anathema to a miser. A
granny who knits for fun will not take pleasure in bungee jumping.
Can happiness be achieved getting and
possessing certain objects? A man
divorces his wife because she seems the cause of his misery but before the ink
is dry on the divorce decree she finds herself in the arms of another - who
sees her as his darling bundle of joy. A
steak makes a carnivore happy, a vegetarian unhappy. In spite of this fact we work overtime to get
happiness through objects and activities.
Some try to attain happiness through the
mind. Poets, writers, artists, and
intellectuals find happiness playing with thoughts and ideas, feelings and
emotions. Professionals subject their
minds to years of discipline with the conviction that intense and sustained
happiness can be found in knowledge.
An tiny minority, "spiritual"
questers, try to find happiness by disciplining themselves in prayer,
meditation, chanting, breathing, or "processing" to achieve altered
or "high" states of consciousness.
The psychological world believes
happiness can be attained by removing psychological barriers: disturbing
experiences and memories, self-limiting concepts, and unforgiving thoughts
lodged in the subconscious mind.
LIMITATION OF OBJECT HAPPINESS
Both approaches, the physical and the
psychological, share the belief that through self-effort certain objective
and/or subjective factors inhibiting happiness can be changed, resulting in
greater happiness. Conventional wisdom
supports this view and, to be fair, the kernel of truth it contains probably
accounts for the universal attempt to get happiness by changing objective and
subjective factors.
Why do we feel happy when we achieve a
goal or obtain a desired object?
According to spiritual science all human activities are motivated by a
separation from our natural state of happiness, a separation that gives rise to
two apparently contradictory instincts, Fear and Desire, both of which
extrovert and disturb the mind, producing many positive and negative
emotions. Beneath every desire a fear
lurks, behind every fear a desire. If I
don't get what I want I'll be unhappy.
Avoiding what I don't want makes me happy. So the fear of unhappiness is just the desire
for happiness. These two forces,
attraction and repulsion, attachment and aversion, likes and dislikes affect every
aspect of our lives.
The myriad fears and desires playing in
the mind, both subtle and gross, stem from a deeper need - the need to be free of fear and desire - the need to be fulfilled
or happy. When I say I want a new car or
a new lover I don't actually want the object.
I want the happiness apparently tied up with it.
REMOVING THE WALL
If
happiness or unhappiness doesn't come from objects, it has to be coming from
me.
If true, why does it seem to come from
objects?
Because the attainment of desired
objects or the avoidance of feared objects temporarily removes the wall of fear
and desire separating us from the Self, the source of happiness. When the dam bursts our lives are flooded
with happiness, from the ecstasy of love to the satisfaction in a cup of
coffee.
At the time of the removal of a fear or
desire the mind associates the happiness with the object, rather than with the
removal of the subjective limitation.
That human beings are universally attached to and frightened of objects,
physical, emotional, and intellectual confirms this poorly-appreciated truth.
Almost everyone at one time or another
believes happiness comes from giving and\or receiving love. As long as the love object gives and\or
receives according to the subject's special needs, everything is fine, but as
soon as the object stops cooperating the love dries up, at which point the
removal of the object is thought to make us happy. Why does the love dry up? Because the idea that it was coming from the
object acted like a switch in the mind which erected a wall between the mind
and the Self, effectively cutting off contact with one’s own unlimited
reservoir of love.
That switch, the belief that the joy is
in the object, can as well pull down the wall.
For example, loneliness often causes us fantasize about an ideal someone
who we wish would come into our lives and remove our unhappiness. When reality presents an approximation of our
fantasy, the dam holding our own limitless inner ocean of love breaks and love
wildly cascades into the mind, giving the experience of happiness. Because the process is unconscious and takes
place instantaneously the love seems to be coming from the object, or an
interaction with the object - but the object is only a catalyst, a trigger,
that activates the inner switch.
Let’s argue that since everyone's
innermost nature is happiness/love the joy is
in the object, in this case people. It
is, but since people invariably impose conditions on their love we can't count
on another’s love to make us happy. To
avoid this trap I should understand that though love is one, I can only count
on it when I’ve realized it's my nature.
To do that I must sacrifice the
fears and desires separating me from my own happiness/love. For example, people feel happy in deep sleep
because objective and subjective limitations, mental and emotional activity,
are absent.
OBJECT[1]
HAPPINESS NOT PERMANENT
If you can’t accept that happiness and
unhappiness aren’t inherent in objects, I think you’ll agree that
object-related happiness is impermanent.
If permanent happiness were attainable from objects the desire to have
the same or another object would never arise.
Conversely, were permanent happiness attainable by the removal of an
object (remember, this includes states of mind, bad feelings about oneself or
the world, for example) we would never have to remove that object again. But experience shows that desire for and fear of objects continue,
often increase, with their possession, enjoyment and renunciation. I may want more of what I want, less of it,
or something else altogether. One day I
may even crave something that previously made me miserable. The satisfaction of my desires and the removal
of my fears does not leave me permanently happy. For example, people who have associated
happiness with a certain object, say a drug or alcohol-induced state of mind,
try to achieve that state over and over, until it no longer yields
pleasure. Nobody was ever permanently
satisfied by a successful sexual encounter - or any other apparently
happiness-producing object. In fact
happiness-bringing objects often suddenly become unhappiness bringing objects.
The confusion about the nature of
happiness and unhappiness with reference to objects suggests that the question
of happiness and unhappiness must be
centered on me, the subject.
Am I whole and complete and therefore
immune to the pull of objects, or am I an incomplete being, one desperately in
need of things to complete me? Having
eliminated objects as the source, a confusion still exists about my nature,
prompting further analysis. When I think
about it I can see that sometimes I'm happy and sometimes unhappy. After careful consideration I can confidently
conclude that happiness is natural to me because when I experience it I always
cling to it. And when I’m unhappy the
reverse is true: I try feverishly to rid myself of it.
Therefore, if I'm happy by nature, don't
consistently experience happiness, and know it doesn't come from objects and
activities, how would I attain it?
Vedantic texts like Atma Bodh are
addressed to those who are convinced that objects and activities will not bring
lasting happiness. This conviction leads
to a state of mind, referred to above as “ peaceful and free of craving,” (for
objects) from which an inquiry into the nature of the Self can be
conducted. Without an inquiry the riddle
of one’s true identity will not be solved.
Another of Shankara’s texts, Vivekachoodamani, The Crest Jewell of
Discrimination, provides a detailed list describing the qualities and
qualifications that ensure success in Self Realization, the first of which,
discrimination,[2]
is defined as “a firm conviction that the Self alone is real and that the
phenomenal world is unreal.”[3] For “phenomenal world” read “objects. ” Objects are pursued precisely because they’re
thought to be real. The self-confidence
and self-esteem arising from the ability to separate the joy from the object is
the cornerstone of a qualified seeker’s psychology.
Discrimination leads to dispassion,[4]
“the desire to give up momentary enjoyments” a quality expressing as a healthy
feeling of indifference to the triviality and impermanence of existence. Not a cold uncaring state as one might
suppose, it is a feeling of spaciousness that insulates the mind from the
little pinpricks of life and enables one to confront tragedies with equanimity.[5] Because curiosity is its hallmark, the
dispassionate mind encourages the seeker to ask pertinent existential questions
and set out patiently in search of answers.
Dispassion inclines the mind toward an ironical, objective and humorous
view of oneself and others.
Combined with discrimination, dispassion
makes it possible for the seeker to cultivate the powers that ensure a quiet
mind, one in which the knowledge “I am whole and complete actionless Awareness”
can stick. These powers are described
as: (1) shama, “the peaceful state
achieved when the mind has detached from the sense objects after a careful
consideration of their defects; (2) dama,
“returning the active and perceptive organs to their respective (subtle-body)
centers; (3) Uparati, “a condition in
which the mind is free of the thought of external objects; and (4) samadhana (tranquillity), a state, not
gained through thinking, when the mind is constantly engaged in absorbed
contemplation of the Self.”[6]
But a discriminating, dispassionate,
quiet mind is not enough. Shankar
says, “That by which one understands the
inner meaning of scripture as well as the words of the preceptor is called
faith[7] by
the wise. By this alone does reality
become clear.”
Nor is a discriminating, dispassionate,
quiet, believing mind enough. To
successfully tread the path of Self knowledge two additional qualifications are
noted. The first, the impatient and
burning desire to release oneself from ignorance by realizing the Self,[8]
provides the motivation to carry the seeker through the many difficulties
encountered on the path. And secondly,
Shankara says “Among the instruments and conditions necessary for liberation,
devotion is supreme. A constant attempt
to inquire into the Self and live up to one’s own real nature is called bhakti, single-pointed devotion.”
When these and other qualities like
patience and determination are in full flower one is said to be capable of
scaling the sacred heights of Self-Realization.
"Just as chopping wood is the indirect cause
and fire the direct
cause of cooking,
spiritual practice is the indirect cause
and Self-knowledge
the direct cause of liberation."
(2)
Having concluded that happiness is not in
objects, that it’s the nature of the Self, I’m free to do nothing. After all, I’m it. What can I do to get me? I am me.
Unfortunately I cannot just accept
myself as a complete being. The message
has yet to sink into the subconscious - which is conditioned to action. It wants me to believe that I need to “get”
enlightened. And so I accept the
challenge and resolve to work on my self.
I take up religion, therapy or spiritual practice, whatever that means
to me. I change my diet, read scripture,
go to church, finance the New Age, pray and meditate.
But the resolution to change doesn’t
destroy the compulsion to act egoically.
I may not be chasing the objects any more but they continue to chase
me. People with addictions struggle to
break them, often resolving to quit once and for all, but within minutes of the
vow, the floodgates open sweeping away big rocklike resolutions as if they were
tiny grains of sand.
Nor does the resolution to change free
one of ego. In fact, not only does the
ego make the resolution, but in so far as it takes up spiritual practice
without changing its attitude toward the way it lives, it only saddles itself
with new expectations that reinforce its sense of limitation.
And finally since the actor, the ego, is
limited, the results are also limited.
An endless number of limited results does not add up to an unlimited
result - uncaused joy or limitless freedom i.e. the Self.
Spiritual practice is superior to
unexamined worldly activity in delivering limited happiness, however, because
it slowly breaks down the wall of fear and desire separating us from the Self.[9] Done in the right spirit,[10]
it cleans the Unconscious and neutralizes the negative states of mind that make
life unbearable and the Self unrecognizable.
Actions
don’t do themselves. In fact, action is
done egolessly by the Self, but the ego thinks it’s the author. Allowing the ego to believe spiritual
practice is the direct cause of liberation is inviting the fox to tend the
chicken coop. The purpose of practice is
to empty the Unconscious and create a clear conscious mind so Self knowledge
can destroy the ego’s limiting “I am a doer/enjoyer” idea.
The spiritual practice business may seem
a cruel catch 22. If action won’t free
me then I’ll drop out and wait for “Grace” or the miraculous touch of a
guru. But I can't get free unless my
mind is purified and peaceful. And the
only way to achieve a quiet mind is to roll up my sleeves and get to work.
In fact it's not a catch 22. Spiritual practice simply creates the
conditions that contribute to the feast, but doesn't "cook the
food." The knowledge arising from
direct experience of oneself as a non-dual limitless being is the fire
necessary for a proper meal, meaning a blissful life free of pain and
ignorance. Hard work, spiritual or
otherwise, by well-intentioned egos will not produce Realization. Why?
Because...
"Action cannot remove ignorance
for they are not
opposed.
Self-Knowledge
removes it
as light removes
darkness."
(3)
Ignorance means (1) not knowing that I am a
complete, limitless, blissful being and (2) thinking of oneself as incomplete,
limited, and inadequate. Ignorance
causes me to chase objects or perform actions I believe will complete me. Even spiritual activities won’t complete me
because they are also motivated by ignorance.
No matter what I do, I can’t get
something I already have. One day a man
asked God for a head on this shoulders. God
thought about it and said, “In spite of the fact that I’m omnipotent I’m afraid
you’ll have to ask for something else. I
can give you another fatter head, an additional brainless head on top of the
present one, or ten tiny pointed heads facing in different directions. But I’m afraid I can’t give what you already
have.”
Doing or non-doing won't wipe out
ignorance because the Self is not an attainable object. Action, no matter how enthusiastic and
well-intentioned, will not produce something one already has. Nothing can be done because the
"object" is you. Only
knowledge will reveal it.
SELF NOT KNOWN THROUGH (MOST) MEDIA
Though the Self cannot be accurately
described, It can be known because It is us.
Always present and accounted for, the Self is the most intimate and
essential component of every experience.
However, we don’t know It the way we know an idea, emotion, or sense
object, aspects of outer reality known through media. Sounds, for example, require ears. Information, stimuli, pass through the ears,
enter the hearing center in the mind, and are interpreted by the mind according
to past experience. Whatever knowledge
we have is dependent on the means through which it comes.
But the Self cannot be objectified so it
cannot be known through media. Anyone
can read scripture and claim Self knowledge but their knowledge of the Self
would be inferential, conditioned by how the intellect interpreted certain
words. If the knowledge of the Self
isn't mediate, intellectual knowledge what kind is it?
EXPERIENCE VERSUS KNOWLEDGE
Some claim enlightenment can't be
experienced, others that it can. If
enlightenment is described as an experience, a transaction between subject and
object, it is a peculiar kind of experience.
Ordinary experience is a straightforward interaction between a human
being and the world. If the mind,
consciousness with a small "c," the subject, is a gross and limited
transformation of Pure Consciousness, how will it fully know or experience Pure
Consciousness, the Self in its unlimited form?[11] Just as the senses can't experience the mind,
nor the material world the senses, so the mind/ego entity can't “experience”
the Self.
According to spiritual science
everything is Consciousness, even the material world, an effect of which
Consciousness is the cause. But as
Consciousness involves itself with itself as matter, its "light"
apparently gets absorbed into the object and, on the physical level at least,
stops shining. For example, even though
light reflecting off my body falls equally on a mirror and the black wall on
which it hangs, I will only see myself in the mirror. It also gets absorbed into a mind clouded
with emotion and thought, making it unexperiencable for all intents and purposes. It can, however, be “experienced” in a pure
mind.
The non-experience school claims the
Self is the “light” illumining all experiences.
Humans, they say, are two-tiered: existing on one level as a subject
interacting with objects, which necessarily means experience, and on another as
Consciousness, the "Light" that illumines the subject's
experiences. So in scriptural literature
you will find definitions of the Self as transcendent, beyond, uninvolved, and
unattached to anything, living in its own hermetically sealed world, the shining
world of knowledge, unaware of anything other than itself or, as the witness to
outer events.
Many in the spiritual world, unaware of
this fact, incorrectly believe the ego will experience enlightenment like it
experiences everything else. So to save
them the grief of trying to "get" a mind-blowing cosmic enlightenment
experience, the knowledge people point out that enlightenment is not that type
of experience. Mind-blowing blissful
cosmic experiences, which come by the grace of God, not individual effort, are
simply mind-blowing blissful cosmic experiences, reportable only because they
are observed by the Self which as disinterestedly watches non mind-blowing
unhappy mundane experiences.
That experience doesn't always lead to
true knowledge is another dimension in the "experience vs. knowledge"
debate. For example, from the point of
view of a person standing on the equator the sun seems to rise in the east and
set in the west, but at certain times of the year the same person can stand on
the North Pole and experience the sun going around in a circle. Which is true? Knowledge has it that though apparently
rising and setting, with reference to the earth the sun is stationary and the
earth turns. Similarly, if the Self is
experienced in one way at one time, as a blazing light without circumference,
for example, at another as a cosmic vibration, which is true? Neither.
Knowledge has it that the Self is the Awareness that illumines both
experiences.[12]
Another example of the contradictory
nature of experience, psychic fact, is that sometimes we experience ourselves
as miserable suffering creatures and sometimes as radiantly happy beings. Which is true? Again, knowledge has it that we are miserable
suffering creatures when identified with ego and happy adequate beings when
identified with the Self. Still,
experience can't be discounted because the experience of oneself as a complete
happy being is true and corresponds to scripture,[13]
even though it’s contradicted by another more common experience.
Finally, the non-experience of
enlightenment has tremendous implications in terms of experience. If the knowledge/experience of the Self
didn't change experience what would be the point of seeking it? The way the Self realized experience the
world is radically different from those whose experience is projected by the samskaras.[14] Or, more accurately, the Self realized enjoy
a completely different relationship to samskara-projected
experience[15]
than those who don’t know themselves to be the Self. Precisely because a limited and painful
experience of life becomes unlimited and joyful upon knowledge/experience of
the Self do so many seek it.
The purpose of this discussion is not to
weigh in on one side or the other of a weighty spiritual argument, but to show
that when talking about the Self, we should have an acute appreciation of the
limitation of concepts born solely of experience. And, secondly, because concepts are
necessary, we should have concepts that are as close to the truth as
possible. Otherwise, false concepts
about the nature of the Self, its bodies, and states may deny our inquiry its
fruit.
The spiritual world is chock full of
undiscriminating seekers who have formed irrational concepts about the Self on
the basis of personal experience, uninformed interpretation of scripture, and
the words of enlightened or so-called enlightened beings. Without comprehensive and accurate knowledge,
Self realization, except in occasional cases, is impossible. In
fact Self realization is rare precisely because the Self, which is the nature
of everyone, is thought to be a unique experience.
One day a man called his servant saying,
"Here's a shovel and bucket. Go to
the cellar and empty out all the darkness." The servant did as instructed returning
several hours later to report that though he had removed hundreds of bucketsful
the room was still dark. "So,"
said the master, "any ideas?"
"Well," replied the servant,
"why don't I just turn on the light?"
"The Self seems limited because of ignorance.
Destroy ignorance and the limitless Self is revealed,
like the sun when clouds pass away."
(4)
The belief in my insignificance comes
because I take the body-mind-sense complex to be me. I look around and see how small I am compared
to the vast and complex world surrounding me.
I see six billion other bodies and know I'm a dispensable nobody. My planet, like my solar system, is a
fly speck, a meaningless living oddity
in an apparently dead cosmos, my modest life span a trillionth of a nanosecond
on the cosmic clock. Nothing remains the
same; everything rushes headlong into the jaws of death. Without so much as a by your leave, a tiny
virus can destroy my life. Is it any
wonder I see myself as limited?
Yet some part refuses to accept
limitation. As I travel along my path
struggling to distinguish myself at peak moments the clouds part, the sun
shines through, and my inner voice thunders, “You are adequate, limitless, and
whole. You are pure love.”
Something tells me this knowledge should
last forever.
My friends and family don't understand,
my explanations fall on deaf ears.
Undeterred, I start to meditate.
One day in the stillness all boundaries dissolve and I again know
freedom. I see radiance behind the eyes
of people on the street and hear the universal sound everywhere.
And when the experience fades, the
memory, a sacred object in my mind, keeps me striving to become something I
already know I am.
How
absurd! When I see the wind blowing away
the clouds obscuring the sun, I can't wait for an inner wind to blow away the
misconceptions keeping me in ignorance.
But is there such a wind? It
seems conscious effort is required. This
effort is constant practice of knowledge.
Constant practice of knowledge
neutralizes ignorance
as a
base neutralizes an acid,
purifying the individual self.
(5)
The individual self is the
body-mind-intellect-ego entity, the person we’ve been led to believe is
"us." We’re certain this
entity is real but it is little more than a reflection caused when
Consciousness[16]
shines on the bundle of experience-impressions[17]
making up our minds. If our experiences
have been predominately positive the mind will be peaceful and we’ll think of
ourselves as happy people; if our experiences have been positive and negative
in equal measure we’re likely to have a confused view of ourselves. If we’ve experienced wounding, betrayal, and
abandonment, the mind will be wounded, resentful, and despairing and we’ll see
ourselves as miserable beings. The
‘stains of ignorance” are the mental and emotional residue that arise out of
an identification with the mind, the
past. To experience and consequently know
our true, immediate, self-evident nature, the mirror of the mind should be
clean and undistorted.
To purify the mind we need to become
mindful of Self ignorance by watching our thoughts, monitoring our feelings,
and observing our speech. After examining
a particular misconception discard it as “not Self.” The verse calls for “constant” practice of
knowledge because Self ignorance
continually manifests in our consciousness as the four following
limiting concepts, major limbs on the tree of non-apprehension from which
myriad minor branches grow.
These self-limiting concepts, referred
to as “not Self” are:
I AM THE BODY[18]
Our most pervasive and severely limiting
concept is "I am the body," the source of much grief - the immense
fear of disease, old age and death, for example. Why am I not the body?
First, because it is perceivable, an object of my awareness. I see or feel it, therefore it is other than
me. The Self is the perceiver.
Second, because it is insentient. If I were
the body the body would know me just as I know it, but the body has no idea who
I am. The Self is eternally sentient.
Third, because it is limited and not
constantly present. If I'm the body,
why don't I exist in the dream and deep sleep state? I do, in fact, exist in those states - but
not as a physical body. Even in the
dream state where I may have a body, the dream body is not the same as the
waking state body. If I’m the two
bodies, there are two “me’s,” an obvious impossibility. In deep sleep I have neither a gross waking
nor a subtle dream body. Therefore the
body isn’t me. The Self is unlimited and
omnipresent.
Forth, because it changes. The Self is
immutable.
Fifth, because the body has a shape. The
Self is formless being.
Sixth, because the body depends on its constituent parts and the elements.
The Self is partless and self-dependent.
I AM THE MIND[19]
At a dinner party the hostess looked down
her nose at one of her guests who was, in her opinion, unsuitably attired. The husband, noticing that his wife was
miffed, solicitously inquired,
"What's the matter dear?"
"She hurt me," sniffed the
wife.
The statement "She hurt me"
indicates a confusion of the "me," the Self with mind, the emotional
function.
We aren’t our feelings and emotions for
the same reasons we aren’t the body.
I AM THE INTELLECT
The third pernicious layer of ignorance is
our identification with ideas, thoughts, and ideals. "I'm a doctor, lawyer, communist,
capitalist, Christian, Republican, mother, father, gay, black, lesbian,
beautiful, ugly, rich, poor, intelligent, stupid etc. are spiritually incorrect
statements. The "I" is the
Awareness in whose light all ideas are known.
The intellect is not the Self for the reasons listed above.
I AM
THE EGO
Two technical Vedantic words, jiva and ahamkara refer to different but related ego ideas. A jiva[20]
or ego is the Self embodied, a living being. Plants and animals, insects and microbes, as
well as humans are embodied beings. This
definition says nothing about the views of these egos, what they think about
themselves or the world, or how the behave.
These embodied beings, you and I, are variously conceived of as “rays”
or “emanations” of nameless formless Consciousness, “man cast in the image of
God.” The jivas are apparently separate from
Consciousness. Just as a wave is the
ocean in a limited form, the jivas are
said to be embodied Consciousness.
Though actually the one Self they seem to be different entities owing to
their association with many bodies.
Ahamkara is a
compound. Aham means “I” and kara means
a notion or idea. So ahamkara is the notion or idea a jiva has about itself. Egos who have no notion they’re one with the
Self have a plethora of ideas about themselves.
This more reasonable and helpful definition sees ego not as an
inherently flawed person but as a perfect being temporarily flawed by an
incorrect self-concept - the idea that it is separate from the world, from other
beings, and from the Self.[21]
The
ego is not the Self because it lives and dies, is a object of perception,
subject to change, and limited.
The knowledge of who I am not is only
useful until I wake up whereupon it dissolves into the limitlessness of my
re-discovered identity.
"The
world like a dream
full
of attachments and aversions
seems
real until the awakening."
(6)
We all believe the desires, feelings,
emotions, thoughts, ideas, fears, intuitions, opinions, memories, etc.
constantly playing in our minds are real.
Though temporarily existent, they are not ultimately real, i.e.
substantial and enduring. Reality, the
Self, exists in all periods of time, past, present, and future, before the past
and after the future, and in all states of consciousness, waking, dream, and
deep sleep and beyond. Reality, unlike
everything we know, doesn't depend on anything else for its existence nor can it
be resolved into anything else.
The inner phenomena projected on the
screen of Consciousness as our personal worlds are only a flow of tendencies
and short-lived subjective events devoid of lasting meaning - like a
dream. In a dream everything seems real
to the dreamer. Someone kisses me and I
feel love. One of my thoughts in the
form of an angry beast bites me and I feel pain. As soon as I wake up, however, I see that,
with reference to my present state, it was all unreal.
Self knowledge is waking up from the
belief that the waking, dream and deep sleep state “worlds” are real. “World” means field of experience, the
experiencing subject and the experienced objects. As revealed in the following analysis,[22]
that any or all of these worlds are considered reality is simply an opinion.
THE WAKER, DREAMER,
AND DEEP SLEEPER
As human beings we are not one, but three
experiencing entities. The first, the
waking state ego (See the bottom left
third of fig.1.) is Consciousness, the Self shining through the
body-mind-intellect bundle experiencing the world of material objects and the
world of feelings, emotions, thoughts, ideas, memories, etc.
Everyone primarily views him or herself
as a waker. When I say “me” in common
conversation, I am referring to myself as a waking state entity. The belief that I am a waker comes with the
conviction that the waking state physical, emotional, and intellectual objects
are real, enduring.
The waker’s consciousness is turned outward - the Self shining
through the senses, mind, intellect, illumining their respective objects. Idealistic metaphysics’ statement that no
world exists apart from the perceiver means the Self doesn’t see a world unless
It shines through the
THE WAKER, DREAMER, AND DEEP SLEEPER
|
fig.1 |
body,
mind or intellect, not that the physical world doesn’t exist. Though the material world exists
independently of the waker’s perceptions it doesn’t exist apart from
Consciousness, the Self.
The waker is a non-stop consumer. The Sanskrit literature describing the waker
calls it “the one with thirteen mouths:” the ten senses, mind, intellect, and
ego. The physical body consumes the five
elements in their various permutation combinations,[23]
the mind constantly chews emotion, the intellect eats ideas, and the ego
devours any experience it (incorrectly) believes will make it feel whole,
adequate, and happy.
The dreamer (lower right third of fig.1), Consciousness turned inward, enjoys a world similar in some respects to the
waking state world and radically different in others. In the dream state The Self illumines only
subtle objects. Subtle objects are
dreams, the samskaras, appearing in
the subtle body in pictorial form. Like
the waker, the dreamer believes he or she and his or her world is real, and is
equipped with dream senses to consume dream objects, a dream mind to emote and
feel, a dream intellect to think dream thoughts, and a dream ego to experience
the dream life. In the ancient texts the
dreamer is referred to as the “shining one”,[24] a
term indicating its nature as Consciousness.
Dreams appear bathed in light, even though the waking senses are
inactive, because the Self, Consciousness, shines through the dreamer, just as
it shines through the waker.
The sleeper is called pragna or mass of
consciousness. In waking and dream
states, consciousness flows either outward and inward but in sleep it looses
direction and becomes formless. The
sleeper ego is extremely subtle, its presence only known through inference:
when we return to the waking state we know we slept well, experienced the Self
as limitlessness/bliss. Since the Self
is the only other factor in the deep sleep state (there are no subtle or gross
objects) It has to be limitlessness/bliss, the object of the sleeper’s
extremely subtle ego.
The deep sleep state is free of the waking
and dream egos and objects because the samskaras
that projected them have become dormant, hence it is referred to as the “seed”
state. When the “seeds” sprout, one
becomes a waker or a dreamer and experiences the appropriate world
Experience contradicts the view that the
sleep state is a void. Sanskrit
literature refers to it as “the womb,” because our waking and dream worlds
emerge from it. When one wakes up in the
morning one’s whole life is neatly laid out, consistent with the past, to the
degree that we even remember the same language spoken the day before,
suggesting that previous experience had simply entered a dormant state.
These three states and egos are known to
everyone and constitute the totality of our experience. An interesting question posed by this
analysis is "Who am I?" If I'm
the waking ego, which I’ve been totally conditioned to think I am, what happens
to me when I become a sleeper? I’ve
quite willingly surrendered everything essential to my idea of myself (my body,
mind, intellect, and all my physical possessions) to turn into a mass of
consciousness and experience limitlessness.
If I’m the sleeper ego, the blissfully limitless
subtle being, then why do I sacrifice that status for all the limitations and
insecurities of the waking or dream worlds?
The dreamer identity is insufficient because I always sacrifice it to
become a waker or a sleeper. So my
status as any one ego or ego aspect is limited and my true identity open to
question.
IF I'M REAL, I HAVE
TO EXIST ALL THE TIME
The answer to "Who am I" is that
I am not any off these egos or ego states.
If I'm real, I have to exist all the time. I can't suddenly be one thing one minute and
something else the next. Irrespective of
my state, I experience life as a simple single complete conscious being because
I exist in the waking, dream, and deep sleep states independent of the waker,
dreamer and deep sleeper.
As what?
As the Self, the Awareness, witness to the
three states.[25] Outside of meditation, the Self is probably
easiest to recognize in the dream state because the physical senses are
inactive. The dream is playing on the
screen of the mind like a movie. Though
physical light is absent and the eyes closed, the dream ego and the dream
events are clearly illumined, a phenomenon referred to as “lucid”
dreaming. The lucidity is the Self
temporarily functioning as the dreamer, “the shining one.” However, identification with the dream ego
and its doings prevents us from properly appreciating the dream light, the
Self.
The Self is unknown in the waking state for
the same reason. Preoccupied with the
happenings in our worlds, we are unaware that the sense objects and our
thoughts and feelings are bathed in Awareness.
In deep sleep the waking and dream egos are
dissolved into their source, the dormant seeds of their past actions, so they
aren’t aware of anything external.
However, even though one doesn't exist as an externally or internally
conscious ego in the deep sleep state one can report a good sleep because a
very subtle ego remnant remains, permitting the experience of limitless and
bliss.[26]
Like
the appearance of silver in mother of pearl, the world
seems real until the Self, the underlying
reality, is realized.”
(7)
On seeing the non-dual
Self, the underlying reality, one wakes up from the dream of life.
Just as the
apparent quarter borrows its luster from the real brightness of the bottlecap,
the shiny and attractive world of the senses seems an independent
self-sustaining reality, but its attractiveness is borrowed from the Self,
luminous Consciousness. When the
bottlecap is seen for what it is, the quarter vanishes, because it's only in
the mind. In meditation and/or at
intense life interfaces, our personal view is often superseded by Self’s
causing our apparent reality and all its limitations to disappear.
"Like
waves in the ocean,
the worlds arise, live, and dissolve in
the Supreme Self, the substance
and cause of everything."
(8)
At times we’ve all looked at the inner and
outer worlds with wonder and awe. Their
beauty, like the beauty of this verse, is impossible to dismiss. Where do they come from? The author likens them to waves and the Self
to an ocean. The waves are nothing but
the ocean, though seemingly separate entities.
According to Vedanta the whole material universe is merely a finite wave
in Consciousness. Out of Consciousness
it emerges, sustains itself for a few trillion years and subsides back into
It. Though it appears solid because we
are perceiving it through material instruments, the senses, it is actually
formless Spirit.
As above so below. We can't see the physical universe pass
through a complete cycle, but observing our own inner universe can give us an
idea of the process of creation. In the
limitlessness of sleep a dream arises, plays itself out and disappears back
into the void. Throughout the day
thoughts and feelings arise and subside in endless succession in our minds like
ripples on a pond. Both the subjective
and objective worlds, psyche and matter, are waves in the
"The
world of animate and
inanimate
objects is projected by
imagination
on the all-pervading substrate."
(9)
As Selves each of us is master or mistress
of his or her destiny. Just as the
universe is a combination of spirit and matter projected by the all-powerful
Self's macrocosmic mind on the formless screen of Awareness,[27]
each of us projects our own personal waking state universe.[28]
To "project" means to consciously
or unconsciously assign meaning and value.
For example, two persons smoke a cigarette, an enjoyable experience for
one, painful for the other. All objects
in the universe, subtle and gross, are value neutral, but take on personal
meaning because of an inner projecting power or "imagination."
We share the same creative force with the
Self, or God.[29] In addition to the fact that the Self
consciously projects the universe and we generally don’t, the Self’s infinite
will gives it the power to create, sustain, and destroy over eons. The Self, Pure Awareness, is the essence of
the individual as well as the essence of the universe.
Projections cause human beings suffering
because they are thought to be real. The stated purpose of psychological therapies and spiritual
techniques is to put us back in touch with reality by reducing unconscious
projections and the problems they generate.
In Awareness, the Self, there are no
projections. It is the "light"
in which the mind and its projections are known. Self-Realization is liberation from the mind
and its projections.
"Just
as bracelets, bangles, and rings
are gold in various forms, the forms in this
world are nothing but Awareness.”
(10)
Melt down a golden ring or bracelet and it
becomes a lump of gold. Though the form
modifies, nothing substantially changes.
Similarly, all the objects in the world are only Awareness, but
conditioning projects them as solid and separate objects. Melt down our conditioning and everything
appears as Awareness - a difficult task because we have invested our
perceptions with so much personal meaning.
How far is a wave from the ocean? From the wave's standpoint it is a separate
form. From the ocean's standpoint,
however, waves cannot exist without the ocean.
To think of oneself as a totally separate and unique individual is the
spiritual equivalent of a wave imagining itself apart from the ocean.
The purpose of spiritual life is to discover
in what sense we are and are not separate from our Source by disassociating
from our conditioning. Only the Self is
free of conditioning. We cannot become “perfect” i.e. turn our
relative selves into the Self by changing our conditioning, but when
attachment to conditioning is severed, Self realization exposes the
relationship between the conditioned and unconditioned selves. From the state of the Self there are strong
arguments for letting the conditioned self be, however: it isn't real, it isn't
you, and it can't affect you in any way.
And, as the verse insists, “all the forms of this world are nothing but
Awareness.”
"Space
seems broken and diverse
because
of the many forms in it.
Remove
the forms and pure space remains.
So too with the omnipresent Self." (11)
On a perfectly empty
flat space sits a roofless house with many rooms. Looking down from above, notice how each
space (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and garage) seems different because of its
association with the walls and objects in the rooms. Destroy the walls and only indivisible space
remains.
The inner self or
psyche, a manifestation of formless Consciousness, is comprised of several
rooms: mind, the emotional or feeling function, furnished with love, anger,
feeling, greed, tenderness, passion, lust, hatred, jealousy; intellect,
decorated with ideas, thoughts, ideals, dreams, fantasies, imaginations; ego,
filled with selfishness, fear, vanity, arrogance, and desire; and the
Unconscious, a vast storeroom cluttered with the myriad seeds of past
actions. Each room appears a separate
conscious entity with its own name and form but when the mind walls are
destroyed only one conscious entity, formless Awareness, remains.
Failure to see that
the apparently disparate parts of the Self are one leaves another option. Spiritual practice slowly and patiently
empties the rooms and pulls down the walls keeping us from wholeness. For example, a pure crystal resting on a blue
cloth appears blue. Remove the cloth and
its sparkling clear nature is known.
When the Subtle Body is purified the Self is revealed and one sees that
one was never “broken and diverse” in the first place.
“The individual’s Gross Body,
the
medium through which
pleasure
and pain is experienced,
is composed of matter.
The
type of body is determined
by past actions.”
(12)
That the body is
comprised of food consumed and shaped by activity is obvious but why is there
such a variety of human forms? Or, how
do experiences from the past come to determine the characteristics of the body
that will be the medium of experience in this one?
Nobody questions
heredity today, yet the idea of reincarnation has yet to gain widespread
acceptance, even though both attempt to explain essentially the same phenomenon
- how experience passes through time to program the future. Heredity describes how certain physical
tendencies in former generations "reincarnate," return to flesh. Microbiology has discovered that these
tendencies, which are the result of an ancestor's previous experience, are
stored in a very subtle part of the cells, the DNA, and passed on to succeeding
generations.
Spiritual science,
which describes two additional bodies, the Subtle and Causal, contends that our
psychic life, like physical experience, has also evolved a way of surviving
physical death and remanifesting. We
have material science to thank for an increasingly detailed and accurate
picture of the processes that make up the physical body. Psychology, a relative infant science, is largely
responsible for our rudimentary knowledge of the Subtle and Causal Bodies. In psychological language the Subtle Body,
which will be discussed in the commentaries on the next verse, is the conscious
mind. The phenomena playing in it
outpicture even subtler elements, the vasanas
or samskaras, that make up the Causal
body or Unconscious mind.
If its true that we
have two other bodies, bodies that may be much more essentially "us"
than the physical, how is it that they come into being, what happens to them at
death, and what is their relationship to the physical body?
The verse begins,
"Determined for each individual by past actions." Imagine this situation. On the first day of creation a mountain
shaped like a perfect cone thrust out of the earth and the first drop of rain
struck the mountain’s very tip.
What path would the
drop take down the mountain?
The probability of
any possible path is one hundred percent.
It flipped a coin and slid down the south side leaving an imperceptible
little trail.
Time passed and a
second drop fell. What path would it
take? High odds favor all paths but
marginally greater odds favor the south side. It followed tradition and etched
the existing path a little deeper. After
thousands of rain storms other paths developed and the mountain sported
canyons, ravines, and gullies all around.
And the original
path had become a great river valley.
We obviously can't
go back to the time when our psyches were perfectly clear like the
Consciousness from which they emerged, but let’s pretend we can. Let's say that on the day the first mountain
sprung up the first man strolled out of his cave and looked around just as the
first bear wandered out from behind the first tree. The bear spied the man and decided to have
lunch. The man, however, picked up a
huge rock and struck the bear so hard it died instantly. And, in life's first irony, first man had the
world’s first bearburger for lunch.
What kind of a day
was it for our hero? He couldn’t say
because it was his first experience and he had no others with which to compare
it. As he sat contentedly munching his
burger the experience replayed several times, gradually diminishing in
intensity and frequency. As evening fell
it left his consciousness entirely and he dropped off to sleep.
On the second day
first man bumped into first woman, one thing led to another, and they made
first love, a delightful experience.
When he fell asleep after dinner the memory accompanied him and cooked
up delicious dreams.
The next few days
saw many experiences, some good, some not so good. One morning, a week later, he woke up, ate
his porridge, and looked out the entrance to his cave to see a hungry bear
looking in. Suddenly an exciting and
emotional replay of the encounter with the first bear flashed in his primitive
consciousness and he understood what to expect if he ventured out.
Each experience, no
matter how trivial, leaves a trace in our consciousness, like an elementary
particle carving a track in a cloud chamber.
The deep memory in which experience is saved, unlike Intellect’s fact
and figure memory, is the Causal Body, the Unconscious, which not only saves
the essence of every experience but all subjective reactions: the feelings,
emotions, and thoughts arising in the mind at the time.
What a blessing to
have his experiences stored out of consciousness! He could get up in the morning, take his
porridge, and venture out into the light of day without having the past
intrude, very much like the first day.
But as time passed
he noticed a change. One day, walking
along without a care, he began to feel a little out of sorts - as if he wanted
something. Trying to picture what he
wanted made him uncomfortable and he was unable to keep his attention on the
pristine world around.
Suddenly he
knew! A picture of first woman appeared
in his mind and the experience of their tryst vividly flooded his
consciousness. Because the memory was so
pleasurable and first woman no longer available he became unhappy. He wandered about in this state for several
days when, as luck would have it, he met the second woman of the world. To make a long story short, they made love,
and first man was happy once more.
After repeatedly
experiencing love the Causal Body realized it was running out of storage space
and edited the extraneous details: the color of her hair, the cut of her
garment, and her name, saving only important details, the grunts and groans
and, (of course) the big moment when the world stopped. As more experience flowed in it merged the
experiences of many different women into the essence of woman, compacted myriad
episodes into the essence of love, and created a file marked "high
priority." In spite of the fact
that the memories were meant to remain “sub” conscious, the woman memory eventually
took on a life of its own, popping into his conscious mind, the Subtle Body,
with disturbing regularity. Each
repetition cut a deeper scar in the pristine landscape of his subconscious mind
until it resembled first mountain…after millions of years of wind and weather.
Now, sadly, when
first man awoke he had an agenda. No
longer able to sit blissfully in front of the cave enjoying the scenery as he’d
done in the good old days, he longed for a companion. Just as rain tends to flow down the mountain’s
deepest valleys, our hero's consciousness rushed wildly down the deep sexual
groove in the Causal Body, filling his conscious mind with desire.
His routine changed and he became increasingly
indifferent to the practical details of life.
Instead of enjoying random walks through the forest, staying home
patching cracks in his cave or stocking winter stores, we now find first man
haunting the first bar in hopes of finding love - day and night. The more he thought about a mate, the more he
thought about a mate.
His emotional state
was being saved and recycled too. Simply
obsessing over the memory of previous love generated great desire. And with each longing the channel in the
Causal Body got deeper and deeper, flooding the mind with fantasies, tossing it
hither and thither like a small boat in a storm, driving him nearly crazy.
Furthermore, he
started to notice a strange correspondence between his all-consuming desire and
the probability of bumping into a first woman type. Were these not the chance encounters they
seemed? In the beginning outer life
seemed to be creating his inner reality, but now his cravings seemed control
his destiny. Eventually he reached a
point where inner reality became as vivid and real as the outer.
Because a theory cannot
be verified with a known means of knowledge does not necessarily invalidate
it. The history of science, for example,
might be seen as the documentation of the destruction of hardened beliefs in
light of new knowledge. Although the
words “determined by past actions” could be interpreted to refer to only
actions in the present birth, the verse is actually referring to the momentum
from previous births which, like those of the first man, remain after death as
"seeds" or "impressions" in the Unconscious mind. The Unconscious Mind is a dynamic megamemory
that subtly programs every impulse of the ego self, impulses that will
eventually create a new physical body to act out unfulfilled subconscious
impressions. According to the theory,
subtle bodies reincarnate because, like the first man, they believe the joy is
in the object.
Materialists, who
see life as a one-time happenstance event, don’t take the psyche into account
because it is thought to be an epiphenomenon, the result of biochemical
processes. When the physical body goes,
the psyche, a chemical by-product, is apparently meant to just dissolve into
thin air. Religion's remarkable idea
doesn't pretend to be scientific - at death we meet up with God who either
sends us on up to heaven or down to hell depending in His evaluation of out
past deeds - minus the physical body of course.
Even here, however, the subtle part, the soul,[30]
does not miraculously dematerialize when the physical body gives up the ghost.
The theory of
reincarnation suggests that when the physical body dies, the conscious mind
separates and, propelled by the momentum of all previous activities, seeks out
and takes up residence in the fertilized egg implanted in the uterine wall a
short time after conception. Before this
marvelous event, experienced by the mother as “quickening,” no separate being
lives in the mother’s body. Now that the
individual has secured a point of entry into the material world it gestates
until it’s capable of living outside the womb where it can work out unfilled samskaras.
The samskaras, like seeds, carry a sort of
psychic DNA, the potentialities and proclivities built up in previous
births. Exceedingly dynamic, they supply
both the blueprint for the new life and the energy necessary to translate it into
living reality, the so-called "will to live." On the physical level they program the DNA,
the determinant of physical characteristics, and on the psychological, the
information that will outpicture as the subtle body (mind, intellect, ego), the
character or personality that will develop.
Their technical Sanskritic term is “vasanas,”
fragrances, or “samskaras,”[31]
formations, and their psychological address is the karana sharira, the Causal Body, or in western terminology, the
Unconscious. These seedlike energy
"waves" of consciousness, being subtler than physical matter are
unaffected by the death and rebirth of the body. When a new physical entity is established in
the uterine wall they propel the subtle body to enter the physical. The parent's samskaras are instrumental in attracting a particular individual to
the womb. Though there are apparently
exceptions, nature, through the agency of the macrocosmic mind, matches
reincarnating souls with parents who can supply them with the situation
necessary to continue their spiritual evolution. Thus matter, from the reincarnation
perspective, is thought to be a creation of Consciousness for the purpose of
It's spiritual evolution.
How do we know of
this hidden process? Obviously the
senses are useless because they cease to function at death and are incapable of
perceiving the vasanas which are even
subtler than subatomic wave/particles.
Inference, a valid means of knowledge, suggests that reincarnation
happens but doesn't reveal how seeds of past activity manifest in the
present. Reincarnationists claim that
this knowledge is obtained directly from yogis who, through a mystic method,
remain conscious during the birth/death process.[32]
Intriguing as the
idea may be, physical reincarnation plays a modest spiritual role. The opening stanza, it will be noted, does
not list a single physical qualification for liberation. Though pursuit of spiritual goals may be
enhanced by a healthy body, physical suffering often motivates striving for
higher goals. Spirituality is concerned
with an individual’s bodily attachments, opinions, ideas, and attitudes - not
the body itself which the verse says is just a counter across which experience
is transacted.
To counteract the
tendency to glamorize, romanticize, and worship it we should remind ourselves
that it is little more than a meaty waste tube.
Filled with blood, bile, mucus, urine, and feces it is a breeding ground
for disease, and only seems sentient because of its association with and
proximity to the spiritual essence enlivening it. Merely an instrument, it should be neither
venerated nor reviled.
Pleasure and pain,
neither inherently good nor bad, are instructional stimuli delivered by the
body to the conscious being within who interprets them according its vasana-induced conditioning.
Only with a
dispassionate knowledge of the body can body consciousness be transcended, the
first self-realization stage.
Conversely, an unscientific understanding of this dearest of
conditionings makes spiritual progress next to impossible. The idea behind meditation is to separate the
spiritual essence, the living being, from the non-living material conditionings
surrounding it. These conditionings may
be visualized as layers clinging to a central core - like an onion. Discrimination,[33]
the technique unfolded in this text, is peeling off the layers in one’s
understanding to get at the essence, the Self.
The next layer after the gross body.
"The
Subtle Body, is composed of
the instruments of experience:
the ten senses, the five pranas, mind and
intellect."
(13)
The ten organs are: eyes, ears, nose,
tongue, skin, hands, feet, speech, anus, and sex. The activities of the organs are controlled
by the life force or prana which is
responsible for health and vitality. The
prana in its passive state manifests
as awareness and acts as a perceptive or knowledge-gathering function in the
form of the first five organs. In its
dynamic state, it functions as the active or karmic organs - the last five. Another active function of the life force is apana - the capacity of the organism to
reject unwanted elements from the body (wastes, toxins, etc.). Thirdly, prana
functions as samana in the digestive
system transforming food into energy which is equitably distributed (vyana) according to the need of each part. If walking, more goes to the legs, if cutting
wood, more goes to the arms. The prana in the form of udana is the power to eject the soul
from the body, a kind of reincarnational time clock counting down to the moment
of death.
The subtle body is the instrument of
perception. The points on the physical
body where sense perceptions seem to occur are not actually the sense
organs. For example, the eyes are only
"places of light"[34]
or windows through which the power of vision, a subtle body component, beams
forth. Perception is only possible when
the mind is behind the sense organ. The
eyes may report visual stimuli and the organ of sight illumine them, but they
have no meaning if the mind is occupied elsewhere - daydreaming, meditating, or
thinking. Common experience shows that
when communicating to someone lost in thought or otherwise preoccupied the
communication does not register.
The Self, the conscious being, perceives
through the senses, mind, and intellect.
In its passive function the mind picks up on feelings and emotions
vibrating in the world around and passes them on to the Self. In its active function, it expresses the
same. The intellect is the most
sophisticated of the subtle body components, capable of diverse functions -
thinking, discriminating, willing, reasoning, symbolizing, imagining,
intuiting, meditating, and so on. The
instrument through which the Self perceives the idea world, intellect functions
as the ego idea which, motivated by an endless stream of fear and desire, generates
all our actions.
The subtle body is the field of
practice. The Self is immutable so
nothing can be done to change it.
Physical work only marginally affects the subtle body. Even the Unconscious can only be altered in
the waking state through subtle body, work.
Spiritual practice is designed to purify the subtle body, transforming
it into an instrument capable of receiving Self-Knowledge.
"Ignorance,
indescribable and beginingless,
is the Causal Body. Know for certain
the Self is other than these
three conditioned bodies." (14)
Perceptive
instruments (mind, intellect, senses) and objects of perception are required
for experience. Before experience is
possible, therefore, two events have happened - one macrocosmic (the material
universe has been projected), and the other microcosmic (the perceptive
instruments have evolved), the interaction between them constituting an
experience, the basis of time. Actually,
time begins when the third perception/experience occurs, being the interval
between the first and the second seen from the third. These two events, the projection of the
universe and the evolution of the perceptive instruments by the conscious
beings, are the result of a preceding non-event or Ignorance. Hence Ignorance, existing out of time, is
causal and beginingless.
From a spiritual
viewpoint, Ignorance means non-apprehension of the Self or Reality, not lack of
education or intelligence. If we fail to
“experience” the timeless Self we take our experience of the mind's time-bound
projections as reality, suffering and enjoying accordingly.
The purpose of
Vedanta is to give knowledge of Reality - one's Self. Ignorance, intellect, and the concept of time
are not real, because they don't exist forever and in all states of
consciousness. Where is time and thought
in the causal state? Nor do they exist
in the Self. Because it is too subtle to
be perceived by the Subtle Body, the Causal Body, can only be inferred. To ask the subtle body to know the causal
body, except inferentially, is like asking the eyes to see the mind.
Ignorance exists
and doesn't exist. From the Self's
absolute point of view it doesn't exist (just as mirage water doesn't exist
from the sand's) though it is perceived to exist from the ego's. How can we describe something that neither
exists nor doesn't exist?
Finally, Ignorance is
causal, the source and origin of false perception and therefore action.[35] Because the scorching desert sands aren’t
seen for what they are, they seem to be covered with water. The inability to perceive Reality, the Self,
allows us to project the vast superstructure of thought, feeling, memory, and
action we call life, take it for real, and rush out to find happiness in it.
At this point in
the text the “Not Self,”[36]
the three bodies and their respective fields, has been explained. When the energy invested in the false belief
that one is the limited self is released, deep insight occurs and the Self is
realized. Because the Self is not an
object of perception it cannot be directly taught, hence the Socratic or negative
approach. "Not this. Not this." says the inscrutable
Upanishad.
"Through
discriminative analysis[37]
separate
the Pure Self within
from
the sheaths covering it
like
wheat from chaff."
(15)
The “sheaths” referred to are the three
bodies, which seem[38]
to cover the Self. The separation of the
bodies from the Self is not astral travel or “out of body” experience. The Self can’t be out of the bodies because
it was never “in” them in the first place, although the experience of the
realization of the Self, a shift from the body’s to the Self’s point of view,
often initially feels as if we’ve left the body simply because we are so deeply
conditioned to take the physical body as a point of reference in all
perceptions. In fact, the bodies are
“in” the Self, in the sense that they are within the scope of the Self’s
panoramic vision. The body, a tiny
physical cup indeed, could never contain the formless
The text has done a credible job separating
the Self and the Not Self.[39] Putting the knowledge into practice,
mindfulness, means keeping up with the ego/mind, following it through its daily
ups and downs, dispassionately observing the quality, texture, and volume of
thought and feeling, not with the idea of making it “better” or solving its
problems, but to understand its nature.
Purification slowly evolves out of awareness, grasping the “whys.” When the meditator understands the ignorance
motivating his or her approach to life unspiritual motivations can be easily
discarded. Attempting to change one’s
ego through religious or psychological practice without understanding born of
discriminative awareness only results in superficial and temporary changes.
The
point of watching the mind is not to watch the mind but to become aware of the
watcher, an event that takes place almost imperceptibly day by day as one
watches. Awareness of the watcher means
that practice is becoming subtle and raises a new question - who is the
watcher?
Is it the ego? The mind?
The intellect? The Self? All or none of the above? Is the ego to be discriminated out of the
picture? If so who will do it? If the Self is the discriminator, what will
It discriminate, since from It's position nothing other than it exists? These and other equally weighty
determinations present themselves to the mind of the discriminator. Needless to say working through this thicket
is a tricky business, yet with perseverance the truth is revealed.
The discriminator should calmly and
consciously observe whatever the mind has to offer, using the Self/not-self
paradigm to clear the thoughts producing extroverting and agitating energies.[40] Once it becomes second nature a positive change
in awareness occurs because discrimination causes non-attachment - not allowing
the mind’s problems, which often take years to purify, to sap energy and
inspiration.
To construct the foundation of one’s life on
the not-self’s[41]
shifting sands is to court disillusionment.
Taking the emotions as reality causes one to suffer continual ups and
downs. Who hasn't failed miserably
trying to live out a scheme or fantasy concocted by an undiscriminating
intellect or taken the body as one’s primary source of pleasure and inspiration
long past the time when it was appropriate?
Greed, ambition, power, pride, lust, jealousy, possessiveness, avarice,
acquisitiveness - the mind is a cornucopia of unworthy values we take for real
and pursue with intensity. Yet none
last.
The Self alone endures, the only reality.
THE CORRECT VIEW OF
EMPTINESS
An object that
can’t stand alone or can be resolved into another object or the Self on
analysis should be considered “not-self” and therefore unreal.[42] The physical body can be resolved into its
constituent elements: air, fire, water, earth.
Therefore it is unreal. Are the
elements reality? Only with reference to
the body. The elements can be resolved
into smaller units; let’s say atoms. As
we go down and down, more and more space, the fifth "element,"
appears between the units until they dissolve into nothingness. Now only space and the Self remain. Since space is not conscious and depends on
Awareness it can be resolved into Awareness.[43] Can awareness be resolved? Does it depend on anything other than
itself? Is it known by anything other
than itself? As the Self, the Knower,
you are unresolvable, irreducible.
Time is apparent. As we increase the units from naoseconds to
milliseconds to seconds and on up to years, centuries, ages, etc. the space
between the units increases until time eventually runs out and only space,
which on analysis turns out to be nothing more than a concept, remains. Space is a concept because it depends on the
conscious being experiencing it. The
view of it by a person walking from
Or if this analysis seems too abstract,
consider that time is different for every individual and that the same
individual experiences time differently.
Where time real it would be exactly the same for every creature. One hour in an Iraqi torture chamber does not
equal one hour at an exciting movie.
Time, like space, is a function of the being that conceives or
experiences it.
Time and space are only in the mind. In the Self they don’t exist. In deep sleep, a very familiar experience,
they don’t exist. In no way do they fit
our definition of reality.
All Subtle Body phenomena depend on each
other, the mind a rich tapestry of interwoven interdependent psychic
threads. Ego, one major psychic
component, is unreal because it depends on Self ignorance. Ignorance is reducible to knowledge, because
it ends when knowledge arises. Knowledge
depends on Awareness. Ego is also unreal
because it doesn’t exist in deep sleep where all differences are
dissolved. Feelings and emotions are
unreal because they depend on interpretation by the intellect of ever-changing
sense experiences, memory, and ideas, the person who loves his or her spouse
until he or she discovers that the spouse is unfaithful, for example.
The concepts "real" and
"unreal" are reducible to intellect.
Intellect reduces to thought, thought to the thinker, the thinker to
Awareness. No thought ever thought
itself.
Anything you can think about or experience
depends on you, the Awareness. Without
you there is nothing.
That nothing on any level of existence is
merely an apparent reality is difficult to accept. The
teachings of Vedanta are not intended to cement into the mind clever spiritual
concepts that accurately describe the nature of the objective and subjective
worlds but to encourage us to think about these worlds in a radical way. When we discriminate the inner worlds defrost
and the rigid ideas that make life painful break up - like ice in spring. If the intellect no longer makes uninformed
judgments about an apparent reality or fritters away its time gathering
objective knowledge but turns upon itself and thinks clearly from the Self’s
platform our responses to life become natural and spontaneous. And ultimately, although discrimination means
we must face continual disillusionment, in the end we are paradoxically led to
the realization that everything on every level of existence is real - because
it is the Self.
Simply knowing that everything is apparent
or unreal however, does not tell us, except by default, where to look to find
Reality. How can we separate wheat from
the chaff, not knowing where the wheat is?
The next verse tells us where to look to find the Self.
"Though
pervading everything
the
Self doesn’t shine in everything.
It
reveals itself in the purified inner being
like
a reflection in a clean mirror."
(16)
A full-length mirror stands beside a
granite wall. Light from the sun floods
my body causing reflected light to fall equally on the wall and the
mirror. I see myself only in the mirror.
The Self exists in all the objects of the
world and all the objects of the world exist in and are perceived in the Self's
Light yet we can't see It in them because, like the granite wall, they have no
reflective power. Nor can It be seen in
a mind cluttered with vasana-produced
objects (thoughts, ideas, memories, feelings, emotions, perceptions, dreams,
imaginations) for their flow produces a non-reflective moving screen that
obscures Its shining. Bits of light may
break through to provide a glimpse of the effulgent beauty radiating from
within, but not enough to allow careful identification. A purified Subtle Body is a spotless
reflective surface in which the Self can shine in all its glory, making accurate
identification possible.
Cleaning the mind involves a change in one’s
approach to life. Training the ego to
abandon its unholy preoccupation with results, dedicate its activities a higher
altar, and see things happening “through it” empties the subconscious and
creates a meditative state of mind.
Loving God and all beings as one’s own Self purifies extoverting
emotional negativites. Finally, the use
of the intellect to discriminate between the Real and the unreal, the ego’s and
the Spirit’s thought systems, reduces agitation to a minimum.[44]
The
Self is the king of the being,
sitting
on the inner throne,
distinct
from the three bodies
and
witness of their functions."
(17)
The Self is one's true nature, the kingly
state of being. The practice of
discrimination introduces the discriminator to the Self, the king within, by
merging the Subtle Body into the Self.[45] The Self is that purely spiritual part of
one's being which watches the play of subjective and objective phenomena with
complete detachment as the witnessing seer, shining from the
"throne," the innermost core of the being, where the gross, subtle
and causal bodies like courtly ministers, cluster around and pay homage.
"The moon speeds across the
sky
when clouds pass before it.
Seen
through the senses and mind,
The
Self appears dynamic."
(18)
Gathered around the Self, the three bodies
nestle close, drawing intelligence and vitality. Seen through the bodies the Self appears
active, but is actually the motionless all-pervading field in which all
activity takes place. It is effortless
Being radiating the inexhaustible energy[46]
that powers all bodies and worlds.
At the mystic stage of spiritual practice,
for example, exotic experiences play before the mind’s eye, creating the
impression that the Self is dynamic but they are only projections of the
Unconscious on the stationary screen of Consciousness. In the intensity, and excitement of the
moment, the discriminator may imagine he or she is experiencing the Self. But the eternally shining circumferenceless
Self does not change. Not to be experienced, it is the ultimate
experiencer. To merge into and
identify oneself with that ultimate Seer is Meditation, the culmination of
discriminative meditation practice, an experienceless experience.
“Just
as all creatures
live
in the light of the sun,
the body, mind, and intellect
carry
on their activities
in the light of the Self.”
(19)
Though making life possible the sun is
unaffected by everything taking place on earth.
The body, mind, and intellect and the worlds illumined by them are
totally dependent on the Self, the radiant Being whose presence creates the
illusion of sentiency in them. Like the
sun, the Self is unaffected by the activities taking place in our minds.
Owing
to lack of discrimination we superimpose
bodily
functions on the Self
just
as the eyes superimpose blue on the sky.
(20)
Anyone sitting in a stationary train when
one on an adjacent track pulled silently out of the station has experienced the
illusion of movement. To say, "I am
walking. I am talking. I am breathing," is actually
untrue. The body, infused with vital
life, acts. The Self, whose presence
makes it all possible, simply observes.
Looking at the clear sky, we incorrectly
perceive blue. Not seeing what we really
are, we take what we do see to be what we are.
"I am man, woman, mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother,
fat, black, white, gay, tired, angry, old, strong, intelligent, rich, poor,
doctor, lawyer, happy, etc." are common statements applying to the
body/mind/intellect/ego entity, but not to the Self.
The
moon seems to dance
because ripples disturb
the
tranquil surface of a lake.
Similarly,
ideas of action and enjoyment
are thought to be the Self’s.
(21)
In response to the
everyday inquiry, "Hi, what's happening?" we eagerly launch into a
litany of our most recent doings. "Well,
yesterday I... and then I... after which I..." Every time we say or think "I," we
are unaware of precisely who the "I" is, yet it is associated with
everything we've ever said or done.
The ego, ignorant
of its identity with the Self, alone and encircled by otherness, identifies
with action and accomplishment which it sees as a means to complete
itself. The Self, who sees no otherness,
has nothing to gain through action because it is always complete.
The ego continually
tries to enjoy life because it doesn't enjoy itself. The Self is a state of effortless enjoyment,
devoid of subject and object. In it one
is what one enjoys.
Ego's concept of
doership and enjoyment, like all its subsidiary "i am's," condemns it
to sporadic suffering. The practice of
knowledge involves sorting out these inner "i's", acknowledging and
recognizing them for the partial identities they are, until the experience of
the "I" beyond them all begins to emerge.
An effective
technique involves listening to one’s speech and watching the mind, trying to
keep track of the seemingly endless parade of not Self “i’s” which, like
ripples, continually distort the clear
"Attachment,
desire, pleasure and pain are
experienced
as long as the Subtle Body
functions. In deep sleep they don't exist.
They
belong to the mind, not the Self."
(22)
Desire is painful. When I say I want something I’m simply saying
I’m not happy as I am. Attachment is painful
because it destroys freedom, the greatest pleasure. Pleasure is painful because of the fear of
losing it and the inevitable craving for its return once it ends. And, obviously, pain is painful.
To be rid of the mind's contaminants realize
you’re not contaminated in the first place.
If the mind is anxious, depressed or temporarily high on an object, so
what? I'm not it. I’m the one who was there before the mind
went into its change, the one who recorded the changes, and the one who
continues when the changes cease. A
dirty house doesn’t necessarily mean the occupants are dirty. Feelings of impurity and self-disgust stem
from incorrect identification of the Self with the mind. The more we refuse to participate in the
negativities of the mind, the less the mind generates negativities. Not taking responsibility means not allowing
oneself to develop an attitude about them, positive or negative. An attitude would be: they are
"sinful," and therefore, by association, I’m sinful. Turning them into problems to be rationalized
or self-validating credentials is a further symptom of faulty
Self-Knowledge. They belong to the mind,
not to me.
"The
sun is light, fire hot
and
sugar sweet. The Self is
Consciousness,
Being,
Endless
Bliss, and Purity." (23)
Consciousness, that because of which we
know what we know, suffers no existential crises because it always knows who it
is. Being is isness, fullness,
non-numerical oneness, that because of which we exist. Bliss is limitlessness, total freedom. Purity, not opposed to impurity, is an
immaculate wholeness that neither fears evil nor craves good.
Thousands of lifetimes of inner work will
not transform an unconscious, non-existent, miserable, impure ego into the
Self. The verse is suggesting that we
stop trying to be better or different and realize who we are.
"When
Pure Awareness
blends with a thought wave in the Subtle Body
the
experience of knowing is produced."
(24)
Knowledge of objects takes place in the waking
and dream states of consciousness. How
does it happen? Programmed by a samskara, a thought or feeling
arises. When the thought is illumined by
Awareness, the experience of knowing occurs.
Knowledge, its dead by-product, is of the content of the wave. For example, if anger is rising in the mind,
one knows one is angry unless the Self's attention is elsewhere. Similarly, information coming in through the
senses will create a mind wave but no knowledge unless the Self illumines
it. After the blending of Awareness and
the wave, the experience of knowing itself becomes a finer wave (memory) and
passes out of waking consciousness to be stored as a "seed" in the
subconscious. Owing to the dynamic
nature of the subconscious the memory may be re-experienced when the seed
sprouts, manifests in the Subtle Body, and is illumined by Awareness once
again. If not it remains in an
unmanifest condition.
In the twilight a thirsty traveler
approached a village well. Reaching
down, she recoiled in fear when she saw a big snake coiled next to the
bucket. Unable to move for fear of being
bitten, she imagined terrible things, including her own death. At that time an old man coming to the well
noticed her standing there petrified with fear.
"What's the problem?" he asked kindly.
"Snake! Snake! Get a stick before it
strikes!" she whispered frantically.
The old man burst out laughing.
"Hey!" he said, "Take it easy.
That's no snake. It's the well
rope. It just looks like a snake in the
darkness."
Though she was never in danger, the
misperceived rope produced intense fear.
Our existential fears come from mistaking the Self for the dualistic
universe. The fear of the snake arose simultaneously with the misperception of
the rope. What happened to the snake and
the fear when the woman perceived the rope?
It vanished.
Because we are so identified with our
misperceptions, we need to hear from an independent source, scripture or a
teacher, that the snake is actually a rope.
However, hearing the truth is insufficient without an
investigation. When the woman heard that
the rope was a snake she looked to make sure, and her fear disappeared in the
light of knowledge.
Most fears are not legitimate physical
fears. We fear love or the lack of it,
life or death, success or failure - you name it. Myriad groundless fears arising from the
cloud of unknowing disturb the mind not established in right knowledge. Rather than deal with a profusion of specific
fears, the spiritual warrior lops off the root fear (taking oneself to be the
ego) with the sword of discrimination.
Such a person, having discovered identity with the Self, is incapable of
fear.
Actually, fearlessness is a negative way of
describing Self-Realization. The Self is
the Love that generates the cosmic harmony we call life, a harmony that exists
because, like the snake, the universe is one with the Self. Can the illusory snake exist without the
rope's support? Enlightenment is the
experience, I am that Reality, not this limited egoIf the mind is undisturbed
by sense impressions or memory Awareness illumines no-thing (still a something)
and nothing knowledge takes place, as in deep sleep. In nirvikalpa
samadhi, a "super” conscious state without mental activity, It
illumines Itself. Then only Knowingness
or Pure Knowledge remains. This is the
“forth” state of consciousness called Self-Realization or Enlightenment.[47]
The
Self doesn’t act.
Without
the Self’s light
the
intellect doesn’t know anything.
Only
a deluded ego thinks
it perceives and knows.
(25)
Just as a light bulb can't shine without
electricity passing through it, the ego/intellect knows nothing without
Awareness shining through it. And just
as the light from the bulb is unaffected by the objects it illumines, the Self,
which is very much a part of every experience, is unaffected by any thought or
feeling. The ego is merely a dim projection
in Awareness of an aggregate of subconscious tendencies reflected in the Subtle
Body. It’s extrovertedness makes it
unable to realize (in so far as it’s conscious) the Self, so it identifies by
default with its instruments or limbs, the senses-mind-intellect, and imagines
itself the ultimate perceiver and knower.
THE EGO CAN’T GET
ENLIGHTENED[48]
The Self is always enlightened. Contrary to popular belief, the ego can't
"get enlightened,"[49]
because its awareness, merely a reflection in Consciousness, is incapable of
illumining the Self's subtler, purer, and brighter Light. It can, however, in so far as it is defined
as a conscious being, acknowledge on a moment to moment basis the source of its
being. An "inlightened" ego is
free of the idea it sees and knows, an open channel through which the
Enlightened Being sees and knows.
Knowing it can't know, it wordlessly revels in the Light.[50]
Enlightenment is knowing/experiencing
oneself as the Self, Pure Awareness, not the ego believing in or “experiencing”
the Self. Christ's non-dualistic
pronouncement, "I and my Father are one," meant he was one with the
spiritual Self, the "father," sire of the universe. The Pharisees, caught up in the quaint
illusion that God the Father was an old man in the sky, couldn't connect their
idea of God with the Self conscious vagabond before them - and the rest is
history.
Enlightenment happens when the ego, like a
salt doll dropped in the ocean, dissolves in Pure Awareness, an experience
similar to waking up from a dream. One
moment you're a dreamer and the next a waker.
The dreamer has to disappear so the waker can come into being. The feeling of the awakened one is: "I
am self-luminous Awareness. I shine on
everything. I shine on the objects in
the world and I shine on the waves in the mind of the person I once mistakenly
thought I was. If that "me" is
happy or sad what concern is it of mine?
I merely illumine these changing conditions of mind. Not only do I shine on the former me, I shine
in the minds of all beings as their innermost Self."
"To
mistake a rope for a snake causes intense fear.
Taking
oneself to be the ego causes existential fear.
Self
Realization destroys fear."
(26)
"Just
as a lamp illumines objects in a room,
the
Self illumines the mind, which is composed
of
inert subtle matter and unable
to
illumine itself". (27)
Someone who says, "I'm a rock,"
is either joking or crazy. But nearly
everyone identifies with the gross and subtle bodies to some degree, an
identification causing pleasure and pain.
We think of the mind as living, but it's only a mechanical collection of
subtle material waves (memories, sensations, emotions, feelings, tendencies) in
Consciousness. Having no light of its
own, unaware of its own existence, it merely bounces Consciousness onto objects
like a mirror.
If the mind contains the happy/sad wave it
is common to think "I am happy/sad."
But in fact, "I" is never happy or sad. In this case the Self is apparently confused,
identifying with the mind wave, thereby suffering happiness/sadness until the
wave returns to the Unconscious. To free
the Self this confusion must be removed.
Of course the idea of a deluded Self is
ridiculous, a cosmic joke, because the Self is always free of the mind and its
content. For this reason, spiritual
ignorance, is defined as that which is not.
Self-Knowledge is not obtaining something you don't already have (to
claim that you don't have a Self is to claim that you don't exist), but the
rediscovery of something always with you by removing a confusion that isn't
actually there!
One
lamp is not needed
to
illumine the light of another.
A
second awareness is not needed
to
know the Self, Pure Awareness. (28)
The sun illumines everything in the
world. To see it, no second sun's light
is necessary. When someone claims to
know the Self[51]
we are immediately skeptical, if not downright incredulous. It's possible to know of the Self because
It’s fame is considerable, but It can't be known with the intellect in the way
a fact or a person is known. Using a
flashlight to see the sun is analogous to trying to know the Self with the
mind. The intellect, like a telescope,
is an instrument capable of illumining objects in a field but incapable of
seeing itself, much less the Self, its origin.
In so far as it’s a reality, the universe is
Awareness or Consciousness arranged in several planes from gross to subtle: the
outer layer, the material world is so dense it doesn't even appear as
Awareness; the senses, subtler than the body and marginally less opaque, enjoy
a little sentiency borrowed from the Subtle Body; the Subtle Body, because it’s
made of chitta,[52]
a form of Consciousness, and subject to the gunas[53]
is still subtler; and behind the Subtle Body, at the innermost core,
all-pervasive pure Awareness enlightens the Subtle Body. No subtler awareness illumines It.
In order to "know" the unknowable
Self the intellect must be switched off or transcended - the idea behind
discriminative meditation practice. When
the mind is brought to stillness, (it need not remain that way more than a few
moments) an awakening may occur during which the Self reveals itself.
After waking up in the morning, I needn’t
inquire of my wife if I’m awake.
Similarly, Enlightenment is self-validating. "I and my Father are one" is the
statement of a Self-aware being. Those
who haven't experienced the awakened state make a big fuss when someone talks
like this, because from the human state, nothing is self-contained, secure or
self-validating.
"Negating the conditionings
with
the knowledge "I am not this"
realize
your Self identity
as
indicated in scripture."[54]
(29)
The ego can neither deny itself nor assume
the transcendental position without undergoing a spiritual transformation. Spirituality is not self-improvement, but the
egoless growth of the outer self triggered by the awakened Self within. Having "seen the light," we should
allow ourselves to enthusiastically participate in the unfolding of the Self in
our lives, a sometimes painful and drawn-out process involving unlearning and
disassociating from incorrect self-ideas and images.
How consistently we indulge our emotions,
looking for pleasure and reaping pain, yet fail to discover we’re not our
feelings. Even in old age when
separation should have occurred, failure to see the body, mind, and intellect
as insentient vehicles is commonplace.
Passing through life without learning that one is not one's equipment, how
will a few verbal denials change facts?
Fortunately life seems to be designed to disillusion until the clinging
stops.
"The
three bodies are perceived objects,
as
perishable as bubbles.
Realize
with pure discrimination,
I am
not them.
I am limitless non-dual pure Awareness."
(30)
Experience takes place when the ego,
motivated by the Unconscious uses the Gross and Subtle Bodies to contact or
avoid contact with objects in their respective fields. In spite of the unhappy fact that the bodies
and their objects are in constant flux, it has somehow been led to believe that
hooking the bodies up to objects will bring happiness. Based on such an unstable foundation, is it
any wonder life is so inherently insecure and frustrating?
Since ultimately all transactions, even the
good, are perishable one might be tempted to despair - yet there is a way out:
cut loose expectations of security and permanence and take what comes for what
it is; experience the changes without clinging, and understand that
non-attachment frees the mind to seek the Self’s lasting bliss. Though courage and honesty are required,
living in the now is infinitely more satisfying than living with
expectations. Once this fact sinks in,
one takes the obvious imperfections of time-bound life as an attractive
advertisement for Self-Knowledge.
The second reason for discriminating away
the belief in the body, mind, and intellect as self is more subtle - because
they are "perceived objects."
That physical objects are perceived is easy to grasp. Nor does it take a genius to see that ideas
and emotions also perceived objects.
This verse takes us a step deeper, informing us that the three bodies
themselves are perceived objects.
What does this mean? When we think, we see the thought. But why don’t we see the thinker seen with
the same clarity? Because, we think we
are the thinker. The verse says the
intellect (the thinker), the mind (the feeler/emoter), and the physical body
(sense organs) are perceived objects.
Who perceives them? The
Self.
This teaching is based on a simple fact - one cannot be what one perceives.[55] For example, you see your hand. Are you the hand? The hand is just insentient meat. Identifying with the body, the hand seems to
be you, but actually you are the perceiver.
Common sense tells us that the perceiver cannot be the perceived. Applying this simple principle to every part
of your being (mind, intellect, ego, and Unconscious) see that you are none of
it.
Though discrimination is usually not an
issue during periods of happiness, a serious seeker should continue to inquire
“Who's happy. If the one feeling wonderful at the moment
wasn’t previously feeling so good, the ego, an object of perception, has been
identified. Not only will the inquiry
identify the Self by default but it will remove the expectation that the
happiness will last, since the ego is known to constantly change.
Discriminating the Self (the ultimate
subject) from the not-Self (the bodies and their objects) is difficult because
conditioning has inextricably bound us to "perceived objects," subtle
and gross. The text is not suggesting the ego be weaned from its attachments,
although that never hurts, but the Self be discriminated from the ego, i.e.
that the ego be seen as a “perceived object.” An ascetic ego is not the equivalent of the
Self. The Self is the perceiver of the
ego and its attachments - or lack thereof.
The verse suggests an already-accomplished
separation of one's Self from everything - which may seem a cold uncaring
state. However, seeing the world through
the Self’s non-attached eyes reveals It’s loving connection to every atom of
the universe.[56]
"Because
I am other than the body, I don't suffer its changes.
I am not born nor do I die. I have no sense organs
so I am not involved in the world.
Because
I am other than the mind,
I am free from sorrow, attachment, malice, and
fear.
Scripture says I am pure, without thought and
desire,
and so I am.
I
have no attributes. I live without
breathing
I am eternal, formless, and ever-free.
I am the same in all and fill all things with
Being.
I am limitless non-dual Pure Awareness."
(31-35)
A remarkable
description of the Self meant for use in discrimination /meditation.
“The
impression "I am the Self" created by constant
practice
destroys ignorance and agitation
just as medicine destroys disease."
(36)
Very few public proclamations are in such
bad taste and received with as much contempt as the statement "I am God!”[57] Christ, as is well-known, paid dearly for
it. Yet, in so far as each of us is
unrealized God, nothing makes more sense as a spiritual practice than consistent
private affirmation of our divinity.
Nearly everyone has, at moments of great
object happiness or intense tragedy, broken through the ego plane to realize[58]
the Self, an experience which makes a deep and lasting subconscious
impression. Discriminative meditation is
the art of experiencing the Self consciously, so it's possible, if one
discriminates successfully, to favorably program the Unconscious with Self
realization vasanas until they nudge
out worldly vasanas, at which point
the Unconscious begins to "know" us as God.
Though seemingly farfetched, the idea is
psychologically sound. Anyone trying to
break a nasty habit knows how unreliable resolutions are in the face of
subconscious resistance. Say, "I'm
quitting!" and you’ll eat your words.
The Unconscious knows you can't just quit, because the impressions
associated with the habit are etched too deeply. But if a positive habit is patiently
developed, its impressions will eventually crowd out the negative.
The thought “I am incomplete, limited, and
inadequate” is a Subtle Body disease for which the proper medicine is the
experience of the inner Self. Taking
one's medicine consistently over time, the mind begins to harmonize with the
Source. Eventually only one
"Self" thought remains in the conscious and unconscious minds. Then, in a miraculous way the Divine Idea
transforms into the continuous effortless experience of the Self. When Self experience becomes permanent, the
knowledge “I am limitless actionless Awareness” destroys the ignorance “I am an
incomplete, limited, inadequate being.”
"Sit
in a solitary place control the senses,
free
the mind of desire, and meditate with unswerving attention
on
the Self, one without a second."
(37)
Before we can successfully practice
discriminative meditation we need a meditation-worthy Subtle Body, the
instrument of meditation. And before we
can create a meditation-worthy Subtle Body we need a comprehensive knowledge of
how the Subtle Body, sandwiched between the Gross and Causal Bodies,
works.
EXTROVERSION OF
MIND[59]
No matter how obviously separate objects
seem, careful investigation reveals that nothing comes into and passes out of
existence without the help of something else; that is not a transformation of
something else. The body, for example,
is actually an aggregate of common elements drawn from various sources, a
shifting sand bar across which the elemental ocean ebbs and flows, its
constituents changing from moment to moment.
Where does it begin and the world end?
The barriers separating the mind from the body, the emotions from the
mind, the ego from the Self, the body from other bodies and the elements are
purely fictional, erected by fearful minds in a futile attempt to impose order
and gain control of a changing universe governed by an unseen, and therefore
suspect, Intelligence.
The average mind finds itself separate and
alone confronting a vast existence which, for all it knows, seems, at least at
times, a pointless and meaningless chaos.
Science assures us that we’re seeing an orderly organic universe
evolving according to a vast cosmic plan, religion that our purposeful world
manifested from the mind of a just and disciplined Divinity. Are these far-fetched views or a sensible
description of reality?
In spite of the confusion and apparent
disorder things do seem to work out over time.
Unseen laws of cause and effect allow us to venture forth with
reasonable expectations of finding what we seek. Scientists aim probes at empty destinations
which years later intersect planets millions of miles away at the time of
launching. Water is never dry nor sugar
sour. The sun goes up and comes down
with frightening regularity. Because we
can count on everything to follow its nature, we can search for happiness. How strange it would be to come here with
five fully functioning knowledge-gathering senses only to discover that a
perverse Creator had neglected to provide sense stimuli. What a frustration to be the proud possessor
of an intellect in a world bereft of ideas or a heart in a world without feelings.
Most of us are so busy chasing the things we
want and avoiding what we don’t, we haven’t time to strip ourselves down to
basics to see how skillfully we’re put together, how neatly we dovetail into
the universe. Rather than sitting down
and asking why we are the way we are, day in and day out we mindlessly push on
down life's tracks, a locomotive with a full head of steam right on schedule -
looking neither left nor right. To us life is simply one long experience
broken into many small experiences.
Information comes in from the world around and we react. Stimulus.
Response. Stimulus. Response.
After a seemingly endless procession of experiences the lights go out
and we die.
The complex process of experience is so
instinctive, subtle, and fleeting, most of us don't even realize it's going
on. To find out why it’s so difficult to
re-discover the Self, meditation’s goal, the experienceless experience that
frees one from life's treadmill, let’s make an examination, not of the ordinary
experiences that bulk up our lives or the peak experiences that give flavor,
but the way we experience.
Let's take a trivial event - a drive to the
supermarket - and see what's really going on.
First, before we've even suited up for life's ball game we need a
playing field. No material universe
equals no supermarket, no automobile, no roads.
So what is this universe that makes cars, supermarkets, and a plethora
of gadgets possible? According to
Vedantic model, which may seem slightly crude to our modern minds but is
nonetheless worthy of consideration, immaterial Consciousness evolved five
material elements.
How the object of meditation, the eternally
self-existing, indivisible, non-dual Awareness has managed to transform into
primordial matter and intelligently divide into five elements which in turn
split and combine with each other in a creative orgy that gives birth to the
unbelievable diversity of names and forms confronting our senses is difficult
to fathom. Perhaps it’s similar to the
creation of a web by a spider. The
spider miraculously brings forth a substance from its body to shape a web
according to its own idea. Is the
cosmos, as Vedanta claims, simply the Self masquerading as matter?
We can never factually verify the brass
tacks reality of any model, because spiritual models are meant, not to rivet
clever concepts into our intellects concerning the precise nature of a given
physical or psychological object or process, but to get the mind to think
radically about the non-conceptual Self behind everything - including our own
experience. When meditation brings the
Self into clear view, It’s relationship with the universe becomes clear. Over the centuries the following model has
provided a reasonable explanation of the relationship between the senses and
the elements, one helpful in understanding the role of the senses and mind in
meditation.
If we analyze our automobile, for example,
we find all five elements represented.
It occupies space and is made up of space. The majority of its parts are composed of the
earth element: iron, chromium, aluminum, etc.
It breathes air which feeds the fire burning in its innards which is in
turn cooled by water. The body sitting
in the driver's seat, a breathing moving soul-vehicle, is also composed of the
same elements.
Space isn't tangibly elemental like the
other four but exists as a framework or support for the other elements. In the Self, our spiritual essence, the
object of meditation, there is no space.
The evolution of the cosmos requires a subtle material medium and
"space" is it, according to this theory.[60]
Before the cosmos began there was only
Consciousness, the Self - infinite, eternal Being. Then, for whatever reason, space, the
invisible substance that pervades the whole creation, emerged from the womb of
the Infinite. After which, space split
to make the air element and, having divided itself and recombined with a part
of the space element, made the fire element which went through the same
procedure to become water which, repeating the process once more, becomes the
earth element.
Although matter ultimately evolves from
Spirit, it passes through an intermediate or subtle state. The material elements are said to derive from
the subtle elements, but where do the subtle elements come from? To find the answer we have to back up a bit
more and dig around in the macrocosmic mind.
Just as a mighty oak potentially exists in a tiny acorn, the universe
potentially exists in an invisible or unmanifest "seed" condition in
the macrocosmic mind, the finest level of existence, comprised of three primary
energies. When these energies,[61]
light (sattva), activity (rajas), and inertia (tamas), are undifferentiated there is no
cosmos, a condition or state of perfect potential energy. When disturbed, for whatever reason, the
subtle and gross elements come into being and unfold the universe.[62]
Subtle elements make up mind,[63]
an interface between Pure Consciousness and the material world. They are fine energetic abstractions of the
material elements that sustain themselves in Consciousness with the help of
Chitta, an extremely subtle form of Consciousness that stores the footprints of
mind and matter as they evolve the universe.
You can glimpse them in the human personality which might be fiery
(passionate), airy (intellectual), earthy (practical), or watery (emotional) or
any permutation or combination thereof.
An inquiring mind might ask how, if
Consciousness is unchanging, It changes to become the universe, and the answer,
in the last metaphysical digression before we return to our analysis of experience,
is that it can and it can't. The
creative process is, according the non-dual school,[64]
not so much an actual physical reality, but a superimposition by a spiritually
unaware mind of change on the Changeless.
But once we buy into the idea that the superimposed reality is real,
analysis shows that the changes can be described with accuracy because they
consistently follow certain predictable universal laws.
The creation is elemental, a complex and
wondrous working out of gross and subtle material energies in
Consciousness. How does that affect
meditation?
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
MEDITATION
The story of the psychology of meditation
begins with the arising of the senses out of the elements. (Note
the upward moving arrows arising out of the elements in the upper left corner
of the fig. 1 below.) Our story line has the Self projecting the
macrocosmic mind, the forces of light, activity, and inertia activated, (the SRT characters in the "V"
section of diagram 1.) and the subtle elements, in an orgy of creative
energy, mixing and recombining to produce the material world. One day, when the mix is just right, the
first sense organ sticks its tiny eye out of the cosmic soup and peers around.
The five elements have five corresponding
properties which give rise to the five perceptive senses. For example, the property of space is
sound. The Self, Pure Consciousness
accurately referred to as the "unstruck sound" is spaceless and
therefore soundless. Matter, because it
is dualistic, constantly vibrates.
Excessive imagination is not required to see that if you have an ocean
of matter, energy in motion, eternally vibrating in space which, in turn is
superimposed on a limitless
Vedanta says that the properties of the five
gross elements - hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling - which make
it possible to know the elements, evolve from the light or sattvic aspect of the gross elements because knowledge requires
both physical and psychic light. The
organs are not the physical instruments but subtle psychic centers in the
Subtle Body
VEDIC MODEL OF THE
THREE BODIES
AND THEIR
RELATIONSHIP TO THE SELF
which
are capable of perceiving through physical instruments. It is said that air, whose property is touch,
creates skin; fire, whose property is heat/light generates form which makes
eyes possible; water, the medium of taste, evolves the tongue, and earth, a
mixture of all the preceding elements gives off smell which is ultimately
responsible for the fact that a nose protrudes from the front of our
faces. However it comes about, and you
may have your own theory, the inescapable fact is: the senses are somehow
intimately connected with the five material building blocks.
Enter the marvelous Mind. Sounds, sights, tastes, touches, and smells,
myriad sense stimuli constantly pouring in through five channels are
beautifully mixed by the Mind (see
"M" in the Subtle Body section of the diagram) to form one cogent
perception!
So the basis of experience is the contact of
the senses with the objects, symbolized by the five element model. Let's get away from the world hidden behind
the senses for a moment and consider an everyday situation. On the way to the supermarket a car ran a stop
sign and came hurtling at me. I
screamed, slammed on the breaks, and swerved the wheel, narrowly avoiding an
accident. Though it was the first time
such a thing happened, why did I react so swiftly and appropriately?
A speeding object emits stimuli which strike
on the retina causing the mind sends a signal to three of the five active
organs ( hands, feet, and speech) and the accident is avoided. In fact the mind's command to the senses was
the final step in an instinctual process going on at an even deeper level.[65] How did the mind know what to do?
When a situation requiring a response or
non-response develops, the mind passes the information upstairs to the
intellect for a determination. (Note the
right-moving arrow between "M" and "I".) To make an informed decision intellect has to
access the sub and Unconscious minds where the vasanas of previous personal and collective experience are stored
and available on request. (The arrows to the right of "I".) Like software accessing a hard drive, Intellect
first checks the personal subconscious for relevant experience. The vasanas,
more than passive mental pictures, are the dynamic residue of experience, the
essential link in the stimulus response chain.
If a similar situation had not occurred at some time in the past there
would be no information on record and the intellect couldn't make a timely
determination. In the event that no
similar personal experiences are available the collective mind, the
Unconscious, or "instinct" is accessed. When the stimulus in question is matched with
the appropriate response the intellect determines that a reaction is in order,
sends the information on to the ego, the boss of the inner world, (arrow moving down from "I" to
"E".) who commands the mind (arrow
moving upward to "M".) to activate (five descending left-moving arrows) the senses. The mind amplifies the subconscious fear
impression to insure a swift reaction.
This stimulus-response chain takes a fraction of a second and is the
essence of sense-motivated experience.
It may or may not be exactly like this
because models are never exactly the reality they purport to represent, but the
idea deserves consideration. Apart from
the nuts and bolts working of the mechanism one fact stands out: in addition to
the material level at least two other hidden layers of our being intimately
factor into our response to life: the subtle and the causal.
If, as the science of Self-Knowledge[66]
contends, there is a forth level,[67]
the Self, hidden within the subtle and behind the causal, how does it fit into
the stimulus response chain? Answer: it
doesn't, at least not directly.
Why? Because the
stimulus-response mechanism fixes our attention firmly in material
reality. Extroversion is the most salient feature of waking state consciousness
and the primary reason the Self, the only permanent source of fulfillment, is
effectively walled off from experience.
This is not to say that the Self, the essence of our being, is
uninvolved. Just as the sun makes all
earthly activity possible but does not directly participate in any activity,
the Self simply provides the consciousness-energy that makes the
body-mind-sense complex dynamic. How
it functions is up to the embodied being and its vasanas.
The senses, turned toward the elemental world,
are not the only means of knowledge and experience. Through coordinating sense impressions and
executing commands issuing from deeper layers of the pysche, the Mind, first
limb of the Subtle Body, has evolved a world of its own. In its passive aspect Mind, often called the
"heart,"[68]
tunes into or reads feelings and emotions
(Arrow between "M" and
"E" in upper left.) while simultaneously projecting a wide array
of positive and negative feelings: anger, jealousy, possessiveness, kindness,
love, sympathy, affection, etc. And like
the senses, nervously fixated on the material world, the mind is obsessively
riveted on the emotional world, constantly on guard against a negative impulse
from a hostile mind, alert to tender sympathies from kindred hearts. So concerned with safely navigating the peaks
and troughs of its windy emotional sea, it fails to appreciate the
extraordinary fact that it’s sailing on an ocean of pure Love.[69]
Intellect, the second limb of the Subtle
Body, thinks and chooses. The teachings
of Vedanta have evolved as a result of the spiritual needs of intellectually
developed beings. Because it is a little
subtler than the mind, a bit closer to the Self, the source of its
intelligence, it can become a powerful aid in the search for fulfillment just
as the mind, purified of negativities, may become a channel for pure love and a
powerful motivator for growth. (Intellect's preoccupation with the thought
and idea world is symbolized by the arrow pointing from "I" to
"T.")
Ego, the third member of the inner
triumvirate, is the will or individuality, the “I concept” through which the
Self functions. Unaware of its identity
with the Self, it becomes egoistic, believing itself separate from the world, from
others, and from the Self. The belief in
a separate self is nothing more than ego identifying with an accumulation of
tendencies and memories patched together to counteract the fear of its own
non-existence. Its belief in the reality
of a solid objective material world is a perverse attempt to compensate for a
deep insecurity in the face of the unstructured oceanic reality of
existence. Ego's concerns - action and
enjoyment, getting and keeping, and a host of others - stem directly from a
lack of Self knowledge.[70]
When the Subtle Body[71]
or conscious mind does not know that it is whole and complete Consciousness it
takes the things and beings in the material world to be reality. Because it feels incomplete it desires
objects and activities that it believes will complete it. Desire,
coupled with the natural extroversion of the Subtle Body necessitated by the
demands of the Gross Body, produces a completely extroverted instrument of
meditation.[72] Is it any wonder the instructions in the
verse to sit in a solitary place, free the mind from desires, control the
senses, and meditate with unswerving attention on the Self, seems like rocket
science? Successful meditation presupposes inner purity and an introverted
Subtle Body.[73]
If the Causal Body has been insufficiently
emptied, transcendence will not occur and meditation will simply involve
working through emotional and intellectual issues. Attempting meditation without a purification
life-style - sitting quietly in an out-of-the-way place thinking of God or
working with the breath- may result in temporary peace of mind but not in
consistent experience of the Self.
PURIFICATION
Therefore a program of purification must
accompany attempts to meditate.
"Pure" means uncontaminated.
Theoretically substances can be purified, but in practice nothing in
nature, the non-Self, exists in a pure state; the three bodies, for example,
are elemental aggregates. The Causal
Body, the meditator's primary obstacle, is part of macrocosmic nature and can
never be completely purified. Through diligent practice, however, it can be
cleansed to the point where meditation is spontaneous and deep. A purified Causal Body is relatively free of
projecting and veiling energies, about which more will be said presently.
The Subtle Body can be purified directly or
indirectly. Direct purifications are
peak experiences and epiphanies during which the mind is lifted up and put in
contact with the Self, the State of Meditation, by the application of a
spiritual or religious technique, the presence of a spiritually powerful
person, the Grace of God, and unknown causes, positive and negative. A great flood of spiritual energy, shakti,[74]
flows like a powerful river into the Causal Body spontaneously purging vasana-generated thought and emotion,
leaving the Subtle Body still and clear, a perfect surface in which to identify
the Self as It reflects on it like an image in a mirror. Usually unsolicited and the source of great
inspiration and faith, like everything in time, ephiphanies eventually wear off
because unhelpful vasanas extorvert
the mind again.
Indirect purification, the long-range view,
aims to purify the mind by consciously changing or removing samskaras, as illustrated below.
Unhelpful
vasanas dominate the mind pictured on the left completely extroverting the
attention factor and creating such a disturbance that the Self is
obscured. (note the small white arrows pointing toward “O,” “E,” and “T,” Objects,
Emotions, and Thoughts) In the mind
represented on the right unhelpful programming has been largely exhausted (note the absence of “v’s” in the outer ring,
the Causal Body) causing the centers turn inward, (the small white arrows pointing toward the Self) giving them a
relatively constant perception of the Self.
Programming, the vasanas, can be helpful or unhelpful. The type of programming is determined by the
attitude obtaining when the action that produced the vasana was performed. Vasanas are helpful when they produce harmonious
thought and feeling states, unhelpful when they agitate the Subtle Body,
extrovert the attention and challenge concentration on subtle objects. Unhelpful vasanas are produced by the
performance of activities, including thoughts and feelings that emanate from
spiritually unaware states of mind.
Because I don't know I'm an already
peaceful, pleasurable being, i.e. the Self, I try to get peace and pleasure
from a cigarette. Though short-term
pleasure may be experienced[75]
the practice is counterproductive because the meditator ends up concentrating
on the body, reinforcing identification with it, and producing a dull state of
mind. Smokers can usually meditate only
after smoking, when the desire is temporarily submerged. Were a meditative state achieved by a smoker
it would undoubtedly disappear with the next craving. The systematic destruction of the body causes
increasing mental and emotional agitation, further reducing Self/self awareness.
Actions motivated by selfishness and
excessive concern for results produce unhelpful vasanas. For example,
unaware that love is my nature, I crave it through others, and uncomfortably
saddle myself with an agitated emotion-dominated mind.[76]
Fear-motivated actions produce negative vasanas.
Worry about the body, health, money, gain or loss distracts the mind
until it loses the power to enjoy to such an extent that worldly pleasures no
longer satisfy it, let alone the bliss of meditation.
Desire-prompted activities produce unhelpful
vasanas. Greed, pride, lust, deceit...religion's seven
deadly sins...extrovert and stir the mind making it unfit for meditation.
WHAT TO DO?
Consuming and enjoying x produces an attraction vasana
for x. Consuming and not enjoying produces an
aversion vasana for x.[77] Without an action, subtle and/or gross, a vasana will not be produced.[78] When experience takes place and the mind is
free of attraction and aversion no vasanas
are produced. If x is not consumed when the vasana
for it explodes in the Subtle Body, it
does not recycle but is removed from the Causal Body, assuming it is
acknowledged, not reinforced by longing, or repressed. Repressed desires come back. Therefore, it is possible to add, change, or
delete vasanas.
A person developed colon cancer and needed
an operation. The doctor cut the abdomen
to remove the cancer and caused the patient’s death. Though the operation was unsuccessful, the
doctor was lauded for a noble attempt to save a life. Another man walking down a dark alley after
the bars closed was accosted by a mugger who thrust a knife in his abdomen,
killing him instantly. The robber was
vilified and sent to prison for life. In
both cases the cause of death was the same, a knife to the gut, but the killers
suffered quite different fates. Were the
action itself inherently evil the doctor would be doing time; were it
inherently good the mugger would have gone scot-free. Actions in themselves are neither spiritual
nor unspiritual, helpful or unhelpful, good or bad. If the
motivating attitude is the critical ingredient in the production of helpful or
unhelpful vasanas, it stands to
reason that changing the nature of the motivation will have an effect on the vasana.
CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE
To change our attitudes we have to
cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness or
self-awareness is constantly compromised because the vasanas extrovert the attention factor. Mindfulness is paying
attention to and identifying attitudes, especially those which ego prefers to
keep in the dark.[79] Altering behavior without changing the
underlying attitude does not result in purification and spiritual growth. The action vasanas may be obliterated but not the attitude vasanas, resulting in an agitated Subtle
Body. An alcoholic who quits drinking
but retains the psychology of drunk is a case in point.
Attitudes can be binding or
non-binding. Binding attitudes[80]
produce extroverting vasanas and
mitigate against meditation. The
following attitudes enhance agitating samskaras:
fear, desire, attachment, pain, guilt, dishonesty, obsession, compulsion,
pride, vanity, envy, jealousy, anger, fantasy, delusion, depression,
selfishness, concern for results, and others.
A non-binding attitude produces a
non-binding vasana and/or exhausts an
existing vasana. Non-binding attitudes are: selflessness,
compassion (object-motivated love), forgiveness, acceptance, indifference,
dispassion, and joy. Non-binding
attitudes are called yogas,[81]
states of mind that neutralize likes and dislikes, purify the Causal Body and
make the Subtle Body meditation-worthy.
Spiritual practice is Subtle Body work,
attitude adjustment. The three yogas
purify the three inner centers: action yoga
purifies Ego, love yoga purifies
Mind, and knowledge yoga purifies
Intellect.[82] A purified Subtle Body displays stable
geometry, like an isosceles triangle. No
longer under intense pressure from unhelpful vasanas, its centers turn inward, fuse together, and meditate
naturally on the Self. When the Causal Body
has been purified and anxiety for results abandoned, the mind rests comfortably
and joyfully in the present, taking what comes with equanimity. The three centers respect each other’s turf
and cooperate to present a unified front to a changing and uncertain
world. In a purified Subtle Body,
Intellect, schooled in the science of the Self, cheerfully presents a
dispassionate and discriminating view to both Ego and Mind whose clarity is
regularly compromised by excessive passion and emotion. Refusing to unduly push a personal agenda, it
counsels a balanced response in all situations and, in highly-evolved persons,
turns its formidable power of observation on itself, ferreting out
poorly-conceived plans, incorrect analyses, and emotion-dominated conclusions.
In the best of all possible inner worlds,
Mind, ordinarily handmaiden to a needy and selfish Ego, resists egoic desires,
loves purely and faithfully, and refuses to disturb Subtle Body equilibrium
with petty conceits, insecurities, and ill-conceived inflations - all the while
offering support to Intellect's well-thought-out sadhanas[83]. A well-balanced, satisfied emotional self is
an essential condition of Self realization.
The tendency to operate exclusively from the
emotional center is not conducive to Subtle Body harmony, and causes much
suffering. Because unhealthy emotions
are the result of incorrect views about oneself and reality, during initial
phases of unrestrained ego-motivated devotion, the meditator should take extra
pains to develop discrimination and dispassion.
The third limb of a purified Subtle Body,
Ego, often considered the villain in the piece, should be strong and confident,
not necessarily because it has successfully negotiated life, but because it has
the courage to follow its spiritual inclinations. Ideally Ego strength should come from the
realization that happiness comes through serving a noble ideal, Self
realization, for example. A mature ego,
mindful of its dependence on subjective and objective factors, will carefully
heed Intellect's counsel, respect Mind's feelings and intuitions, and refuse to
play inner politics, promoting harmony and inner unity.
THE PATH OF ACTION
The ego is that part in each of us that has
split from the Self and set up business on its own. A product of Self ignorance, bedeviled by an
unappeasable emptiness, it is a synonym for desire, the fear-driven power
thought to correct the (unconscious) separation from the Self. Desire implies action, and the ego is a doer,
eager to act on the belief that the joy is in the object.[84]
ACTIONS HAVE
RESULTS
Prudent individuals consider the
consequences of their actions because every action or non-action performed in
the field of Consciousness produces specific results. For example, we take employment and a check
comes two weeks later. Teeth are brushed
so cavities don't develop. However, no
matter how seemingly intelligent on the surface, performance of actions solely for intended results is spiritually
unwise because attention, which should be concentrated on the skillful
performance of the action, is dissipated by anxious concern for results. A child can be so concerned with an imagined
result that it misses the pleasure of its trip to the zoo and is heard to say,
"Are we having fun yet, mommy?"
How many job assignments have been hopelessly botched and thoroughly
unenjoyed because of performance anxiety?
A person suffers through school to get a job, gets the job to support a
family, produces the family to enjoy retirement; yet at every stage the fullness
of the present is unappreciated because of an unhealthy fixation on the
future. Excessive concern for result can
cast a gloomy penumbra over our lives, agitating the Subtle Body and denying us
the full pleasure of meditation in action.
MEDITATION IN
ACTION
The remedy is to perform the action for its
own sake. Understand possible
consequences beforehand, but switch attention off the result to the performance
of the action itself. When attention is fully engaged in action,
thought or feeling (subtle actions), it enters the moment, hopefully transcends
the mind, and experiences the Self.
And, truth to tell, a fully-enjoyed and efficiently-performed action is
more likely to materialize an intended result than one deprived of the mind's
attention. Finally, action from this
"here and now" state breaks the vasana
for results, purifying the Subtle Body of pernicious extroverting waves.
WATCH OUT FOR THE
EGO
Action yoga
demands a change of attitude toward action.
Instead of thinking it has been brought to earth to attain happiness
through action and the accumulation of self-defined results, the ego is
encouraged to define life's goal as Self realization. Action yoga
does not destroy the ego, remove it from daily life, or condemn it to specific
religious activities, but purifies its relationship to the body and the
world. In the short run, however,
because of a perceived threat to the ego, the practice of action yoga may cause disturbance and hinder
meditation. In fact, action yoga, because it produces resistance,
offers an excellent way to identify ego and coax it out from behind its wall of
self-serving rationalizations and deceits.
Enough theory. How does it work? First, all actions, even the most trivial,
are consecrated, dedicated at the altar of one’s choosing, and the results
renounced. Results dedicated to a higher altar accrue to the altar's account
rather than to the ego's. For
example, I want a new automobile. Before
acting to manifest the desire, I should examine my motives. Will the automobile make it easier to
practice meditation? If the present
vehicle won't get me to work, and I need work to support myself and take care
of obligations (so I have time to meditate), the purchase of a vehicle qualifies
as action yoga. This technique calls for great integrity
because the ego is not above using spiritual ideas to justify unspiritual
impulses. If the motivation is
capricious- luxury or status, for example - the actions will conflict with
spiritual values, agitating the mind and reinforcing unhelpful samskaras.
Assuming the reasons are not frivolous, in
an attitude of love and service, action yoga enjoins one to consciously dedicate
the endeavor at beginning, a practice meant to hold one’s ideal (hopefully Self
realization) in consciousness. When
actions are performed for someone or something other than one’s ego, the
disturbing and extroverting waves caused by anxiety over results are effaced.[85] Actions dedicated to causes and ideals,
particularly those fueled by a sense of injustice or unexamined motives, do not
necessarily qualify as action yoga
because the cause, like nationalism, for instance, may be the result of group
ego - as unreal one's own.
COUNT YOUR
BLESSINGS
Dedication at the
onset of action should be balanced by an attitude of gratitude when results,
positive or negative, accrue.
Each life experience, no matter how trivial, is a fructification of
previous actions and provides an excellent opportunity for practicing gratitude
- even when unwanted results manifest.
For example, a man took a flight from
DESIRE IS STRESS
One major source of agitation is the ego’s
belief that the likelihood of a favorable consequence is enhanced by desire for
that outcome. But if the results of
actions were a consequence of desire everyone who bought a lottery ticket would
win the lottery. The desire for a
particular result plays a bit part in the fructification of results.[86]
The nature of the action, the condition of
the field in which the action is initiated, the availability of the intended
object, and the desires of others vying for the same result ultimately
determine the result. Finally, intense
desire for an object, because it disturbs the mind, often compromises
appropriate and timely action, mitigating against reaping the intended result.
WHAT WILL BE WILL
BE
With actions consecrated and the desire for
the results renounced,[87]
the anxiety for the result (stress) that usually accompanies the interval
between the initiation of an action and its result does not recycle - making
the mind more meditative because it relieves the ego of stress as it does its
doings. Consistently practiced, action yoga
slowly chips off vasana accretions
and lets the meditator enjoy a dynamic life as it simultaneously prepares the
mind for meditation.
Occasionally, because ego is excessively
identified with a spiritually unhealthy desire, consecration and the
renunciation of the fruits of action produces noticeable short-term mental
turbulence. Addictions and compulsions
are examples of encrusted desires or fears which, though inimical to spiritual
growth, produce strong reactions in the Subtle Body when we try to work on
them. Conversely, not every action that
makes us temporarily feel good is spiritually beneficial. On the basis of short-term benefits a
seemingly spiritual case can be made for pursuing sense pleasures in that their
immediate effect is often a feeling of wholeness and contentment. But in the long run sense pursuit does not
qualify as spiritual practice because it produces binding vasanas which manifest as deep attachment to the senses and
emotions.
THE PATH OF
KNOWLEDGE
THINK FROM THE SELF
If action yoga recommends a change in attitude toward action, knowledge yoga requires a change in the way we think. Because Intellect is ordinarily under the
influence of Ego, its ideas are not in harmony with reality. Knowledge yoga
aims to detach Intellect from Ego and train it to think from the Self.
“Thinking from the Self” means that
impersonal truth, not personal prejudice, becomes the center of one's thought
life, the point from which thoughts originate and to which they return.
Self ignorance manifests first as a confused
and unrealistic thought life which trickles down to disturb and delude the
emotions, eventually contaminating one’s contact with the outer world. Because it eliminates incorrect,
ignorance-born ego-centered thoughts, reality-based knowledge produces an
harmonious, clear, and luminous Subtle Body, one suited to meditation and self
inquiry.[88]
The yoga
of knowledge relies on Intellect's power of discrimination, analysis, and
inquiry to effect changes. Before
charging into the spiritual fray armed with personal opinions, ill-considered
ideas, beliefs, and superstitions, the meditator will be well-served to make a
systematic and dispassionate study of his or her chosen path. A clear idea of the Self and the nature of
enlightenment, the three bodies and states, and the methods of purification
removes many obstacle from the path.
This knowledge is not merely
"intuition" or "guidance" which, like book knowledge, is
subject to interpretation and misapplication, filtering through ego's
well-entrenched prejudices, fears, and desires, but should be carefully imparted
by a compassionate Self realized teacher skilled in the methods of
transmission.
Atma Bodh is a basic path of knowledge text.
Meditation and Self knowledge go hand in
hand. Transcendence in itself,
experience of the Self, is not liberation because it is subject to change,
owing to the power of unpurified samskaras
to generate samsaric[89]
experience. However, transcendence
reveals the Self and facilitates discrimination, not only during transcendental
episodes, when it is especially powerful, but later in normal ego states, owing
to an increase of knowledge-based faith brought on by the experience.
The Self knowledge arising from
discrimination, like meditation technique, produces transcendence in and of
itself. Like the oroboros, the mythical
creature that ingests itself, Intellect, skillfully applying knowledge, can
gobble Subtle Body phenomena so effectively the waves subside completely,
producing transcendence.
MEDITATION
Nothing purifies like experience of the
Self which releases a flood of healing, cleansing spiritual energy into the
conscious and unconscious minds.
Although most epiphanies wear off in a matter of hours, occasionally
days, they produce spiritual vasanas
which inspire practice and keep the mind focused on the goal. Practiced diligently, meditation techniques,
purify the mind because they bring awareness to unholy patterns of thought and
feeling.
Transcendence does not conflict with
purification. When the meditator
transcends the mind and begins to see from the plane of the Self, the need to
"maintain" consciousness dissolves, since the Self is effortless
Awareness. Knowledge of the mind's
patterns and complexes is more accurate from the Self's point of view than knowledge
derived from a witness created out of one part of the mind. Secondly, transcendence breaks attachment to
the mind, making it easier to purify.
Finally, transcendence can produce Self
knowledge, the ultimate purifier.[90] In fact, the Self realized meditator realizes
the absurdity in trying to purify something that will again become impure
without more sadhana. The purpose of purification is not to become
pure but to create a problem-free mind, one that can calmly make an inquiry
into the Self. Self realization is the
discovery that one is pure by default.
THE ROPES
In conjunction with the extroverting force
of the samskaras and the development
of Ego,[91]
three additional Causal Body factors color everyday experience and impact on
meditation. Because no psychological,
spiritual, or philosophical system except the Vedic has articulated this aspect
of psychic and cosmic reality so carefully, and because English words don't do
it justice, I’ve retained the Sanskrit terms.
Evolved before the psyche and gross matter, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas in their Causal condition cannot
be known by the senses. However, they
can be inferred by observing the texture of thought, feeling, and behavior
patterns.
Sattva,
Rajas, and Tamas are called "gunas,"[92]
which translates as "ropes" and "qualities." The vaguely pejorative "rope" idea
implies that these three energies bind the Self, Consciousness, to its psychic
and physical creations. In fact the Self
is always transcendent, but, for a technical reason,[93]
apparently gets caught up in Its creations.
To free the ever-free Self from Its apparent identification with
material and psychic reality, knowledge of the gunas is extremely valuable.
The rope metaphor is useful in that it invokes the sense of three
interweaving strands of energy making up the whole creation.
SATTVA
The meaning of "Sattva" can be divined from its root "sat," another name for the Self,
which means "reality," "being," "truth." Consciousness as "sat" indicates the Self's quality of awareness or light. As such "sattva," which has been assigned the color white, is the
principle of light or knowledge in the universe. The perceptive senses discussed above[94]
evolved from the sattvic aspect of
the creation. The senses beam
"light," Consciousness, onto the sense objects, illumining them and
making them known, experienceable. Sattva is not physical light. The knowledge of sound, for instance, is
possible because the sattvic element
in the hearing center in the Subtle Body "illumines" the sounds
coming in from the material world - and so on for all the senses.
Put together, the sattvic elements in the five perceptive senses provide the
foundation for the evolution of the mind, the knowing instrument. The mind knows what it knows because of Sattva's luminous reflective quality.[95] Sattva
is not sentient but acts like a mirror, accurately reflecting Consciousness.
Because there is no creativity without knowledge, the creative functions of the
mind are completely dependent on Sattva. And the physical body is healthiest and least
prone to disease when the sattvic
component dominates the subtle body. To
creatively correct imbalances and dysfunction in the physical and psychological
systems, accurate knowledge is essential.
The "being" aspect of Sattva inclines the mind to peace. When the mind is peaceful the healing and
creative powers of Consciousness, instead of dissipating into excess mental
activity or becoming veiled by sloth, flood directly into the body, washing
away blockages in the physiological systems, purifying the nerve channels,[96]
invigorating cellular life.
A predominately sattvic mind is termed "pure," uncontaminated by large
proportions of Rajas and Tamas.
When the mind is sattvic,
clarity of thought occurs, insight is commonplace, intuition active,
discrimination precise, dispassion profound, and meditation possible.
Sattva
is responsible for intelligence. A mind
under the influence of this guna is
capable of long flights into subtle realms.
All occasions of vast knowing and deep understanding depend on the sattvic quality. Sattva
conduces the mind to happiness because it accurately reflects the joy inherent
in the Self.
RAJAS
Creativity involves three factors:
intelligence, substance, and activity. For
example, to make a pot, clay, an idea in the potter's mind, and the energy to
shape the clay is required. While Sattva
provides the intelligence to shape a creation, and Tamas the substance, the dynamic energy shaping all creative
activity is called Rajas. Atomic power, thermodynamics, volcanic
activity, the movement of the seas and winds, the physiological and nervous
systems, and the power to move the mind and emotions are due to the influence
of Rajas. Wherever there is motion, activity, Rajas is at work. The five physiological systems and the five
active organs, hands, feet, speech, the anus and sex, evolve from Rajas.
Psychologically, a mind dominated by Rajas, like a high-frequency transmitter
in a sealed container, projects intense waves of thought and feeling. Though highly prized by goal-oriented
persons, coffee drinkers especially, for its power to temporarily activate the
mind, rajasic projections reverberate
in the mind creating confusion, eventually delusion, and ultimately loss of discrimination.
Rajas,
symbolized by the color red, is termed the "mode of passion." A person who doesn't know who he or she is,
consciously and/or unconsciously experiences profound a sense of emptiness. Not knowing the origin, one erroneously
assumes that possessing and enjoying certain objects will erase the
feeling. Because the objects of desire
do not automatically fall into one's lap, a great deal of activity, mental,
emotional, and physical, is necessary to manifest them. Desire-prompted activity such as ambition,
for example, is synonymous with stress, the effects of which are
well-known. Rajas creates continual static noise in the mind, efficiently
draining energy.
Because of a fiery nature, Rajas purifies the water elements from
the subtle and physical bodies producing a feeling of thirst and
attachment. Persons suffering from an
excess of Rajas tend to be
emotionally needy and mentally distressed, forced into a life of unceasing
activity in an attempt to possess and acquire what has not been gained, and to
protect and insure what has.
In spite of its dynamism, a mind dominated
by Rajas inevitably becomes a
powerful spiritual enemy because its intense mental waves - greed, aggression,
desire, restlessness, anxiety, and longing - obscure the shining of the Self,
the source of peace and happiness. Rajasic people suffer greatly because Rajas forces them to project the content
of their subconscious onto the world outside.
As a result they have problematic relationships, little contact with
their true feelings, and virtually no Self knowledge.
TAMAS
Tamas, the dark third
strand in the psychic rope, is known in spiritual psychology as the
"veiling" energy. On the
metaphysical level the term refers to a state of mind that veils, or is veiled
from, the Self. Because the Self's
gentle loving light does not apparently illumine the mind, the person lives in
spiritual darkness. Fear is a natural
reaction to the dark and when we're fearful we hide, so tamasic people are continually hiding - from themselves, the world,
and God. The best way to hide is to
sleep, so sleep, including all its waking forms, sensual indulgence and the
like, is pursued with vigor. Sleep is a
symbol for ignorance, and tamasic
persons are ignorant, not only of the Self but also of themselves and goings-on
in the world.
Tamas,
all that is heavy and sleeping in nature, is the power of inertia and entropy
inherent in things. Physical substance,
solidity, substantiality, and insentiency evolve from Tamas. An indispensable
force, it is responsible for the most universally loved and necessary activity
- sleep. Without it the mind would never
rest and the organism would die.
On a psychological level, moderate Tamas conduces to a practical earthy
intelligence, a preponderance to ignorance, dullness, inadvertence, lethargy,
depression, and sloth. Just as Rajas is responsible for the universal
tendency to project, Tamas is
responsible for an equally universal tendency - veiling or denial. When the mind sits under its delusory cloud, the
soul can't distinguish between the real and unreal, nor accurately assess its
own strengths and weaknesses, nor keep the mind fixed on goals. A preponderantly tamasic mind is spiritually useless because its heavy clouds cover
the luminous nature of the mind, making meditation and Self realization
impossible.
Tamas
inspires the tendency to escape one's duties and responsibilities, discourages
ambitious undertakings, and leads to a sensuous, inadvertent and miserable
life, one plagued by accidents, losses, and mistakes. An excess of Tamas in the subtle body creates conditions suitable for disease
because it blocks the flow of shakti,
the energizing and healing power of the Self, to the physiological and cellular
levels.
When the gunas
are balanced, the body and mind are healthy and the soul relatively happy. Unfortunately the gunas are in a state of continual flux; one predominates for a few
hours, then a second, and finally a third, so that throughout the day one may
experience intense activity, moments of clarity, and mind-numbing dullness.
Experience has demonstrated a direct
connection between mental and emotional pain and a predominance of Rajas and Tamas relative to Sattva. Because the mind is the instrument of
meditation and knowledge, it has also been noted that a preponderance of the
light element is conducive to meditation and Self realization. When the mind is covered with tamasic clouds perception is veiled and
knowledge, therefore, inaccurate. Like a
strong wind rajasic projections whip the
mind into frenzied waves, distorting perception and knowledge.
Three buckets of water stand in front of a
white wall. The sun reflects off the
water producing three reflected suns on the wall. A strong wind roiling the contents of the
first bucket produces a dancing image of the sun on the wall. The second, filled with muddy water, produces
a dull dark spot, and the third containing clear and still water generates an
accurate reflection of the sun. If the
purpose of meditation is Self realization and the mind is the instrument
through which the Self is known, it stands to reason that accurate
identification of the Self depends on a clear still mind.
PURE MIND
Experience has proven an ironclad
connection between the state of positive happiness and a pure mind, one capable
of channeling Self bliss into the emotional plane, reflecting Self intelligence
off the intellectual plane, uplifting and divinizing thought, and pouring the shakti into the body to create radiant
health and a dynamic life.
When the meditator consistently feels a
sense of uncaused happiness and unexplained peace the mind is pure. Happiness can't be attributed to a specific
situation, change in status, person or persons, belief or belief system, the
presence or absence of a physical object, or any other worldly item. Secondly, a pure mind is free of the belief
that attainment of objects or accomplishment of activities will increase one’s
sense of well-being. Desire is no longer
compulsive, indicating that Rajas has
been reduced to a manageable level.
Because Tamas is controlled,
perception is accurate and knowledge true to its object, allowing the
individual to make decisions based on fact, and not on unconscious
projections. Finally, spontaneous and
deep meditations happen automatically, or are produced with minimum effort.
Complete purification of Rajas and Tamas is neither possible nor desirable. A small proportion of Tamas is necessary for grounding
experience, both worldly and spiritual, and a larger proportion of Rajas underwrites the vitality necessary
to purify the mind. But the aim of all
spiritual and religious work is to see that the lion's share of the mind is sattvic.
A sattvic mind is
meditation-worthy, capable of discriminative Self inquiry.
A SIMPLE TECHNIQUE
The verse asks the meditator to “meditate with
unswerving attention on the Self.”
Practiced properly the following technique will introduce the meditator
to the Self.
THE BODY
No particular physical position is required
for this type of meditation, although a number of the meditative poses
suggested by Hatha Yoga may be useful even though they were designed for a
different type of sadhana.[97] Difficult poses like the full and half-lotus
are not recommended unless the body feels comfortable in them from the
beginning. In
ATTITUDE
On the mental level the pose should be
kingly or queenly: gracious, upright, poised, noble, and generous. A careful, sensitive, inquiring state of
mind, like a botanist patiently examining a delicate flower, is suggested. The meditator should think of meditation as
an afternoon on the beach, not a shift in the mines.
With the eyes closed, settle in.
What's next?
Ask for help. Obviously, if you knew who you were you
wouldn't be meditating in the first place, so by sitting you are really saying
you don't know anything, the most essential ingredient for a successful
meditation. Most meditators believe in a
higher power, God, a spirit guide, guru figure, the saints, the universe,
"guidance," a deity - whatever.
Irrespective of the invocation's form , the Self, all-knowing
Consciousness, which hears every thought and feeling, understands the need and
will respond appropriately. The Self
sneaked the meditation idea into the mind in the first place so the meditator
needn't worry. Everything that needs to
happen will happen. The more fervent the
prayer, the better - the squeaky wheel gets the grease
Make a resolution to leave your worries
behind. It's good to meditate in a place
not used for other activities. Feel
satisfied you are making an effort to meditate.
Third, clear the mind of memories of previous meditations, good or
bad. Trying to improve on a bad meditation
or reproduce a good one is futile and only agitates the mind.
BODY SCAN
After the invocation scan and relax the
body from the feet up. If you have a
hard time relaxing use a little visualization.
Imagine you’re a warm peaceful light-filled ball of consciousness inside
your feet and expand until the feet feel hollow. Next bore your way up the legs hollowing out
the ankles, knees, and hips. Take your
time. It may seem a silly trick but it
works because the body is actually a vast field of consciousness, not a
constipated little scrap of meat. If the
"ball" doesn't work use any method you wish to relax your way up the
legs. Because they are associated with
waste removal the stomach and abdominal organs often carry negative energy, so
spend a bit of time working in this area.
Move up and explore the chest.
Its association with the emotional center causes angry and unforgiving
feelings to lodge there, so the muscles are often tight. Scan leisurely, leaving it light-filled and
relaxed, then move up to the neck and shoulders. Much mental tension accumulates here so take
your time. When it's relaxed move out to
the tips of the fingers and hollow out the arms like you did the legs. Then redo the neck and shoulders.
The face we carry around in the world
usually isn't our real face so we need to do something to get it back to
normal. Work around the chin, mouth, and
cheeks first and then up to the eyes and forehead. You'll find lots of tiny little vibrations
hovering around these regions so release the muscles supporting them and let
them dissipate. A smile or frown means
too much energy's been left behind. Aim
for the indifferent look of a Buddha or the peaceful face of the dead.
The idea behind all this scanning and
relaxing is to prepare the body for your exit.
It might be helpful to think of the body as an automobile and yourself
as the driver. The driver has returned
from a long day on the road, is going to park the car in the garage, and enter
his or her warm comfortable home for the evening. Before you park it for good, check the whole
thing to see that it's snug in its seat and turn your attention to the breath.
THE BREATH
The breath, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed,
goes in and out nicely on its own. The
idea is to watch the breath, not breathe consciously, although you may notice
that observing the breath consciousizes it a bit. Not to worry.
It will soon settle down and return to its normal pattern. Because it means ego, control is
unnecessary. The point of meditation is
to relax, not just physically but mentally.
Watching the breath occupies the mind with a simple rhythmic
object. Because it wants glamour and
excitement, the mind quickly grows bored, a sign you’re proceeding
properly. Watching the breath is
boring. But boring's good. Learning to enjoy boredom is one of the
benefits of meditation.
At this point give the mind a job. Train your attention to “ride” on the breath
as it goes in and out. When the breath
is out the attention should flow out and when the breath comes flowing in, the
attention comes with it, as if sitting on an upside-down swing.
Of course, the mind will wander. Pull it back and synchronize it with the
breath. It needn’t ride perfectly on
every breath. Don't get upset if it
doesn't work immediately. Take your
time.
Meditation's not about the breath
anyway. The breath’s only a tool. How long should one work with it? There's no hard and fast rule, sometimes five
or ten minutes, sometimes longer. It
just depends. What you're looking for is
a sign that the mind is getting quiet because the mind stills quickly when
synchronized with the breath.
If you see that the mind and breath are
synchronizing use surplus attention to release pent-up thoughts and feelings on
the outbreath. Don't relate to or
analyze the thoughts/feelings at this point, simply pay attention to what
you're doing, and let the mind empty on its own. Just as the outbreath cleanses the body,
releasing thoughts detoxifies the mind.
From a meditative perspective the meditator’s relationship to the
thoughts is more important than the thoughts themselves. Later, when you're seeing from the Self, you
may wish to analyze them, even though ultimately all thoughts are basically useless. At this point don't worry about losing them,
they'll be back. The mind will never
completely empty, so don't worry. The
point of meditation is to take a little pressure off and help it quiet down.
THE SILENCE[98]
The mind is becoming quiet when you become
conscious of all sorts of sounds of which you were previously unaware - like
going to sleep. You never hear the clock
ticking until you want to sleep precisely because the mind, formerly occupied
with its thoughts, is emptying. You may
hear the heart beat, the scratching of the breath as it goes in and out,
snippets of conversation taking place blocks away, the hum of the kitchen
refrigerator, a fly buzzing lazily in the adjoining room. The thoughts may be amplified, larger than
life, or slower as if slogging through molasses. You might start picking up on
them as they start rather than midway through their cycle.
You will notice these things because you are
now surrounded by a bubble of Silence which, depending on the quietude of the
mind, may hardly be noticeable or roar as it does out on the great plains in
the dead of a summer night.
When the Silence appears as a tangible
presence, take your attention from the breath and fix it on the Silence. Because it's served its purpose the breath
should drop out of consciousness, or seem very light, faint, far away,
irrelevant. Sometimes the mind gets
completely swallowed by the silence and you find yourself deep within your
Self, unaware of the breath, the noises in the room, your thoughts, absolutely
everything - a state similar to conscious sleep. Time dissolves and you are overcome with an
ecstatic peacefulness, difficult to describe.
Many unusual experiences can happen when the
mind is quiet. Let them happen, don't
cling. All experience, like thought, is
essentially transitory, not subject to ego control. And the purpose of meditation is not to
produce specific pleasurable experiences but to inquire into the nature of the
Self and the mind.
Usually the mind remains partially active
and the senses report information but the thoughts and sounds appear into and
disappear out of the Silence like phantoms.
The silent peaceful Awareness in which they appear is experienced as a
rocklike, real, luminous and eternal presence.
The experience of the Silence is the essence of meditation because it
lets the meditator observe first hand the insubstantiality and unreality of the
body/mind instrument in a way reading books and listening to lectures can never
do.
If the ego insists on intruding, making
itself uncomfortable in the Silence, trying to distract like a needy child,
teach it to surrender, allowing the thoughts and feelings to arise and fall
without interference. Think of the
Silence as the altar of the inner temple and take pleasure witnessing the
thoughts and feelings arise out of and disappear back into It. The
discipline of meditation involves a struggle with the ego to keep attention
fixed on the Silence. If the Silence
is particularly deep or radiant the ego will be so stunned it will surrender
completely, like an awestruck kid at a carnival. But this is not always the case, not because
the Silence is unattractive, but because powerful samskaras carry the meditator’s mind far afield.
The meditation is not creating the silence,
although it may seem so. The Silence is
the substratum of all experience, the self-luminous Consciousness that is the
source of every perception. The
technique simply withdraws enough consciousness from the body and mind to allow
the ever-present and apparently-hidden Silence to manifest.
DISCRIMINATION
At this point a path to nirivikalpa samadhi, the state of mind
without thought opens up. Nir means “without” and vikapla “thought.” To achieve this state the Silence needs to be
allowed to absorb all vikalpas,
Subtle Body activities, very difficult practice in so far as one never knows
how thick and deep the samskaras
producing the thoughts and feelings actually are. Yogis sometimes take twenty or thirty years
to attain this virtually inaccessible state.
Getting rid of the thoughts is difficult enough but getting rid of the
watcher, the ego, the mind’s most subtle thought, is nearly impossible. The state itself is indescribable because the
ego, the one who might describe it is gone.
And since the mind is dead, no objects appear in Consciousness to
describe. Nirvikalpa samadhi is a
kind of unconscious enlightenment or negative liberation but without anyone
there, except the Self, to enjoy it. And
to the Self it’s no more interesting than a state of mind with thought, since
the presence or absence of thoughts has nothing to do with the Self and It
requires no concentration or meditation to achieve this state because it’s nirvalkapa, without thoughts, by
nature. One doesn’t speak of
discrimination in this state because there’s nothing to discriminate. At best, it like a conscious sleep without
any world, the ultimate spiritual drug.
And Self knowledge can’t take place because there’s no one there to
receive it. Therefore, should the
meditator/ego happen to return to the world he or she will not be enlightened
since his or her Self ignorance will not have been removed. If the meditator can realize through
discrimination that he or she is the Self, there will be no need to turn the
mind into a void.
To discriminate or inquire a discriminator
and two objects are necessary. And the
meditation described above fulfills this condition. We have the Self in the form of Silence and the
not-Self in the form of the mind, and a wide awake meditator armed with enough
information to permit discrimination.
Once the discrimination is made the trick
is to identify the meditator, who seems to be observing the Self as an object, as
the Self. The texts describing
this state say that when this happens the subject and object “become” one. In fact there’s no “becoming” because they
are already one. So it’s just a
discovery, or re-discovery as the case may be, of something very familiar but
somehow forgotten.
During the discrimination the questions that
arise can only be answered by realizing that the answers and the questions are
“not self” or by realizing that the questioner is the Self, in which case all
questioning ceases. The point of discrimination is not to get an experience of the Self
since one already has that, but to remove the ignorance that is causing the
meditator to confuse the Self and the not Self. Once the ignorance is removed the meditator
remains as the Self. And the not self
“disappears.”
The disappearance of the not-self is either
conditional or unconditional.
Unconditional disappearance is illustrated by the example of the snake
and the rope.[99] Knowledge of the rope causes the snake to
disappear for good.
Conditional disappearance, equal to
unconditional disappearance in every way, allows for a slightly different
perception. When the knowledge that the
water appearing on hot desert sands is realized to be a projection of the
senses, the water does not disappear - but the observer does not rush out to drink. This why enlightenment is called jnanam, knowledge, and has nothing to do
with whether the mind is empty or not or whether one is enjoying a particular
“spiritual” state of mind.
In one case the world is not perceived as
anything other than the Self and in the other the world is seen as an unreal
superimposition on the Self. In both
cases the Seer is free of the seen and
will not chase object happiness because the pleasure of knowing oneself as
the Self cannot be surpassed.
“The
meditator should merge the entire world
of
objects in the Self alone and experiencing it
as
uncontaminated as the sky.”
(38)
For the one who’s abandoned the quest for
object happiness, is "peaceful of heart, calm of mind, and desirous of
Liberation,"[100] the
knowledge enshrined here outlines the subtle experiment that will dispel the
confusion caused by the long-standing association of the Self with its
instruments.
The “merger” referred to in this verse is
accomplished by withdrawing attention from the thoughts in the mind, the
objects. The state of deep sleep, which
is a fitting, if provocative, symbol of enlightenment, is only accessible when
one’s thoughts and feelings (“ the objects” and, of course, the thinker/feeler
ego,) have been “merged” or dissolved into sleep. This meditation might be accurately described
as waking “sleep.”
The “merger” in sleep is a letting go of the
thoughts and feelings keeping the Subtle Body active. As long as the waking ego is obsessing and
ruminating on the day’s experiences or worrying about tomorrow, sleep will not
come. Similarly, in meditation, the Self
is not experienced as long as one’s attention is fixed on the mind.[101]
“When
the discriminator transcends
the relative plane and realizes the Self,
he or
she “becomes” the Self
and
should cease to identify
with
all objects.”
(39)
Successful meditation dissolves the
meditating ego into the state of pure Seeing, a state free of the belief that
the subject and objects are objectively real.[102] In this state everything is perceived as
equal in value to everything else - which means that there is no tendency for
or against acting out whatever vasanas
bubble up from the Causal Body. This is why enlightenment or Self realization
is called liberation.[103]
In a state of pure freedom anything is
possible, including contacting objects.
If the meditator should reason that contacting the objects in other than
a dispassionate and discriminating spirit would not affect the sattvic quality of the mind, he or she
should think twice.[104]
Shankar’s admonition, concealed beneath the
seemingly bland and matter of fact words, "discard identification with all
objects," cautions the meditator to avoid arrogance in evaluating the
power of residual samskaras. Contrary to popular opinion, Self-Realization
doesn't automatically free the ego of all fears and desires, perceptions and
impulses. However, it allows one to see
how unreal they are, a vision that makes it easy to allow them the die on the
vine.
ENLIGHTENMENT
SICKNESS
However, the tendency at this stage favors
throwing caution to the winds and indulging.[105] But the belief in having one’s cake and
eating it too is delusional. Little by
little, in the most innocent and imperceptible way, one becomes re-identified
with ego and its karma. So to avoid a fall, "discard
identification with all objects."[106]
Nothing’s to be gained because
"No
distinctions like knower, knowledge, and
object
of knowledge exist in the Self.
It is
endless bliss shining alone."
(40)
One symptom of enlightenment sickness is
the belief that desire gratification can enhance the bliss of Self-Realization,
but indulgence depends on the feeling of separation from a desired object. The enlightened, however, see no distinction
between the Self and objects. Because
everything is already accomplished, enjoyment is one’s nature, not a sensation
arising from the interaction between a subject and an object.
"Churning
the lower with the higher mind
ignite
the fire of Knowledge.
It
will consume the fuel of ignorance."
(41)
The "Grace of
God" school (which attracts underachievers) argues that enlightenment
"just happens." A man was
sitting under a tree thinking about nothing in particular when a coconut fell
on his head and split open. God, who’d
been incarcerated for eons, popped out, touched the man’s third eye, and
presto-chango - “enlightenment.”
On the other side
are the classic overachievers, who think nothing of charging four hundred
dollars on Visa for a weekend satellite video "enlightenment
intensive" with a fashionable guru expecting to pick up Transcendental
Bliss before showing up at the office on Monday morning. Like the author in his misspent youth, the
overachiever will abandon everything and rush off to the
Because the Self is
self-evident and already realized, neither doing or non-doing is going to
produce the Self. However, a judicious
program of action and non-action can “ignite the fire of Knowledge,” i.e.
create conditions conducive to meditation and Self-Realization.
"Churning the
higher and lower self" will remove most of the effects of ignorance -
desire, fear, negative emotion, delusion, attachment, etc. but not the cause;
only knowledge removes ignorance. The
verse is saying that since the mind is constantly thinking, and thinking about
what it's thinking without causing any substantial shift in awareness, why not
train it to purify itself and generate a spiritual awakening?
Discriminating
between the Ego’s and the Self’s thought systems causes friction in the mind.[107] At every moment ego is generating judgments
and feelings and ideas that express its limited view of itself and the world,
thereby keeping itself in ignorance. The
meditator/discriminator is asked to constantly monitor the flow of thought and
apply the opposite thought to all ignorance-inspired thoughts. Applying the opposite thought means that one
should contemplate the limitations in the ego’s views and understand why the
spiritual view is appropriate.[108] And the spiritual view is always appropriate
if one values freedom, peace, truth, and real love. When the opposite thought is established it
should become the basis of action. In
this way samskaras for “knowledge”
are produced and the right thoughts appears ever more frequently in the mind -
crowding out the erroneous ones.